Gay Prostitutes and Horny Sailors

Cape Town is probably the gay-friendliest city in Africa. Everyone loves pink in the Mother City. At the seamen's nightclubs, a few gay guys sometimes make themselves available for manly romance. These gays act quite differently than the female prostitutes at the club. They don't actively solicit clients. They tend to hang back and let the sailors come to them of their own accord. That way they know the guy is really interested. (Also, they do have legitimate jobs to attend to as well.)

Usually, if a sailor comes around, the two of them will just cosy up together and enjoy companionship at the club. They'll drink, talk, and lightly touch. But they won't advertise their affection through dancing or tongue-jabbing sessions. If they want more physical intimacy, they discreetly depart the club and go to the guy's place.

(There are also other gays who work at the seamen's clubs, but they're not available for sex. They just do their jobs and go home to their boyfriends. But none of them are flamboyantly gay, like the famous "moffie" figure in Cape Town. They don't dress up in wild costumes or perform in an exaggerated manner. This is because these aren't "gay clubs." They're basically straight clubs where the occasional sailor can switch-hit for the evening.)

This discretion suggests a couple of things: One, that while homosexual hook-ups are tolerated by the sailors ashore, they're not celebrated in the sailors' masculinist culture. So the guys don't make a big show of going off with another guy.

Also, many sailors who go with a gay fellow do not see themselves as gay, but rather straight men who enjoy dabbling in transgressional delights. In reality, many such men are probably socially constrained to act straight in their Asian communities where homosexuality may not be tolerated. So at home, around their wives and children, they would never dream of acting on their homosexual impulses. But in Cape Town, why not? They can cautiously explore their homosexual desires, spending time with a male prostitute without abandoning their sense of heterosexual identity.

On the ships—while at sea—homosexual relations are largely context-specific and highly inequitable. It's best described as "situational homosexuality" in which younger crewmen play the part of the "wife" for an older seaman. These relationships are often more about power and status than homosexual desire. Many of the older men are fully heterosexual in other environments, but since they still seek sexual satisfaction and they have structural authority, they are able to younger crewmen (some still teenagers) into playing a "female" role in their engagements. The senior partner gets sexual pleasure from the "passive" junior while the junior gets money, goods, and the possibility of promotion from the senior. This suggests that, like prostitution, the exchange of goods is central to these relationships. They're transactional relationships.

So while heterosexuality remains the norm for these highly masculinist crews, homosexual behavior is tolerated because it can be contained—like the situational homosexuality at sea—or dismissed, like the transgressional homosexual explorations ashore in foreign ports. But for the truly gay seamen, for whom homosexuality constitutes their personal identities, the chance to interact with gay Capetonians is pure pleasure.

The Barmaid's Tale

At dockside nightclubs in Cape Town and Durban, barmaids fetch drinks for foreign seamen and local prostitutes. But many are also available for romantic trysts. So what are they really?: waitresses or prostitutes?

Most dockside barmaids focus on serving drinks. That's their "real" job. They get a salary for it. Plus tips.

But they can earn better tips if they actually sit with the guys, chat with them, entertain them. So a couple of clubs allow the barmaids to do double-duty: serve drinks and hang out with the sailors. She keeps the boss happy by making sure the seamen keep buying liquor. And she makes herself happy knowing that she'll get a greater tip at the end of the evening for her personal attentions.

So, if a girl want lots of money, what are the pros and cons of being a barmaid?

Pros:
* they enjoy great mobility in the club, allowing them to meet lots of guys
* they avoid hostility from the prostitutes because they're just doing their job
* they deflect the stigma of being prostitutes because they have legitimate employment
* they can pass themselves off as "normal" women to men who don't want sex with a prostitute, but a "straight" lady
* and if they're shy, they can still meet lots of men because their job makes them move around the club a lot.

Cons:
* they can't abandon their bar work to go off with a client; they have to finish their shift (or pay a R200 exit fee)
* they can't wear alluring outfits, just the boring bar uniform
* they're not always sought after for sex because the sailors think they're just barmaids, not prostitutes
* they're not supposed to drink on duty, nor dance (unless the club is empty)

But Durban and Cape Town are different. An example: In Durban, a shy pro stopped soliciting so that she could become a barmaid. She didn't like dressing up every night or having to approach men. So she donned the barmaid’s uniform: jeans, takkies, t-shirt with club logo, and a skipper’s cap. This lowered her ability to attract attention, but it allowed her to constantly meet guys. With a server’s tray in hand, she could move about, getting lots of valuable face-time with the men. And the prostitutes wouldn't bother getting jealous because it was simply her job. Though she’d usually be busy serving liquor orders, she could hint to customers that she was free afterwards.

