Here’s an example, safe for work and I hope not offensive to anyone online here:

Dolphin Video Box in Shibuya is now named Maple. They do provide service to gaijin [mongerers]. Went there today and had a [special service] with touching. They have an English menu. They tell you the girls do not speak English but my girl spoke very good English. Name was Miho.
You can get coupons off of your next visit.

Sex has been around for ages, of course, and always will be. But this Internet/internet has created a whole new ballgame, it seems. With an entire new vocabulary. Menu? Mongerers?

[[focussing]]

Here’s another use of the term I found in an Amazon.com book review online: “American sensationalist sex-mongerers don’t know the least thing about what Tantra really comprises, like that its many verses, throughout its shastras (especially the Hindu Agamas and Tantras) are triple-layered in meaning, and thus take what Tantric experts term a gross, subtle and ultimate meaning.”

What I don’t get about the term “sex-mongerer” or the shortened version of just “mongerer” is this: are they selling sex or buying sex? Because a war-mongerer makes war, a fish-monger sells fish, shouldn’t the women in this picture be called the sex mongers? Why are the men calling themselves “mongerers”?

Sex has been around for ages, of course

Almost forever (as far as we’re concerned), you might say.

As a person with a linguistics degree, I’m not so much interested in whether or not the term is “grammatically correct”…but I am interested in how it has developed and evolved.

Something interesting to note: when I saw the title of your post, I knew exactly what the term meant.

I don’t think I have seen it used anywhere before.

Somehow, the suffix/stem? “mongerer” seems to relate a meaning similar to “someone who is obsessed with something”…or at least it seems that way to me. The dictionary would indicate that this interpretation has not been around for very long. I’m wondering if there isn’t a similar-sounding word or word fragment that “mongerer” has subsumed in our lexicon.

When I studied phonology in college, I learned that certain sounds–not just whole stems or affixes–can carry meaning. So maybe there is something about the way “mongerer” sounds that implies the new meaning, even if that has nothing to do with the original etymology of the word.

Of course, it may be more simple than all of the above. Perhaps adding the suffix “-er” to the stem “monger” adds the meaning of “someone who patronizes a…”. So a prostitute would be a sex monger, and her client would be a sex mongerer. This would probably be an example of one of those instances where the main form is implied, because I’m not sure anyone would actually use the term “sex monger”. (Though I could be wrong!)

All of the above is pure conjecture and should not be taken as linguistic fact ;>

People create new words and phrases every day. The ones that have legs are the ones that are succinct and that people understand right away. It seems to me that “sex-mongerer” is one of those, for whatever reason.

Do others agree that the meaning is obvious, even if the etymology isn’t?

Heather, great post!

I wonder why these guys don’t refer to themselves as players (which seems to be positive word, if that’s how they want to think of themselves), rather than the more negative mongerers, which seems to connote pushing or selling something sinister or bad, like war or pimp-controlled gangster income.

You are right, the hooker could be rightfully called a sex-monger, like the fish monger, because she is selling spring, so to speak. Maybe spring-monger. But for the men who visit Rio or Paris or Tokyo and use the Net to find new places and menus for their evening sex prowlings, calling themselves mongerers still strikes me as positively strange.

I think you are right, the word has never been used in the mainstream press, where johns is prolly the operative word.

If you find any references to this new term of mongerers referring to customers of the sex trade worldwide, let us know here. I have googled and found nothing, except for many references from the WSG itself. Perhaps the word was coined by someone online there?

You’re right of course, Heather, I waay over-generalized this whole thing. XD

For me the word “mongerer” definitely has negative connotations, as I’m sure it does for most people. Could it be that the community that uses it to describe themselves know that they’re more-than-slightly depraved and therefore chose a more befitting version of pimp/playa for a label? It could be worse, if anybody follows 4-chan (the English incarnation of 2-chan) the word “mongler” is applied to one particular individual, but that’s too sick to get into here! (BTW - I only go there to collect funny animal pics, ahem..)

Maybe from their point of view they feel like they are sex mongerers because law enforcement doesn’t treat them as victims of female sex mongerers but as another party promoting a discreditable act. Also, since they are on the message board promoting the services to eachother they do somewhat fit the definition.

I think when it comes down to sex related terms, things like being grammaticaly correct, negative connotations and honesty have little importance among men. Maybe people are reading into this too deeply. It me be as simple as the word sounds cool and makes us feel strong.

All Unmarried Japanese Girls are Virgins

by Fukuyama Hiroaki, Japanese father

He writes:

With regard to recent postings about the sexual promiscuity of young
Japanese ladies, I find it quite shocking. It seems to be the second
part of an orchestrated racist campaign of Japan-bashing to tarnish
the reputation of Japanese girls. More at link [added later after forgetting to]

I should have posted the link, overoften. Here’s the link:

it’s some site run by Sam Sloan

It’s all very weird, because Sam Sloan’s site is very weird and this Mr Fukuyama is said to be the author of a book on Japanese sex terms, having learned his English in USA. A medical doctor, said to be. I wonder if this might not be all an Internet hoax of sorts… as I am now not so sure of the accuracy of the bylines on this link. But go look for yourself and see if you can verify this Internet weirdness. Maybe a true commentary, maybe made up and pen named by someone else?

I really struggled to get a fix on Mr Sloan’s site. Internet weirdness seems a plenty good enough description.
Going back to that letter, the fact that the writer has a perfect grasp of English and studied in the US, and yet nurtures a dangerous, all-encompassing hatred of America and Americans… seems unlikely to me. And why would someone with such puritan views be out on the street chatting with the hookers, and have written a explicit book of sexual terminology?
The existence of the doctor and the mentioned book? Well, maybe. But, just as Danny suggested, I think the letter’s just a collection of rants put together under one pseudonym.