Male Sex Work and Society (48 page)

Read Male Sex Work and Society Online

Authors: Unknown

Tags: #Psychology/Human Sexuality, #Social Science/Gay Studies, #SOC012000, #PSY016000

Conclusion
 
Throughout history, gay and bisexual men have been marginalized and persecuted, which often meant that men interested in sex with other men had to hide their sexual identity and behavior and engage in clandestine sexual encounters. With the gradual easing of such oppression, and perhaps as a means of reclaiming what had been so long repressed, gay and bisexual communities have sexualized aspects of their public and private culture. This sexualization involves the more open expression of masculine sexuality, where a willingness to pay for sexual products and services carries far less stigma than it does in the heterosexual world. Over the decades, the gay community has used the most recent trends in communication and technologies to reify gay culture, including the commodification of sexuality. As illustrated in this chapter, there are common threads running between gay culture, sexuality, and the commodification of sex, including sex work. Thus, male sex work in all its various forms reflects the pressures on, and the norms generated within, gay culture.
References
 
Blumenfeld, W. J., & Raymond, D. C. (1993).
Looking at gay and lesbian life
. Boston: Beacon Press.
Boden, D. M. (2007). Alienation of sexuality in male erotic dancing.
Journal of Homosexuality, 53
, 129.
Bullough, V. L. (2002).
Before Stonewall: Activists for gay and lesbian rights in historical context
. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.
Clatts, M. C., Goldsamt, L., Yi, H., & Gwadz, M. V. (2005). Homelessness and drug abuse among young men who have sex with men in New York city: A preliminary epidemiological trajectory.
Journal of Adolescence, 28
, 201-214. doi: S0140-1971(05)00020-5 [pii] 10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.02.003
D’Emilio, J. (1983). Capitalism and gay identity. In A. Snitow, C. Stansell, & S. Thomson (Eds.),
Powers of desire: The politics of sexuality
(pp. 100-113). New York: Monthly Review Press.
Egan, J. E., Frye, V., Kurtz, S. P., Latkin, C., Chen, M., Tobin, K., et al. (2011). Migration, neighborhoods, and networks: Approaches to understanding how urban environmental conditions affect syndemic adverse health outcomes among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
AIDS Behavior
. doi: 10.1007/s10461-011-9902-5
Flowers, A. (1998).
The fantasy factory: An insider’s view of the phone sex industry
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Gagnon, J. H., & Simon, W. (2005).
Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality
(2nd ed.). Piscataway, NJ: Transaction.
Grov, C., Bimbi, D. S., Parsons, J. T., & Nanín, J. E. (2006). Race, ethnicity, gender, and generational factors associated with the coming-out process among gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals.
Journal of Sex Research, 43
, 115-121.
Harris, D. (2001). Personals.
The Antioch Review, 59
, 284-301.
Harry, J. (1974). Urbanization and the gay life.
Journal of Sex Research, 10
, 238-247.
Higgins, R. (1999). Baths, bushes and belonging: Public sex and gay community in pre-Stonewall Montreal. In W. L. Leap (Ed.),
Public sex/gay space
(pp. 187-202). New York: Columbia University Press.
Humphreys, L. (1975).
Tearoom trade: Impersonal sex in public places
. Piscataway, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
Johnston, L. (2005).
Queering tourism: Paradoxical performances at gay pride parades
(Vol. 11). New York: Psychology Press.
Kaminski, P. L., Chapman, B. P., Haynes, S. D., & Own, L. (2005). Body image, eating behaviors, and attitudes toward exercise among gay and straight men.
Eating Behaviors, 6
, 179-187. doi: S1471-0153(04)00094-7 [pii] 10.1016/j.ea beh.2004.11.003
Kennedy, E. L. (1995). Telling tales: Oral history and the construction of pre-Stonewall lesbian history.
Radical History Review, 62
, 59-79.
Lankenau, S. E., Clatts, M. C., Welle, D., Goldsamt, L. A., & Gwadz, M. V. (2005). Street careers: Homelessness, drug use, and sex work among young men who have sex with men (YMSM).
International Journal of Drug Policy, 16
, 10-18. doi: 10.1016/j. drugpo.2004.07.006
Lauria, M., & Knopp, L. (1985). Toward an analysis of the role of gay communities in the urban renaissance.
Urban Geography, 6
, 152-169.
Lee-Gonyea, J. A., Castle, T., & Gonyea, N. E. (2009). Laid to order: Male escorts advertising on the Internet.
Deviant Behavior, 30
, 321-348.
Levine, M. P. (1979). Gay ghetto.
Journal of Homosexuality, 4
, 363-377.
Liau, A., Millett, G., & Marks, G. (2006). Meta-analytic examination of online sexseeking and sexual risk behavior among men who have sex with men.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 33
, 576-584. doi: 10.1097/01.olq.0000204710.35332.c5 00007435-900000000-00007
Luckenbill, D. F. (1985). Deviant career mobility: The case of male prostitutes.
Social Problems, 33
, 283.
Meeker, M. (2001). Behind the mask of respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and male homophile practice, 1950s and 1960s.
Journal of the History of Sexuality, 10
, 78-116.
Miller, R. L. (2003). Adapting an evidence-based intervention: Tales of the Hustler Project.
AIDS Education and Prevention, 15
, 127-138.
Moskowitz, D. A., & Hart, T. A. (2011). The influence of physical body traits and masculinity on anal sex roles in gay and bisexual men.
Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40
, 835-841. doi: 10.1007/s10508-011-9754-0
Mustanski, B., Newcomb, M. E., Du Bois, S. N., Garcia, S. C., & Grov, C. (2011). HIV in young men who have sex with men: A review of epidemiology, risk and protective factors, and interventions.
Annual Review of Sex Research, 48
, 218-253.
Nardi, P. M., & Schneider, B. E. (Eds.). (1998).
Social perspectives in lesbian and gay studies: A reader
. New York: Routledge.
Padilla, M. (2007).
Caribbean pleasure industry: Tourism, sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Peplau, L. A., Frederick, D. A., Yee, C., Maisel, N., Lever, J., & Ghavami, N. (in press). Body image satisfaction in heterosexual, gay, and lesbian adults.
Archives of Sexual Behavior
.
Perkins, R., & Bennett, G. (1997).
Being a prostitute: Prostitute women and prostitute men
. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
Polybius. (1979).
The rise of the Roman Empire
(I. Scott-Kilvert, Trans.). New York: Penguin Books.
Reitzes, D. C., & Diver, J. K. (1982). Gay bars as deviant community organizations: The management of interactions with outsiders.
Deviant Behavior, 4
, 1-18.
Rimm, M. (1994). Marketing pornography on the information superhighway: A survey of 917,410 images, descriptions, short stories, and animations downloaded 8.5 million times by consumers in over 2000 cities in forty countries, provinces, and territories.
Georgetown Law Review, 83
, 1849.
Sender, K. (2003). Sex sells: Sex, taste, and class in commercial gay and lesbian media.
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 9
, 331-365.
Shilts, R. (1987).
And the band played on: Politics, people and the AIDS epidemic
. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Smith, M. D., & Grov, C. (2011).
In the company of men: Inside the lives of male prostitutes
. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Thomas, J. A. (2010). Gay male pornography since Stonewall. In R. Weizer (Ed.),
Sex for sale: Prostitution, pornography, and the sex industry
(2nd ed., pp. 67-90). New York: Routledge.
Visano, L. A. (1991). The impact of age on paid sexual encounters.
Journal of Homosexuality, 20
, 207-226.
Walters, S. D. (2001).
All the rage: The story of gay visibility in America
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Endnotes
 
