HOMBRES QUE COMPRAN CUERPOS GENDES

Transcription

“Este programa es público, ajeno a cualquier partido político. Queda prohibido el uso para fines
distintos al desarrollo social”
Men who buy bodies: approaches to the consumption associated with trafficking of women for purpose of sexual exploitation. Melissa Fernández, Mauro Vargas
GENDES
género y desarrollo a.c.
Men who buy bodies:
approaches to
the consumption
associated
with trafficking
of women
for purpose
of sexual
exploitation
Melissa A. Fernández Chagoya
Mauro Antonio Vargas Urías
GENDES
Men who buy bodies:
approaches to
the consumption
associated
with trafficking
of women
for purpose
of sexual
exploitation
· Men who buy bodies: approaches to the consumption associated with trafficking of women for purpose of sexual exploitation ·
1

Men who buy bodies: approaches to the consumption associated with
trafficking of women for purpose of sexual exploitation
First Edition, 2012.
GENDES, AC
Minatitlán 34, Col. Roma.
Delegación Cuauhtémoc. México DF
Teléfono 5584 0601
www.gendes.org.mx
info@gendes.org.mx
Printed in Mexico
ISBN: 978-607-95993-1-7
2
Credits
GENDES, AC
Género y Desarrollo, Asociación Civil
Publication coordinator
Author
Ignacio Lozano Verduzco
Translated by
3
Project credits
Project coordinator
René López Pérez
Mónica Cervantes Ramírez
Research assistants
Researcher
4
Acknowledgements
Eduardo Arriaga Ramírez
Antonio Ornelas Vázquez
Researchers and research assistants responsible for field work in
Tlaxcala
Sofía Córdova Nava
Marco Alberto González Chisco
Edgar Gutiérrez Radillo
Researchers and research assistants responsible for field work in San
Luis Potosi
María José Gómez González
René López Pérez
Oscar Montiel Torres
Conceptual advice
5
6
Table of Contents
9
Preface
11
Presentation
13
Introduction
19
24
28
Methodological aspects: towards situated knowledge
39
Findings: Types of sexual consumption: an exploration of buying
and selling the body
63
Findings: Motives for sexual consumption… no supply, no demand?
77
Findings: Power relationships: the efficiency of gender’s fictions
91
What is left for us to do? Suggestions and final considerations
Participants
Situating knowledge: positions and concepts
101
References
105
Annex
111
About GENDES
7
8
Preface
T
he United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) in Mexico has
been working on developing
a state intervention model against
sexual trafficking of women and
girls from the perspective of human
rights. The Report of the Committee
for the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women, in its final observations to Mexico encourages the
country to identify its demand for
sexual trafficking with the objective
of eradicating it through the
development and construction of
alternative models of masculinity.
UNFPA also contributes to the
development of research, such as
the one you have before you, in
which GENDES, A.C. analyzes the
perceptions that young and adult
men have on prostitution and sexual
trafficking. This research allows us to
visualize the justifications, all based
on masculine precepts, that these
men offer with regards to buying
sex, and helps us to understand and
analyze the gender roles suggested
by these men´s behavior.
Masculinity and the its need to
be adopted as a tool for human
responsibility is reflected in the
Action Program of the International Conference of Population
and Development (1994) and the
Action Platform of the Women’s
World Conference (1995). Unequal
division of power, be it visible or
invisible, between men and women
and the cultural patterns that
perpetrate these powers are cause
and justification of the human
exploitation of women and girls to
feed a market of consumption of
bodies.
The demand for services linked to
sexual exploitation is dealt with
using important instruments related
to human trafficking, where we
can see accordingly that the need
to prevent and eradicate such
exploitation is an obligation for
9
every state. One of the main causes of trafficking is the demand for sexual
services, and its discouragement is a decisive factor for the efficiency of any
prevention strategy.
When we analyze the role of young and adult men in sexual trafficking, we
must understand that the million-dollar business is held with the money
that traffickers pay with the products of that exploitation. There is a group
of men that hook and capture the women and girls, however, there is bigger
and more important group, which demands that originates, allows and
perpetrates the crimes.
It is a moral, political, and legal obligation that more men understand the
scope of their exercise of power and the implications that it has for millions
of girls, teenagers, and women in the world. These men must be cognizant
of their role in the social processes that both activate and maintain the sex
market. It is necessary to build new ways of being a man; it is necessary that
society abruptly rejects any manifestation of power and abuse, be it in the
domestic or public sphere, because the sexual, economic, and psychological
violence that manifests itself in the buying and selling of girls, both in sexual
tourism and prostitution, sustains and strengthens millions of situations in
which girls and women suffer in silence.
More actions must be undertaken: we must reject the complicity that
sustains patriarchy, adopt firm legal measures, implement educational
reforms in order to provide for better sex education about sex and balancing
gender roles, sensitize potential victims about how forms of exploitation
work, and present to clients what lies hidden behind the neon lights and
the make-up. We must also strengthen civil society in order to monitor and
strengthen social and public policy that will allow for better protection of the
victims of sexual trafficking.
Masculine credentials, confronted with the harm that they espouse for girls
and women, must be reviewed and analyzed. In the process, our analysis
should direct us towards answers about why sexual violence exists and why
millions of women are bought and sold, producing destruction and suffering
for women, while generating enjoyment for men.
Diego Jaramillo
Representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Mexico
and Director for Cuba and the Dominican Republic
10
Presentation
GENDES is a civil society organization in Mexico created by a multidisciplinary group of professionals
in social sciences that advocates for
the analysis of gender violence and
the promotion of equal relationships,
prioritizing work with men.
The organization was born with an
institutional proposal that, among
other strategies for direct intervention, encouraged the incorporation
of gender equality in different contexts, such as couple relations, the
family, institutions, and society in
general. This is to be done through
promotion of gender mainstreaming, as well as support for attention
to and prevention and eradication
of gender violence, as well as the
development of intervention strategies that encourage the exercise of
masculinities based on alternative,
anti-hegemonic models. Thus, our
institutional work has focused on
establishing equitable and egalita-
rian relationships between men and
women in both personal and institutional spaces.
Starting in the year 2010, we began
a process of collaboration with
organizations that work to fight
against sexual trafficking in the
southern region of the state of
Tlaxcala. Since then, we have gained
experience in matters of awareness,
training, and research in order to
develop specific proposals for intervention with groups of men and face
the problems of gender violence
and sexual trafficking – as well as
the treatment of women and girls in
general in an integral and effective
manner. Since 2011, with the objective
of expanding our impact, we have
participated in different networks
of inter-institutional collaboration
against human trafficking, such
as the Collective Against Human
Trafficking, the Mexican Chapter of
the Latin American Observatory of
11
Human Trafficking, and the Multisectorial Alliance Against Human Trafficking
in Mexico, promoted by the Panamerican Development Fund, which has
the objective of creating a sustainable relationship among civil society,
government institutions, and the private sector in order to prevent human
trafficking.
In this context, GENDES published its Analysis of the Construction and
Reproduction of Masculinity in Relationship to Trafficking of Women and
Girls in Tlaxcala1, an investigation in which we detected, among other things,
the need to deepen our knowledge on what motivates men to pay for sexual
services.
The findings that we present here are aimed to help design social and public
policy, particularly in applying preventive measures in order to eradicate
demand for human trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. We
believe that any strategy or campaign with the objective of discouraging
this type of consumption must know the profile of the men who consume, in
order to produce messages and actions that will affect a real impact on this
population. This text intends to help in this endeavor.
We believe it important to emphasize that the book you see now is the
product of various united forces. Firstly, we thank the National Institute of
Social Development (INDESOL, in Spanish), the United Nations Population
Fund Mexico (UNFPA-México), and OAK Philanthropy for their funding. We
also acknowledge the support provided by the Centro Fray Julián Garcés de
Derechos Humanos y Desarrollo Local AC and Educación y Ciudadanía AC
(EDUCIAC), sister institutions of ours that provided valuable support with
the field work for this project in the states of Tlaxcala and San Luis Potosí.
The inter-institutional effort that is printed in these pages is testament to
the importance of establishing relationships with diverse social actors in
order to produce relevant information for Mexican society.
1 Vargas, M., Fernández, M. (2011). Diagnóstico sobre la construcción y reproducción de la masculinidad en relación con la trata
de mujeres y niñas en Tlaxcala. México, GENDES.
12
Introduction
D
iverse studies signal that
human trafficking is one of the
most lucrative illegal activities
and that it includes diverse crimes,
such as labor and sexual exploitation,
illegal adoption, undercover begging,
forced labor, sale of organs, etc.
According to the United Nations, it is
the second most lucrative business,
after drug trafficking and before
weapon trafficking.
Although the purpose of this text is
not to discuss if prostitution is a form
of sexual exploitation, it is important
to note that human trafficking, in
the context of international law, has
been historically linked to violence,
slavery, and prostitution2. With time,
the concept of human exploitation
has grown to recognize other forms
aside from basic sexual exploitation
or exploitation for purposes of
prostitution.
Given the scope of this problem which
affects the human rights of millions
of people –including boys and girls–
the UN has recognized that human
trafficking is a serious transnational
crime (Castro, 2008). Consequently,
the UN has decided to define the
legal mechanisms behind human
trafficking in order to coordinate
and strengthen actions that will help
lead to the eradication of buying and
selling of human beings.
Since the approval of the International Agreement to Assure an
Efficient Protection Against Criminal Trafficking, known as Human
Trafficking (1904), international law
pertaining to human rights has
linked the crime of human trafficking
of women and girls with the
service of sexual exploitation. The
International Convention to Repress
2 Most prostitution practiced worldwide is considered to have
the requisites to be considered trafficking (ACNUDH, 2006).
13
Human Trafficking of 1910 forced all of its signing states to punish anyone
who introduces a minor into prostitution, even with their consent. In the
Convention to Repress Human Trafficking and Exploitation of Prostitution
(1949), the notion of trafficking was strongly related to prostitution, with or
without the knowledge or consent of the victim. Consequently, the states
were forced to punish participation in prostitution, whether voluntary or
forced, of others; prostitution was defined as a practice “incompatible with
the dignity and value of the human person.” The convention considered
prostitution “perverse,” and as “incompatible with the dignity and value
of the human person”; it proposed to abolish prostitution in order to
stop women from being brought into the sex industry, even if they did so
voluntarily. This treaty became the main international agreement regarding
human trafficking for the next fifty years (Gómez, 2012).
In the year 2000 in Palermo, Italy, the international community subscribed to
the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and
the Protocols Thereto. This document includes the definition of the crime of
trafficking that is currently used by all signing countries. Beyond the criminal
character of human trafficking – which implies the need for a legislative and
judicial approach – this issue must also be considered from the perspective
of the human rights instruments that provide protection to victims and
establish that the state is forced to comply with the protocols. For example,
both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (two of the seven
main aforementioned human rights instruments), motivate the States to
adopt measures to suppress all forms of trafficking and sexual exploitation
of women, boys, and girls. The respective United Nations committees in
charge of following the application of these instruments conduct research,
establish their concerns, and propose recommendations accordingly for each
country. In conclusion, full understanding of sexual trafficking of women and
girls from a gender perspective requires the incorporation of the conclusions
established in the aforementioned documents. Additionally, the Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) includes trafficking of
women and forced prostitution as forms of violence that must be prevented,
eradicated, and punished.
In the specific case of sexual exploitation3, in the United Nations human
rights system, there is an emphasis on the importance of carefully analyzing
3 We will differentiate between sexually exploited women in contexts of prostitution—defined by the Palermo Protocol, also
known as prostitution—and trafficking of women with means for sexual exploitation, as a clearly defined crime in international
and national documents.
14
the factors that generate its supply and its demand, in order to carry out
preventative measures that may lead to the eradication of trafficking in
persons. Regarding the supply of exploitation, it is necessary to address
the reasons why women, boys and girls are the majority of the victims of
trafficking: discrimination, gender inequality, poverty, marginalization, and
racism (among other factors). Regarding the demand for exploitation, it is
necessary to analyze why women’s and children’s sexualities have become
an attractive commercial value, in order to fight against stereotypes and
adopt legislative, educational, social, and cultural measures that can stop
said demand (Ezeta, 2006). At the end of the day, clients define and demand
the characteristics of the service they desire (physical attributes, age,
virginity) and then offer to pay for them (Le Goff, 2011).
Despite these facts, available research on this topic is limited, and for this
reason the High Commission of the United Nations for Human Rights has
affirmed that because we don’t fully comprehend the concept of “demand”
in the context of human trafficking, inappropriate strategies are often
carried through, with limited results (ACNUDH, 2010). The two states where
we carried out fieldwork – San Luis Potosí and Tlaxcala – for this project
are not the exception: when we started the research there was no available
study or analysis (in neither state) that analyzed the role of demand in human
trafficking for purpose of sexual exploitation; however, this is something
lacking in all national territory.
The present research is concerned with the growing necessity of international
organizations to understand what motivates men to consume paid sex, in
particular considering sex services offered because of women’s trafficking and
sexual exploitation. The results of this research are intended to help Mexico
in complying with national and international human rights commitments, as
well as help deepen the knowledge about a very complex phenomenon.
Trafficking of women in Mexico is not only a problem relating to structural
poverty, lack of education, crime, and traffic; it is, above all, a cultural
problem (Vargas & Fernández, 2011). Because of this, it requires creative
actions to promote and restore social cohesion and equality between men
and women, actions that promote responsibility among men; this study
intends to do just that.
The social problem that this text addresses has to do with exploring the
motives for heterosexual men in consuming sexual services offered by adult
women, with the objective of identifying some elements that will help in
dismantling the demand for paid sex that is born with human trafficking.
15
In order to limit issues with this study: we specify the following:
1. The study is focused on men that have developed as heterosexual; it is necessary to clarify this because our society
tends to take heterosexuality for granted, despite the fact that
it is a sociopolitical regimen and a cultural norm that, among
other things, sexually naturalizes bodies and subordinates
those considered feminine (Wittig, 2006).
2. We limit the study to the consumption of bodies of adult
women due to the difficulty in studying the diverse and complex array of sexuality and its practices (consumption of
children’s bodies, trans bodies, or male bodies); although
the main objective of our research does not consider girls,
we did establish some questions in order to investigate if
those who consume women’s bodies would also pay for
sex with girls.

Because this project constitutes a novel study in Mexico, we seek to find
fundamental elements that explain the reasons behind men’s consumption
of women’s bodies and offer some interpretations that may allow us to
suggest new hypotheses for research. Taking this into consideration, the
operations definitions for this study are as follows:
1. Types of sexual consumption (those practices that refer to
women’s paid sexual services, which is intended also to
analyze if men can distinguish between sexual exploitation
and sex work).
2. Motives in consuming sex (reasons why heterosexual men
turn to women’s sex services, including the possibility of turning to sex services provided by girls).
3. Gender power relationships (understand and explain cultural
and subjective elements that compose actions of domination
and oppression over bodies in the act of sexual consumption
of adult women).

16
Regarding the scope of the present research, we intend to build and describe
diagnostic data on the phenomenon of human trafficking so as to serve as a
source for the design of public policy. In its second phase, the information
will help other actors – such as government, academia, and non-government
organizations – —to develop specific forms of intervention that can help
discourage the consumption of sexual exploitation, especially among young
men.
17
18
Methodological aspects:
towards situated knowledge
T
he project took place in the
city capitals of two states:
Tlaxcala, a state that is considered a center of production for
traffickers, and because of this,
registers importantly high levels of
sexual exploitation (Montiel, 2010);
and San Luis Potosí, a state that has
not caught the media’s attention,
even though it is known that there
are areas where sexual exploitation
takes place there, such as the capital
and a few rural regions4. Another
important factor in carrying out
this research in said states was
the interest shown by local social
actors, such as the government
and non-profit organizations, with
which we have been working over
the last couple of years. These
actors were interested in our using
the definitions provided in public
policy, which guaranteed the fast
translation of our research results
into specific actions designed to
discourage masculine demand of
sex services from women.
4 From the Presentation of Motive of the Law to Prevent,
Attend, and Eradicate Human Trafficking in the State of San
Luis Potosí.
Grounded Theory is a methodology
used in social sciences in order
In the particular case of San Luis
Potosí, a study from UNFPAMéxico revealed that high rates of
indigenous and mestizo girls and
women migrate to neighboring states
where they are sexually exploited
(COESPO-UNFPA-CDI, 2012). This
text also intends to encourage further
research regarding men’s motives
in consuming sex from women in
contexts of exploitation. This text
is a first attempt to investigate this
phenomenon, because of the novelty
of the topic; the research team opted
for a type of qualitative study that was
based on the methods and techniques
proposed by Grounded Theory.
19
to build knowledge about the social world (Strauss & Corbin, 2002). It is
a methodology in the sense that it proposes a way of thinking about social
reality, and at the same time, offers a way to study it; its methods refer to
a group of procedures and techniques that help to build and analyze data.
This data is codified, or, in other words, analytically processed; through
codification, the data is fragmented, conceptualized, and integrated with
more data in order to propose theories. This is why Grounded Theory refers to
itself as a “methodology” that explains, describes, and orders the parameters
that build us and help us make sense of our realities (Fernández, 2009).
The origins of Grounded Theory date back to the School of Chicago in the
nineties. It was developed by two sociologists, Anselm Strauss and Barney
Glasser; both authors emphasize the importance of empirical research with
qualitative analysis and argue that theory makes itself thanks to the data
constructed in the field, stemming directly from the people that produce
and configure them in order to give meaning to their acts.
Those who decide to analyze data qualitatively may agree that they stop
fearing the fact of basing their analysis of situations on personal experiences
because they realize that these have come to be the basis from which to
compare and discover properties through the construction of dimensions of
analysis. At the same time, there is frequently flexibility when analyzing the
data, because this characteristic of flexibility is the alma mater of qualitative
research (Fernández, 2009).
Flexibility, also understood as openness, is linked to having accepted that
qualitative analysis contains a certain degree of the mobility or dynamism
of the phenomena being studied. It’s not that researchers do not want to
analytically differentiate the social themes, but their urgency to avoid
uncertainty and to arrive at conclusions quickly gets mixed with the fact that
phenomena are complex, and their meanings are not easy to understand.
The qualitative method’s value lies in its capacity to base itself in the same
data that it produces. Both the theory and the analysis require interpretation
based on systematic research: relating the data and interpreting those
relationships. Thus, qualitative analysis is the basis of Grounded Theory,
which in turn refers to a theory that springs from the data, data that is
built in practice, or during systematic fieldwork. Through this method, the
construction of the data and information, as well as the analysis and the
theory that are derived from them, are very much linked together.
Theorizing means conceptual description and ordering. Considering the
definition provided by Corbin and Strauss, description refers to the use of
20
words to express mental images of events, an aspect of the scenario, an
essence, experience, emotion, or effect. In this sense, the story is told from
the perspective of the person who is performing the description (Strauss
& Corbin, 2002). Conceptual ordering is the organization (and sometimes
classification) of data in selective conjunction with specified properties and
dimensions (Ídem). With the word “theory,” the authors refer to a group of
well-developed concepts that are linked through relationship sentences,
which together build an integrated conceptual framework that can be used
to explain and predict phenomenon: theory refers to a series of well-built
concepts, such as themes and concepts, connected in a systematic manner,
that indicate relationships which form a theoretical framework that explains
a social, psychological, educational (…) phenomenon.
Sentences that indicate relationships explain who, what, when, where, why,
how, and with what consequences events take place (Strauss & Corbin,
2002). A theory is generally more than a series of findings in that it offers
explanations to phenomena (Ibídem).
Theorizing the data means developing a logical scheme through which one
can infer that all research of this type requires microanalysis, or a detailed
analysis needed at the beginning of the study in order to produce initial
categories and suggest the relationships between them (Strauss & Corbin,
2002). Theorizing refers to a free, open, and creative flow, in which the person
who analyses comes and goes between different types of coding; it implies
an open coding that responds to a systematic scheme. The microanalysis
seeks to classify the concepts understood as the basis of the theory in order
to transform them into categories that can be measured with their own
properties and dimensions. According to Strauss and Corbin, categories are
concepts that represent phenomena; phenomena are, in turn, central ideas
in the data that are represented as concepts (Ibídem).
It is necessary to start a research project with this type of analysis in
order to discover categories, with their properties and dimensions, and to
unveil relationships between concepts; initial categories are built on the
background research on the topic in which we are interested: some informal
and/or open interviews, literature, observations, etc. For this project,
the initial categories were: types of consumption and motives for that
consumption. We established the properties and dimensions by designing
a diagram as follows5:
5 This table represents a sample of the conceptual organization. For diagnostic effect, we produced four initial tables like this one
for the initial category of “types” and seven tables for “motives.”
21
Initial category: “X” consumption
(For each type of identified consumption, we produced a table for its analysis
Properties: types of “X” consumption that
participants identified
Dimensions: description of each type of
consumption
Costs and management of payment
Type of “X” consumption
Services
Physical space
Context (client-service relationship)
Initial category: Motives
(The motives for each type of consumption and the relationships between them are
described)
Properties: motives for each type of consumption
Dimensions: description of the motive for
each type of consumption
Forms of socialization
Motive 1 of consumption “X”: “Socializing
between men”
Socialization practices
Cultural legitimacy of practices
Context (client-service relationship)
Once the initial analytical categories were ordered (as may be seen in the
above table), we proceeded to identify general or secondary categories
in order to structure an interview guide, which was then piloted and
consequently changed. This last version was used to interview all participants.
According to the methodological proposal, the phases and criteria for this
research were as follows:
Sampling criteria:
• Participants were heterosexual men, over the age of 18,
who admitted to soliciting sexual services from adult women. Other factors such as socioeconomic condition,
age, religious or political beliefs, and ethnicity were not
22
considered in selecting participants, but were later considered in the analysis of the data, when relevant.
Key informants
• To select the participants (number and quality) we used a
common anthropological technique known as the “key informant” or “strategic actor.” This term refers to selecting
a person that fulfills specific characteristics: “privileged”
in the sense that the participant is considered “key” for
the person who investigates because the participant fulfills
characteristics that are wanted because of being a good
narrator and having enough experience on the topic. In
this sense, the key informant is considered legitimate by
others, known as a person “who knows what they’re talking about” and for whom the questions that are asked
do not come as a surprise. Another important characteristic of the key informant is that they show interest in the
topic, becoming a judge and a part of the research and
of the product that is built. The key informant leads the
researcher to other actors that they consider strategic for
the same reasons.