This is a fairly typical scenario in Durban. Many women move from prostitute to barmaid. They appreciate the steady, if small, income they can earn. And they like the fact that they can still get guys every once in awhile.

But in Cape Town, the women tend to go from barmaid to prostitute. They come to the clubs as young girls, become barmaids, then realize that they prefer the freedom that the pros have. They want to work their own hours. They want the cash bonanza that comes with a sexual contract. Being a barmaid ties them down too much. So, after some months as barmaids, they switch to being full-time pros.

Solicitation in Different Prostitution Sectors

Prostitutes spend more time soliciting than actually servicing clients. Solicitation has a major impact on the experiences women face in sex work. But each prostitution sector is structured differently. I will briefly compare solicitation features of the various sex sectors in South Africa so that we gain a more complex understanding of the industry.

My previous post on dockside solicitation strategies reveals some of the key features of that niche. I showed how solicitation is the primary work of dockside prostitutes, that it is socially complex, that it is done in nightclubs, and that it focuses on a unique clientele—transient foreign seamen. If we compare the dockside to other sex sectors, we see that each niche is quite unique.

LOCATION: Dockside solicitation contrasts to streetwalkers who stand on sidewalks, to truck-stop women who hang around transport corridors, to courtesans who advertise through the internet, to agency ladies who solicit through newspaper ads, to 'beer prostitutes' who sit in working-class taverns, and to brothel women who wait for clients in the brothel's lounge.

Space is complicit with solicitation. Streetwalkers congregate on sidewalks that are publicly known for solicitation: their status is unambiguous due to the context of their loitering. Brothel women also work in spaces that are known—at least in certain circles—for prostitution. But the fact that they work indoors helps protect them, and to a certain degree, their clients from public view. Dockside women work at seamen's nightclubs, a space that is both "straight" and known for prostitution. However, since locals stay away from dockside dives, the women and the men are assured of a certain modicum of discretion.

A general rule is: the more that a space is known for prostitution, the less socially intensive solicitation will be. For streetwalkers and brothel women, solicitation amounts to "showing up" in the right space. They might dress sexy or make provocative gestures from the curbs, but solicitation in these contexts is often little more than "being available" for clients who have already made up their mind to buy sex. At nightclubs or tourist bars, the men are not yet clients, but "potential clients," because they may be there for other pleasures—drinking, dancing, socializing—not prostitution. For women who work from these "open" establishments, they must use a variety of social skills to entice a man to become a client.

DISCRETION: The more discretion a prostitute employs for solicitation, the greater status she will enjoy as a sex worker. Hence, streetwalkers—who offer almost no discretion—rank lower in the sexual services hierarchy than agency ladies or courtesans who rarely advertise in a way that protects their identities and the clients'.

Each niche is characterized by a certain standard of discretion, revenue, legal exposure, vulnerability, and violence (for both the prostitutes and the client). According to this formula, the hierarchy of South African prostitutes might be (from lowest status to highest): streetwalkers - truck-stop women - beer prostitutes - brothel women - dockside sugar girls - massage parlor ladies - agency girls - courtesans.

This is not an exact list—and some women move between these sectors during their careers—but each sector provides increasing layers of discretion for the seller and the buyer. The ability to provide discretion is usually linked to the class and education background of the women, their dependence upon drugs, their sense of autonomy, and their level of financial desperation.

CLIENTELE: Each prostitution sector is determined by the needs and constraints of an occupationally similar male clientele. It is they, not the women, who ultimately determine the shape, structure, and logic of each sector.

Docksiders cater to foreign seamen; courtesans look for international businessmen and tourists; truck-stop women go with long-distance truckers; 'beer prostitutes' hang out with mineworkers; agency ladies treat local middle and upper class professionals; streetwalkers handle local guys; and brothel women cater to a mix of local and foreign middle-class types.

This helps us understand why solicitation—and vulnerability, exposure, likelihood of violence, and stigmatization—differs from sector to sector.