They come from every imaginable background. They are as young as 14 and as old as 93. Many have children, wives or girlfriends. Some are single. They are blue-collar workers, public figures and professionals, they represent every race, and estimates suggest they are in the millions. They are the johns — the men who buy women and children in prostitution. And for author Victor Malarek, they are the root of the problem he calls the “flesh trade.”
While studies often focus on why women get into prostitution, precious few have looked at the men who rent them. Malarek’s latest book, The Johns, Sex For Sale and the Men Who Buy It examines an often overlooked element in the prostitution equation — the male demand behind 10 million women and children enslaved in a $20 billion global industry.
With this book, you will not get a romanticized portrait of an easy job with a bad rap. Instead, you get trafficked women, bruised, bloodied and hung with a pair of panty hose — and Malarek puts the blame squarely on the men who buy them.
According to Malarek, prostitution follows the laws of supply and demand, and The Johns follows his 2003 book, The Natashas — The New Global Sex Trade. While The Natashas looks at women as supply, The Johns looks at the buyers.
Malarek is an award-winning journalist with more than three decades of news experience, He is a senior reporter for CTV’s W-FIVE and has also worked for The Globe and Mail and CBC TV’s the fifth estate. Malarek has a straight up style of writing. Clear and concise, he does not mince words or couch his arguments in overly politicized jargon.
Malarek cites numbers from United Nations estimating there are 10 million prostituted women and children worldwide — that’s nearly a third of the population of Canada. They service an average of four to six men daily, which translates to about 40 to 60 million visits.
Based on interviews with 16 johns and more than 5,000 posts on their online chat rooms and web forums, Malarek presents a “disturbing picture” of men who buy sex, from the “lonely guy” to the sadistic misogynist. But for all his digging, Malarek cannot come up with a standard profile.
“What is more of a surprise is that there really is no such thing as a typical john,” he writes — the only thing they have in common is their gender.
Malarek argues for the Swedish approach to prostitution, where buyers are criminalized and the women are treated like victims and offered help to get out. He slams the “Happy Hooker Lobby’s” call for decriminalization and legalization to make prostitution cleaner, kinder and safer. Instead, he cites research by U.S. psychologist Melissa Farley that found 68 per cent of 854 prostitutes surveyed met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, and that 89 per cent wanted out but felt they had no other survival options. Prostitution would not exist if it weren’t for demand, and Malarek seriously challenges how men contribute to the problem.
The Johns is recommended for anyone interested in the fiercely divided debate over prostitution. In fact, terms from his book have already cropped up in Vancouver discussions on prostitution in little more than a month after the book’s release.
Malarek is not fazed by the seemingly utopian scope of his arguments, and his attitude is far from defeatist: the bigger the problem, the more we need to tackle it. And picking up The Johns is a good place to start.–Jennifer Moreau
Jennifer Moreau is a community news reporter with a background in feminist anti-violence work. She lives in Vancouver. Follow her on Twitter @JenniferMoreau.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