This investigation started with two in-depth interviews per state, the results
of which were briefly analyzed using a first, open coding process, and then
new interviews were carried out, interviews based on the first analysis, until
we reached saturation of information for every emergent concept. Data or
theoretical saturation is reached when: a) there is no new data appearing in
a certain category; b) the category is well developed in terms of dimensions
and properties, showing variation; and c) relationships between categories
are well established and validated (Strauss & Corbin, 2002). Theoretical
saturation is reached by applying the same interview to various participants;
the number of participants always depends on the amount of categories
that are found, but above all, depends on their properties and dimensions,
as well as the concepts and categories that form the theory. Following these
premises, the research process gives way to the number of cases to study.
This process is how we decided to conduct 20 in-depth interviews, 10 in
Tlaxcala and 10 in San Luis Potosi. Below, we show a table with basic data
of the participants.
23
24
28
25
25
32
26
23
Casimiro
Vicente
Leonardo
Beto
Román
Alejandro
Pseudonym Age
Printer
Builder
BA
(construction)
Single
Single
Parents
With 2
friend
With a
friend
Single
Photographer
Wife
Researcher Single
Married
Father
and
siblings
With a
friend
Social
worker
Information
technology
Single
professional
Age of
siblings
Married
Brother: 16
years old
Sister: 15
years old
Brothers: 32
and 46 years
Married
old. Sister: 34
years old
Brothers: 2
are 25 years
old, 1 is 19
Married
years old
Sister: 13
years old
Married
Married
Brother: 29
years old
Sister: 24
years old
2 brothers
2 sisters
Single
Marital
status of
parents
Brother: 19
years old
Sister: 27
years old
SAN LUIS POTOSÍ (SLP)
Employ- Marital Living
Age of
ment
status situation children
High school
High school
BA
(History)
BA
(Pyschology)
BA
Studies
Participants
Mexico City
SLP
SLP
SLP
Place of
birth
Working out,
sports
SLP
Video games Mexico City
Movies
Sports
Reading and
sports
Basketball
Hobbies
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
6
5
4
3
2
1
Place of
No.
residence
25
26
25
22
54
34
33
31
64
Choce
Kimbo
Pepe
Arnulfo
El doc
EstomatóLogo
Liberal
Tacho
Student
Single
Single
Medic
Cook
High School,
certified in
gastronomy
BA
Dental
surgeon
Dental
surgeon
Graduate
degree
BA
Married
Divorced
Partnered
Single
High School Mechanic Married
BA
BA
Employee
(Administraat NGO
tion)
Wife
Son: 22
Brother: 58
years old
years old
Daughter: Sisters: 62,
35 years 60, 55, and
old
50 years old
Married
Married
Sister: 20
years old
Daughters: 12
and 9
years old
Alone
Painting,
reading
Chess
State of
Mexico
Tlaxcala
Veracruz
Civil
Union
Brother: 29
years old
Sister: 36
years old
Son: 13
years old
Partner
and
children
Biking
Mountain
Married biking, movies, Mexico City
reading
Sister: 36
years old
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
Parents
TLAXCALA
Soccer
Married
Parents
3 children
and wife
Brothers: 2
Sister: 1
Working out
Separated
Parents
Parents
Boxing,
reading,
music
Playing guitar
Daugh- Brothers: 25
ters:
and 21 years
Married
1 and 3 old. Sister: 24
years old
years old
Brothers: 26
and 21 years
Married
old. Sister: 24
years old
Wife and
High School Cab driver Married
daughters
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
4
3
2
1
10
9
8
7
26
Graduate
degree
High school
18
20
27
18
Mandy
Kaballero
punk
Rng ampertan rg
infinito ir
Corebacsito
High school
High school
High school
18
Nabetse
Tailor
Teacher
Baker
Student
Student
Single
Single
Single
Single
Single
Married
Parents
Parents
Parents
Parents
Parents
Wife
Sons: 2
Middle
school
Janitor
Son: 22,
18 and 13
years old
Daughter:
18, 17
and 9
years old
46
Employ- Marital Living
Age of
ment
status situation children
Studies
Anónimo
Pseudonym Age
Tlaxcala
Brothers: 39
and 36 years
old
Married
Sisters: 35,
33, 24, and 22
years old
Playing music
Tlaxcala
State of
Mexico
Brothers: 26,
16, and 10
Programming,
years old
Married
repairing
Sister: 21
computers
years old
Married
Brother: 22
years old
Sister: 27
years old
Using the
computer
Puebla
Mexico City
Place of
birth
Tlaxcala
Married
Brother: 17
years old
Sports, gym
Going out
with family
Hobbies
Reading,
playing music
Married
Partnered
Marital
status of
parents
Brother: 28
years old
Sister: 27
years old
Age of
siblings
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
10
9
8
7
6
5
Place of
No.
residence
Data gathering technique
• The technique used was semi-structured in-depth interviews. This type of interview, based on a question guide
(thus the name “semi-structured”), allows the researcher
to obtain specific and concrete information through flexible interaction with the participants. Usually, the person
who investigates is faced with a series of themes that do
not necessarily respond to the questions that were asked.
However, after the transcription and analysis of the interviews, one finds that these themes do relate to what was
asked, and open up possibilities to go deeper into themes related to the initial ones. Semi-structured interviews
provide the researcher with the possibility of ordering the
data, help to structure the information, and are initially
used to give a full account of the various chapters of life of
the person being interviewed. The interview guide allows
the interviewee to go deeper into the different themes
they consider important, but is able to still follow a logical
time-line as they narrate their life events.

The interview guide contained 6O questions (including questions to see if
the interviewees had consumed sexual services from girls and, if so, what
elements they considered would facilitate their transit to a different “sex
market.” They were also asked if, as clients, they were able to differentiate
between sex work and sexual exploitation and if that difference made an
impact on their decisions; each interview lasted between 2 to 3 hours per
participant6.
Analysis technique and data presentation
• Interviews were coded using the open coding technique (data distribution based on the study’s main axis)
and analyzed using content analysis technique, in other
words, by studying each paragraph and comparing the
data with each axis between participants (Strauss & Corbin, 2002).

6 See the Annex for: informed consent, interview guide, and basic participant’s data
27
The presentation of results responds to the three axes of the study. First, we
present information regarding the types of sexual consumption, followed
by the motives of consumption, and finally reach power relationships (and
gender relationships) that are weaved in relation to sexual consumption. The
place where the interview took place and the place where each participant
was born are criteria not considered for this text. In other words, while
interview extracts come from interviewees from both San Luis Potosi and
Tlaxcala, we consider the data insufficient to develop a comparative study
between the regions. Results from each place share commonalities, so we
don’t consider it necessary to separate the data except in cases where we do
find solid evidence to indicate important differences between the two states.
The data and interpretations are not and should not be generalized or used for
other contexts and states, and do not necessarily apply to all the men in the
regions. However, the information we gathered is rich in itself because of the
novelty of the associated issue, and because it allows us to produce symbolic
and explanatory elements that can be used for various objectives.
Situating knowledge: of positions and concepts
We use gender perspective as a tool to help us understand our object of
study from a critical viewpoint that helps us see the inequalities that are
encrypted in bodies, as well as their associated subordination and hierarchy.
This gender perspective stems from an epistemology of gender theory and a
post-structural paradigm. We include a focus on the analysis of masculinity,
which can be summarized with what today is known as masculinities studies.
We understand that the category of “masculinities” refers to a notion that is
still under construction, not a closed concept (Amuchástegui, 2006), and so
we believe it necessary to keep in mind why and for what purpose we study
masculinity:
“Speaking about masculinities brings the risk of imposing
the ostensible existence of a universal and ontological
entity, or the intention of solving the recognized lack of
accessibility through an explicit diversification in which all
forms of expression are included, building said category
through a list of qualities organized in unconnected
typologies which make theoretical work even more difficult”
(Tena, 2010; 271).

28
When we refer to situated knowledge, a concept presented by Donna
Haraway (1995), we refer to a social commitment and analysis that
encourages and drives change. It is important to question who produces
knowledge on men, what the purpose of this production is, and what the
intended use of the knowledge is. With these considerations, we must specify
the political positioning of who carries out the research, and from where.
In the words of Sandra Harding, “the philosophers of science, just like any
other form of human thought, are always socially and politically positioned,
regardless of if their authors suggest it or not, and from this perspective, the
controversial nature of the Point of View theory is a valuable resource for
philosophers of science” (Harding, 210; 65).
Following the link between politics and science, Michel Foucault asks
the following: will analyzing specific or local problems prevent us from
beginning to explain what is real start to, which would allow us to formulate
a synthetic vision of society? The author believes it impossible to establish
references to the society we live in solely through academic research; social
scientist is responsible for explaining how a certain regime works and what
it consists of, stopping any type of manipulations while still allowing people
to make their own choices (Foucault, 2010). Academic and scientific work,
according to Foucault, should focus on producing questions about how a
certain situation affects one subject more than another; this is the way to
build the motor of theoretical analysis, going past the personal questions
asked of a subject:
“Foucault’s intention, in this sense, is not to renounce all
forms of summary, but to construct a point of view that
allows us to reach both a general knowledge as well
as a practice that may theoretically exceed the lack
of satisfaction produced by politics’ all-encompassing
practices. The function of an intellectual is nurtured by two
sources: on one hand, by a principle of discretion that stops
the intellectual from exercising any form of hegemony over
society, and, on the other, by a critique of all-embracing
forms of politics, due to their excessive generalizations.”
(Gros, 2010: 39-40)

Foucault challenges social scientists in his assertion that it’s not about
defining the type of knowledge or the forms of intervention that are being
29
built but about the credibility of the scientific subjects themselves: what
relationship is there between what they say and what they do? What is the
relationship between their political position, their intellectual work, and
their lives?
Consistency is one of the most important aspects of feminism: the private
is public, and personal relationships are political as well. In this sense,
paying attention to the “what for” and “why” suggests that even when
our focus of attention is men and their masculinities, we are pursuing
a feminist point of view. This point of view ambitiously tries to trace a
map of power relations and of the way in which dominating institutions
and their conceptual frameworks create and maintain oppressive social
relations, or, as Sandra Harding calls it: an upward method (Harding,
2010). This method is performed by locating new information in order
to comprehend how a hierarchical social structure produces forms of
disadvantage or political and material oppression, ultimately creating a
group conscience.
Teresa de Lauretis (1989) contributes to the field by pointing out that
observation and finding problems should be, like in cinema, out of sight,
or in other words, based on what is omitted, what is not seen within the
scene, what should not be seen. From our point of view, these premises
relate to the work of Foucault, who, during his last seminars, insisted on the
importance of philosophy – or of researching using social science methods –
from below: a bold movement to search and to examine souls through their
truth, a movement that does not hold its place in the political tribune, but
in the public plaza (Foucault, 2010). This is, why the feminist point of view is
accused of being relative; however, the important question to ask is, relative
to whom?
At GENDES, we try to include the feminist point of view in our studies
and in our practice (alluding to the search for social change that leads
to equality between men and women), interwoven with a focus on
masculinities, in other words, the branch that is born from gender studies
and that studies the masculine gender as a malleable, dynamic and
changing social construct is closely linked to cultural practices and social
representations between men and women. In summary, we analyze
men’s gender with the intention of de-constructing the hegemonic
model of masculinity in order to establish ideal conditions that will allow
for the achievement of true socio-political equality and equity between
the genders.
30
In this sense, we part from two basic suppositions:
• Women, victims of human trafficking.
Fernanda Ezeta (2006) states that women are the main
victims of human trafficking. She argues her case using
statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In a document published by UNICEF, she identifies some
of the contexts in which discrimination against women is
most common.
Post-natal: when girls receive less attention than boys as
new-born babies.
In the family: discrimination against girls and women
manifests itself in a whole variety of behaviors, such as
giving girls less food and less economic resources in
comparison to boys and men; pushing them towards
obligatory performance of services, like domestic care
and housekeeping; denying them an adequate level of
education and studies, recreation, and access to other
opportunities; expecting girls to perform household
duties; and restricting their right to freedom of expression,
not allowing them to be part of the process of decisionmaking.
In school: where girls are exposed to teachers, curriculum,
books, and teaching methods that strengthen certain
stereotypes around each gender, as well as expose
them to discriminatory practices that may lead to sexual
harassment and insecurity.
Finally, it has been affirmed that discrimination is
everywhere, in homes or communities; in companies
and corporations; at a national and international level
because girls and women are not taken into consideration
when decisions are made about living conditions.
For example, in contexts where attitudes and traditions
lead to abuse, including sexual abuse against boys,
girls, and teens; severe body harm; harmful traditional
practices; or differences in the perceived status and
value of boys and girls, in these cases, the social setting
is incapable of protecting under-age individuals. On
31
the contrary, in societies where any type of violence
against boys, girls, and teens is completely forbidden,
and where their rights are widely respected, protection
of childhood is more likely to occur (UNICEF, 2005).
Consequently, UNICEF recognizes that because of their
gender identity, adult women, girls, and teen women
are more susceptible to being captured into human
trafficking networks.
There are social practices whose recurrence produces
linked contexts, forming, as a result, “macro-structures”
in which women form a group whose civil, political and
social rights are trampled on (Ezeta, 2006).
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that Mexico
is considered a country of recruitment, transit, and
destination for victims of human trafficking, for both
Mexicans and foreigners (Le Goff, 2011). In this sense,
we must consider as well the conditions of vulnerability
inherent to women’s migration (for more on how the
experience of emigration affects men and women
differently, see Morokvasic, 2007).
• Hegemonic masculinity as a model that allows and
encourages oppression against women.
The term “masculinity” is common in literature and studies
on men. Masculinity is abstract, insecure, not emotional,
independent, etc. All attributes of men are discussed in
literature as aspects of masculinity. It is important to notice
that few authors that write about masculinity explicitly
state what kind of concept masculinity is; the usefulness
of the concept is usually taken for granted, and what is
usually given is a description, frequently a list of traits.
The idealism and reification once present in literature on
men’s personalities has gone beyond to the uses that now
make up the idea of masculinity.
While men’s practices are criticized, what is really
considered the problem is their expression of masculinity.
Calls for “redefinition,” “reconstruction,” “dismantling,” or
“transformation” of masculinity are common. Instead of
focusing solely on changing their behaviors, now men
must compete to introduce new meanings of masculinity.
32
Domination is an aspect of masculinity before it is an
action performed by men (McMahon, 2000).
Masculinity is, above all else, a category used to refer to a
certain class of social practices that individual men use to
sustain their self-image. When the category is reified into
a concept, it becomes something that men possess. In this
sense, sociological theories are hard to differentiate from
biological theories because both assume that masculinity
is a property or trait that defines individuals as men.
If gender is understood as the socio-cultural construction
of a supposed and accepted sexual difference, as the
primary form of significant power relations, then gender
perspective is an analytical category that allows us to
form questions about binary sexual differences that exist
between men and women and to analyze the subjective
identities (such as regulations and representations) that
build relations of power and subordination between that
which is masculine and that which is feminine (Scott,
1996).
Connell (2003) states that there is a hegemonic gender
order, one that is learned by an active subject in order
to acquire a certain gender identity, in such a way
that he/she “improvises, copies, creates, and develops
strategies… that are crystallized in recognized patterns
of femininity and masculinity” (Connell, 2003; 101).
Thus, the subject actively faces diverse situations, having
to adopt different strategies to negotiate with said gender
order; in this way, the subject’s historically defined
position will involve points of transition and different
moments of development.
In other words, gender is performed. It cannot be touched,
it cannot be seen as such, but it is materialized in our
bodies through our performance as social subjects: men
and women (West & Zimmerman, 1999). The construction
of the masculine gender in this society, because of its
parameters, subjectivities, demands, and determinations,
allows – and promotes – submission for women and all
other things considered feminine (such as homosexuals,
children, and the elderly).
33
This is why trafficking of women is directly related to
the construction and reproduction of the male gender.
Pimps are an extreme example of the materialization
of hegemonic masculinity in our society, because in
their practice, in pimping, pimps experiment with a
juxtaposition of powers: the power of money, the power
of sexually dominating women, and the power to
produce fear towards women and other men (Vargas &
Fernández, 2009)7.

