It’s an interesting question that you pose, and I don’t entirely know if I have the answer. I think it probably has something to do with the historical imbalance of power where women selling sex were very vulnerable, although making it legal would solve a lot of that. I think it’s also more traditional communities that still stigmatize sex work the most.
More and more women are also paying for sex these days, and although that’s not entirely destigmatized either, it’s also not entirely in the shadows either. I’ve written quite a bit about our experiences with both male and female escorts. Showtime had a show called Gigolos that ran for 7 seasons about men in Las Vegas who work for a nationwide escort service for women called Cowboys4Angels. Although C4A makes it clear that clients are paying for time and there are no guarantees, there was sex taking place in every episode.
