The price of sexual services in nightclubs and massage parlors of San José, Costa Rica: biological and anthropological interpretations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22458/urj.v3i2.152Keywords:
Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, “prostitution”, women in economy, Central America.Abstract
Humans and other primates exchange sex for resources. In the case of humans, this exchange includes sexual work. There are few previous studies on sex work in San José, Costa Rica that include data on how much is paid for sexual services. We studied the price of female sex work, and how the profits are distributed among all parties, in nightclubs and massage parlors, by obtaining data from interviews with workers and owners, and from telephone calls, from 1994 through 2010. Prices ranged from US$6 for a lap dance to US$300 for intercourse and when inflation is taken into account, they have not increased much in the last ten years. The prices per hour can reach 125 times the minimal wage per hour of work in the country. In comparison with independent sex work done in the streets, parlor and club women benefit from the associated infrastructure, access to clients, and safety, and they receive 40-50 % of the fee paid by men for their direct services (dances, sexual activity), so there is no indication of exploitation on either side. Nightclubs have around 30% of profit after expenses are deduced. Sexual services are relatively expensive but men pay them because they are biologically and socially oriented towards wanting these services.
References
Alcock, J. 2009. Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA.
Buss, D.M. 1994. The evolution of desire. Basic Books, New York, USA.
Buss, D.M. 2007. The Evolution of Human Mating. Acta Psychologica Sinica 39: 502-512.
Cedeño, M. 1994. Prostitución femenina y Derechos Humanos en Costa Rica. Tesis de Licenciatura en Derecho, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Cruz, A. & L. Queralt. 2000. Subjetividad femenina. Un análisis de género con cinco mujeres jóvenes dedicadas al modelaje. Tesis de Licenciatura en Psicología, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Greiling, H. & D.M. Buss. 2000. Women’s Sexual Strategies: The hidden dimension of extra pair mating. Personality and Individual Differences 28: 929-963.
Herrera, M. 2000. Detrás del telón… Entre lo imaginario y lo real: estudio cualitativo sobre mujeres en prostitución. Tesis de Licenciatura en Trabajo Social, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Monge-Nájera, J., R. Rojas Campos, R. Morales Bonilla & I. Ramírez. 2009. Trabajo sexual femenino en la ciudad de San José, Costa Rica: un enfoque sociobiológico al iniciarse el siglo XXI. Cuadernos de Investigación UNED 1: 27-31.
Murphy, E. 1998. Historia de los grandes burdeles del mundo. Plaza, Madrid.
Ortiz, M. 1994. Un análisis psicosocial realizado con 7 clientes y 32 prostitutas del sector central de San José. Tesis de Licenciatura en Psicología, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Ortiz, M., A. Zamora, A. Rodríguez, L. Chacón & A.L. Gutiérrez. 1998. Soy una mujer de ambiente: Las mujeres en prostitución y la prevención del VIH/Sida. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Rojas, A. & M. Scott. 1994. Relatos de vida y representación del dinero en cinco mujeres prostitutas del sector Central de San José. Tesis de Licenciatura en Psicología, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Ramírez Sánchez, I., J. Monge-Nájera, R. Rojas Campos & R.
Morales Bonilla. 2009. La escolaridad en trabajadoras sexuales de la ciudad de San José, Costa Rica, al iniciarse el siglo XXI. Cuadernos de Investigación UNED 1: 33-42.
Reskin, B.F. & M.L. Maroto. 2011. What trends? Whose choices? Gender and Society 25: 81-87.
Rivers-Moore, M. 2010. But the kids are okay: motherhood, consumption and sex work in neo-liberal Latin America. The British Journal of Sociology 61: 716–736.
Rojas Campos, R., J. Monge-Nájera, I. Ramírez Sánchez & R. Morales Bonilla. 2009. El mercado del trabajo sexual femenino en la ciudad de San José, Costa Rica. Cuadernos de Investigación UNED 1: 13-25.
Schmitt, D.P. & D.M. Buss. 2001. Human mate poaching: Tactics and temptations for infiltrating existing relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80: 894-917.
Smith, R.L. 1984. Human sperm competition, p. 601-659. In R.L. Smith. Sperm competition and the evolution of mating systems. Academic, New York, USA.
Zamora, A., E. Quirós & M. Fernández. 1996. Voy paso a paso: empoderamiento de las mujeres, negociación sexual y condón femenino. Ministerio de Salud, Organización Mundial de la Salud and Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Note: This abstract contains an incorrect copyright due to technical issues. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
All journal contents are freely available through a CC BY 4.0 license.
CC BY 4.0 is a Creative Commons: you can copy, modify, distribute, and perform, even for commercial reasons, without asking permission, if you give appropriate credit.
Contents can be reproduced if the source and copyright are acknowledged according to the Open Access license CC BY 4.0. Self-storage in preprint servers and repositories is allowed for all versions. We encourage authors to publish raw data and data logs in public repositories and to include the links with all drafts so that reviewers and readers can consult them at any time.
The journal is financed by public funds via Universidad Estatal a Distancia and editorial independence and ethical compliance are guaranteed by the Board of Editors, UNED. We do not publish paid ads or receive funds from companies.