In this text, we don’t intend to explore men’s masculinities in order to clarify
the pluricultural aspects that masculinity can present; on the contrary, we
appeal (again) to what Olivia Tena Guerrero (2010) argues regarding the
question: why and for what means do we study men? Because men build
and reproduce power mechanisms from hegemonic gender culture, which
is patriarchal, and this contributes to the general perception of women as
bodies that are up for sale, consumable bodies. We study men in order to
understand the complexities of sexual consumption and then find strategies
to discourage their demand, particularly that which pertains to sexual
exploitation and trafficking of women.
From this perspective, we argue that human trafficking is one of the most
lucrative illegal activities due to the complex pimp system (Montiel, 2010),
in which each actor contributes, through action or omission, to the overall
functioning and strengthening of the system. To carry out human trafficking,
pimps use recruitment strategies that involve cheating, threatening,
seduction, or the use of force (physical, symbolic, and/or psychological).
People trapped in networks of human trafficking serve different purposes.
Different classifications may be found throughout the literature on the
subject, such as (Ezeta, 2006: 22):
• In labor contexts, people are recruited to work in factories,
plantations, mines, construction, and fishing; however,
people are also exploited through street begging, domestic
labor, and womb renting.
7 Oscar Montiel, an expert on the subject, clarifies that some “patriarchal pacts” may be produced amongst some men who don’t
necessarily intend to impose fear (personal communication, October, 2012).
34
• In the sexual context, people can be forced to participate
in forced prostitution, pornography (films, photos, internet),
pedophilia, sexual tourism, marriage agencies, and forced
pregnancies.
• False adoptions can hide the sale of boys and girls.
• Servitude can be disguised by religious and cultural
practices.
• In the military context, human trafficking can be used to
recruit captive and boy soldiers.
• Regarding organ trafficking, one may profit from other’s
bodies by illegally extracting, organs, tissue, or any other
component (lungs, kidney, cornea, liver, heart, etc.) with the
purpose of selling these items on the black market.
• Slavery still makes itself present through the capture or
acquisition of an individual in order to exploit him/her.

The will to promote cooperation between states in order to prevent and
efficiently fight against transnational organized crime was set in the United
Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UN, 2004);
this convention includes a protocol to prevent, repress, and punish human
trafficking, particularly trafficking of women, boys, and girls (from now on
we will refer to this protocol as the Palermo Protocol). In the protocol, the
signing states recognized that women and children are groups vulnerable
to trafficking, since they are the most common victims of traffickers. To this
end, the protocol specified certain actions to be taken to protect and provide
support for these groups.
On the other hand, there is a general consensus that women and girls
represent one particular case. It is said that both groups are more vulnerable
to be recruited and become victims of trafficking because of their gender.
For example, the abstract and highlights of the Hemispheric Conference
on International Migration report that Susana Chiarotti (2003) expressed
discomfort in digger deeper into the topic of women’s trafficking because
of the connections and disconnections that the topic holds with regards to
gender, migration, and human rights. Oscar Castro, for his part, emphasizes
the link between gender and women and girls as victims of trafficking:
women, young and adult, are in an especially vulnerable situation with
35
regards to pimping, as evidenced by the fact that they are the sector most
affected by the practice. Gender violence, then, turns into sexual exploitation,
and it exceeds the normal limits of injustice, because it is exercised in all
dimensions: sexual, psychological, emotional, physical, social, and political.
The nature of human trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation stems,
as some international organizations affirm, from the universal presence of
laws, policies, customs, and practices that justify discrimination against
women and girls. That acts as barriers to the implementation of norms that
could guarantee their human rights (Castro, 2008: 93).
Thus, girls and adult women are in a socially challenging position with
regards to men. In certain daily scenarios, to recognize a person as a woman
means to simultaneously discriminate against her, mistreat her, demand her
obedience, exclude her from certain activities, etc. Because of their gender,
the argument follows, women are at a greater risk of being identified and
integrated into a circuit of buying and selling of human beings (Castro, 2008:
93). In other words, it is invaluable to recognize that networks of human
trafficking inescapably incorporate gender logic into their ways of operating.
Analysis regarding age, gender, and diversity allows us to identify which people in particular are discriminated or excluded from their exercise of human
rights, as well as identify the circumstances that cause this. Discrimination
against girls and women is something that happens in the majority of
societies and it reduces females’ ability to significantly participate in society,
to express the risks they are under, to identify their priorities; discrimination
prevents women from having their unique abilities taken into consideration.
This means that their needs for protection are frequently ignored, just one
reason why their rights are severely limited (ACNUR, 2008: 42). This cycle
may be added to the conditions described previously that become part of
the indolent process of re-victimization.
We have now presented some brief reflections on the topic of human
trafficking, as well as an approximation of frequent victims. It is worth noting
that literature on the subject is usually centered on the victim or on those
who participate in a phase of the crime process, leaving little information
about the participation of the essential actors, the people who actually
consume sexual services in contexts of human trafficking.
Even though both the Law to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking and the
Palermo Protocol establish that preventive measures designed to eradicate
the demand of human trafficking must be put into action, there have not
been many investigations that provide information on men’s motives in
36
consuming sexual services; in other words, we lack the basic resources
(scientifically sustained information) in order to design strategies to reduce
this type of consumption. This text intends to provide some elements to
start filling this void, but we do consider it important to keep in mind that
our text represents a first attempt on this topic.
If we consider as well the dissemination of organized crime, impunity,
and corruption, among other factors, it is wise to warn that the solutions
to these problems must be thought of within a multifaceted logic. It is not
enough to harshen punishments for these acts when they continue to take
place within corrupt systems. It is not enough to penalize sex work because
this would only generate new strategies for the sale of sexual services and
sexual exploitation. It is not enough to care for the victims, because there will
continue to be more and more victims until the root of the problem is truly
addressed. We require creative actions that will promote and restore social
cohesion, encouraging exercises that lead to more conscientious behavior
and responsibility among men. This study intends to feed this creativity.
37
38
Types of sexual consumption:
an exploration of buying and
selling bodies
findings
W
hen we refer to types of
sexual consumption, we
are thinking about those
practices that involve the paid sexual
services of adult women. We use the
definition provided by Ana Amuchástegui and Rodrigo Parrini (in press),
who state that sexual consumption
refers to the significant practice that
encourages a specific production of
subjectivity related to certain discursive practices that allow for an
articulation between market and
sexuality8.
In this study, we included questions
that attempt to analyze if men
identify aspects that differentiate
sexual exploitation from sex work or
8 We agree with this definitions because it recognizes the
importance of thinking of this type of consumption as a
“normalized transgression”; in other words, consumption
is perceived, among its practitioners, as a (moral,
ethical, religious) fault, but is socially accepted, and thus
normalized (it has norms in its forms, participants, and
practices).
prostitution9. Even when the focus of
attention is on adult women, it is also
possible to identify that there exist
types of consumption that relate
to girls and boys (a practice that,
from our institutional perspective,
forms the crime of sexual abuse, but
whose moral, political, and judicial
implications are not part of this
analysis). This responds to what was
explained above, in which the logic
of gender under which men and
women construct themselves, making
the body an object, is to feminize
themselves, making them passive
agents to be used/bought/sold.
9 We understand that this affirmation is polemic because on
many occasions, the UN’s positions have been contradictory.
For example, in ACNUDH, 2006 (point 81) it is concluded that
“when the human rights of said victims (people in prostitution)
come into conflict with legal prerogatives of the users of
prostitution, the human rights of the former must prevail: that
is a true human rights perspective in trafficking for purposes
of sexual exploitation”. However, in ACNUDH, 2010, page 105,
it is stated: “International law does not impede the states to
regulate prostitution as they judge fit, naturally, with subjection
to their obligation to protect and promote the human rights of
every person under their jurisdiction. Thus, strategies based on
rights aimed at addressing demand for prostitution in regimes
that practice exploitation or that are connected to trafficking
may be considered separately from or in conjunction with
strategies intended to reduce demand for general prostitution.”
39
Given our established methodology, we expect that participants will be able
to provide a definition of “sexual consumption” and detail what practices
may pertain to said definition, as well as pinpoint which of those practices
may be considered forms of exploitation. We also expect participants
to provide information about sexually exploited women in contexts of
prostitution (also known as prostitutes).
Following Dolores Juliano (2010), what will be hardest to accept is the
deviation from the focus of our attention as we try to analyze why, how,
and for what purpose society has built its stigmatizing categories. Initially,
sexual consumption requires a triad of buying-product/object/serviceselling. However, to open up the idea of sexual consumption such that it
is the interviewees who may define what practices are part of it points to
what this author is saying: the stigmatization of categories, since all sorts
of sexual consumption register among the interviewees, refers back either
directly or indirectly to the stigmatization of sex workers. “Prostitution is
the most stigmatized environment for women” (Juliano, 2010; 109). It is for
this reason that we included questions about childhood sexual exploitation,
male sex work, and trans sex work in the interview guide10.
The types of consumption cited by the majority of participations in order of
appearance and most frequent use are “amateur” heterosexual pornographic
films that can be accessed online freely; magazines with explicit pictures of
nude women or in coital positions with other men or women; magazines
with explicit “fetish” pictures, with women introducing objects; “zoophilic”
magazines or web-pages with images of women having (or simulating) sex
with animals; and “pedophile” magazines or web-pages that show men
engaged in sex with girls; as well as erotic massage parlors, strip clubs,
“prostitution,” and “whore houses”:
Nowadays, young people like to experiment: at an older age,
boys between 16 and 18 look for women with experience,
but men between 18 and 30 look for girly types, girls
between 15 and 18, and older men look for younger girls.
I don’t know why this is, but they look for girls between 12
10 We think that childhood sex work is, in itself, a form of sexual exploitation. This is not so in the case of adult women (or
men). In the latter case, we believe that sex work unmediated by a third party may exist in certain contexts; in other words,
we believe that some sex workers may not be exploited. This does not mean that we are opposed to the argument that sex
work implies a form of structural violence. At least in Mexico, sex work is a form of violence against women because of the
resultant perception of women as objects that can be bought and used, which reinforces traditional-patriarchal ideas about the
“sexual nature” of men in relation to women, a relationship that, based on the hegemonic model of masculinity, appears to be
unstoppable and violent.
40
and 16 years old. It’s really easy [to access pornography],
you just type pornography on the internet and it sends you to
different sites. Even though now they have cyber police that
are always checking, it’s easy to get past them. Sometimes
the servers themselves avoid the police, and send you to
other sites, so still here, in the center of the municipality,
you can access it easily (RNG AMPERTAN RG INFINITO IR,
27 years old, teacher, single, lives with his parents, 2 sons.
Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, July 2012).

Regarding the costs of sexual consumption, interviewees reported having
more experience with pornographic magazines, which cost between 10
and 100 pesos (between 80 cents and 8 USD), and may be bought at any
newspaper stand, or in commercial chains, like department stores. Thus,
access to pornography is relatively easy: people of certain economic
positions (those who have access to internet at home), as well as people
with lower incomes can all access pornography.
The most common type of sexual consumption amongst the participants
is the use of pornographic videos, especially those that can be found freely
online.
Videos get your attention more, it’s like seeing the movement,
seeing… like it’s live, it’s there. With the magazine, you
leaf through the pages for a while, you can see it and pay
attention to it and then return to it again later, but there
isn’t that relationship to reality. (CHOCE, 26 years old, cab
driver, married, lives with his wife and 2 daughters. SLP, SLP,
June 2012).

The attribute of “reality” is important to the participants, since according
to them, videos reflect reality. Many of them state that they don’t carry out
sexual practices with their primary partner like they would with a sex worker
(at least in their fantasies, because a lot of them have never been with sex
workers). They argue that videos show the real or the possible in the arena
of eroticism and sex. Homemade porno videos are also used frequently and
are seen as exciting:
41
There are a lot of “warrior” websites, from some guy from
high school who uploads a video of his girlfriend to others
that are high definition. I like the homemade ones, they’re
like real. (KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO employee, single,
lives with his parents. SLP, SLP, June 2012).

This narration may show us that those who consume porn videos believe
that what they see is not real, that the reality is exaggerated, or that, simply,
the videos portray uncommon practices. However, Beatriz Preciado (2010)
argues that pornography has taught our societies how sex should be carried
out, taught us about what we find pleasant and exciting and what we don’t,
what women like and what men like, and what physical attributes men and
women should have. This fuels the idea of hegemonic bodies that, firstly,
have to be heterosexual, young, sexually vigorous, and with big and uniform
genitals. Pornography teaches us genitalized sex, deprived of all emotional
gestures: pleasure is solely in the genitals and in the duration of coitus.
Social class is very important in understanding why porn films are so popular
amongst our sample. Participants were middle class with access to internet,
and most of them had a personal computer at home. Some of them argued
that they had never carried out their sexual fantasies with women because
that would mean they had to pay them, meaning that these fantasies would
be difficult to carry out with a primary partner:
I think it depends. I think the most popular are the magazines,
because, maybe videos are more elaborate, for a video you
need a DVD player, and for magazines, you just need to get
the magazine; even if you don’t understand the language
it’s written in, people want to see the photos… If I had
money, I would go to strip clubs more often, or even go out
with a prostitute, but I can’t afford it. (LEONARDO, 25 years
old, researcher, single, lives with a friend, no children. SLP,
SLP, June 2012).

The “model” of women was also mentioned. There are videos of women
dressed as school girls, as nurses, as secretaries, as “femme fatale”. The
imaginary of model of women that results attractive. Therefore, there are
42
thematic videos that also exacerbate aspects such as race, ethnicity, as well
as some philias and sexual preferences:
From different nationalities, Mexicans, that I’ve heard of
there are more extreme ones. Yesterday I saw a movie where
they looked for a guy to kill them that would do all the sex
stuff and then kill them, sadomasochism. (KIMBO, 25 years
old, NGO employee, single, lives with his parents. SLP. SLP,
June 2012).
Voyeuristic, bizarre, MILF, sex with middle-aged women,
young, school girls, under-age, schools, teachers, Asian,
interracial, retro, porn stars, Disney movies. (ALEJANDRO,
23 years old, builder, single, lives with his parents. SLP, SLP,
June 2012).

As we previously stated, we do not intend to carry out a comparative study
between the two states; on the contrary, we seek to provide insight on the
images that they shared with regards to sexual consumption. However, we
did find that in the state of San Luis Potosí, men consume less pornography
featuring children than do men in the state of Tlaxcala, as indicated by the
participants. Without intending to be categorical, we did find some important
tendencies in each state (which does not mean they are representative of
the male populations of each state) that deserve to be mentioned. In the
state of San Luis Potosí, for example, men consume lesbian pornography
(sex between women) and very little gay pornography (sex between men):
Maybe my comment sounds macho. The lesbian thing
doesn’t do anything for me, being with two girls is even a
fantasy for me, but things with guys seem… I don’t like it. If
we look at the bigger picture, it’s practically the same thing,
it’s two girls or two guys, but personally, it’s not there… You
don’t even imagine these things. In the case of girls, it’s
something a lot of guys like, it’s common. That’s what I’ve
heard. (KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO employee, single, lives
with his parents. SLP. SLP, June 2012).
In lesbian [pornography], the woman is a wonder, which
I know since I’ve seen a lot of lesbian porn. I don’t have
43
a problem with that, but gay…it goes against my values, I
don’t like it, it’s sick. I respect it, truthfully, but I don’t like it.
(ALEJANDRO, 23 years old, builder, single, lives with his
parents. SLP, SLP, June 2012).

Unlike in San Luis Potosí, in Tlaxcala, we found evidence of men who
consume child pornography, even though the practice is repudiated among
the interviewees. The consumption of this material is rejected because of
the underage children it features.
As long as they are over 18 and they consent, I think it’s
the responsibility of the people who make it. For some it´s
their modus operandi, they live off of selling this type of
pornography and also off of those who consume it. What
I don’t agree with is that underage children should have
access to it, because there’s no control, and it can have
some sort of emotional or mental effect. (ESTOMATÓLOGO,
33 years old, dental surgeon, civil union, lives with his
partner and his 13-year-old son. Tlax, Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Yeah, there are a lot of men who watch underage girl porn.
It’s about their fantasies. I don’t watch it, only once but it
grossed me out. However, yeah, my friends, for example,
they’ve watched it. They don’t like it either, but yeah, they’ve
seen it. (VICENTE, 25 years old, social worker, married,
lives with his wife. SLP, SLP, June 2012).

Participants from both cities, expressed that consuming pornography, in
videos or in magazines, requires maturity and discretion. In other words,
whoever consumes it must be an adult and must be careful watching it only
at home, in privacy. This corresponds to the fact that for men, watching
pornography produces shame, because in this phase of their lives, men
“should” be doing these things, instead of limiting themselves to watching
them. It is important to note that this shame is not felt by the younger
participants, because in their imaginations, they are “educating” themselves
in the art of sex,. It is actually socially acceptable amongst men to share
sources of “information” on this topic that is so relevant in their life cycle.
44
Matthew Guttman (2008) speaks to the cult of masturbation among Mexican
men, and explains that part of the common sense of adolescence among
men in Mexico incorporates experiences of self-pleasure, a sort of young,
manly cult that stems from a supposed essence of manhood brought on
by natural impulses. In other words, the popular belief in male adolescent
attachment to masturbation has its roots in nature, in human biology
(from which a medical interpretation stems), in which male adolescent
masturbation entails a normal, healthy, and safe exploration of the process
of adapting to the sexual world as true men in a modern world (Guttman,
2008: 169).
Almost all of the participants in our study confirmed having seen a
pornographic film or magazine at an early age (between 12 and 15 years old),
which produced feelings of repulsion, fear, and anxiety, an experience which
we will return to and analyze further later in the text due to the importance
it holds for the construction of masculinity.
With regards to gay pornography, interviewees believe that those who watch
it, simply of their doing so, are homosexual. They suppose that a heterosexual
man cannot feel aroused by such images. In fact, just the thought of this
genre provokes discomfort. In the case of lesbian pornography, the opposite
happens. They find this latter type of pornography attractive and exciting.
Concerning child pornography, participants react with social condemnation,
as may be appreciated below:
It’s discomforting at the same time because I don’t know
what society thinks now, because… child pornography,
why would you consume it if you have children of your
own who could be victims of pornography? And what
if they’re traumatized? I consider it an irresponsibility
of citizens, like, I don’t know…Something disgusting
(COREBACSITO, 18 years, high school, tailor, single,
lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, July, 2012).
Well, it’s something I’m opposed to, I’m conflicted by it.
Basically because of the age, I mean, it really troubles me to
see an image like that, so it’s something that no, I don’t agree
with, and I don’t watch it (VICENTE, 25 years old, social
worker, married, lives with his wife. SLP, SLP, June 2012).
It’s a matter of perceptions, to me it’s something completely
outside of reason, outside of mental health, for it’s a
45
perversion, it’s not something I like to watch, thinking that
those kids could be someone’s children, and that they’re not
there for the pleasure of it, but because of sexual exploitation
and child abuse. (ROMÀN, 26 years, high school, printer,
single, lives with two friends. SLP, SLP, June, 2012).