 
1
     The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile/homosexual organizations in the United States.
 
2
     The Daughters of Bilitis was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States.
What is refreshing about this chapter is that it gives some attention to the issue of exiting sex work, whereas most research on male sex work has been focused on people entering. In terms of what brings people into sex work, most early accounts assumed sex work to be a product of exploitation and economic survival. Only recently has there emerged a professional discourse on male sex work in which it is examined as a rational career choice. Exiting sex work might also be considered a choice. If we can develop a better understanding and appreciation for the factors associated with exiting, it would help service providers deal more effectively with the health and welfare of male sex workers. Exiting sex work also brings into focus the mature male body and mature masculinities. Much of the research on male sex work has focused on the youthful male body and youthful expressions of masculinity, which promotes the idea that male sex workers are typically young men who have been exploited by older clients. The idea that older male sex workers could be desired by younger clients has remained largely unexamined, yet a cursory examination of escort sites from around the globe indicates that men of all ages are engaged in sex work.
 
Introduction
 
In recent decades, there has been increasing interest in male sex work among academics, policymakers, and those offering specialist service provision to male sex workers (MSWs). The research literature in the UK context has primarily explored the female sex worker, and the policy and legal discourses have focused on males only as clients, pimps, traffickers, and abusers—which is how male identities often have been constructed in the UK sex work policy context (Gaffney, 2007; Kingston, 2009, 2010; Whowell & Gaffney, 2009; Whowell, 2010). However, the 2003 Sexual Offences Act made all prostitution-related offenses gender neutral. As a result, sex work should now be understood as involving male and transgender people as well as women, at least in the legal context.

Other books

The City Heroes by Omoruyi Uwuigiaren
Home to Stay by Terri Osburn
Killing Kennedy by O'Reilly, Bill
Storm Kissed by Jessica Andersen
Slick (Burnout 2.5) by West, Dahlia
For Desire Alone by Jess Michaels
Personal Darkness by Lee, Tanith
Judgment on Deltchev by Eric Ambler