Over 90% of men and women identify themselves as heterosexual (92.6%). Men preferred not to answer more often than women, and more rarely declared themselves to be homosexual.
Similarly to the answers related to (actualised) sexuality, the answers related to sexual attraction show almost identical distribution, in case of both men and women. Women more often state that they are attracted to women than men state they are attracted to men, probably because male homosexuality is a bigger taboo than female homosexuality.
More than half of both men and women are satisfied or very satisfied with their sexual relations with their current partners. Women do not have a steady partner more often than men. Nearly one-fourth of 18-24-year-old men do not have a steady partner. Men with the highest level of education are most satisfied with their sexual relations.
Surveying the attitude towards the use of condoms shows that there is still a relatively high resistance in men. In the youngest generation surveyed, every fifth man agrees with the statement that he would feel offended if his partner asked him to use a condom. Negative attitudes are expressed least frequently by 25-30-year-old men. However, on the other hand, over 70% of men in all age groups would neither feel offended nor angry if their partner asked them to use a condom.
More educated men accept the use of condoms easier than less educated ones. Thus, four-fifths of men with the highest education would not feel offended if the partner asked them to use a condom, unlike three-fifths of men with the lowest education.
25.6% of women from the sample had an abortion. However, men report that their partners had an abortion in 16% of cases, which is less than reported by women. This is an indirect confirmation that not all men are informed about the conception of their partners. Particularly interesting is the fact that in the vast majority of cases male partners also participated in making a decision on undergoing an abortion, and in only one-third of cases woman made such a decision on their own. This information should be seen in the context of “witch hunting”, which is often used to blame women for abortion, for which they cannot be held solely responsible, either with respect to conception or, as can be seen, with respect to the decision itself.
The surveyed attitudes towards homosexuality show some interesting differences between women and men. For example, men far more often than women say that they feel uncomfortable in the company of homosexual men. Women more often than men agree that “homosexuality is natural and normal”. Men are also more often against the adoption of children by homosexuals, and against homosexual marriages. Women would more easily accept having a homosexual son than men. In the event that the child is transgender, 56.5% of men and 63.0% of women would seek professional help.
Almost every fifth man had sex with a sex worker[1] (18.7%). Less than 1% of men (0.8%) had sex with a man who provided sexual services. There is no connection between the use of sex workers’ services and the education of men.
Attitudes about sex work are very diverse. However, there are two dominant attitudes: “I think it’s morally wrong” and “I think it’s her own choice”. These attitudes, being dominant, reflect well the hybrid nature of the value system in which the population of Serbia lives. However, it is especially interesting that more than one-third of men consider it to be “their own choice”, which in fact legitimises the use of women and denies the deep patriarchal structure of power that forms the relations of buying and selling people and sex services.
Interestingly, the attitudes about male sex workers are very similar to those about female sex workers. However, this does not mean that the attitude towards sex work is “gender neutral”, but that from the viewpoint of “ordinary people”, including potential users, there is no significant difference between men and women who offer sexual services. Anyhow, as regards both men and women involved in sex work, the “market” itself is deeply influenced by the patriarchal and neoliberal capitalist matrix of power, which implies the expansion of sexual exploitation, commodification of both women and men, and their sexuality, as a kind of legitimisation of such trends. Women are also in line with their gender role, but also with their position in the patriarchal society in which they compete for the resources possessed much more by men, and they are more prone to giving moralising answers.
When it comes to the users of sexual services, most answers are a moral condemnation of such an act, but it is not the majority of all answers. A large number of both women and men answered “I don’t know”. Also, the third most frequent answers are those normalising sex work, i.e. stating that it is normal at least once in a lifetime or if men are unmarried. There is no clear connection between the age and the use of sexual services.
A separate group of questions was asked to find out whether women provided sexual services to men in exchange for goods and services. Thus, 4.6% of women provided sexual services in exchange for means of subsistence, and 4.1% of them in exchange for a raise or employment. Although these percentages are not high, it can be assumed that this phenomenon has been increasing due to a whole range of contributive factors (poverty, liberalisation of prostitution, strengthening of pornography, media promotion of transactional sex), and therefore requires a more thorough research.
[1] The original question contained the term “prostitute”, while the term “sex worker” was used in the interpretation. The question asked had to include a common term, that is, “prostitution”, in order to avoid misunderstandings with respondents. The author argues that the “normalisation” of prostitution, as a specific social relation, by being referred to as “sex work” continues to be subject to serious feminist criticism. It is also important to understand that gender equality policies cannot be implemented simply by changing the term, but by removing the deep structural causes that “normalise” the sale of human body, including “sex work”, that is, commercialisation and commodification of human body, while usually maintaining patriarchal hierarchies. In this text, the use of the term “prostitution” and “prostitute” is in no way intended to discriminate or negatively stereotype the women and men who sell their “services”. The author’s views do not coincide with the official UN position.