Male Sex Work and Society (37 page)
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Authors: Unknown
Tags: #Psychology/Human Sexuality, #Social Science/Gay Studies, #SOC012000, #PSY016000
Forms of Male Sex Work and Regulation
Phoenix (2009) identifies four main ideological perspectives that guide law and policymaking regarding sex work. These include prohibition and abolition, harm minimization/reduction, rights-based action, and regulatory perspectives. Prohibitionism and abolitionism seek to eliminate sex work, with the former based on arguments about the immorality of sex work and the latter viewing sex work as violence against women. The concept of harm minimization/reduction originated with the discourse of drug regulation and identifies the “social problem” of sex work as a public health issue, removing moral judgments and adopting measures designed not necessarily to abolish sex work but to reduce the harm associated with it. The third approach governments may take is to address issues of sex work from a human rights angle. Finally, regulationism is more a pragmatic than an ideological approach, which simply seeks to manage the “social fact” of sex work (p. 14). These broad perspectives shape the strategies, techniques, and legal frameworks developed and deployed to deal with sex work, which include criminalization, complete and partial decriminalization, and legalization of the sex work industry. These frameworks may apply at the same time to various aspects of sex work and sex workers. They also are liable to shift over time and are subject to social and political forces. Alongside criminal law are a range of health-related laws, local government planning laws, licensing laws, advertising laws, etc., which determine, and are determined by, how sex work is carried out.
In exploring the forms that male sex work may take and how they may be regulated, it is important to recognize the diverse and fluid forms of sex work, as well as the varied experiences of those who enter and practice sex work (Whowell & Gaffney, 2009). It is wrong to flatten out all male sex work experience and assume that male workers are never vulnerable, do not fall victim to abuse, and do not need support (Sanders, 2005). As with female workers, these men work for varied reasons and may only work in a certain space or shift between different spaces to satisfy particular economic needs. Contemporary research into male sex work suggests that most male sex workers work independently (Dorais, 2005, p. 22) or through an escort agency rather than in brothels or on the street (Minichiello et al., 2002, p. 42), and they generally are not controlled by other individuals (e.g., pimps) (Whowell & Gaffney, 2009, p. 101). Male sex workers may seek clients in public places, through escort agencies and private advertisements, and in bars or other venues such as strip clubs, saunas, bookshops, or brothels. Increasingly, they find clients by advertising online or through online discussion forums for gay men (Ashford, 2009, p. 266). The following examines some of the forms and spaces of male sex work and applicable regulations.
Outdoor Male Sex Work
Certain public places, such as parks, public toilets, etc., become known as spaces where men “cruise” and meet for casual, anonymous sex.
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Such places are known as “beats” (Australia), “cottages” (UK), and “tearooms” (U.S.), or less colloquially as public sex environments. Men who frequent such places may identify as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. While sex workers may deliberately seek out clients in public sex environments, much of the sex work in these environments occurs coincidentally (Prestage, 1994). A man may accept an offer of money for sexual contact, even though he would have been willing to engage in the sexual act without payment; thus the division between unpaid and paid sex may be less clear in such spaces. As Prestage notes, “This very casual form of prostitution is not easily described as ‘work’” (p. 184). Thus, sex work in such spaces is likely to be opportunistic rather than a source of regular income.
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Such places are known as “beats” (Australia), “cottages” (UK), and “tearooms” (U.S.), or less colloquially as public sex environments. Men who frequent such places may identify as homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. While sex workers may deliberately seek out clients in public sex environments, much of the sex work in these environments occurs coincidentally (Prestage, 1994). A man may accept an offer of money for sexual contact, even though he would have been willing to engage in the sexual act without payment; thus the division between unpaid and paid sex may be less clear in such spaces. As Prestage notes, “This very casual form of prostitution is not easily described as ‘work’” (p. 184). Thus, sex work in such spaces is likely to be opportunistic rather than a source of regular income.
FIGURE 7.1
This wall is well known in the Darlinghurst neighborhood of Sydney, Australia. Built by convicts and consisting of 100 meters of sandstone, it is located in an area known to be a queer pick-up strip.
While prohibitions against soliciting clients or “kerb crawling” (seeking a sex worker) in a public place may be applicable to such behaviors, it is more likely that cruising for clients and sexual acts in public sex environments are regulated under general laws prohibiting indecent acts in public places.