These men declare themselves against child pornography mainly because
of an empathic principle: because of the idea that those boys and girls
could be part of their family. The popular saying “experiencing in a foreign
head” comes to mind here. Another element is that the participants relate
pedophilia (attraction, excitation, or desire for an infantile body) with
pathology, as if it were a mental illness. They don’t consider that someone
“healthy” could have these interests or that watching child pornography is
merely a personal decision. In other words, through this mechanism, men
who watch child pornography are freed of responsibility for their behaviors
by the men who claim that their acts are the product of “mental illness,”
something that cannot be controlled.
The risk of pathologizing some types of violence lies in the fact that it can
lead us to justifying it, dismissing it. We are not medics or psychiatrists;
we do not have the basis to define pedophilia as a “disease,” and we must
consider that this is a debate that involves philosophy, history, psychiatry,
and the modern medicalization of bodies and their sexual practices11. What
we do defend is that, be it a mental illness or not, child pornography is a
crime and this fact implies a decision on the part of those who act abusively
and directly or indirectly consume children’s bodies.
Something very similar occurs with regards to the
participants’ opinions on zoophilia (attraction, desire, or
excitation when viewing or carrying out sexual practices
with animals). There is a tendency towards pathologizing
people who consume this type of pornographic material.
Oh, man! I think there’s something really wrong with their
brain, well, they have a disease. We have to help them
because it’s not reasonable to fool around with an animal,
11 See: History of Sexuality I: The Will to Knowledge by Michel Foucault (2002) in order to understand how social institutions
(family, medicine, law, and church) produce mechanisms of oppression over bodies through their own sexuality. This legitimizes
or penalizes certain practices, pathologizing some of them because of their “abnormal” character and because they constitute
variations from the heterosexual and reproductive order.
46
a little animal, because they’re guided by instinct, and we
have reason, though, that makes us superior to them. So we
can’t use that form of thinking, that reasoning, to harm an
animal like that. (LIBERAL, 31 years old, cook, divorced, 2
daughters, Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

Well, everyone has their own taste, but I think it’s at a whole other level,
I think one thing leads to another. I don’t know if they do it because they
watch too much porn and they reach that level, or if it’s simply a thing
that they like. And if it exists, it’s because there are people who like it and
watch it, and so there are websites that offer it, and they exist and they
keep on existing because people use them and like it. (BETO, 32 years old,
professional photographer, single, lives with a friend. SLP, SLP, June 2012).
In regards to boys, girls and animals, participants identified forms of abuse,
but… what happens with women? According to what was said by the
interviewees, there is no abuse when it comes to women. The condemnation
reported by the participants is in regards to child and animal pornography,
which they classify as a disease, but what happens with pornography that
features men and women, women and women, and men and men? They
find the second attractive, the third one just for homosexual men. The first,
pornography with men and women, is the one they classify as “normal” and
“common,” even obvious, but it is important to question; what underlies this
obviousness?
Monique Wittig (2006) argues that heterosexual thought is a political
regimen that firstly, indicates the unavoidable existence of two bodies
that sexualize each other through social interactions and then, through
this sexualization, produce dual gender: feminine and masculine. One of
the bodies becomes passive and the other active by means of a dialectic
relationship that ultimately allows the achievement of perfect attachment
and social function.
Heterosexual practices are widely accepted because they pursue the
simulation of social reproduction with regards to gender roles. These
practices are also accepted because the search for pleasure has become
diffused in practices that are peripheral to biological reproduction. Biological
reproduction is also promulgated by society. Biological reproduction refers
to the institution of “family,” and family is also the metonymy of patriarchy
in its fundamental premise, which refers to submission in exchange for
47
protection. In other words, a paternal family protects its members (from
another paternal family), which requires the members of that family to
demonstrate respect and submission.
It is interesting to note that interviewees talked about female “models” in
pornographic films, but not about male “models.” They did not mention
the criteria that these men must fulfill to be in porn films or magazines. It
seems that men’s bodies are not scrutinized as women’s bodies are. Does
the penetrator represent a “body,” or is the only “body” that of the woman?
What significance do men’s bodies hold for other men?
Being more reflective would help us understand and think about ourselves
as the bodies we are. One way of seeing it follows that gender inhabits our
bodies; in other words, before gender, there is a body that exists. The body
translates emotions, feelings, and other aspects that are not directly related
to “reason.” If there is a social belief that women act based on emotion
(related to the body) and not on reason (related to the mind), it makes sense
that for our participants, men’s bodies are not the center of their attention.
History and anthropology have demonstrated how the concept of women
is related to the emotional sphere, while the concept of man is related to
reason (Mead, 1982), masculinity supposedly independent from bodily
emotions.
Another type of consumption identified was the use of erotic massages.
Some participants find this service somewhat futile, because they reported
that they could get massages from their primary partner, and there is thus
no need to pay for them (forgetting the role of servant that is given to the
partner). The massage implies another type of contact, a more intimate
one:
On the internet they announce erotic massages and they
give you all the information and they cost 300, 400, 700,
800, 1200 pesos12, depending on the type of massage.
I’m checking my email; a 17-year-old girl sent me an email
saying, “Hey, check this out.” I was reading about the erotic
massage with soft music and it costs 1200 pesos. What
does this type of massage consist of? It includes a bath with
perfumes, then they dry you off, then they rub aphrodisiac
oils on you and then give you an oral massage. Then they
detail other things, the relations, and afterwards, another
12 Approximately 25, 34, 62, 70, and 110 USD
48
bath, everything again, they prepare you and then give
you another type of massage. It’s not hard knowing where,
in fact they tell you where. You don’t know if you pay the
person directly or if there’s someone else you pay. (RNG
AMPERTAN RG INFINITO IR, 27 years old, teacher, single,
lives with his parents, 2 sons. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

None of the participants indicated the exact costs of the sex work that
erotic masseuses practice. However, the administration of the payments
provides clues to help analyze the possibility of the existence of a trafficking
network. One of the participants reported that he was frightened to enter
one massage parlor because a man guarded the door, and he knew that
there were women lined up to be chosen for a “happy massage,” a kind
of body massage that is followed by the client being masturbated by the
masseuse until he ejaculates. In that particular parlor, one must pay first,
then he can choose a girl and afterward goes into a room to receive the
service.
They have their bosses and you pay them and the girls only
get the minimum. (MANDY, 18 years old, student, single,
lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Here, they call whorehouses massage parlors. They give you
your little massage but with a happy ending. 250 for ten
minutes; 25 minutes, 200 which is the complete service;
250 for 35 minutes, every extra ten minutes they charge 50
more pesos, and 800 for two girls13. (CHOCE, 26 years
old, cab driver, married, lives with his wife and 2 daughters.
SLP, June 2012).

Participants reported that seeing guards (people who were not sexually
exploited women) that sometimes charge or manage the sexual services of
the girls helps them identify the parlor as one that participates in a trafficking
network.
13 250 pesos is approximately 20 USD, 200 pesos around 18 USD, 50 pesos around 4 USD, and 800 pesos around 73 USD.
49
It’s been some time. Before, you couldn’t see what you see
now, the places with a red light bulb and a big sign with
almost all the services they offer, out there on the street, or
in the paper. You see that consumption is more frequent. So
you basically see it in the paper, or guys tell you about the
girls. So you go to the place, you go inside, they sit you in
a lobby, they give you a piece of paper with the services
that are offered. Once you decide on the service you want,
they bring out the girls in little to no clothes, they turn around
and you choose one. For a basic service, which is about
20 minutes, it costs 150 pesos and it’s having sex for 20
minutes. There are services that go up to half an hour and
those are 250 pesos, and they include more positions. And
there are services with two girls or anal sex, and those are
about 150 or 250 pesos, depending on what you want.
There’s a person who is always watching out for the girls,
it’s the person that opens the doors and leads you to where
you have to be, it could be a man or a woman-. They offer
you the services they have, and that’s the person you pay.
(BETO, 32 years old, professional photographer, single,
lives with a friend. SLP, June 2012).
For example, a friend went to one of those places. He used
to tell me he went to a massage parlor… Well, you could tell
he was kind of desperate, that’s another issue, how desperate
or needy or horny you have to be to buy that service. But
he thought it was kind of funny because it’s his philosophy
to live without doubt and so he went to see what it’s like.
He said he got there and there was a desk and a woman
with a notebook, and she showed it to him and said, “No,
she’s busy right now,” “then this one,” “ok.” They took him
to a room with a girl, she undressed him and gave him a
massage, but he had asked for a massage with other services
included, so they gave him a good… What’s the appropriate
word? They gave him fellatio, masturbated him and then, all
right, she took off, next one. He left kind of amazed and
surprised, because he thought they would be really ugly, fat
chicks… But no, he said he got a girl who looked really nice,
pretty. (LEONARDO, 25 years old, researcher, single, lives
with a friend, no children. SLP, June 2012).

50
Another type of consumption is at strip clubs (also called “whoremongers”
by our participants). These establishments are bars where women dance
semi- or completely naked. Waitresses also wait on clients while wearing
little clothing. The presence of guards is tolerated and accepted in these
establishments, according to the participants, “because it’s a place for men,
they get drunk, they get into fights. The girls or other clients could be in danger.”
(BETO, 32 years old, professional photographer, single, lives with a friend.
SLP, June 2012).
In general, the participants described that they go out with friends to drink,
look at beautiful women, talk about their love problems, and basically get
drunk. All of this is done in order not to establish emotional links with the
women, but to have a “good” time with them, talk with them, and watch
them dance naked.
Guadalupe Ríos de la Torre (2008) explains that “brothels,” even though
they have changed over time, were born toward the end of the 19th century
and the beginning of the 20th: “The Mexican capital had a series of carnal,
commercial, and survival activities, with brothels in the center. In addition to
their sexual activities, the outskirts of the brothel activities oversaw certain
aspects of the disciplinary machinery, as well as the mechanisms of power.”
(Ríos de la Torre, 2008: 286).
We observe that the services inside strip clubs “include” women having to be
returned to the site after receiving their services:
There was a sign, the table with a girl cost 600 pesos,
the smallest bottle cost 1,200 pesos, and if you wanted
something private, it cost you 600, and if you wanted to take
the girl with you, it cost 2,000 pesos, under one condition:
you had to bring her back before 4 in the morning. About
the payment: I imagine there was a person there, because
you could see some sort of datebook, so I imagine there
was a person there. (RNG AMPERTAN RG INFINITO IR,
27 years old, teacher, single, lives with his parents, 2 sons.
Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

The participants’ discourse indicates that women exploited sexually in
contexts of prostitution are part of the “services” that these bars offer. In
other words, there is rigorous control (disciplining) of these bodies, and
51
the service is a discipline that operates as a device of power and subjection
(Foucault, 2002).
The strip clubs serve as a placebo that feeds the ideal construct of hegemonic
masculinity:
It’s a fucking fantasy world (…) they feel like big people
because they’re surrounded by tremendous women that they
would like to have. You enter a totally different world, and
you leave and walk into reality, I don’t know… A month to
work your ass off and go back to that fantasy world. The
experience starts when the security guys ask what you’re
going to drink, and once that is settled, they give you your
drinks and you start getting into it, enjoying the alcohol
and the adrenaline of being right there in front of attractive
women; it’s something you don’t see every day. You enjoy
the moment, and at the end everyone goes out all euphoric,
and then there are others who walk out like nothing because
they go to those places all the time. (ROMÁN, 26 years,
printer, single, lives with two friends. SLP, June 2012).

Participants also reported that there are processes of socialization that take
place with the women who “are part” of the services. The clients in these
places seem to be momentarily interested in the women they have in front
of them, although a third party is needed to manage all forms of interaction:
I’m a big talker, I make jokes, I’m funny, a little erotic talk,
I can talk them up, say how nice their hair is, their body,
especially: “You have such beautiful hair – it has to be a wig –
your knees are wobbly”; trying to break the ice and break the
frequency with which they are told, “You have beautiful legs.”
I try to play around with them a bit. Ask them a bit about their
life, generally they’re very quiet. Where she’s from, if she
has kids, what she studies… (EL DOC, 34 years old, dental
surgeon, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
At the ones that I haven’t been to – because there are
different types – there are tables where the dynamic is
different than at the ones that I have been to: the waiter
52
is the one who brings you the girl, if you want a private
dance; you have to talk to the waiter. A drink costs 80 to
100 pesos. A private dance costs 200, around 200. You
do all your transactions with the waiter; it’s not with the girl.
I have never seen a girl take money directly; it’s the waiter
who does. The relationship, well you take her out of the
place, go to a hotel, have sex with her, it must cost around
three thousand and up. (VICENTE, 25 years, psychologist,
married, lives with his wife. SLP, June, 2012).

The participants were interested in the images that the sex workers form of
them. It’s probable that some put into practice their gallantry and try to flirt.
It doesn’t matter if it works or not, because they can experiment with the sex
worker since they’re not interested in establishing an emotional relationship,
only in assuring a functional relationship for themselves in that context:
The truth is that I do think highly of myself. I’m a big talker
with the girls, I try to flirt, seem funny. But the first time I
went to one of those places, I got shy. I don’t know if it
was because it was the first time, but I wasn’t me, I was
distracted, thinking about other things. The girl sat on my
lap and told me, “Buy me a drink,” and I was all nervous,
and she started touching my neck, and I was like “Yeah, in a
bit.” I didn’t know what to say, until she asked, “What’s your
name?” “Yeah, well…” I didn’t know what to say. Whatever
she asked me, I would say to myself, “You’re being so stupid,
move, dude, do something, touch her.” We didn’t talk about
anything in particular. (KIMBO, 25 years, NGO employee,
single, lives with his parents. SLP, June 2012).

Hegemonic masculinity does not allow mistakes. Men, if they decide to stick
to that model, must be seductive, sure of themselves. There is no place for
hesitancy; their confidence must be shown through their personality and a
strong character. In these spaces, gender performance (Butler, 2011) takes
great strength. Here, men must carry out repetitive and exaggerated actions
in order to hold a place of preeminence among their peers and continue their
seduction of the women.
53
The guy who says he just goes to drink is an asshole
(laughs). The truth is he’s lying: you go and you look at the
girls, and you’re not there to waste time; you hang out and
the main thing is to go about and yell at the girls things
that you normally can’t. And there are boundaries too; you
also have to have respect. (CASIMIRO, 28 years old, single,
information technology professional, lives with his parents
and brothers, no children. SLP, June 2012).

It is likely that the relationships men have with women who are sexually
exploited in contexts of prostitution help them prepare themselves to establish
other types of relationships with other women. When men were asked their
opinions on women who serve as prostitutes, the differences they specified
between these women and non-prostitute women were hazy-:
I think yes, that effectively they make a lot of money, but
it comes at a high price. I don’t really know if they are
exploited, it’s something that I don’t really notice as a client,
you can only suspect. And the other thing is that the price
that they pay in their private lives is very high, compared to
what money they do receive, and even more if they have a
child. I don’t know, I’ve thought that if a client finds them on
the street, they can disrespect them; they’re frowned upon.
(EL DOC, 34 years old, dental surgeon, single, lives with his
parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Well, it’s an activity that can go from being a completely
decent activity to being coercive prostitution. A table
dancer can be a college student, a loyal housewife, or an
exploited woman, anything in that continuum. (TACHO, 64
years old, medic, married, lives with his wife, 2 children,
Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Maybe there are some who do it out of pleasure. There are
others that I think do it because of the other things, either
out of obligation or because they’re being exploited. In the
places I’ve visited, it doesn’t seem that the women are being
exploited because of the things I see, how they speak, or
how they look. I don’t know. But in other places I imagine
that there is exploitation. But in the end, it’s a job, it would be
54
good if there was no exploitation, if in some way it could be
regulated, because it’s not something new. It’s old, and if they
do it for economic stability and they do it well, and they’re
somehow happy in all other areas of their life, it would be
good if it was something regulated. (VICENTE, 25 years old,
psychologist, married, lives with his wife. SLP, June 2012).
Well, they do really good work, I think that women are
something out of this world, and that beauty cannot be
classified. (ALEJANDRO, 23 years old, builder, single, lives
with his parents. SLP, June 2012).

Sex work is acceptable only if those who perform it are over 18. If they
are, the participants suppose that the women are at a lesser risk of being
sexually exploited. However, the participants also reported that sexually
exploited women in contexts of prostitution usually lie about their lives, or
play the role of victims in order to get more money (ALEJANDRO, 23 years
old, builder, single, lives with his parents. SLP, SLP, June 2012) and are very
discreet about it. The women don’t talk about what they do outside the bars;
don’t say where they live, so how can one know their age? If this is a criterion
to differentiate sex work from exploitation, how can one know?
Yes, all they tell are lies, to begin with. They say, “No, me,
whatever, I’m from another city.” Maybe it’s true, right? I
mean, it’s possible that they’re from another city, that maybe
they study, that they say they’re 25 and in reality they’re 32,
or vice-versa. I mean, I don’t think they take the risk, that’s
why they use exotic names that you know are not their real
names, or wear accessories like wigs, strong colors. So you
talk about something you know is not true and they let you fool
around: “Oh, daddy, you’re so hot!” and me, “No, you’re the
one who is really attractive…” So, what you talk about there,
it’s a game. (LEONARDO, 25 years old, researcher, single,
lives with a friend, no children. SLP, June 2012).

“Prostitutes” are elusive women, unknown, and because of it, difficult to get
on with (Juliano, 2010). However, men may put into practice with them one
of the most important attributes of hegemonic masculinity: gallantry.
55
Sex work, identified by participants as “prostitution,” was another type of sexual
consumption of which the men spoke. Prostitution in the state of Tlaxcala,
according to the interviewees, is connected to women’s sexual exploitation.
Oh, of course! I even know who works them! (Laughs)…Right
now, here in the town center, there are some… they even look
like girls, they’re there but they’re really prostitutes. I know
this because I know a guy who did another research project,
and he hung out with them. The other place is towards the
south, past the highway, you can find hotels and girls there.
The other place is in the center of the state, there’s like an
abandoned house, but it’s not abandoned, if you know the
password, you just say it and you’re in. There are girls inside,
I’m not sure because I’ve never been, but the guy who did
this research told us that you can find girls between 13 and
18 years old, not older. And the other, there are certain
telephone numbers, you call and you find girls, 15 and 16,
that discreetly hand out fliers with the telephone numbers, and
they say, “Call us,” but I’ve never called. (RNG AMPERTAN
RG INFINITO IR, 27 years old, teacher, single, lives with his
parents, 2 sons. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

It’s not a novelty that people in the state of Tlaxcala know about the issue
of female trafficking and the construction of pimps (“who work the girls”),
especially in the south of the state, in the town of Tenancingo14. What draws
our attention is that though this is such a delicate subject because it affects
the psychological and physical integrity of the women and holds major
legal consequences for the pimps, our participants spoke of it quite freely.
Their tone suggested certain disapproval, but it seems to be an issue that is
present every day, so its moral impact has become diluted.
In the state of San Luis Potosí, no one referenced sexual exploitation of
women, but areas of women’s sex work were well identified. Research and
literature on the topic in this states is quite recent, and our participants
showed little knowledge on the issue, which contributed to their difficulty in
identifying certain cases where there might be human trafficking networks:
14 For further information see: Diagnostic on the Construction and Reproduction of Masculinity in Relation to the Trafficking of
Women and Girls in Tlaxcala, GENDES 2011.
56
There are a few places, the ones that are easy to identify
are over in that neighborhood, and they operate 24 hours
a day. I don’t know what it’s called, I think it’s “N,” in front
of the public safety building – ironically but you can identify
a five-kilometer perimeter around that building. (CASIMIRO,
28 years, single, information technology professional, lives
with his parents and brothers, no children. SLP, June 2012).
The most famous area is there on the highway, it’s a tradition
that you find people who prostitute themselves there. In the
outskirts of the city, on the beltway, you find more. On
another avenue, I don’t remember the name; there you find
strip clubs and other people who prostitute themselves. In
the center area, next to the marketplace, there are more.
(VICENTE, 25 years old, social worker, married, lives with
his wife. SLP, June, 2012).

