Sociology of
Gender Conference
Andrew Carvajal
Questions about theory?
 What you always wanted to know about gender and
feminist theory but were afraid to ask!
Applying the Theories
How can we explain this using the different
theoretical perspectives?
Sociobiology
Charles Darwin
Sociobiology
 Men have a biological predisposition to gain access to a
wide variety of women (promiscuity) / spend little
time with their sexual partners
 They are never certain of their paternity
 Don’t need to spend much time with their offspring
 Men seek sex workers when courting is unsuccessful
 Males will be highly attracted to women who look
young, as they are the most likely to be at their
reproductive peak
Structural
Functionalism
Talcott Parsons
Emile Durkheim
Structural Functionalism
 Sex work can play a functional role in Thailand’s
economy
 Sex work could be the result of the break down of the
stabilizing social unit of the family
 Or, sex workers can serve a functional role in society by
keeping men satisfied with their spousal
relationships?
Liberal Feminism
Betty Friedan
Liberal Feminism
 Unequal access to jobs and proper salaries force
women into alternative professions from which they
can derive an income
 The prevalence of sex work and the sexual abuse of
young children is due to the absence of a proper legal
framework that would prevent it

Or a proper State structure that would enforce it
Marxist Feminism
Marxist Feminism
 Economic inequality and unequal access to property
and the public sphere lead women into the few
alternative profession they can enter
 Since their work is undervalued/underpaid they need to
resort to desperate measures
 Women are dependent on men to make their living
 The family (usually the male head) exploits the
reproductive labour of women and girls in order to
subsist
 It is difficult for sex workers to organize and overthrow
the order of the sex trade
Radical Feminism
Catharine Mackinnon
Andrea Dworkin
Radical Feminism
 Prostitution as a male attempt to control women and
their bodies
 Sexuality as constructed by males and what satisfies
males’ needs and arousal
 Women as the object of sexuality
 Their bodies are used to achieve male arousal
 Inequality of reproduction makes men jealous of
women’s reproductive abilities  need to control
women
 Prostitution is deeply embedded in Thailand’s sexual
and societal culture
Socialist Feminism
 Sex work is the result of economic and
reproductive differences and inequalities between
men and women
 Women’s market value is dependent on their
reproductive/sexual appeal
 The productive and reproductive are intertwined
 Lack of alternative jobs make women dependent on
their reproductive bodies
 Other similar issues raised by Marxist/Radical
feminism since this theory combines both
bell hooks
Multicultural
Feminism
Audre Lorde
Multicultural Feminism
 Looks at the race factor of this phenomenon and how it
may too influence oppression
 Also class
 An expression of not just males wanting to dominate
women, but also whites wanting to dominate other races
 Transnational sex work as a result of sex, race and class
dominance
 Coloured and third world women as the ultimate sexual
object
 They are the most subordinated individuals in the social
order
 Their bodies can be manipulated and denigrated in any
way men want
 Not all women suffer oppression in the same ways
Post-modern Feminism
& Queer Theory
Judith Butler
 Postmodern feminism
 Sex work as a social construction based on a gender
binary of the privileged vs. the unprivileged

Man/woman; client/sex worker
 Sex work reinforces gender as do so other cultural and
individual tendencies of the day-to-day living
 Queer theory
 Heterosexual sex as a ground where men assert power
over women and impose their sexuality upon them
 Sex work as contained within the realm of compulsory
heterosexuality