Cover Osteuropa 6/2006

In Osteuropa 6/2006

Imaginary Worlds, Private Worlds
Prostitution and Relations between the Sexes

Christiane Howe


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

Most of society associates prostitution with the unknown, the secretive, the uninhibited and the forbidden. This other world either exalts prostitution or reviles it. Such images reflect social constructions of masculinity or femininity and the sexuality associated with them. Today, male sexuality in particular is burdened by expectations that are impossible to meet. For many men, one solution is to seek escape among prostitutes. Here, they can live out their fantasies and the repressed side of an ambivalent sexuality.

(Osteuropa 6/2006, pp. 67–86)