Part VII
Chapter 40
 The Internet has provided a fertile deviant
opportunity structure
 Hacking: unauthorized intrusion into a
computer system or network
 Fraud & other deceptive practices are
common on the Internet; examples include:
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Stock manipulation
Misappropriation of credit card information
Investment swindles
Online auction fraud
Cyberstalking, harassing
Threatening electronic communications
Part 7: Ch. 40
Part 7: Ch. 40
 Analysis of website content over period of
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four years, plus 500 printed pages
Collected from homepages, message forums,
Yahoo groups, user profiles & blogs
Author stumbled on topic – “money mistress”
offering services looking for “money slaves”
Data collection strategy included snowball
sampling with use of Internet sites used for
information as opposed to individuals
Data analyzed for common themes,
characteristics & tendencies
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Part 7: Ch. 40
 Money slavery: involves males giving money
or gifts to women they meet online in
exchange for being degraded, humiliated or
blackmailed
 Described as “…ultimate depiction of
economic dehumanization”
 Some Internet sites where participants can
be found:
 The Real Money Slaves
 Money Slaves 101
 Cash Fetish
 Money Slaves Fellowship Forum
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 Request various forms of remuneration from
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men in order to obtain ongoing contact
Commonly require them to send “tributes”
electronically or by credit card or Pay Pal
Many have an “initiation fee” or
“introductory tribute” before men are made
money slaves
Some require that men pay off a bill each
month (rent, car, electric, phone, etc.)
Some might request men buy them items
from computerized “wish list”
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 Some men give exorbitant amounts of money to
women:
 One woman’s website shows copy of $50,000 wire
transfer
 Copies of $17,000 credit card receipts
 Little evidence that any physical meetings ever
occur between money slaves & money mistresses
 Blackmail services: man fills out online
application with name, address, telephone
number of girlfriend, wife or employer as well as
other discrediting information
 Money slave is required to pay mistress to avoid
having information revealed
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 Chastity belt program: money slave buys
device & sends mistress key. In turn, he is
required to pay a fee to have key returned to
him
 Other “services” include purchases of:
 Used panties ($75)
 Locks of her hair ($100)
 Worn socks ($45)
 Phone sex calls ($9.99 per minute)
 One money slave reported paying $330 for a
conversation
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 Sexual interests seem to motivate the money
slaves
 Psychological pain appears to be important
to many masochists.
 Pain encompasses:
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Feeling of helplessness
Subservience
Humiliation
Degradation
 Money slaves reported being sexually
aroused by making payments
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Part 7: Ch. 40
 Social control plays an important part in
phenomenon of money slavery
 These practices are ripe with opportunities
for fraud, deception & deceit
 Money mistress may not reciprocate for
money or gifts received
 Money masochists may be deceived by using
photos of other women
 Gender can also be disguised on the Internet
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 To protect their interests money slaves
formed the Money Slaves Fellowship Forum
& Find Fake Money Slaves to share
information on detecting & avoiding frauds
 Money masochists also engage in deceptive
practices by not paying for services such as
Web cam views or chat time
 Money mistresses create “losers” or “fakers”
lists exposing identities of nonpaying money
masochists
 Money masochists are also rewarded for
paying by being thanked on mistresses’
websites, etc.
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 Paying for sexual fantasy is not new, but
phenomenon of money slavery appears to be
novel manifestation of this type of deviance
predicated on existence of the Internet
 Primary contact between mistress & slave
takes place via Internet
 Money slavery entails presentation &
consumption of images
 Money mistress is a character who exists in
cyberspace
Part 7: Ch. 40
 How is money slavery similar – as well as
different from – traditional forms of (sexual)
deviance?
 What kinds of social control strategies do
money mistresses implement to keep money
masochists in line?
Part 7: Ch. 40
Part VII
Chapter 41
 A 1997 NIJ study estimated from 1/5 to 1/4 of
women are victims of completed or
attempted rape while in college
 From 1/2 to 3/4 of sexual assaults on college
campuses involve alcohol use on part of
victim, perpetrator, or both
 Alcohol and sex assault link suggests many
assaults are “party rapes”
Part 7: Ch. 41
 While college-universities have been aware
of problem of sexual assault for at least 20
years, rates of sexual assault have not
declined
 Why do colleges-universities remain
dangerous places for women?
