When most people think of sex workers, female prostitutes come to mind. There is evidence, however — explored in Male Sex Work and Society (Harrington Park Press, 2014) — that the World’s Oldest Profession may have had practitioners of both sexes all along.
It’s widely accepted that ancient Greek and Roman men took younger males as lovers, and acted somewhat as mentors. That was appropriate behavior — encouraged, even — as long as the older man didn’t “exploit” his younger friend. Slaves and former slaves, however, were a different matter: they “were forced to engage in survival sex,” usually for an insultingly low price.
That was the case in 1607, when the Jamestown colonists tried to tough out their first winter: documents mention exchanging favors for stolen biscuits. Meanwhile, British male sex workers enjoyed tolerance … as long as they represented themselves as their true biological gender. Transgender people were arrested for cross-dressing.
By the late 1800s, those attitudes changed, too. Both Europe and the U.S. saw biological males working as female prostitutes, many in all-male brothels; some specialized in women as clients and others worked the streets. It’s believed that the preponderance of male sex workers by the 1960s were gay, although gay writers in those Stonewall years sometimes made issue of the sexual identification of clientele. Were customers of gay sex workers straight or gay themselves?
The answer today, according to male escorts, is that a “significant percentage” of male customers are straight and “many” are married. Furthermore, modern male sex workers utilize paid advertising, which makes it easy for clients to consciously choose partners based on specific preferences. And now, as it was centuries ago, male sex workers most commonly said in a survey that they choose to sell sex for economic reasons.
Male Sex Work and Society isn’t bad, just way more academic than I expected — more than a curl-up-by-the-fireplace read should be. The essays feel like doctoral dissertations. There’s a place for such erudite work, but it’s probably not by the easy chair.
— Terri Schlichenmeyer
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 17, 2014.