We observed, again, that they method of payment gives us clues as to
whether trafficking of women is occurring. The payment in Tlaxcala is
identified as follows:
We know that they charge a certain amount, and they
have to give some of it to the guy who exploits them. Those
type of people (the pimps), it’s hard to identify them. For
example, in a pen of girls, they probably won’t say anything
about who exploits them. In a municipality as small as this
one, you can see the men as noble, old, you practically see
them without anything, but sometimes they’re the ones who
move everything. (COREBASITO, 18 years, high school,
tailor, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).
You give them money, but they’re being watched. There are
people, they never give their names, but you know they’re
there. You don’t see them, but they’re there, they’re watching
over them to make sure that they don’t leave, you don’t take
them, they don’t get beat up, and you pay. (LIBERAL, 31
years old, cook, divorced 2 daughters. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
We all know that prostitutes have someone who “protects
them,” but at the same time exploits them. (ESTOMATÓLOGO,
partner and his 13-year-old son. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
57
As with the strip clubs, we notice the existence of a man who “looks out for,”
watches over, and patrols the exploited women. According to the premise
of the paternal family, these men maintain order within a framework of
illegality (in the case of networks of trafficking). They “watch over” other
men’s girls, and in doing so, they watch over themselves (as representatives
of the masculine gender).
Participants in both states indicate that the costs of sexual services depend
on the “quality of the woman,” as well as the type of service they offer.
They report that fellatio costs between 150 and 200 pesos and vaginal sex
between 500 and 5,000 pesos. Ríos de la Torre explains that “prostitution
has responded to an active and competitive market, where costs are not
only defined by the type of service offered, but by beauty, age, social class,
and ethnicity. The combination of these factors determines the law of supply
and demand, and provides a series of possibilities (Ríos de la Torre, 2008;
293-294).
Information about the costs of other sexual practices (besides fellatio and
vaginal sex) was not provided. Condom use was reported only for vaginal
sex, not for oral sex.
Out of all the interviewees, only seven over 50 years old reported having
consumed this type of sexual service. The rest speak from the shared
knowledge they hold, the product of dialogues and conversations with other
men who are frequent clients of sexually exploited women. However, it is
possible that these men simply do not admit to being consumers of sex and
are telling these stories as if they were someone else’s.
A friend of my cousin’s told me that he and his friends talk
about these things so they could feel manlier and stuff. He
told me he went to another state, I don’t remember what
part, I think it’s called the Pink Zone, and that he pays for
this type of services. The only thing he told me was that that
it was his first time, and since he didn’t know what to do,
the prostitute told him to hurry up so it would all end. But
since my cousin had no idea what to do, you could say that
it took him a while to get it over with, and you could say
that neither he nor the prostitute liked it. (KABALLERO PUNK,
20 years old, baker, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala,
July 2012).

58
Men indicated that they practiced their gallantry at strip clubs. When
they are with sexually exploited women, it is likely that they practice any
cleverness they believe needs to be exercised by men in order to establish
sexual relations with women:
A friend told me that in their family, it’s tradition that when
a man turns 18, they take him to be “de-virginized”. To do
that, his uncles, parents, brothers, cousins, all over-age, they
take him to a table dance, but it’s just for him to have his first
sexual relation. And he told me that when he was younger,
maybe 12, he thought that it was going to be amazing, go
with his dad and all his family and that everyone would
see him. But what he told me is that one day before his
18th birthday he ran away to avoid it, thinking about all the
damage that could be done to a woman if he went through
with it. He decided to run away, and he came back a week
later. (COREBACSITO, 18 years, high school, tailor, single,
lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

It seems that in some contexts, “de-virginization” with sexually exploited
women in contexts of prostitution is a rite of passage for young men on their
way to becoming men. Even though for some, having sex with these women
does not seem attractive, peer pressure from other men can lead them to
carry out these practices, and it’s important to consider the psychological
and emotional consequences that these acts can have on young men and
their subsequent sexual relations.
In regards to sexual exploitation of girls and female teenagers, some
participants from both states have had offers that they report not having
accepted:
Here in my town, there is none, but there is in the capital.
The other day, I was passing by with my son, because my
partner and I had some problems and we separated and
every now and then I see our child. We were eating and
all of a sudden a girl comes up, maybe 18 or 19, and she
says, “My friend over there sends you this,” and I thought,
“But I don’t know her.” The note said, “Are you interested
in girls, in boys? We are the solution.” Below was a phone
59
number. I threw the piece of paper away so my son wouldn’t
see it. Another day I was walking around and this girl came
up to me and asked, “Hey, are you interested in what we
proposed?” “What are you talking about?” “We have really
pretty girls,” she said, and she pulled out a tablet and said,
“Look, this girl is 12 years old, she just got in from Chiapas,
this one is 13, she’s from Sonora,” and she kept on showing
me a bunch of girls. “Sorry, but I’m not interested.” “I’ll
leave a card if you change your mind.” I don’t know the
cost; I only know that in my state, they offer them. (RNG
I’ve only seen it once, when a mom offered up her daughter,
she was maybe 16 years old and very young, you could see
it in her face. Very attractive, very attractive. Then, “Where to,
ma’am?” “I’m going over there,” she said, “so, how are you
doing?” “Good, ma’am,” I said, starting. It was like 6 in the
evening and I asked, “Finishing your day?” “Yeah, this bitch
got me nothing.” And I asked her, “What do you do?” “Over
there, at the market, I offer her to workers with money… Do
you want in?” So I asked her, “In what?” And she said, “Look
at her, at my daughter, she’s hot, right?” And I said, “Yeah,
but she’s really young, she’s not in school?” She answered,
“Of course not, she doesn’t need that.” And I felt like I had
been punched in the face. That was when I understood. She
asked again, “Do you want in?” And she grabs the girl’s leg
and says, “Look, really young.” And I was like, “Wow” (on
the inside). And I said, “No thanks, ma’am.” She insisted,
“Come on, we got nothing today, we were here only for a
bit, but we didn’t do well.” And I was like, “Fine, but look at
her, you got her all scared.” “No, she’s my daughter and
this is what we do.” “Yeah, but look at her, she’s all scared.”
(CHOCE, 26 years old, cab driver, married, lives with his wife
and 2 daughters. SLP, June 2012).

These extracts show that some men not only disapprove of children’s sexual
exploitation, but try not to participate in it. The participant from the state
of Tlaxcala threw away the flyer so his son would not see it; the man from
San Luis Potosí showed his disapproval towards the alleged mother of the
60
exploited girl15. It is important to analyze these aspects further, because they
are some of the most polemic findings in this study.
Firstly, it’s difficult to compare our data with hard evidence because
there are no available official statistics about children in situations of
exploitation16. This reveals an alarming void in information that could lead
to a better comprehension of the dimensions of this problem, and therefore,
to the design and production of public policy. However, according to some
authors, testimonies from victims of sexual exploitation show that some
of them started in the sex industry as early as 14 years old (Torres Falcón,
2010). Studies from Central America reported that men in that region show
no restrictions in consuming children’s bodies (Salas & Campos, 2004), even
though the same investigation also reported that there are mechanisms
in place that inhibit this consumption. According to UNICEF, around 50%
of victims of trafficking are children and teenagers; additionally, the ILO
estimated that in the year 2000, 1.8 million children were exploited within
the commercial sex industry (UNICEF, 2005: 13-14).
The possible contradictions between the data in this study and in other
available literature invite us to continue this line of research. We may also
observe the interviewees’ clear disapproval of sexual exploitation. It is
probable that if they knew how to act upon finding themselves in this type
of situation, they would do something about it, report it, call an emergency
number… something. Silence an accomplice of crime. Knowing directly or
indirectly about these crimes and not doing anything makes us accomplices.
When participants were asked what they would do if they identified a
trafficking network, all of them stated that they would not know what to
do. For one, they stated that they didn’t have information on a telephone
number to call, a web-page to look at, or a place to go to place a complaint or
report. For another, participants expressed fear about the consequences of
reporting these crimes; they worry the criminals could attack them, or that
no legal action would proceed because of the government’s collusion with
the crime industry. This collusion encourages the networks’ functioning,
sense of impunity, and continued violation of human rights.
15 Oscar Montiel recommends analyzing the reasons why men do not report these acts of sexual exploitation. He infers that this
can be due to “patriarchal pacts” (not necessarily explicit ones, but symbolic ones); our results lead us to this conclusion. He also
suggests that referring to the family in messages for prevention (i.e., “Imagine if it were your mother/sister/daughter”) does not
suffice, because the family is a space where much gender violence is put in practice. (Personal communication, October, 2012).
16 María José Gómez reports that the number of boys and girls in situations of sexual exploitation are not clearly defined in
Mexico, which reveals an alarming lack of interest in the topic. Reports from DIF/UNICEF state that there are 16,000 boys and
girls who have been sexually exploited in Mexico since 2002, but we can imagine there are many more. Apart from the number
of women under the age of 18 in contexts of prostitution, research suggests that adult women started sex work at an average age
of 14 years (Personal communication, 2012).
61
With regards to other types of prostitution, such as male sex work, we found
no further data. The participants only mentioned that in some streets of the
town plazas, one could find men who were “obviously homosexual,” and who
“walked around.” According to the interviews, they could be “prostitutes” or
“simply gays who look for peers to hook up with for the night.”
The same happens with trans sex workers (transvestites, transsexual and
transgender people). Men from Tlaxcala reported that on the highway
that connects the city of Puebla with the city of Tlaxcala, there are trans
people offering sex services, though the men do not know the prices or the
procedures being offered.
Up until now, we have reported the types of sexual consumption that
interviewees were able to identify. We will now go on to describe the motives
that heterosexual men have in consuming sex.
62
Motives for sexual consumption:
no supply, no demand?
findings
I
n this chapter, we will analyze the reasons why heterosexual men turn
to adult women’s sex services, even though this practice may lead to
relationships with sexually exploited girls. In connection to the types of
sexual consumption that men from the two states identified, we will analyze
men’s motives in procuring sex services in order to analyze the relationship
between hegemonic masculinity and practices of sexual consumption.
We asked participants why men watch porn, and followed up with the
question, why do you watch porn? We played close attention to the general
and personal aspects of their responses:
Why teenagers watch porn is different, they use it because
they have less sexual experience or because they haven’t lived
enough to know different sexual positions, or because they’ve
never seen female genitals before. (TACHO, 64 years old,
medic, lives with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Well, there are a few motives, one of them could be that they
feel lonely and in their minds they want to feel like they’re
surrounded by women, have sex every day, or basically
because they feel alone and powerless. Or maybe because
at some point they were victims of sexual abuse, and that
caused them to develop a mental disorder, and that has
the same effect, they want to cause the same harm to other
people. (NABETSE, 18 years old, student, single, lives with
his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
63
So they know how to carry out a sexual relationship when
the opportunity comes. (KABALLERO PUNK, 20 years old,
baker, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Well, I think it’s in men’s nature. Unlike women, we are
more animal and more instinctive in that aspect. Since adolescence, because of curiosity, because of hormones and
wanting to discover things. Yeah, I think we let ourselves go
because of this sexual part within us, which is apparently
more developed than in women. (VICENTE, 25 years old,
social worker, married, lives with his wife. SLP, June 2012).

We observe that it seems that some men are educated in sexual practices
through pornographic images. There is also a naturalization of the supposed
sexual needs of men:
Because it’s necessary, it’s natural, it’s like having a
relationship with a woman, it’s man’s instinct. (ALEJANDRO,
23 years old, builder, single, lives with his parents. SLP,
June, 2012).

Even though some aspects of the hegemonic construction of gender are
socially taken for granted, even understood as natural aspects, we found
some generational breaches, such as this one:
The biggest thing is based on machismo, because since
childhood, society is used to seeing a man getting married,
have seven women, or twelve, and each one ha her family.
Of those children, each one had twelve women. Machismo
is the root of that. When women started to rebel, they wanted
no more, that’s what started getting at machismo, because
it still exists. When that started fading out men realized that
they had anger against women, but they didn’t know the
anger was against themselves… Watching porn is the only
way to make a woman suffer (COREBACSITO, 18 years,
high school, tailor, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala,
July, 2012).
64
Among men over 30 years old we found that narratives regarding
consumption were closer to traditional discourses that stem from hegemonic
notions of gender. In fact, men over that age expressed more encounters in
the sex market.
It is likely that generation represents a breach in this topic. It is also likely
that men under twenty manage a different discourse17, which their actions
reflect. The fact that younger men do not carry out certain practices
of sexual consumption expresses this discourse. Their actions reflect a
conscious process of decision making and a reflection process that tries to
answer questions such as: what are the motives of sexual consumption?
Most of the participants over 20 had a hard time answering the question:
why do you consume? It’s easy for them to speak of general aspects, from
common places, without involving themselves. This does not happen when
they speak of themselves. It seems that men over 30, in particular, do not
think to themselves about where they act from.
Let’s take a look at the motives behind men’s consumption of sex, particularly
pornographic movies, videos, and magazines:
That was when I was young, in my younger years, you
always have that curiosity to discover, to explore… I used to
hang out with my cousins and with my friends and it was like
an adventure: “Hey, we have a porn video.” And behind
your parents back, “Let’s watch it.” That’s why I watched
it. (LIBERAL, 31 years old, cook, divorced, 2 daughters.
Tlaxcala, July 2012).
I’ve seen porn online, truthfully when I’m bored, you’re on
Facebook and you go over to see some ass in porn, but
you basically get bored of it, so it could be because you’re
bored or because you want to masturbate. (BETO, 32 years
old, professional photographer, single, lives with a friend.
SLP, June 2012).
Me? Why I watch it? [Yes, you, not men in general]. Ah…
well, I don’t know, I like it, or maybe not, it bores me. Yeah,
17 This breach may be due to the impulse that mass media permits regarding messages on equality between men and women.
These messages are specifically about the social changes achieved by feminist demands, such as women’s participation in public
spaces and decision making, open and assertive language on sexuality, and the importance of the appropriation of the body,
sex education in schools, etc. The use of new technologies, such as the internet, facilitates communication about topics such as
gender and sexuality and ends their status as taboos.
65
I think to get a good masturbatory ambiance, yeah, I think
that’s why. (ARNULFO, 54 years old, mechanic, lives with
his parents and wife, 3 children. SLP, June 2012).

Among the participants under 30 years old, the impact of pornography on
sex education is observable.
Well, in principle, as a dumb statement, it was so I would
know how to penetrate a woman, but when I was in the
moment, I realized that no, the real stuff has nothing to do
with what you see in the videos. (KABALLERO PUNK, 20
years old, baker, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July
2012).
When I was little, porn was really famous. Eleven year
old boys who were only in the 6th grade started watching
that kind of stuff, because of machismo, and because their
parents gave them the videos, or they found them through
their cell phones. When I was little I saw porn in school,
you could see who was the strongest, the most macho, the
best but in “bad ways,” like using porn, smoking, drinking,
hitting, stealing, stuff like that… even if you have good
intentions, society makes you change. (COREBACSITO,
18 years, high school, tailor, single, lives with his parents,
Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

The men seem to express a certain hesitance with regards to what is
expected of men and what they instead decide to do based on their own
personal conviction. This is more common among men under thirty. Agency
and decision making seem to be fundamental in this moment of life.
Regarding men’s visits to massage parlors, an important aspect to pay
attention to is their emotions. In these spaces, besides paying for sexual
services (such as masturbation or fellatio after the body massage), there is
more likelihood of interacting with the sex worker. The services men expect
go beyond getting physical and sexual pleasure through ejaculation; men
are interested in being taken care of, and the idea of being “pampered” is
also at play, as we see in some fragments:
66
Well, I imagine the eroticism itself is nice, being caressed,
kissed… But I don’t know, more than the nice physical
sensations, I think emotionally it doesn’t leave much. It’s
really hard to know each person’s motivations, because
some people like to be touched by a stranger, or maybe
they already have their client (laughs), and then there are
people who enjoy the massage simply to relax. I’ve never
had an erotic massage, maybe it’s really nice, but I’m not
interested. (TACHO, 64 years old, medic, married, lives with
his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Because it’s more private, well, you don’t go with all your
buddies, it’s more like you go on your own. Maybe it’s
an addiction or a problem. Maybe it’s not like that, but
that’s my perception, I think it’s something sick, going to the
massage, because it’s more private, like I said, it’s harder to
go with all your friends and party, you go so you can have
sex. (VICENTE, 25 years, psychologist, married, lives with
his wife. SLP, June, 2012).
Wanting to experiment, maybe stress, maybe family
problems, or to experience something new. (RNG
AMPERSTAN RG INFINITO IR, 27 years, graduate degree,
2 bachelor’s degrees, teacher, single, lives with his parents,
one son. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

According to the data, men go to massage parlors when they have problems
with their spouses. They may find these encounters to be some sort of
emotional outlet, a way of being taken care of by a woman.
You don’t go to the massages just to have sex, you go to
have a relationship. Maybe you go because you got in a
fight with your girl, and so you go to the massage to get
pampered. (BETO, 32 years old, professional photographer,
single, lives with a friend. SLP, June 2012).
Maybe some men take it just as a massage, they relax and
that’s it, but other guys, because of the difficult they have
with making women happy, it’s part of machismo, because
there are lots of ways of being happy, it’s mostly your friends
67
who tell you, “Don’t cave.”… “This is what happens.” When
women don’t listen to men, they turn to the massages, or
watch porn, or “I’m going to cheat on you.” What they don’t
know is that men simply feel powerless because they don’t
have the capacity to talk to their partners about how they
feel. (COREBACSITO, 18 years, high school, tailor, single,
lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).

The supposed need is still present. The way men legitimize their going to
places such as strip clubs and massage parlors still has to do with instinct,
that which cannot be controlled. Men’s dissatisfaction is another motive,
even though this aspect is not quite clear and should be a focus of future
research. However, at the center of the problem is men’s demonstrated
difficulty in dealing with equality. In other words, when men refer to “family
problems,” they could be referring to the idea that their female partners are
not adopting the role of submissive women, so they go to other women to
reaffirm their masculinity, as they can impose conditions of their choosing
on the women they pay. It is a way in which they can “punish” their partner
or a way they can confirm to themselves that they don’t need dialogue to
solve conflicts since there will “always” be someone else who can fulfill the
feminine role that patriarchal culture assigns: subordination. In any case,
there is a constant exercise in evading one’s own responsibility which is
substituted by blaming the partner for “not paying enough attention,”
thus justifying men’s visits to sexual spaces. Regardless, it is not clear if
this masculine dissatisfaction stems from the couple’s relationship or from
the men themselves. They simply take their dissatisfaction for granted;
not analyzing the origins of it, and therefore, the solution to the situation
becomes hazy.
I don’t really know… I think that those who go to these
places to get sexual contact do so because they are not
comfortable with who they are, or because they don’t have
a partner, because sex is a physiological need, and maybe
you really need to satisfy that need. (ESTOMATÓLOGO, 33
years old, dental surgeon, civil union, lives with his partner
and his 13-year-old son. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Regarding need, it doesn’t mean they can’t get it at home,
many of them are lazy, many of them are idle. Besides, as
68
human beings we tend to be unfaithful, you’re not happy
with your partner; we’re always looking for something more
satisfactory. The more we feed that satisfaction, the more
we are happier and we feed our ego, and at the end of the
day, it’s nothing, that’s why. (LIBERAL, 31 years old, cook,
divorced, 2 daughters. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
I’m more of the idea that it has to do with ideology and
money, or culture. Culture requires you to be with only one
woman. But men desire to have more girls, it’s in their nature.
Men’s nature is that we like women. Because it’s easier, it’s
about money, you bring the money, she owes you. (KIMBO,
25 years old, NGO employee, single, lives with his parents.
SLP, June 2012).

