Geliat Prostitusi Jakarta: Dari Kencan Online Hingga Seks Offline

Abstract

Prostitution is a complex phenomenon, a manifestation of the dialectical tension between traditionality and modernity. The dynamics of prostitution revolve around three specific spheres: the family sphere, the social sphere, and the virtual sphere. These three spheres interact intensely with the problems of urban life, such as family socioeconomic pressure, deviant behavior, family disharmony, lifestyle demands, and the influence of social media. The power relations between the three spheres shape the resigned life orientation of city residents, including the acceptance of prostitution as a source of family livelihood. Online prostitution becomes social capital to gain capital for urbanites. This qualitative study with descriptive-interpretive analysis based on a phenomenological approach concludes: social media allows offline and online prostitution to become alternative economic coffers that are compatible with the rational, instrumental, capital-intensive, transitive, mechanical, pragmatic, consumptive, competitive, and segregative orientations of urban life; also profitable because prostitution is easy to do, does not require special skills, and can fulfill the life needs of the actors.