Socialization Agents that Introduce, Encourage, or Pressure Women to Sell Sexual Services Online
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Patti Fritz
Proposal
What's better than being paid to be at home? The COVID-19 lockdown has restricted access to job opportunities for women. The research aims to identify the socialization agents responsible for introducing, encouraging, or coercing women to sell sexual services online. Although online forms of sex work are physically “saferâ€, customers who, empowered by their paying ability, are argued to behave in a coercive manner. The severity of this effect is attributed to self-boundary, which is the awareness of perimeters marking the distinction between one’s personality, memories, and feelings, in comparison to those that exist within other people. Life in cyberspace can easily disrupt factors that support self-boundary, such as the absence of the physical body and its 5 senses, and asynchronous communication. Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory is effective in explaining how various socialization agents interact with each other. Results suggest that the most influential socialization agents are friends, social media, and mass media. However, there is a deeper cultural influence that contributes to why women choose to reclaim their sexuality in this manner, that spans on the chronosystem. This will transform into a theme in the research once thematic data analysis has been completed.
Grand Challenges
Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities
Socialization Agents that Introduce, Encourage, or Pressure Women to Sell Sexual Services Online
What's better than being paid to be at home? The COVID-19 lockdown has restricted access to job opportunities for women. The research aims to identify the socialization agents responsible for introducing, encouraging, or coercing women to sell sexual services online. Although online forms of sex work are physically “saferâ€, customers who, empowered by their paying ability, are argued to behave in a coercive manner. The severity of this effect is attributed to self-boundary, which is the awareness of perimeters marking the distinction between one’s personality, memories, and feelings, in comparison to those that exist within other people. Life in cyberspace can easily disrupt factors that support self-boundary, such as the absence of the physical body and its 5 senses, and asynchronous communication. Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory is effective in explaining how various socialization agents interact with each other. Results suggest that the most influential socialization agents are friends, social media, and mass media. However, there is a deeper cultural influence that contributes to why women choose to reclaim their sexuality in this manner, that spans on the chronosystem. This will transform into a theme in the research once thematic data analysis has been completed.