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The Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW), for instance, prohibits offensive conduct in or near a public place or a school, which includes conduct that has the capacity to “wound the feelings, arouse anger, resentment, disgust or outrage in the mind of the reasonable person” (Grivelis v. Horsnell, 1974). The same act also prohibits a person from willfully and obscenely exposing his or her person in a public space or near a school. As Johnson (2012) notes, both offenses require police to make moral judgments, and where such judgments take place, homosexual acts have always been more likely to be viewed as offensive or obscene “because such standards of reasonableness and respectability have often been conceived in diametric opposition to homosexuality” (pp. 25-26). It is also well documented that throughout history, police have entrapped, and in some jurisdictions continue to entrap, men seeking sex with other men in public lavatories (Ashford, 2006, pp. 283-284; Power, 1983). Where no overt solicitation or sexual activity is taking place but men are simply cruising or lingering in a public place, police may use “move on” orders to regulate behavior. For instance, under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW), police may issue a “move on direction” where the officer “believes on reasonable grounds that the person’s behaviour or presence in the place” amounts to harassment or intimidation or is likely to make a person fearful.
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The Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW), for instance, prohibits offensive conduct in or near a public place or a school, which includes conduct that has the capacity to “wound the feelings, arouse anger, resentment, disgust or outrage in the mind of the reasonable person” (Grivelis v. Horsnell, 1974). The same act also prohibits a person from willfully and obscenely exposing his or her person in a public space or near a school. As Johnson (2012) notes, both offenses require police to make moral judgments, and where such judgments take place, homosexual acts have always been more likely to be viewed as offensive or obscene “because such standards of reasonableness and respectability have often been conceived in diametric opposition to homosexuality” (pp. 25-26). It is also well documented that throughout history, police have entrapped, and in some jurisdictions continue to entrap, men seeking sex with other men in public lavatories (Ashford, 2006, pp. 283-284; Power, 1983). Where no overt solicitation or sexual activity is taking place but men are simply cruising or lingering in a public place, police may use “move on” orders to regulate behavior. For instance, under the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW), police may issue a “move on direction” where the officer “believes on reasonable grounds that the person’s behaviour or presence in the place” amounts to harassment or intimidation or is likely to make a person fearful.
In contrast to the more casual encounters in beats, other locations, often adjoining gay commercial areas, become well known for the male sex worker trade, such as the “wall” on Sydney’s Darlinghurst Street (see
figure 7.1
). Most jurisdictions make it an offense for a person to seek a client for sexual services in a public place. For instance, the Street Offences Act 1957 (UK)
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and the Prostitution Act 2000 (WA) prohibit a person from seeking a client for sexual services in a public place. More recently, some jurisdictions have also moved to criminalize clients seeking out a sex worker. For example, the Sexual Offences Act 2009 (UK) and the Prostitution Act 2000 (WA) prohibit a person from soliciting another for sexual services in a public place. This approach contrasts with the approach taken in New South Wales, where the criminalization of street-based sex work is more limited, and seeking clients or sex workers in a public place is only an offense when certain conditions are not adhered to. For example, the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) makes it an offense for a person to solicit another person for the purposes of prostitution on a road or road-related area near or within view of a dwelling, school, church, or hospital.
figure 7.1
). Most jurisdictions make it an offense for a person to seek a client for sexual services in a public place. For instance, the Street Offences Act 1957 (UK)
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and the Prostitution Act 2000 (WA) prohibit a person from seeking a client for sexual services in a public place. More recently, some jurisdictions have also moved to criminalize clients seeking out a sex worker. For example, the Sexual Offences Act 2009 (UK) and the Prostitution Act 2000 (WA) prohibit a person from soliciting another for sexual services in a public place. This approach contrasts with the approach taken in New South Wales, where the criminalization of street-based sex work is more limited, and seeking clients or sex workers in a public place is only an offense when certain conditions are not adhered to. For example, the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW) makes it an offense for a person to solicit another person for the purposes of prostitution on a road or road-related area near or within view of a dwelling, school, church, or hospital.
The effect of the historical criminalization and stigmatization of male homosexual practices has been that men seeking sex with other men have adopted practices that make them less likely to catch the attention of police and local residents (see Dorais, 2005, p. 23). Dorais (2005) notes that workers seek potential clients through body language and clothes: “‘It’s all in the body, the attitude, the posture, especially the look in your eye,’ said one youth” (p. 28). Whowell’s (2010) study of male sex work in Manchester found similarly that MSWs self-regulate to be less visible, which is in part a function of location and in part a result of behavior and dress. Workers tend to blend into gay commercial areas or gay public sex environments, which provides cover for their activities (Whowell & Gaffney, 2009, p. 108). Moreover, given that seeking a client/worker is more likely to occur while cruising on foot than in a car, “the subtlety of the intent to engage in commercial activity is masked by the fluidity and vibrancy of the urban spectacle” (Whowell, 2010, p. 135) of people moving between gay bars and venues. The fact that much male sex work takes place within a subculture that is already less accessible and visible to mainstream society means that it poses less of a challenge to mainstream notions of morality. Thus the imperative to address the visible aspects of sex work that have long driven regulation of female sex work is less pressing.
