Doing trust work – the purchase of sex in a Swedish context

Abstract

The relationship between commercial sex and intimacy has been in focus in a number of studies on the purchase of sex, often distinguishing between one-time visitors and regular customers. This article is based on a study exploring how men who buy sex as one-time visitors navigate between commercialization and intimacy in a Swedish context. Based on interviews with 29 Swedish men purchasing sex, an inductive thematic analysis has been applied. The findings show how the men in this study balance between excitement and trust when purchasing sex, and how trust work is crucial for the purchase of sex not to be experienced as dangerous and instead pleasurable.