“Men’s nature” is a recurring phrase. In trying to understand and accept the
weight of culture and its effects on how we relate to each other, it seems that
our last and only escape is “nature,” as if it were unquestionable, irrefutable,
permanent, and immutable. However, following the words of Joan Vendrell:
there is nothing more cultural than the concept of “nature” (2004). For this
Spanish anthropologist, the “instinct” between human beings is culture. In
other words, what we mean by “instinct” is also constructed (morally) by
what society tells us about how to be, how to think, how to act. According
to Vendrell, we tend to blame actions that we find undecipherable and
unintelligible on nature, when really, it has always been human beings and
their culture that have created the divide between culture and nature.
Guttman (2008) also argues that there is a masculine culture that encourages
violence as a response to nature, thereby justifying violence in culture. We
must remember that on two occasions, our data showed that in contexts of
women and prostitution, there are men who keep control and “watch over”
other men’s women, and in doing so, watch over themselves. Guttman
indicates that violence is not natural, that it is a result of aggression, and
that “the biological elements associated with it, such as testosterone, for
example, are not the cause but only exaggerate already existing aggression;
levels of testosterone do not predict anything about who will be aggressive
or not, or to what magnitude. Differences in behavior encourage hormonal
changes, not the other way around” (Guttmann, 2008: 184). “Masculine
cultures can encourage men to be ‘sexually uncontrollable,’ making them
‘need’ to be bodily masculine, showing us that there is an equation that
69
exists between masculine identity and the idea of an uncontrollable sexual
desire” (Guttmann, 2008; 184).
Donna Haraway (1995), a North American zoologist and philosopher, argues
that there is nothing natural in the social sphere. For this author, what is
assumed as natural is a way of avoiding taking responsibility for social
behaviors. From her perspective, all concepts and their effects are the
product of discourses that tend to become naturalized, to be thought of as
given, such that they seem to become unquestionable. So, sexual division
in labor is thought of as natural. It is perfectly accepted that women take
care of what is considered private and men take care of what is considered
public. Haraway thus proposes that we question what is obvious, what is
supposedly natural, and decipher from where and with what arguments
these concepts are created. Why is what is assumed as natural also assumed
to be true? Is the “natural” a way to absorb social conditions and decision
without truly reflecting on them?
Participants not only use the “natural” as a justification for social notions and
collective acts, but many times they appeal to scientific discourse as absolute
truth: “It is scientifically proven that men are more unfaithful than women,”
“It is scientifically proven that human beings cannot be monogamous.” Is
science to the world what faith is to religions?
Regarding men’s motives in turning to women in contexts of prostitution,
data shows that two main reasons are loneliness and not being able to be
with attractive women without an exchange of money:
I am a 64-year-old man and I’ve come across men who go
to prostitutes because they do not have the ability to flirt
with a girl and fuck. There are others who go to prostitutes
because there is no emotional link; others go because they
can’t come up with new sexual practices with their primary
partner because of social restrictions. In other words, you
respect your wife, and you both can’t come up with new
erotic attitudes, so your relationship becomes boring, with
the wife sticking with traditional views, and it’s always the
same position, man on top, woman on the bottom and you
finish and that’s it. In contrast, with a prostitute, you can do
many things that you can’t do with your wife. So there are
a lot of reasons, and it depends on the personality of each
individual… (TACHO, 64 years old, medic, married, lives
with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
70
Men believe that they can carry out sexual practices with women in contexts
of prostitutions that they could not normally carry out with their wives or
primary spouses. This implies a divided image of the feminine figure. Rosario
Castellanos (1973) proposed that either idolizing a woman as something
pure or minimizing her to the position of a prostitute is an expression of that
same problem: men’s difficulty in forming relationships with real, concrete
women.
Men’s disinterest in generating emotional relationships connected to normal
sexual practices is another motive in their turning to sex workers.
Lack of time to be able to develop a sentimental situation
that can end up as a sexual situation, and it’s completely
logical that they don’t have time to be socially cool and to
grow a sexual relation stemming from a sentimental relation.
(CASIMIRO, 28 years old, single, information technology
professional, lives with his parents and brothers, no children.
SLP, June 2012).
Well, mostly because of that: because he couldn’t get it by
doing it through a wholesome way, and just took the easy
approach, I give you money and you give me your service
and that’s it. (KABALLERO PUNK, 20 years old, baker,
single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
For starters, partying with your friends, another, maybe
even need, maybe someone who hasn’t gotten lucky with a
girl, or isn’t too attractive. I don’t know, whatever…maybe
someone that hasn’t experienced sex, well, if he pays he
can have it. (VICENTE, 25 years old, social worker, married,
lives with his wife. SLP, June 2012).

Many of the statements made by the participants reaffirm masculine
sexuality constructed around pure sexual activity, affection seemingly
irrelevant. On the other hand, men pay to “get what you can’t get without
money.” It’s about buying beauty standards for women and their sexual
services and not having to invest time, wit, tact, and other things that
would imply the establishment of an emotional-sexual relationship, which
leads us to the topic of status. This is a fundamental aspect of hegemonic
masculinities formed through competition. Social class, again, is crucial to
71
understand sexual consumption. However, this doesn’t imply that in social
classes with less acquisitive power, this practices don´t take place. On the
contrary, what can be stated is that this group can only access limited
options within the “market” of sexual exploitation. With the analysis that is
being generated, and its suggested action lines, will surely consider aspects
from and for the middle class. Focalized studies should be made to deal with
other sectors of the population18.
Other aspect that motivates the consumption of persons in situation of
prostitution has to do with the perception of this practice as “work”, that is
to say, that sexually exploited women in a context of prostitution carry out
this labor on their own free will, offering a service.
Among the participants, phrases such as “prostitution is necessary to
avoid more rape”, or “prostitution is a necessary evil to society” emerged.
To assume these “popular” sayings implies thinking that men, all men, are
natural born rapists, that are uncontrollable sexually speaking, and that
women, in order to be safe, not to suffer a rape, must have –as an accomplicesexually exploited women in the context of prostitution.
It is important to pay attention to the image that men have of themselves
in this concept: the man. Participants report their rejection for sexual
exploitation, mostly that of children or animals. They could assume
themselves as incapable of this particular sexual consumption, many don´t
even approve of sexual exploitation of adult women –although they don’t
know how to identify it and what to do in case of finding it- then, why
repeating –and even worse- believe these phrases? Isn’t there a contradiction
between what these man say of themselves and what they say about “men
in general” as if they weren’t a part of this group, or them as representatives
of the male genre?
Following with men’s imaginary and their gender practice, they indicate that
the profile of men who consume pornography is varied: rich, poor, with or
without education, given that this type of consumption has easier access.
However, there is ambiguity in the idea of “every man watches pornography”.
Some interviews indicate that these men are emotionally stable, some say
otherwise; they refer that users have a stable couple, other report that they
are bored single men. Briefly, to watch porn is for the interviewees part of
the culture: from the calendar in the garage to the porn magazines (BETO, 32
18 For instance, if certain types of sexual exploitation, such as children’s, correspond to higher income levels should be
investigated. Although the economic variable may be irrelevant if the extension of the human trafficking with purpose of sexual
exploitation rings has achieved impunity in such level that may “recruit” girls and boys (by kidnapping, for instance) in order to
“cheapen” the cost of exploitation.
72
years old, professional photographer, single, lives with a friend. SLP, June
2012). What underlies, we believe, is the justification to make an object out
of the women’s body. Any subject, in any social class, in any sentimental
situation, can see the women’s body as an object of desire.
As for the men who attend massage parlors, there is greater consensus among
the participants. They affirm that these kind of persons that are regular to
these erotic massages, live an emotional alienation, that are insecure men
that look for feeling desired through touch (the massages). Again, we can
observe that the massages imply a different kind of relationship whit the
masseuse, and of course, the motives are also different. In a similar way,
social class also comes into play:
First you can be able to afford it, not any man can… I think
that a farmer is as capable of getting or giving sensations
as a first class executive, but a farmer hardly has the
economic means as to afford an erotic massage, so for
starters, it depends of the socioeconomic and sociocultural
level. If your partner is cool you can also learn to give each
other an erotic massage and not necessarily to consume it
in a specialized the women’s body as an object of desire
establishment… There are those that like some professional,
with all the abilities, the right pressure in their hands, in the
touch, in their movements, so it turns out to be more attractive
to have it done by an expert. There are many motivations; it
is very difficult to generalize. (TACHO, 64 years old, medic,
married, lives with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
I think that someone that doesn’t have access in a sentimental
way, but is going there to cover a necessity and there is also
the guy who goes to spend all his pay of the week in one
massage or the guy who can afford three or four in one day.
(LEONARDO, 25 years old, researcher, single, lives with a
friend, no children. SLP, June, 2012).

Emotional instability and insecurity appear among men who can afford sex
services. We don’t have a way of knowing if this is true of men of other social
classes, but we can affirm it among middle-class men. A shared belief is that
men seek sexually exploited women in contexts of prostitution to talk to the
women about their personal problems. But this practice does not seem to
73
have occurred among all of our participants. Participants reported that men
go to women sex workers because they do have personal problems, but they
did not state that men talked about those problems with the sex workers,
nor that they felt emotional relief after their encounters. This requires
further research; as it stands, it seems to throw some light on the tensions
that stem from sexuality encouraged by hegemonic masculinity, sexuality
based on pure sexual activity. When the construction of masculinity becomes
separated from emotional life, men begin to lack the necessary elements
that allow them to relate on an emotional basis with others, particularly with
their partners.
Apparently, sexual consumption, including “prostitutes,” is a very common
subject. In other words, everybody believes that they have a lot to say
on the topic, a topic that is free of debate but involves many arguments.
However, when we analyzed the data from our interviews, we found that
many of our presuppositions about sexual consumption were contrasted
and debated by participants. There remain many unanswered questions,
many knots and unresolved tensions. It is believed that since prostitution
is “the oldest job in the world,” it is an over-studied topic, but it does not
seem to be that way, not if we analyze it from those men who consume
women’s bodies.
Returning to the general objective of this text, which strives to analyze
heterosexual men’s motives in consuming sexual services from adult women
in order to identify elements that could help discourage the demand for paid
sex within networks of sexual exploitation and trafficking, it is now clear that
it is necessary for us to scrutinize the complexity of sexual services, from the
perspective of the men who consume them. This is only the beginning, and
thus we have identified important areas of attention:
• Men who seek these services in search of something they
think they don’t have with their primary partner or with
themselves, or because they don’t know how to build
emotional-erotic relationships, thus developing noticeable
emotional restrictions or instability.
• Popular discourse that legitimizes women as the objectbodies of men’s desires.
• A discourse that naturalizes men’s sexuality as an
unstoppable natural instinct, an instinct which “forces” them
to turn to women’s sex services.
74
• The strong dissociation between images of “masculinity”
and the acts and perceptions of men whose conceptions of
masculinity are more hazy; men may try to step aside from
hegemonic mandates, but ultimately reproduce them in their
everyday practices and discourse.
• A way of resolving the tensions that build up within partner
relationships.

It may seem superficial to appeal repeatedly to the importance of discourse
or to refer to “popular sayings.” But as Carmen de la Peza (2011) states, the
constructive and destructive power of discourse has an important role in the
construction of who we are and who others are.
According to this author, as well as other discourse analysts, words are also
actions. In their repetition, we “transform them,” we believe them to be
true; words build in our imaginations, guide our acts, and legitimize them.
In this sense, what good does it do for men to show disapproval of sexual
exploitation if when they refer to “prostitutes,” they still visualize them as
eligible objects, as part of a “service” that is offered in massage parlors and
strip joints?
In this sense, our focus of attention is on the dissociation between “men”
and the participants we interviewed, who are also men, because their
discourse is what makes them “men.” What would happen if we stopped
repeating that men are strong, sexually available, naturally violent, among
other things? We not only refer to the discourse that is verbally spoken, to
the narrations, but to all discursive mechanisms that legitimize and position
men in the framework of “masculine culture” (Guttman, 2008). Think of the
Mexican archetypes of the macho: in movie actors, in wrestlers, in politicians,
to name a few.
The supposed emotional instability that we mentioned in our first chapter
may be a result of this masculine culture, a result of the tension that
arises between being normal men, not thinking twice about their personal
decisions, and developing as generic bodies that can decide to do only
what makes sense to them, not everything that the hegemonic model
demands.
75
76
Power relations: the efficiency of
gender’s fictions
findings
T
his chapter presents some
aspects that can help us to
understand how oppression
and domination over bodies is
expressed through actions, or in the
images, of sexual consumption of
women. Gender, as we have noted
earlier, is a useful category to analyze
power relations between members
of society, specifically between men
and women (Scott, 1996). To talk
about gender is to consider power
relationships, and power cannot
be touched or looked at, neither
earned or lost, but it can be disputed
and exercised. It is created through
behaviors, attitudes, perceptions,
and interpretations.
Judith Butler (1995) accurately notes
that gender actors are enchanted by
their own fictions. With this phrase,
the author argues that gender is
acted, and that through this process
the gendered body come to exist.
Looking at the denaturalization of
axiomatic concepts and dogmas,
it is important to note, once again,
that one is not born a woman (or a
man), but one becomes a woman (or
a man), just as Simone de Beauvoir
affirms in the Second Sex.
This sheds light on one of the
closing remarks of the previous
chapter, that our participants show
dissociation between what they
believe “men” do and think and
what they themselves do and think.
Men have a hard time talking in the
first person; they will speak about
things while referring to “men,” not
meaning to create any confusion
or questions, but when this does
happen, they don’t know what to
say or what to do. It seems that
there are no parameters outside of
hegemonic masculinity; however,
we think that there are, and that we
can keep on encouraging them.
77
Let’s take a look at the participants’ own first experiences of sexual
consumption. These 20 participants’ first experience was with pornographic
heterosexual videos or magazines. In all cases, the participants’ first reaction
was of repulsion, disgust, fear, and confusion. They were all very young,
some even children, when other men showed them the pornographic
material. Only in three cases did the men watch porn with peers of their own
age. However, those friends who provided the material had obtained it from
other adult males.
A little bit nervous, worried about not knowing what to do or
feel. You’re young, so there are a lot of nerves, surprises…
I remember being surprised to feel shivers, without feeling
very involved. I fluctuated between surprise and fear. It’s
not so much like that anymore, you know what’s going
to happen so you’re not as anxious, there is a little bit of
excitement, but personally, I don’t like it very much because
it’s very artificial. (EL DOC, 34 years old, dental surgeon,
single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
They were grotesque magazines, with pictures of adult
women, but they were made in black and white, with
sexually explicit content in the language and the images.
And that was my first type of consumption, and then we
would lend it to each other every week, and then each one
of us got our own. (VICENTE, 25 years old, social worker,
married, lives with his wife. SLP, June 2012).

We are facing socialization among men through which they learn about
gender and sexuality, an aspect that Guttman (2008) links with “masculine
culture.” Sexual-erotic-emotional education in Mexico is very poor19. Young
men turn to pornography to “learn” about sex, their bodies, women’s
bodies, and sexuality in general (one that goes beyond penetration).
Sexuality implies relationships, eroticism, and a search for pleasure and selfknowledge, among other things. Sexuality also positions us in this world as
men or women; sexuality implies gender and vice-versa.
19 An essentialist Christian perspective that implies fears, prejudice, and stereotypes around gender, related to the body,
pleasure, and sexual diversity.
78
After magazines, some men searched for “prostitutes,” going to strip joints
or to the streets where women offer sex services:
I went to the strip joint when I was in high school, during
puberty, and you’re curious, you want to see the girls and
tell your buddies about it. I remember that we had a
going-away party, and you had to throw the party because
of cultural tradition. (KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO employee,
single, lives with his parents. SLP, June 2012).
The prostitute from Puebla was the first and only time
I got involved with a prostitute. It was nothing more than
fornication, and then I had a girlfriend, with whom, after
many months of going out, I became sexually active. The
difference was that one was my girlfriend and the other
was a fortuitous relationship with someone I didn’t know.
The quality of my relationship with my primary partner
was, obviously, much better. (TACHO, 64 years old, medic,
married, lives with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

For some men, sexual consumption of women’s bodies is a form of training
their sexuality for the partner relationships they will later establish and it is
also just a tradition among men. The problem with traditions is that they
normalize models of behavior. In other words, traditions “exist to be followed”
(KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO employee, single, lives with his parents. SLP, June
2012). However, traditions also exist to be questioned. We must make sense
of traditions, change them, or at least stop following them.
The double standard of “a pure woman to marry and a whore to vent to”
presents a certain ambiguity. Men make use of the sexual services offered
by sexually exploited women in contexts of prostitution to train themselves
to be the desired partners of “the woman they marry.” However, this turns
into a spiral when men look for a prostitute because they can’t find enough
satisfaction with their partners. The same sort of ambiguity was present
when we asked our participants why they watch porn:
Mostly because of the images, I feel aroused. But afterwards,
I think about all that and say, why do they do that? Life isn’t
like that. (KABALLERO PUNK, 20 years old, baker, single,
lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
79
As far as feeling anything, no. You’re aroused, you watch a
movie, I really don’t think anyone watches the whole porn
film. You just watch it, skip forward and that’s it. You watch
it for six-five minutes, then it gets really boring. (KIMBO, 25
years old, NGO employee, single, lives with his parents.
SLP, June 2012).

In theory, men in strip joints feel at ease, among friends, drinking, looking at
women’s bodies that they find beautiful. However, there are tensions when
they report their feelings.
On one hand, after analyzing their motives, focusing on their feelings –
which are sometimes hidden from themselves – the men find no sense in
going to these spaces. At first, they feel they want to be there, because
of tradition, but when they come out, they notice that they spent a
considerable amount of money, and their feeling of unhappiness is still the
same: “I still felt kind of bad, I got in a fight with my girlfriend, and I got out
of there and well, nothing changed. It got even worse, now that I think about
it, because I felt guilty for having been there” (KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO
employee, single, lives with his parents. SLP, June 2012). On the other
hand, it seems that the type of relationship they have with their partners
determines how they feel while inside bars; when they are in the beginning
of a relationship, they feel a certain guilt over seeing naked women. When
the relationship has lasted longer, or they’re married, they feel at ease,
without any guilt. It is important to highlight here one of the mandates of
hegemonic masculinity: marriage.
According to hegemonic masculinity, at a certain age, men must marry a
woman and have a family. Before that, they can experiment with various
women in order to find “the good one to marry”: “You experiment with
many women, then there comes a time when you have to find the good
one” (ARNULFO, 54 years old, mechanic, lives with his parents and wife, 3
children. SLP, June 2012). Is it then, after finishing their mission of having a
“family,” that men may continue experimenting?
Participants were at ease when they shared their opinions about women’s
sex work. However, when we insisted on knowing how they felt while with
prostitutes, we noticed a shift. The shift between “men” and themselves
comes up again:
80
Suddenly I feel bad, I don’t know why, not just about prostitutes who sell sex, but it can happen at a strip joint, visual
satisfaction because you see the erotic dance, but to see a
prostitute on a corner, well, she’s not dancing, she’s waiting
for someone to buy her services, and I think it’s deplorable
because you don’t know if she’s being forced or if she does
it because she wants to. If she does it because she wants
to, she’s free, but if she’s being forced, it’s something that
makes you feel… well, not bad, because you’re not provoking it… There’s a feeling, I don’t know how to explain
it. (ESTOMATÓLOGO, 33 years old, dental surgeon, civil
union, lives with his partner and his 13-year-old son. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Curiosity and then disenchantment. (TACHO, 64 years old,
medic, married, lives with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July
2012).

