Prostitution and Fellatio

Journal of Sex Research,  May, 2001  by Martin A. Monto

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Questionnaires gathered from men arrested while trying to hire female prostitutes in three Western cities indicate that the desire for fellatio is an important reason clients seek female prostitutes. Respondents were more likely to select fellatio than any other practice when asked which sexual practices they (a) had ever experienced with a prostitute (81% in comparison to 55% for vaginal sex; N = 995), (b) usually experienced with a prostitute (51% in comparison to 12% for vaginal sex, the second most common practice; N = 926), and (c) experienced during their most recent sexual encounter with a prostitute (68% in comparison to 43% for vaginal sex; N = 424). Though a majority of respondents (65%)found the practice of fellatio very appealing, an even greater proportion expressed that opinion about vaginal intercourse (76%; N = 55). These findings, when analyzed in the context of other research on sexual practices, suggest that the desire for fellatio may be one reason some men seek prostitutes.

Like prostitution policy, research on prostitution has focused primarily on prostitutes rather than on their clients (Carmen & Moody, 1985). Some argue that the neglect of clients, virtually all of whom are male, reflects a double standard in which women are held responsible for male deviance (Davis, 1993). Others argue that the lack of attention to male clients is due to the assumption that seeking prostitutes is natural behavior in men, hardly worthy of explanation (Prasad, 1999). A more common explanation for the lack of research on male clients is that they are inaccessible. Clients usually seek to keep their activities hidden, and the justice system may assist them to spare embarrassment to them and their families (Faugier & Cranfield, 1995; Special Committee on Prostitution and Pornography, 1985).

Recently, efforts to curtail prostitution have begun to focus on clients. Since 1995, weekend educational programs for arrested clients have developed in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Portland, Oregon. These "johns schools" provide unprecedented access to this formerly hidden population. San Francisco's First Offenders Prostitution Program (FOPP), the largest and longest-running program of this kind, sees as many as 80 men per month (Monto, 2000). For a description of a similar but now defunct program in Portland, Oregon, see Monto (1998).

The little existing research on clients points to multiple explanations for seeking prostitutes. Indeed, Monto (2000), in a study of arrested clients, argued that most of the popular explanations as to why men seek out prostitutes are supported by existing data. Clients may seek sex with prostitutes because they are attracted to the illicit or risky nature of the encounter (Holzman & Pines, 1982; McKeganey & Bernard, 1996; Monto, 2000), because they want to have greater control over their sexual experiences (Monto, 2000), because they have difficulty becoming involved in conventional relationships (Jordan, 1997; Monto, 2000), because they want to avoid the responsibilities or emotional attachments of a conventional relationship (McKeganey & Bernard, 1996; Monto, 2000), or because they are interested in companionship, intimacy, or love (Holzman & Pines, 1982; Monto, 2000). Additionally, research supports the idea that one of the main reasons clients pursue encounters with prostitutes is that they are interested in sexual practices to which they do not have access, either because they have no regular partners or because their partners are unable or unwilling to accommodate their desires (Jordan 1997; McKeganey & Bernard, 1996; Monto, 2000; Sullivan and Simon, 1998).

If some men seek prostitutes because they desire sexual practices that are not regularly available to them in their conventional relationships, then what are these desired practices? Findings from the nationally representative National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) suggest a substantial discrepancy between men's and women's interest in fellatio. While 45% of men found receiving fellatio very appealing, only 17% of women found performing fellatio very appealing. In contrast, the proportion of men who found performing cunnilingus very appealing (34%) was slightly higher than the proportion of women who found receiving it very appealing (29%). While results showed that there were other practices, such as anal sex and group sex, that men found more appealing than women, fellatio was distinctive in that such a large proportion of men found it appealing and the discrepancy between men's and women's attitudes toward it was substantial (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994).

Despite the appeal of fellatio to men, only 28% reported that they experienced it during their most recent sexual encounter (Laumann et al., 1994). While this discrepancy in the appeal and experience of fellatio seems to suggest that a significant minority of men in the U.S. may not have their perceived sexual needs met in conventional relationships, one cannot assume that men who find fellatio very appealing necessarily desire it during the majority of their sexual encounters. Additionally, even if some men experience less fellatio than they would prefer, most do not respond to the deficit by seeking prostitutes. In fact, only a small proportion of men completing the NHSLS reported ever having visited a prostitute (16%), and less than 1% reported having visited a prostitute during the previous year (Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, & Kolata, 1994).