 In what follows, sexual assault is seen as
predictable outcome of both gendered and
gender neutral processes operating at
individual, organizational and
interactional levels
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 Three main types of explanation:
 (1) Psychological or individual determinants:
 Sex assault seen as a consequence of perpetrator
or victim characteristics, like gender role
attitudes, personality, family background, or
sexual history
 (2) A “rape culture”:
 Sex assault seen as result of widespread belief in
rape myths or ideas about men, women, sexuality
that fosters a pro-rape environment
 (3) A social context approach that identifies
certain settings such as fraternities or bars as
sexually dangerous places and grounds such
assaults in organizations that provide resources
and opportunities
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Part 7: Ch. 41
 This study develops third approach by
linking it to recent scholarship in the
sociology of gender (Martin, 2004; Risman,
1998, 2004; Lorber, 1994)
 Argues that gender is embedded not only in
persons, but also in cultural rules, social
interaction, and organizational arrangements
 This integrated approach emphasizes
socialization produces gendered selves,
cultural rules reproduce gender inequality
in interaction, and organizational practices
reproduce gender inequality at institutional
level
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 Data are from group and individual
interviews, ethnographic observation, and
public information collected at a large
Midwestern research university
 Most data collected during 2004-05 academic
year in a residence hall known as a “party
dorm”
 Authors and research team assigned to a
room on a floor occupied by 55 women
students
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 Individual characteristics that generate
interest in college partying and gendered
sexual agendas resulting in high-stakes
competition over erotic status:
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 General agreement among students that one
was “supposed” to party in colleges, a way to
feel part of college life
 Females reported wanting to fit in, be
popular and have friends
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 Partying was primary way to meet men on
campus and some complained they lacked
friendly contact with men compared to
mined-gender friendship groups in high
school
 Meeting men at parties very important to
most women and they found men’s sexual
interest as parties to be a source of selfesteem and status
 Enjoying dancing and kissing men at parties,
proved that men “liked” them
Part 7: Ch. 41
 Women worked hard to attain physically
attractive presentation through exercise,
tanning, dieting, buying new clothes
 Women found that achieving high erotic
status in party scene required looking “hot”
but not “slutty” resulting if successful in
looking “classy”
 Men also sought proof of their erotic appeal;
 Men were more interested that they were in
having sex reflecting traditional doublestandard
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 Sexual danger is an unintended consequence
of many university practices intended to be
gender neutral
 The clustering of homogenous students
intensifies the dynamics of student peer
cultures and heightens motivations to party
Part 7: Ch. 41
 Residence halls rules push student partying
off-campus into bars, residences and
fraternities
 Male control of fraternities results in their
control of all aspects of parties at their
houses:
 Themes, music, transportation, admission,
access to alcohol and movement of guests
 Party themes encourage women to wear
scant, sexy, clothing and place women in
subordinate positions
Part 7: Ch. 41
 Peer culture and organizational
arrangements set up risky partying
conditions but do not explain how student
interactions at parties generate sexual
assault
 Party rape is the result of fun situations that
shift, gradually or suddenly, into coercive
situations
Part 7: Ch. 41
 College partying involves predictable
activities in a predictable order, and shared
assumptions about good or adequate
participation
 Fun partiers throws themselves into the
event, drink, display upbeat mood, and
evoke revelry in others;
 Partiers are expected to like and to trust party-
mates
 Cultural expectations of partying are gendered:
 Women, but not men, wear revealing outfits and
women cede control of turf, transportation, and
liquor, and are expected to be nice in ways men
Part 7: Ch. 41
are not
 As a result, women become vulnerable to
sexual assault, which too many men are
willing to exploit
 Significant number of narratives collected
from subjects of study in which sexual assault
or probable sexual assault occurred
 Many women appear uncertain and
unwilling to define many acts as assaults due
to effects of alcohol, and a desire to preserve
their status with peers as popular
Part 7: Ch. 41
 The frequency of women’s negative
experiences in the party scene poses a
problem for those students most invested in
it:
 Finding fault threatens their identities and
lifestyles
 The majority of heterosexual encounters at
parties are fun and consensual
 Females reported loving to flirt and be
admired
Part 7: Ch. 41
 Many male and female students account for
the harm to women in the party scene by
blaming victims their “mistakes”
 Avoiding criticism of party scene or men’s
behavior
 Hence only “immature,” “naïve,” or “stupid”
women get into trouble
 Even women who have been assaulted may
tend to blame themselves (drinking too much
alcohol) rather than the perpetrator
Part 7: Ch. 41
 Why is there still a tendency to blame the
victim of sexual assault and rape for
drinking too much as opposed to the
perpetrator?
Part 7: Ch. 41