It’s interesting the repetitive form with which men speak about dissatisfaction
in sexual consumption. It’s as if patriarchy promises men that through
subordination and penetration of bodies, they will feel fulfilled, and once
this experience is finished, it will be fantastic. This seems to constitute a
promising line of research that could lead us to prevent sexual consumption
and exploitation. If this possibility could be confirmed, there would be two
ways to solve it. First, men should seek a new sexual relationship, marked
by sexual activity and thus fulfilling patriarchy’s promise. Second, men and
women need to build integral, respectful, and equal masculine sexualities.
Some men even felt that they wanted to “rescue” the sex workers:
I’ve never been with one, I’ve just gone past them, on
the bus or in the car… they give me the creeps, because
sometimes they’re very worn out, sometimes with a lot of
makeup, sometimes all dressed up, looking cute. So if it’s a
prostitute that you think is pretty, the first thing you do is look
at her, stare at her, but the first thing I feel for them is pity,
horrible, for my country, because it’s one of the countries
that generates these kind of things. And at the same time, I
wish I had enough power to rescue them, sort of, or to help
them. (COREBASCITO, 18 years old, tailor, single, lives with
his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
81
When the mother offers her daughter, it really makes me
sad, it makes me think about my daughters. Maybe 15 or
16 years old, she was really young, you could see it in
her face. The woman knew how her daughter was, she
knew she was attractive. She looked young, but she had
a developed body, and face. After that, I said aloud, “No
way!” It made me sad and angry for the girl, because I
can’t think of anyone so sad and so traumatized, scared.
(CHOCE, 26 years old, cab driver, married, lives with his
wife and 2 daughters. SLP, June 2012).

Doesn’t rescuing women from prostitution remind us of countless amounts
of novels and soap-operas, among other “tales that are told”? This is also
discourse, let’s see why and how.
J. Alberto Cabañas speaks to the masculinization of the camera in his
analysis of the image of the femme fatale in the golden era of Mexican
cinema. But these women are either a little bit fatal or a lot, depending on
the man that constructs them. Cabañas states that the social and historical
ideological processes of a certain time manifest themselves in cinema. This
is how the image of “woman” came to reveal the imminent masculine spirit
and ideology, both in form and content, which reveals how mechanisms of
control and social regulation over women may form through representation
and structure in movies (Cabañas, 2011: 26).
Through a series of films the author shows the construction and consumption
of “woman” through the image of “man.” Three images make up this notion.
The first shows the beating man, the pimp that haunts, and the client. The
second refers to the first image and shows a man of science and of trade,
powerful. In another line of analysis, the author presents the image of a man
who is used by femme fatales, the man a hero who wants to and can save
the women, and who ends up marrying them after saving them from their
disastrous lives. Here we have the intellectuals, the poets, and the bohemian
men. In sum, the author describes an erotic-narrative framework that evokes
a series of sensual and sexual fantasies around the bodies of women (Cabañas,
2011: 37), where men’s work is varied, from playing the role of violent machos
to that of heroes. What both roles share is that they build the image of
women. But what happens with them? Who builds men? It seems that men
build themselves – so what? Are our participants “men” or not?
82
Maybe there would be nobody to save if there were no danger; if there were
no violent men, there would be no need for manly heroes. Men are asked to
respect women’s human rights before even thinking of their own.
We were interested in the empathy that men feel for women in obvious
cases of sexual exploitation. It is important to develop this finding, as well
as to demonstrate that perceiving women’s bodies as objects of desire is
also a form of sexual exploitation. In other words, seeing women as objects
of desire is a way of objectifying them, which facilitates sexual exploitation
because they become interchangeable/buy-sell objects.
Although sexually exploited women in contexts of prostitution can reinforce
men’s supposedly sexually vigorous masculinity, thereby strengthening the
idea of sexual insatiability, the men interviewed expressed shame about
using these services:
I was looking all around so that no one I knew would see
me, not feeling guilty, but weird, weird, everyone knows
you’re talking to a prostitute, and everyone sees you’re
doing business with a prostitute. Yes, shame, a lot of shame.
(KIMBO, 25 years old, NGO employee, single, lives with
his parents. SLP, June 2012).

Ambivalence. All at once, the men feel shame, desire to rescue the women,
and guilt. When men were asked if anything that they did made them proud
again, the role of savior is brought into play20:
Since I like to fool around, sometimes in a private lap dance,
I tickle them, like when you bite their earlobe, or kiss their
neck, something like that, and since I know that kind of
stuff doesn’t happen to them at work, I try a little harder,
and when I provoke that feeling and they’re feeling a little
strange, I get a kick out of it, I laugh a little, and take pride
in myself. I feel good about myself, because I made a girl
whose work is pure sex feel something, a sensation. Treat
them nice, at least just for a while, some of them have a
hard time, I figure. (EL DOC, 34 years old, dental surgeon,
single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).
20 For Oscar Montiel, the image of “savior” really responds to interviewees desire to be percieved as presegious to the interviewer.
He considers that much of what is not said during the interview, responds to this (personal communication. October, 2012).
83
No, nothing, because I haven’t done anything worth feeling
proud of, so I haven’t been a man who helps. I would feel
proud maybe if I told a prostitute, “Hey, come,” and helped
her, and maybe she’d respond, “Hey, thank you, I made it
out because of you, I grew up because of you… not because
of you, but because you said this… this word was key.” That
would make me proud, but to see and not do anything,
well, that’s pretty ridiculous. (LIBERAL, 31 years old, cook,
divorced, 2 daughters. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

The role of savior is not far away from the mandates of hegemonic
masculinity, just as Cabañas (2011) reports. Let’s remember the foundational
premise of patriarchy: submission and protection. Regardless of culture’s
insistence on perceiving female bodies as objects of male desire, men show
empathy for these women; they want and can take responsibility for their
actions they (don’t) carry out:
Hanging out with my friends and seeing this kind of stuff,
and not being able to do anything to rescue society,
Mexico, the people, humanity, rescue them from these types
of provocations. (COREBACSITO, 18 years, high school,
tailor, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July, 2012).
Not guilt, not guilt, I don’t think there is anything that has
made me feel guilty. It just makes me think and question
myself about women’s lives, especially the ones that are
younger. That’s what has happened to me before, when I
think about those young girls who are already in sex work.
Sometimes when you’re all partied up, the big bullies, the
more adventurous guys will yell at them. One time, we were
in the car, and well, they insulted them. That’s what made
me feel uneasy, I felt kind of bad, yelling at them. (VICENTE,
25 years old, social worker, married, lives with his wife. SLP,
SLP, June 2012).
When do you go from bravery, from “Yeah, I’m gonna fuck
two, three girls, I’m a big man,” to feeling guilty, it’s better
if you enjoy the party, with your friends, with your girlfriend,
and that’s it? (LEONARDO, 25 years old, researcher, single,
lives with a friend, no children. SLP, June, 2012).
84
The case of the prostitute who danced for my friend, well,
I’ve always been a big defender of girls, maybe it’s macho,
but I think they are physically weak in comparison to men.
The fact that my friend treated her like that, it makes me
think, “You could’ve stopped him, don’t talk to her like that,
she’s a woman.” Now that I talk about it, it does make
me feel… because I laughed, what the fuck. (KIMBO, 25
years old, NGO employee, single, lives with his parents.
SLP, June 2012).

These extracts show that when the men are forced to reflect on their personal
motives in consuming sexual services, they turn to common references, to
what is said about “men.” The difficulty that participants had in specifically
identifying why they, and not “men,” consume sex is noteworthy. In
contrast, when concepts such as guilt and pride are brought up is when men
begin to recognize the nonsense in their acts of sexual consumption. For
example, when speaking about guilt, men refer to events such as when they
have watched child pornography because of curiosity or by accident (when
searching online and typing “school girls” and finding porn sites that star
girls).
Other aspects of womanhood, such as maternity, come up. What is
interesting is that when men were asked about the guilt they felt with
regards to sexual consumption, they answered:
Yeah, I had an extramarital affair that ended up in pregnancy,
which I myself had to interrupt; it took me many months to
emotionally recover. (TACHO, 64 years old, medic, lives
with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Yeah, getting back together with this person, we had planned
to get married, and she asked me to finish high school, then
I found out she was pregnant, and I felt really bad. I went to
Veracruz for work, when I got back, remorse, because her
husband hit her, finally he threw her out, like a dog, I don’t
know, maybe that’s why I gave the child my last name (RNG

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For the participants, the non-prostitute woman is connected to maternity.
Maternity is the most “feminine” of the roles or spheres, which leads to
the trap of thinking of women in general as “mother-wives” (Lagarde,
1997) whose roles cannot go beyond the private sphere. If they do, they
become public women: women of no one and everyone, bodies that can
be consumed and violated, because they don’t belong to anyone, or no
one protects them.
Men feel proud of their sexual vigor, something very close to hegemonic
mandates: “Yes, I am 64 years old and my dick has never failed me (laughs)”
(TACHO, 64 years, medic, married, lives with his wife, 2 children. Tlaxcala,
July, 2012) and they also are proud of the complicity among men: “I feel
proud of my friend’s bachelor party, I organized it, and to see my friend
enjoying his service, in a certain way so that the rest of the guys were having
fun, I felt proud” (ALEJANDRO, 23 years old, builder, single, lives with his
parents. SLP, June 2012).
When men were asked which types of sexual consumption they identified
with sexual exploitation, they indicated that for them, sexual exploitation
occurs when a third party makes a profit, when the profit is not for the sex
worker, and when the prostituted bodies are those of boys and girls. In the
case of pornographic films, they think of the participants as actors and
actresses, and they don’t believe there can be sexual exploitation in those
contexts.
When we indicated the possibility of differentiation between “prostitutes”
and victims of trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation, in San Luis the
men reported:
Yeah, I think that over there on the avenue there is trafficking
in prostitution, in the strip joints I don’t know, I haven’t seen.
No, from what I’ve seen, it’s more like that experience on
the avenue, with the girls and the pimp coming out all
dictator-like. I think with them, yes. With the girls at the
strip joint, I really don’t think so, it doesn’t look like it.

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At first, it seems that the presence of another man in a space where women
perform sex work can determine the existence of a trafficking network.
However, we have seen that in strip joints, the service is paid for through
a third party (a waiter, for example). It seems that participants believe that
the fact that the women work in a closed space, supposedly legal, makes the
possibility of trafficking impossible.
In Tlaxcala, participants shared more visible ways of identifying women as
victims of trafficking:
Yeah, I went to a strip joint over in Santana one time, it
was underground, and a lot of the girls had bruises, we just
walked in and walked out because we didn’t want to end up
like them. But it was pretty obvious that they were enslaved
girls. (EL DOC, 34 years old, dental surgeon, single, lives
with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Yeah, yeah, because of the way they talk, and the way
they look at you, the insecurity they have when they’re with
you. A woman who is a sex worker is used to dealing with
guys, drunk guys, fucked up guys, and she’s a very secure
women who is in control. A trafficked woman is an abused
woman, it’s very different, it’s violence, so it’s very different.
(LIBERAL, 31 years, cook, divorced, 2 daughters. Tlaxcala,
July 2012).

These fragments show how men use visible marks of physical violence on
women’s bodies and the women’s personalities as indicators of trafficking.
Trying to identify elements that might help discourage men’s demand for
paid sex with trafficked women, we considered the question: can clients
differentiate between “independent” sex workers and victims of human
trafficking? The answer is no. The bruises on the women’s bodies do
show physical violence, but what happens with psychological violence? A
trafficked woman doesn’t have to be beaten, but that does not mean her
life isn’t filled with cycles of violence, or that she’s not a victim of trafficking.
Men reported that women’s personality is another indicator, supposing that
an “independent” sex worker is sure of herself. How do they know if this
isn’t just a performance that the woman’s job requires? How can one know
if female victims of trafficking don’t simply keep this image in order to keep
their job?
87
Maybe establishing communication with the sex worker, something that
the participants denied doing or even trying to do, could be a stronger
and more accurate indicator. But even then, it would still be questionable.
Previous studies on the topic of masculinities and trafficking21 conclude that
the modus operandi of pimps in the southern region of the state of Tlaxcala
is constantly changing into more efficient ways of functioning. Montiel
(2010) differentiates between the “old school” and “new school” of pimps.
Pimps from the old school used physical force: kidnapping, beatings, etc.
In the new school, Montiel describes pimps who rely on the “hook” to coopt women. They seduce the girls and make them fall in love with them.
Afterwards, the ,girls report that they got into sex work by choice, because
they are in love with the pimp, and even when they know that he “has other
girls working”, they are his chosen one, “his woman,” and they view the
pimps as their partners, not as their exploiters.
Of course, there are cases where trafficking, or at least sexual exploitation,
is obviously taking place. We might consider the case in which a mother
“offers” up her daughter, or the one reported below:
I was doing electrical installation at a strip joint. A girl
came out and said, “They forced me to come, get me
out of here.” I got fucking scared. The pimp came after
her, I was really scared, I played dumb, and as soon as I
finished, I didn’t go back to the bar or even to work there.

In these cases, one can identify cases of obvious sexual exploitation, not
because of the sex worker, but because of the context that surrounds these
girls. Without intending to take away agency from these sex workers in
contexts of prostitution, without seeing them as passive victims who are
unable to break free from trafficking networks by their own means, what we
intend to clear up is that because of the new school of pimps, these female
victims of trafficking may not be aware that they are victims in the first place.
That being said, this text’s focus is on the men who buy sexual services, not
on the women sex workers themselves.
21 See Vargas and Fernández (2011) and Montiel (2010), among others.
88
This is a complex topic, and these conclusions are not novelties; they are
true. This is why we believe that it is necessary to continue exploring this
terrain. We don’t intend to find “solutions.” What we can do is find some
ways of discouraging sexual consumption, especially the consumption that
involves human trafficking.
These solutions cannot be carried out immediately. We encourage people
to be cognizant, something that will take time. Knowing that men who
consume sex don’t fully understand their own motives, or that they report
that their motives really refer to common ideas that lack content or are
based on social prejudice, is one way of persuading them. The fact that
participants carry out consumption of sex because of social pressure from
other men, as well as not identifying well with images of “masculinity” (what
we have referred to as “men” and not the participants themselves) is another
path of reflection.
The solutions may not be completely in our hands. Our enemies, the
powerful corruption and impunity in which people in this country and cultural
patriarchy are immersed, were not created in a day, nor in a year. But things
can always be done: we can focus on social consciousness, responsibility,
and commitment.
89
90
What else is left to do?
Proposals and final
considerations
I
n this chapter, we present some lines of reflection that may lead to the
creation of public policy proposals on the topic of sexual consumption, as
well as lines of action regarding a question that came up constantly with
our interviewees: “What can I do?” In other words, we are looking for actions
and decisions that can be carried out at a personal level.
Participants were asked what actions they believe are necessary to
discourage sexual consumption of sexually exploited women. Men showed
interest in the topic, as well as an urge for these women’s lives to change.
What one can read between lines, and the ups and downs, that the interview
provoked in the men shows that they want to take responsibility for their
actions. The problem is that the how is still unclear, because the gender
culture that we all live in creates tensions between our behaviors and our
feelings, between our positions and our actions.
One of the suggestions men made was to spread more information about
sexual exploitation, including incorporating the topic into sex education for
boys, girls, and youth.
It shouldn’t be taboo. I’ve noticed that in other developed
countries, it’s an open topic, sexual consumption is done
with responsibility, it’s more open, it’s something that people
talk about. And I think that the more it is made evident,
the more the topic is talked about, the more people are
informed, it’s easier to stop trafficking from happening. On
the contrary, the more it’s kept in the dark, in private, the
91
worse it will get. It could get a lot better, but it’s always
going to happen. That’s why I think educating people
is the only way. It’s a slow tool, because it takes a long
time, but it’s the main tool, educating people. Sensitizing
interpersonal relationships, I think, is also lacking in modern
society; empathy with others, spirituality, prevention of
health problems, especially sexually transmitted infections,
like pregnancy and psychological aspects. It could be just
knowing what your responsibilities and obligations as a
human being are, so that you can better treat yourself and
others, respect other people’s decisions, and throw away
idiosyncrasies that are rooted in culture and some customs,
like marrying underage girls. (EL DOC, 34 years old, dental
surgeon, single, lives with his parents. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

Broadcasting the topic. Prostitution exists in this society. Men in both
the state of Tlaxcala and the state of San Luis Potosí do carry out sexual
consumption; there exist women who offer and sell their bodies. Attention
should be focused on these truths, which is not a pretext to begin
implementing pimp-free zones. The men we interviewed do consume sex,
but are opposed to sexual exploitation.
Article 35. The person who is aware of a situation of
trafficking, or uses, buys, solicits, or rents services from a
person for any purpose that is stated to be a crime under
the present law will be punished with 2 to 40 years of prison
and a 1 to 25 thousand days’ fine.

It is fundamental to promote social consciousness that leads to men analyzing
why they need the services offered by these women in the first place:
I think that if you start shutting down places, others will open.
The solution is to develop a social consciousness. I’m sure
that had I not seen that video at such an early age, well,
surely I wouldn’t have continued watching it. And I think a
good start for boys and youth is to have families identify
how a social relationship is established, or how sexuality
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develops normally, so as to make prostitution slowly stop.
Because sexual consumption is the result of a lack of sexual
expression. (CASIMIRO, 28 years old, single, information
technology professional, lives with his parents and brothers,
no children. SLP, June 2012).

Using gender perspective and non-violent resolution of conflict to reeducate men22. Teach men what gender culture does not teach: men feel,
men love, men say what they think, men sometimes don’t know what to
do, men fear, men want to change aspects of themselves, men cry, men
can feel lonely, men don’t have an unstoppable violent instinct, men don’t
rape because they need to, men don’t need to have sex with every woman
available in order to become men… men are responsible for their actions.
Eroticize sexuality. Pornography’s objective is ejaculation and the supposed
orgasm, but sexuality can involve so much more:
In this case, I think, being more romantic would make
things able to develop without the passing of money. Have
emotional relationships with your friends, move to other
levels with certain people, maybe it’s healthier. It doesn’t
have to involve forcing people to change the things they
want to do in exchange for sexual benefits. (LEONARDO,
25 years old, researcher, single, lives with a friend, no
children. SLP, June 2012).

Promote anti-hegemonic gender culture23: women are not the object of
men’s desire:
22 See the CECEVIM Model (2009), which is a tool used to eradicate men’s gender violence and domestic violence, and
substitutes it for intimacy, the opposite of violence. This model has three theoretical elements: gender perspective, a conceptual
tool that tries to eliminate social differences based on sexualized bodies; it explains why men are violent, and how they can stop
being violent, in other words helping them to identify, recognize, and stop their violent attitudes. Another related theoretic aspect
is the ecological base, which includes the environment (analysis of the contexts and spaces) in which the person develops.
Within this ecological base, there is a psychological framework that explains how and why individuals change. The third element
is the spiritual approach, which promotes the idea that everything is connected, so anything that we do has consequences on our
environments (partner, family, community, society, etc.), so it is up to us to decide what type of thinking, behavior, and attitudes
we want to have (Ramírez, 2009).
23 This concept was announced by Raywen Connell during her keynote speech at the Iberoamerican Congress of Equity and
Masculinity held in Barcelona in October 2011, and it refers to those practices that reveal resistance toward the mandates of our
patriarchal gender culture. Practices that rupture the gender binary, sexual division of labor, deny privileges culturally given to men
in favor of gender equality between men and women may be considered part of anti-hegemonic gender culture.
93
Firstly, people who are in mass media should stop seeing
them like sex symbols, forbid that… I don’t know if forbidding
is right, but let the girl dress normally, it’s not necessary to
put her in a tiny dress, where you can pretty much see her
crack. The things they sell you should not be done through
old women, and we should regulate strip joints, question
women without hassling them, protect them if they’re in
trouble. The government should provide programs for them.

