The ‘addict sexual script’: Addiction discourse among Israeli sex industry consumers

Abstract

This article discusses the sexual script of Israeli sex industry consumers who self-identify as addicts. It argues that the ‘addict sexual script’ provides both an explanation for out of control sexual behaviour and a channel for expressing the individual client’s ‘right’ to be acknowledged for their suffering in the process of buying sex. Thus, the addict sexual script becomes a coping strategy that, while internalising sex consumption as socially deviant behaviour, also serves as a strategic practice for negotiating and challenging masculine hegemonic ideals. It concludes that the willingness to stigmatise and victimise themselves as disempowered individuals becomes a turning point, which, paradoxically, empowers sex consumers as actors in the framework of consumer capitalism.