Online Escort Services and Their

Online Escort Services and Their Impact on the Women Who Operate Them and the Men Who Patronize Them

Today, there are an increasing number of sexually oriented Web sites that cater to an infinite variety of clientele; one such enterprise that is also increasing in popularity - to the tune of billions of dollars - are Web sites that feature female escort services for men. While these escort services are ostensibly intended to provide males with companionship and conversation, and such legitimate services certainly exist, the reality is that most of these escort services provide sexual services in varying degrees to their clientele, depending only on how much money is involved. On their face, such services would appear to represent a victimless crime, the other harsher reality involved in this scenario, though, involves the profoundly adverse effects such patronage can have on the male clientele and their female escorts alike. In order to better understand the issues involved, this paper provides an examination of sexually oriented businesses in general, and online escort services in particular to determine their potential effect on the women who promote themselves and the men who patronize them. The primary focus of the study will be www.sfredbook.com, a San Francisco Bay Area escort, strip club review, and massage Web site. The issues to be considered include what components of the site serve to attract men in the first place, what types of activities and features tend to maintain interest and the techniques used to promote the site; in addition, a profile of typical users will be developed and a summary of the research and salient findings will be presented in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview.

Today, American consumers no longer have to visit so-called "dirty" bookstores or sleazy movie theaters to receive satisfaction. As a concomitant to the introduction of various new technologies such as videotapes, pay-per-view TV, and the Internet, the personal privacy and comfort of consumers are virtually assured. In this environment, it is not surprising to find more and more sexually oriented services being targeted at a variety of niche clientele. This point is made by Larue, who notes that, "Thus, it would seem that conditions are ripe for a huge increase in the [pornography] industry's extension into U.S. homes -- especially with Americans being some of the biggest spenders in the world on personal luxuries and Fortune 500 businesses, lured by hefty profits, entering the field" (2001, p. 44).

Furthermore, online sexually oriented sites are also becoming increasingly common - and profitable. According to Larue, "Porn earnings are estimated at $10 billion to $14 billion a year in the United States (the lower figure is according to Fortune magazine) and $56 billion worldwide. Forbes magazine broke down the global profits as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 below:

Table 1. Global Profits from Sexually Oriented Services as of 2000.

Adult videos

20 billion

Sex clubs billion

Magazines

7.5 billion

Phone sex

4.5 billion

Escort services

11 billion

Cable, satellite, and pay-per-view TV

2.5 billion

CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs

1.5 billion

Internet (sales and memberships)

1.5 billion

Novelties billion

1.5 billion

Source: Based on data in Larue, 2001, p. 44.

Figure 1. Global Profits from Sexually Oriented Services as of 2000.

Source: Based on data in Larue, 2001, p. 44.

One such site that features a wide range of sexually oriented services, as well as some "off-topic" links and various forums that cater to males who patronize area escort services in San Francisco Red Book, discussed further below.

Brief Description of WWW.SFREDBOOK.COM.

On San Francisco "My Red Book" at www.sfredbook.com, there is a members-only page where users pay a monthly subscription fee to post their reviews of escorts they have "encountered," as well as any strip clubs and massage parlors they have patronized; obviously, this site is primarily targeted to the adult male population. For example, there is a message board replete with information for men in the Northern California section; however, female escorts promote themselves in the adult personals section and classifieds as well. In addition, there is a so-called "PinkBook section" where only women can post messages. A copy of the site's main page is provided at Appendix A for ease of reference.

According to the Red Book's frequently asked questions page, they are "The Premier Guide to Escort, Massage, and Strip Club services in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA. We offer two private Review Sections (Normal and VIP), a public Message Board and a Chat Room" (2005, p. 3). Male visitors can also gain access to the escort reviews by submitting one in advance and having it approved by the Red Book staff. Notwithstanding these sexually oriented services, the San Francisco Red Book also provides links to relevant medical advice and forums where both male and female visitors can post their questions. A sample question from the forum at http://forum.myredbook.com/dcforum2/health/1153.html, for example, concerns timely issues such as, "Breast milk and STD transmission." Clearly, sexually oriented Web sites represent a real opportunity for responsible enterprises to help disseminate educational materials on relevant medical issues that may affect their clientele, particularly sensitive (and sometimes esoteric) issues such as those under consideration in these forums. These issues are discussed further below.

Positive Role Played by Sexually Oriented Online Services.

The findings of a study by Benotsch, Cage, and Kalichman (2002) indicate that the online sexually oriented services may represent a productive avenue for primary prevention interventions that can be targeted towards individuals at increased risk for HIV; some typical interventions might include Web-based skills training, motivational enhancement, outreach, education, and peer-based safer sex messages. There are already an enormous number of health-related Web sites that are replete with questionnaires concerning various health-related behaviors; therefore, the current primary prevention interventions in cyberspace can also apply such educational approaches, for example, by posting safer-sex guidelines in chat rooms such as those featured in San Francisco Red Book.

This point is also made by Giuseppe, Tiziana and Anolli who maintain that "In general, the Internet's most attractive factor is the opportunity of having a large worldwide pool of subjects always at one's fingertips: the Web offers both a large population range for conducting an experiment, but also the chance to reach a particular sample with specific features" (p. 74). It is this aspect of online sexually oriented services that has also resulted in some interesting changes in how men and women perceive such activities, and these issues are discussed further below.

Gender Differences in Perceptions of Online Sexual Activities.

