Updated October 09, When it comes to paying for sex in Australia, there's a demographic of buyers that is growing: women. Women are seeing sex workers to learn about their bodies, deal with stress or trauma and experiment in an environment they consider safe. Jocelyn says the sex worker helped her to feel "much lighter" and "clear out that stress in a way that conventional mental health practice probably never would have or would have cost me a lot more time and money".
Which is not to discount that, when she's feeling "more up", Jocelyn also sees sex workers to "explore" or "have just outright pleasure, and just enjoy it". Over the six or seven years she's been employing the "skill and unique talents and qualities" of sex workers, Jocelyn says she's gained help in other areas of her life too. That, she believes, is something anyone should have access to — without stigma getting in their way. Gala Vanting, the president of the Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association, and a sex worker, says female clients in the sex industry are "definitely on the rise".
She offers several reasons for why that might be, including an increase in "economic mobility for women", sex worker rights activists' work towards breaking down stigma and the increased availability of sex workers who provide services to women. Ms Vanting believes many women are attracted to the idea that they can try things out in a private, formal setting. She says that's something that can be "tricky … in a current relationship, where there are perhaps some expectations around sexual roles and practices".
And while internet dating doesn't generally afford the possibility of doing "a background check" or to understand a person's "skills and experience", sex worker services are "a way to get over those barriers, to just enjoy the thing that you want to explore".
Hilary Caldwell, a visiting fellow from the University of New South Wales, is the lead author of the first major study into women buying sex in Australia. She agrees that, unlike dating, the regulated and formal sex work environment offers women a greater sense of safety. The women in Dr Caldwell's study were between the ages of 18 and 69 when they had bought sex. They used the services of both male and female sex workers. Like Jocelyn, they reported feeling more "empowered and more confident and happy" after buying sex.