Avoid sexism in mass media because, as the participant states, a woman’s
body is not necessary to sell a product. Avoiding using women’s bodies as
analogous to the product being sold could help encourage the ideathat
women are not objects and should not be perceived as such. Men should
perceive women as equal, and perceive themselves as bodies that are in
charge of their own emotions and decisions.
Sensitize topics of gender perspective and offer alternative forms of
being men, based on the framework of anti-hegemonic gender culture.
The interviews with our 20 subjects used the same question to open and
to close. We did this with the intention of understanding if the men could
change to different positions from the ones that they had started with at
the beginning of their interviews. We did notice a change in their discourse,
a preliminary reflection and openness to sensitization. This indicates to us
that men, indeed, want to change. We can encourage this change through
gender sensitizing, which in turn presents the possibility of de-constructing
hegemonic masculinity by denying the privileges and services that gender
culture offers men.
Present men with ideas on how to deny benefits offered them by hegemonic
masculinity, showing them that they can still be a “man” without turning to
the violent, competitive, and irrational-sexual acts that they believe to be
part of masculinity.
Regulate spaces of female sex work. Our participants believe that attention
needs to be paid to how spaces of sexual consumption function:
Regulate all those places; it’s really not cool that there is
prostitution on the streets. I think that if the government is
94
going to allow prostitution that it needs to regulate it how
it should be, regarding sexual diseases and trafficking of
women. The police should investigate the people who the
prostitutes work for and make sure they’re there willingly.
(BETO, 32 years old, professional photographer, single,
lives with a friend. SLP, June, 2012).
Well, carry out inspections every month, have a database,
ask people if they’re there willingly, do medical exams, like
quality control. (ALEJANDRO, 23 years old, biulder, lives
with his parents. SLP, June 2012).

These are some lines of action that intend to lead to better development of
public policy with regards to sexual consumption. Although these actions
are not part of a structured plan or methodology oriented to dismantle
trafficking networks, (because that would need to involve both citizens and
the authorities), we think that these lines of action reflect things that can be
done to build more social consciousness and responsibility.
Broadcast where to go and what to do in case sexual exploitation or
human trafficking is detected. We found that men are willing to participate
in fighting these social problems. They also stated that they fear that judicial
authorities collude with trafficking networks. In this sense, it is important for
citizens to know where they can report a crime, which should also help them
learn to trust the authorities:
1o. Authorities should not be colluding with organized
gangs and trafficking networks.
2o. Laws should be reformed and made harsher so these
people aren’t motivated to keep going. (ESTOMATÓLOGO,
partner and his 13-year-old son. Tlaxcala, July 2012).
Kill those sons of bitches, the government knows who they
are, they know, they know what’s convenient and what’s
not, but in my town they say, “Dead dog ends the rabies.”
So they gotta kill them. (LIBERAL, 31 years, cook, divorced,
2 daughters. Tlaxcala, July 2012).

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Final considerations
We don’t intend these last lines to be conclusive; on the contrary, we would
like to understand them as a stimulus to encourage deeper investigation
into these topics, from these perspectives. We would like to consider some
aspects that are important for these purposes; we will state them punctually
and then generate initial intersections of ideas about masculinities. Sexual
consumption has lead us to men’s sexuality, but we still need to carry out
research within this area to try to understand how male sexualities encourage
sexual consumption and men’s supposed needs.
Using qualitative methodology, particularly individual in-depth interviews,
we worked with 20 over-age, self-identified heterosexual men from two
cities: Tlaxcala and San Luis Potosí. The results show similarities with regards
to opinions and perceptions of sexual consumption of adult women. Men
in Tlaxcala are more familiar with sexual exploitation of girls and women
in contexts of human trafficking, while in San Luis Potosí, men aren’t as
informed on these topics. However, cultural and social references shown in
the opinions of the men we interviewed don’t reflect important differences
between them.
In trying to accomplish our objective of identifying heterosexual men’s
motives in consuming sexual services from adult women, we distinguished
the types of sexual consumption carried out by participants. These are
various forms of pornography (printed and visual) that show heterosexual,
homosexual, lesbian, gay, animal, and child sexual practices. Men are usually
accepting of “heterosexual” and “lesbian” pornography; they show certain
tolerance to “gay” pornography and an open disgust towards animal and
child pornography. Men don’t connect heterosexual, lesbian, or gay porn to
sexual exploitation and human trafficking. They suppose that participants in
this kind of porn are paid actors and actresses.
Other types of sexual consumption were massage parlors, where participants
detected the possibility of sexual exploitation and trafficking of women.
This detection was based on participants’ noticing men who “watch over”
the workers, as well as the ways in which men pay for the services.
We perceived what we called “emotional instability” among men in spaces
such as strip joints and massage parlors, where they participate in what
Guttman calls “masculine culture,” a culture that promotes practices that
heighten the supposed manliness of men and the forms of socializing among
them. Men did not report turning to men or trans sex workers.
96
Men in both cities reported knowing about child exploitation, but had no
personal experience with it. In other words, none of the men had ever turned
to children for sexual services, and all of them reported no desire to do
so. This particular area requires further research, since the little literature
available currently shows that sexual consumption of child and adolescent
bodies is quite common. Cultural and ethical elements need to be analyzed
in order to understand how we may discourage men’s engaging in this type
of consumption.
Returning to strip joints and massage parlors, interviewees reported that
they did notice practices of sexual exploitation and networks of trafficking.
This hypothesis stems from our participants’ noticing men who both watch
over the women and handle their payments.
We also identified the different notions of “woman,” such as “woman to
marry” (or with whom to build non-sexual bonds), and the “woman whore,”
with whom men practice and train in the art of seduction and sexuality.
Masculine culture is of course present in these practices.
As was stated earlier, our interview was created in order to motivate men to
reflect on their own motivations for sexual consumption, and thus identify
clues to discourage sexual exploitation. We believe that the interview
achieved its purpose. Participant’s reflection is evident, with men even
reporting preoccupation, guilt, and a feeling of wanting to do something
about women’s condition and situation24. We detected that men want to and
can take more responsibility, at least for their own actions. We also noticed
that for some men, having real and adequate information on the situation
that victims go through can discourage their participation in this crime.
To achieve this, it’s important to go back to the main motives that lead men to
consume sexual services from women. There is noticeable emotional instability
among the men who turn to these services in search of something they think
they won’t get from their partners; we noticed as well the reproduction of
popular discourse that legitimizes the perception of women as object-bodies
for men’s desires, as well as a strong discourse that naturalizes men’s sexual
instincts as unstoppable, thereby pushing them to consume sexual services
from women. We witnessed a lack of attention to what men actually feel
and desire because of their attempts to fulfill gender’s mandates, and finally:
a strong dissociation between the images of “masculinity” that the men
reported and how they actually behaved as men themselves. This dissociation
24 For Oscar Montiel, this apparent reflection also responds to the patriarchal system (personal communication, October, 2012).
97
made men distance themselves from hegemonic mandates, but reproduce it
in their everyday practices and discourse.
Thus, masculinity and sexual consumption are intimately related to
hegemonic gender culture through men’s legitimization by their peers and
male socialization. “Consumption has nothing to do with personal pleasure…
but it’s a coercive social institution that determines behaviors even before
they have been thought of by the social actor’s conscience” (Baudrillard,
2009: 4 cited by Amuchástegui and Parrini, in press).
The nonsensical nature found when scrutinizing the motives of sexual
consumption makes it seem like it’s a consumption for oneself, consuming
to consume, endorsed by masculine “tradition,” “The object is, in a strict
sense, a mirror: the images that are reflected can only exist if they do not
contradict themselves, and it’s a perfect mirror, because it doesn’t reflect
the real images, but the desired images” (Baudrillard, 2009: 102 cited by
Amuchástegui and Parrini, in press).
Hegemonic masculinity shows the desire image of manliness, and masculine
culture teaches how to achieve that image. But this is where tension
builds: participants don’t see themselves fully in the mirror of hegemonic
masculinity, even though their practices lie within the framework of
masculine culture.
There is a dislocation from hegemonic masculinity, so is it possible to
build a anti-hegemonic masculine culture? If there are no parameters for
masculinity outside of hegemony, let’s leave that culture only in the antihegemonic space. If this is possible, our bet is on alternative masculinity,
without forgetting that the “positive” aspects of masculinity such as
protection and provision are patriarchal as well. If it were so simple, for men
it would just be an easy task of putting on and taking off masculinity. Men’s
social privileges, because they’re men, are already stated, so how does one
give up something that they did not earn, but were subject to because of
their gender (thanks to the privileges that place men above women)?
What should be done with the image of masculinity? For now, we don’t
think that the problem is in the form (exercises of masculinity), but in the
content (gender structure). Masculinity and femininity are inscribed in the
current gender culture, which responds to “heteronormative” parameters
(Wittig, 2006). Performed gender is implied under the heterosexual regime
described by Wittig because it leads to a categorical status of men and
women. If we perform gender adequately, we can maintain, reproduce, and
legitimize institutional conventionalisms based on sexual categorization.
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Wittig argues that since heterosexuality is a regime, we must think of
sexuality under the heteronormatized attributes that first identifies two
sexualized bodies, those of women and men, and always subordinates the
former. Wittig also suggests that under the heterosexual regime, sexuality
is the basis of social inequality, the builder of objects of desire and how to
obtain them, which has brought forward the idea that women’s bodies are
simply an extension of men’s bodies. Women’s bodies are then at men’s
disposal, are buyable, usable, sellable, exploitable.
It seems that the best way forward is standardizing anti-hegemonic
practices outside of the heteronormative framework. So, let’s bet. Let’s
sensitize, make visible, and reflect on what we gain when we lose. We don’t
suggest a non-heterosexual orientation, we don’t bet on changing people’s
sexual orientation. We are concerned only with practices that we want to
disentangle from the heterosexual regime, as it is a system that produces an
image of men as superior to women.
In this sense, we think that sexual education is an important tool that can
encourage a more integral, richer view of sex, in which pleasure does not
only depend on the genitals and the submission of the feminine body.
This conclusion pushes us to think of government’s responsibility in the
prevention of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. When governments
are recommended to involve themselves in the prevention of this crime from
a human rights perspective, the idea is for them to eradicate conditions that
make potential victims vulnerable and avoid conspiracy between authorities
and criminals. However, sexual education as a public policy is not commonly
considered as a form of prevention. But, testimonies and men’s experiences
show two constants in regards to their sexuality: their need for penetration
or masturbation as a way of genital liberation, and a simultaneous emotional
need that is often not fulfilled.
It’s important to reflect on the possible effects that a sexual education based
on erotic-emotional bonds (and not on submission and genitals) could have
on the reduction of demand for paid sex. If it is possible to prove a relationship
between education and sexual practices, the state’s responsibility to build
alternative masculinities to prevent human trafficking would once again be
obvious (Vargas & Fernández, 2011)25.
25 This suggestion is in line with proposals issued by the United Nations in order to eradicate gender violence: b) we emphasize
the need for an integral perspective to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls in all sectors, including
initiatives directed to avoid and fight against violence based on gender; to encourage and support men’s and boy’s efforts to
actively participate in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence, especially based on gender; and to increase their
consciousness about their responsibility to end violence’s cycle.
99
Another aspect that government must take responsibility for is how they
contribute to the normalization of patriarchal culture and hegemonic
masculinity. We refer to the fact that the spaces where women and girls are
sexually exploited are part of the everyday urban landscape; they are not
clandestine locations. All our participants knew where to find establishments
where sexual exploitation takes place. It’s also important to note that in
some places, it is easy to observe advertisement on the street for these
types of establishments. This contributes to a collective imagination that
the feminized body is merchandise that can be easily accessed. Even though
international organisms recommend the prevention and punishment of
public workers that get involved in any phase of human trafficking, it is
clear that the most visible, and thus most socially impactful, phase of the
trafficking chain is the phase in which sexual services are offered,, because
it creates the perception that these establishments are as “natural” as a
“convenience store.” This does not help create social consciousness, nor does
it help society understand that human trafficking is a crime; it perpetuates
the idea that women’s bodies are merchandise.
This argument not only justifies the symbolic power that these establishments have, but it also has practical consequences. This text, like others
(ACNUDH, 2006), points to the difficulty of differentiating between systems
of prostitution (supposedly determined by the person who practices it) and
systems of sexual exploitation that involve human trafficking. The fact that
people perceive both to be legal activities makes drawing this necessary
distinction even more difficult. Thus, it is important for governments to avoid
condoning establishments that carry out illegal activities. Governments
should at least punish crimes that are covered up by supposedly commercial
activities.
100
References
ACNUR (2008), Manual de la ACNUR para la
Protección de Mujeres y Niñas, Agencia de la
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[Consulta 6-mayo-2011]
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TOCebook-s.pdf [consulta 9-mayo-2011]
Annex
Informed consent
I have invited you to participate in a research project titled: Men that
buy bodies: analysis for the creation of public policies to prevent sexual
consumption related to trafficking of women, financed through grants by
INDESOL and UNFPA, and designed and operated by GENDES. A.C.
The objective of this project is to understand why over-age, heterosexual
men from the states of San Luis Potosí and Tlaxcala consume sexual
services, and design strategies accordingly to identify and fight trafficking
of women and girls in Mexico. This is why your participation is very
important. You will be asked to participate in an individual and voluntary
interview, which will be recorded so that I can save and analyze your
testimony.
The interview is confidential. Your identity will only be known by the person
who interviews you and there will be no record of it, so your name will not
be registered in any document, including all publications and reports that
result from this study. You will only be recognized by the use of a pseudonym
that you may choose yourself. The interview will last around 2 hours. If you
consider it, you are free to cancel your participation at any moment. You can
also choose not to answer particular questions.
There are no risks in your participation.You will receive a copy of this consent.
You may contact us with any questions you may have at:
105
Mauro Antonio Vargas Urías. Research coordinator.
mauro@gendes.org.mx
Melissa Fernández Chagoya. Principal Investigator.
melissa@gendes.org.mx
GENDES AC
Minatitlán 34, Col. Roma.
Delegación Cuauhtémoc. México DF
Phone: (0155) 5584 0601
www.gendes.org.mx
info@gendes.org.mx
106
Interview registration
Interview number:
Pseudonym:
Date:
Place:
Audio number:
Email or phone
Age
Schooling
Work
Marital status
Who does he live with?
Number and age of
children
Number and age of
siblings
Sons:
Daughters:
Brothers:
Sisters:
Parent’s type of union
Hobbies
Place of birth
Place of residence
Other
107
108
Operational
definitions
Identify
heterosexual
men’s motives in
consuming sexual
services from adult
women in San Luis
Potosí and Tlaxcala
in order to design
better government
and social
strategies that
will contribute to
the eradication of
demand for human
trafficking in
contexts of sexual
exploitation.
Types of sexual
consumption:
practices involving
receiving paid
sexual services
from adult women
Questions for rapport
General objective
Strip joints
Erotic massages
Pornography
Dimensions of
analysis
Who do you go with?
Have you ever been to a strip joint? Is it common for you to go? Why?
How much does each service cost? How do you pay? Who do you pay?
What happens in strip joints?
Tell me about your experience
Where was it and how much did it cost?
How frequently? Why?
Have you ever been to get an erotic massage?
What do you think about porn with animals?
What do you think about gay and lesbian porn?
What do you think about porn that star boys and girls?
Have you seen porn with boys and girls? With animals? Gay and lesbian porn?
Are there other types of porn? Which ones?
Can you describe the ones that you consider most relevant?
Costs of the types of consumption
How can you get them?
What types of pornography do you know are consumed?
What types of sexual consumptions do you know about?
How do you define sexual consumption?
Questions
Guide for semi-structured interviews for over age, heterosexual men.
This interview will be audio recorded for research purposes, and is anonymous. The interview may be used totally or partially.
This does not pose a risk of defamation for the informant.
Interview guide
109
Motives for sexual
consumption:
Reasons why
heterosexual men
turn to sexual
services from adult
women
Users’ profile
Prostitution
Strip joints
Erotic massages
Pornography
Others
Prostitution
What type of men go to prostitutes?
What type of men go to strip joints?
What type of men go to massage parlors?
What type of men buy and use porn?
What do you think about girl prostitutes? At what age do they stop being girls?
What do you think about adult women prostitutes?
Why have you gone (or your friend)?
Why do men go to prostitutes?
Why have you been to strip joints (or a friend)?
Why do men go to strip joints?
Why have you gone (or your friend)?
Why do men go to get erotic massages?
Why do you watch porn?
Why do men consume porn?
What other types of sexual consumption do you know of in your city? Tell me
about them.
Do you know about men’s prostitution in your city? Prostitution of boys and girls?
Can you tell me about your experience or a friend’s experience? (research the
modus operandi of prostitution)
Have you ever been with a prostitute?
Do you know how much they charge and for what services?
Where can you find prostitutes in your city?
What do you think about the strippers?
What did you talk about? Why?
Have you ever had a conversation with a stripper?
Is there a particular reason for you to go?
110
General objective
Power relations
between genders:
the ways in which
domination and
oppression are
expressed over
bodies in the
act of sexual
consumption of
adult women
Operational
definitions
Repeat ethical considerations. Thank you for your time, is there anything you would like to add?
Considering this conversation, what do you think about sexual consumption?
Do you think it should be regulated? Why?
Do you think prostitution should be banned? Why?
Do you think some types of porn should be banned? Which ones? Why?
If it were a crime to consume sex services, would you still do it? Why? Which ones?
What actions can you think of to fight against human trafficking?
Do you think there is trafficking in anything that you’ve talked to me about? Why?
Do you know what trafficking of women is? Can you differentiate between
women prostitutes and women who are trafficked?
Ideological position Do you think porn/erotic massages/prostitution/others is a form of sexual
exploitation?
and punishments
Do you talk to anyone about your experiences of sexual consumption? With
whom? Why that person?
What have you done that makes you feel guilt? How and why?
What have you done that makes you feel proud? How and why?
How do you feel when you with a prostitute?
How do you feel when you go to a strip joint?
How do you feel when you get an erotic massage?
When you watch porn, how do you feel?
Tell me about your first experience of sexual consumption. Was that experience
different from the ones you had afterwards? How was it different? How did you
feel about it?
Men or women? Why?
Who do you think consumes more sex?
Gender ideology
Experience and
subjectivity
Questions
Dimensions of
analysis
About GENDES
G
ENDES is a civil society organization which nurtures the development
of fair, equitable and non-violent relationships, promoting, together
with other social actors, processes of reflection, intervention,
research and advocacy supported by gender based perspective and human
development.
Legally constituted in 2008, but working since 2003, GENDES was founded
by a multidisciplinary group of professionals in the social sciences committed
to the analysis of male identities and the eradication of gender violence.
It offers different care strategies to develop other ways of being men
and women, alternatives to the hegemonic model, from approaches that
promote non-violence, affection, and equity and equality.

111
112
Directory
General Director and Founding Associate
Felipe Antonio Ramírez Hernández
Founding Associate
Ricardo Enrique Ayllón González
Methodology Coordinator and Founding Associate
Ana E. López Ricoy
Resource Management Coordinator
Institutional Development Coordinator
S. Patricia Carmona Hernández
Public Positioning Coordinator
René López Pérez
Systematization and Research Responsible
Iván Salazar Mendiola
Care Responsible
Researcher
Rubén Guzmán López
Arturo Ascención Sosa
CECEVIM GENDES Group Facilitators
Héctor Levario Rubalcava
Administrator
César Eugenio Reséndiz Saucedo
Logistics and Administrative Support
Jorge Pérez Orduña
CECEVIM GENDES Information System Attendant
113
114
“Este programa es público, ajeno a cualquier partido político. Queda prohibido el uso para fines
distintos al desarrollo social”
Men who buy bodies: approaches to the consumption associated with trafficking of women for purpose of sexual exploitation. Melissa Fernández, Mauro Vargas
GENDES
Men who buy bodies:
approaches to
the consumption
associated
with trafficking
of women
for purpose
of sexual
exploitation
GENDES

HOMBRES QUE COMPRAN CUERPOS GENDES

Transcription

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