In the not-too-distant past, women who frequented sexually oriented businesses would likely be viewed as promiscuous at best, and prostitutes at worst; however, times are changing and the Internet has leveled the playing field for females who may be interested in these services. For example, in their essay, "Demarginalizing the Sexual Self Sexual," Green, Mckenna, and Smith (2001) report that the explosive growth in sexually oriented Web sites has had some unexpected implications for American females by making these services more accessible to anyone. According to these authors:

Expression, exploration, and other forms of sexual activity are thriving on the Internet. There are countless websites offering everything from sexual advice and message boards to erotic pictures, movie clips, live video feeds, and interactive forums such as chatrooms, tele-, and video-conferencing. There are thousands of electronic newsgroups and listservs that cater to every sexual interest imaginable -- and even some of those that are not. At any given time of the day or night, one can find more than 8,000 chat rooms devoted to cybersex or the discussion of sexual topics in operation on Internet Relay Chat. (p. 302).

As a result, the Internet has resulted in increased access to sexually related material for both men and women today; however, despite this increased access, the vast majority of adult bookshops and video stores are still mostly situated in urban centers in the United States, frequently in the less desirable parts of a city, and these brick-and-mortar outlets only offer a limited range of materials. According to Green and her colleagues, "Little erotic material has traditionally been made available that caters to women, and women have had little opportunity to discover its existence. Now, however, erotic material of all kinds is freely available to anyone with access to the Internet" (p. 303). Individuals of both sexes can now review, purchase and even create their own personalized erotica without ever leaving the privacy of their own homes. These online users are now able to actively interact with other people who share their specific sexual interests without the need for the other person being physically present. Not surprisingly, therefore, both men and women are taking an increasing active part in such online sexually oriented activities. The results of a recent poll conducted by MSNBC (June 9, 2000) cited by Green et al. involved 9,000 online participants; the results of this study found that fully 59% of the female participants in the survey were regular visitors to cybersex sites (Green et al., 2001). Based on the proliferation of the Internet and the near-ubiquity of personal computers in many affluent homes, these rates can reasonably be expected to have increased even further in subsequent years.

In fact, it would appear that the more people of both sexes are using the Internet for these purposes, the more ways they are finding to do so. In this regard, Green and her associates point out that, "The fact that one can access sexually related materials and interact with others anonymously on the Internet has opened the doors even wider. Using anonymous screen names, individuals can explore and express their sexual interests with little fear that friends, coworkers, or even spouses will discover their activities" (2001, p. 303). Furthermore, the individuals who participate in these encounters can do so with other anonymous individuals without the risks typically associated with face-to-face relationships; if an anonymous online relationship turns sour, it is a simple matter to discontinue it.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly for this analysis as it applies to online encounters, gender identification in computer-mediated forums can be difficult - if not impossible -- because the individual's physical appearance is not in evidence unless he or she so desires by exchanging pictures or using video cameras). Today, Internet users "can literally change his or her gender (known as gender-bending), personality, or physical description at will. The Internet is a ripe environment for the experimentation and exploration of one's identities" (Green et al., p. 303).

Implications for Policymakers, Healthcare Practitioners and Sexually Oriented Enterprises.

While there are some clear gender differences in how online sexually oriented services are viewed, as well as some important community standards that come into play in this analysis. Because these sexually oriented services are projecting an increasingly prominent presence in both online and offline settings based in large part on the profitability of such enterprises, identifying how such activities tend to affect those who participate becomes an important consideration for policymakers and clinicians alike. For example, in their chapter, "Nudity and Sexual Appeals: Understanding the Arousal Process and Advertising Response," LaTour and Henthorne (2003) report that, "There is substantial need for addressing the issue of sex in advertising with insightful research and constructive debate. Furthermore, research and constructive debate must transcend both the realms of academic and applied practice so as to promote a mutually healthy interchange on this sensitive, highly consequential topic for all concerned" (p. 93).

According to Hill (2005), "Communities of learning reproduce what is judged as valuable and, by exclusion, teach what is not valuable -- in other words, what is taboo -- in the context of the group. In the latter case, silence is not neutral, but functions as part of disciplinary behavior. Communities establish, support, sustain, and challenge norms; they also foster negotiations around the socialization of members" (p. 76). In her study, "Pushing the Wrong Buttons: Men's and Women's Attitudes toward Online and Offline Infidelity," Whitty (2003) reports that:

The general consensus has been that men and women hold different viewpoints on offline monogamous relationships.... Satisfaction within a marriage is also often marked by these gender differences, with men more likely to report sexual problems and women more likely to indicate problems with affection as the cause of discord within the marriage. Noticeably, men are more likely to at least own up to having some type of extradyadic sexual experience compared to women. [Studies] found that men admitted more than women did to fantasizing about having sexual intercourse and giving and receiving oral sex with someone other than their partner. Moreover, men in the study were more likely to state that they had 'hit on' someone else. (Whitty, p. 570).

With more and more people turning to online sources for their education, entertainment, shopping and other activities that traditionally involved face-to-face encounters, the impact of "surfing the net" on males who do so compulsively can be severe. In this regard, Larue (2001) reports that, "Cybersex compulsive is a term coined in a recent study to define at least 200,000 American adults who visit sex sites at least 11 hours per week. According to researchers Cooper, Delmonico, and Burg, writing last year in the journal Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, 'This is a hidden public health hazard exploding in part because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously'" (emphasis added) (Larue, 2001, p. 44).