Methods

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Where did the quotes come from?

The 350+ sex buyer quotes on this blog were taken from 8 different German sex buyer forums, as well as Google Maps and Facebook. The forums include (all numbers observed: Nov 11th, 2018; except Lusthaus Forum (numbers from 2014) and Pattaya Forum (Jan 19th, 2019):

AO-Huren (Whores Without Boundaries) Forum with c. 70.300 users und c. 315.000 posts
Freiermagazin (Punter Magazine) with c. 42.700 users and c. 230.000 posts
Gentleman Navigator with an unknown number of users and posts about c. 2.300 German prostitution establishments
Ladies Forum with c. 47.000 users and c. 723.000 posts
Lusthaus (Lusthouse) Forum with c. 316.000.000 clicks and c. 2.140.000 posts
Pattaya Forum with c. 14.000 users and c. 1.400.000 posts
Römer (Roman) Forum with c. 14.000 users and c. 226.000 posts
Tabulos (No Taboos) Forum with c. 27.000 users and c. 500.000 posts

Sex Buyer Quotes Sources Graph: Based on all uploads made until Nov 8th, 2018.

Noticeably each forum at any given time is visited by a much larger number of guests than registered users:

guests freiermagazin Currently online: 380 (23 registered users and 357 guests). Screenshot from the Freiermagazin Forum: Accessed 19.01.2019. c. 21:00.

guests ladies Users (online): 48, Guests (online): 827. Screenshot from the Ladies Forum: Accessed 19.01.2019. c. 21:00.

guests tabulos 356 users are online. Registered users: 62, Guests: 294. Screenshot from the Tabulos Forum: Accessed 19.01.2019. c. 21:00.

guests Current Information: Users currently online | 1057 users are online – Registered users: 111, Guests: 946. Screenshot from the Pattaya Forum: Accessed 19.01.2019. c. 21:00.

At any given time, there are 5 to 18 times the number of guests than there are registered users online on German sex buyer forums – meaning users who do not participate through actively commenting and posting, but who read the content, make use of the information and are thus complicit in the narratives espoused and actions encouraged. Concretely there are tens of thousands of registered users and hundreds of thousands of readers participating with the goal of identifying prostituted women who e.g. display the desired amount of submissiveness.

By what criteria where the quotes selected?

The sex buyer quotes were consciously chosen to expose and raise awareness about misogynistic thinking and violent tendencies among sex buyers. When a neologism such as „three-hole-mare“ or „rip-off-cunt“ was discovered, the forums were checked for regularity of such terms (see overview) and upon significant accumulation more examples were screenshotted, but there was no definite system for adding such examples.

This collection of quotes does not claim to represent 100% of the sex buyer population, even though the views expressed in the selected citations are on the whole examplary for sex buyer forum content. Should sex buyers with misogynistic attitudes and violent tendencies represent „only“ 50% or even „only“ 20% of sex buyers, said group still poses a chronic risk to women in prostitution.

How representative are the selected quotes?

Three-quarters of the sex buyer quotes stem from forum content posted between 2015 and 2018. Firstly because current comments appear first during forum searches and secondly in order to adequately present the current situation (14-17 years post the passing of legalisation).

Sex Buyer Quotes Year Graph: Based on all uploads made until Nov 18th, 2018.

The quotes were also consciously chosen to be geographically representative, meaning quotes were specifically collected for all German states and largely correlate with population size.

Sex buyer quotes geography Graph: Based on all uploads made until Nov 18th, 2018.

The quotes were not consciously selected in accordance with the origin of the prostituted woman (except when occasionally selected to expose the proliferation of specific racist slurs). Statements made on the origin of prostituted women are not entirely reliable, as it is common place for prostituted women to state a false country of origin, in order to increase her market value (e.g. Eastern European women frequently pretend to originate from Southern Europe, as sex buyers pay higher prices for women from comparatively wealthier countries). Consequently, some sex buyers are only speculating about the woman’s place of origin. It is not possible to provide reliable data on the percentage of German women discussed in the sex buyer quotes, as the country of origin of presumably German women is frequently not specified.

The comparative data comes from a 2008 study conducted by the pro-prostitution organization TAMPEP („The European Network for the Promotion of Rights and Health among Migrant Sex Workers“), which unfortunately is almost 10 years old and thus may not adequately reflect the current situation. The terms „Central European“ refers specifically to (new) EU-member states with geographic proximity to Germany, such as Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

Sex Buyer Quotes Origin Woman Graph: Based on all uploads made until Nov 18th, 2018.

Because the research for this project started out on Google Maps, which mostly lists reviews of large brothels and less of escort agencies and apartment brothels – large-sized brothels are overrepresented among the selected sex buyer quotes. Quotes about publicly known brothels were also consciously selected in order to reach readers of the blog on a more personal level – meaning: Connecting the facades of publicly visible prostitution establishments with the quotes of men, who had entered them.

In relation to indoor and outdoor locations the percentage of quotes (93% indoor, 7% outdoor) is quite similar to the situation in Germany (87% indoor, 13% outdoor). The comparative data stems again from the 2010 TAMPEP study and is thusly not entirely up to date.

Sex Buyer Quotes Locations Graph: Stand 08.11.18

Where does the analysis stem from?

There is no such thing as an objective analysis of prostitution. This topic and especially the aspects concerning the sex buyer are chronically understudied and lack information and reliable statistics. A discussion is nonetheless overdue, as the attitudes and behavior of sex buyers affect the lived reality (and safety) of 200.000 to 400.000 prostituted women, men and trans persons.

This website is the attempt to bring content from lots of different sources together with the specific focus to critique and expose information relevant to human and especially women’s rights concerns in relation to the sex trade. This website is the attempt to illuminate the long-neglected aspect of sex buyers, their thinking and their actions – with specific consideration of violence enacted against prostituted women. Those readers who experience this blog as too one-sided are strongly encouraged to comment, challenge the analysis, start a debate or to conduct their own research into sex buyer forums.

What inspired this project?

This project was inspired by The Invisible Men project, which started collecting sex buyer quotes in 2013, first in Great Britain, followed by Canada, France, and Israel. This project inspired more sex buyer quote projects including for Italy, Australia/New Zealand, and the state of New York, USA. A similar project to this one, but on a smaller scale is the Blog Freiersblick. Die Unsichtbaren Männer was also specifically inspired by the political activism and keen analysis of the exited woman and survivor advocate Huschke Mau. This project has gone to inspire a similar one for Italy and Australia/New Zealand.