The main premise of this paper is to establish that in order to allow a deeper feminist understanding of the power dynamics in the practice of prostitution, it is vital to understand how clients make sense of their interactions and relationships with sex workers. Based on 8 in-depth interviews and supplementary on-line discussions with another 21 middleclass sex buyers, we explore how mainstream sexual and gender norms contextualize and shape the clients’ “need” to pay for sex. This paper also documents the potential to create a form of progressive ethics in the sphere of buying sex that may engage sex buyers in the urgent fight against domination and discrimination so widely existent in the prostitution practice.