Indoor Male Sex Work
Much sex work does not take place outdoors but in a range of venues where men may socialize (e.g., bars) or meet for sex with men (e.g., saunas and sex shops), in private spaces organized through escort agencies, through personal ads, or increasingly via the Internet. Male sex work provided to a female client generally occurs indoors and is organized through an escort agency or with an independent escort. While there are brothels with only male workers, those that usually have only female workers may call in a privately operating male sex worker when a client specifically requests such service.
Sex work that occurs in bars and clubs is likely to be on a casual, opportunistic basis (Prestage, 1994, p. 188) because of liquor licensing laws that give licensees (or their staff) powers and obligations to ensure that customers practice acceptable behavior on licensed premises, and the licensees may be required to deny admission or forcibly evict undesirable patrons. Many Australian jurisdictions also allow a police officer, commissioner, or court to ban or exclude a person from a licensed premises if the authorized person decides, on reasonable grounds, that the person has behaved in an indecent manner or committed an offense under any written law (see, e.g., Liquor Control Act 1988, WA). Some liquor licensing provisions are far more specific, such as in Western Australia, where it is an offense for a licensee to permit “any reputed … prostitute” to remain on licensed premises. These laws could be used to regulate male sex work in licensed venues; however, the fluidity of sexual encounters in bars and other licensed venues makes it difficult to discern (and thus regulate) when sex is being solicited, as opposed to a social encounter taking place. Furthermore, licensing laws are unlikely to be enforced in relation to male sex work because of the self-regulation practiced by such venues and by male workers. As Dorais (2005) comments, “In bars the dictates of discretion apparently keep solicitation by sex workers under wraps … Everyone’s interest is in protecting illicit business by keeping it out of sight” (p. 23).
Regulations for brothels are not framed in gendered terms and thus apply equally to premises providing male and female sexual services. Criminalization, decriminalization, and regulation approaches to sex work in brothels all can be found throughout Australia. In the 1990s, a number of Australian states and territories introduced licensing systems for various aspects of the sex work industry, as did New Zealand in 2003 (see Crofts & Summerfield, 2007).
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The remaining jurisdictions continue to grapple with whether and how to introduce such licensing.
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The remaining jurisdictions continue to grapple with whether and how to introduce such licensing.
Internet
In recent years, the Internet has emerged as the avenue of choice for many independent male sex workers looking for clients (Ashford, 2009). Online social networking sites represent what Cooper (1998) has called “the Triple A Engine”—a triad of “access, affordability and anonymity” (p. 187). The Internet also transforms what legislators may deem an unwanted public nuisance (i.e., public solicitation) into an invisible activity (Walker, Brock, & Stuart, 2006, p. 169) by hiding solicitation within websites that are not likely to be found by the vast majority of Internet users. The Internet, however, is a relatively new medium for interaction between sex workers and clients and, consequently, research into sex work on the Internet is still ongoing. Nevertheless, despite the paucity of research into Internet sex work, studies thus far conducted have enabled researchers to better understand one of the most popular forms of male sex work—independent escorting.
Recent research indicates that the Internet provides a number of benefits to male sex workers. As already noted, the Internet is an easy-to-access, cost-effective means of marketing services and it allows for a degree of anonymity, which can be important to a community of individuals who are largely stigmatized and marginalized by mainstream society. This also means that sex workers’ activities are more difficult for law enforcement to trace (Lee-Gonyea et al., 2009, p. 326). In addition to these benefits, numerous websites have been developed to help Internet-based escorts work in a safer environment. Escorts can use the Internet to find or share information about safe sex practices, client reviews or warnings, crime reports, and general information to help keep them safe when working alone (Davies & Evans, 2004). In fact, dedicated client screening sites, such as Date-Check, help escorts screen potential clients. Escorts’ online profiles and advertisements also help them screen clients by stating the behaviors they will offer clients, which often include safe sex practices. Therefore, not only has the Internet developed into an efficient and cost-effective mechanism for male escorts to market themselves to potential clients, it has also become a forum for sharing vital information that helps protect the health and safety of independent sex workers. Existing prostitution legislation throughout Australia does not address the activities of sex workers on the Internet. However, almost since its inception, the Internet has been the focus of debate regarding censorship. While these debates often focus on restricting sexual content and protecting children from exposure to content deemed morally repugnant, they are still relevant to the sex work industry. A number of countries have turned to Internet filtering to restrict the online availability of particular content. Australia has not implemented an Internet filter, but such a step could mean that sites being used for and by sex workers and their clients will come under increasing regulation in the future.
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