Male Sex Work and Society

[+ stevenkesslar]

Nah, just smart shopping.

 

How true.

 

And remember, it works both ways.

 

[marylander1940]

Interesting observation. It’s a power thing. In American society, power is reserved for a.) men, and b.) money. Power is expressed in these hiring patterns.

 

Good point. It’s also a love hate / relationship.

[marylander1940]

How true.

 

And remember, it works both ways.

 

 

Exactly. Trophy wives are the smartest!

[P Gren]

The societal attitude toward male sex workers is interesting. With female sex workers, there is a reflexive tendency to see the sex worker as being victimized by the client.

 

With male sex workers, it's just the opposite. The client is being victimized by the sex worker. In films, that subtext is nearly always present with older women and their gigolo lovers.

 

Even among many board participants, there is a strong undercurrent of victimhood, the old pitiful john who has nothing going for him but a thick wallet.

This is one of the themes discussed in the book.

[+ quoththeraven]

There's an earlier thread started when the book was published.

 

It's a collection of scholarly essays, hence the price. No one person wrote it, but there are several editors.

[+ newguy]

$120 dollars for a hard cover? That is what I paid to my last escort. A little bit expensive for a book.

I may be very ignorant, is the author some kind of celebrity? Why does @P Gren call him by his first name and assumes we all know who he is talking about?

 

 

It's $35 in softcover. The list price is $50 and you get a 30% discount from the Publisher's

website. See below. (Yes, I know--buy "hard" if you want the "hard"....)

 

NG

 

http://harringtonparkpress.com/male-sex-work-and-society-2014/

[+ newguy]

$120 dollars for a hard cover? That is what I paid to my last escort. A little bit expensive for a book.

I may be very ignorant, is the author some kind of celebrity? Why does @P Gren call him by his first name and assumes we all know who he is talking about?

 

He's referring to Dr. Victor Minichiello, the senior editor

[+ newguy]

It's $35 in softcover. The list price is $50 and you get a 30% discount from the Publisher's

website. See below. (Yes, I know--buy "hard" if you want the "hard"....)

 

NG

 

http://harringtonparkpress.com/male-sex-work-and-society-2014/

[Rudynate]

$120 dollars for a hard cover? That is what I paid to my last escort. A little bit expensive for a book.

I may be very ignorant, is the author some kind of celebrity? Why does @P Gren call him by his first name and assumes we all know who he is talking about?

 

Small press runs from obscure publishers can sometimes be very expensive. In my days as a corporate librarian, I occasionally paid thousands of dollars for a single book, if the content was critical to the company's mission.

[+ newguy]

I just finished reading Victor's book - its a huge tome - on the history and current observations/analysis of male sex work. Anyone else read it? What did you think of it? Other titles to suggest on male sex work?

 

The "Table of Contents" is below. Again it is $35 softcover with the publisher's discount coupon (yes, buy the hard if you

want the hard) ....not too bad for a 500+ page book.

 

http://harringtonparkpress.com/male-sex-work-and-society-2014/

[+ newguy]

I just finished reading Victor's book - its a huge tome - on the history and current observations/analysis of male sex work. Anyone else read it? What did you think of it? Other titles to suggest on male sex work?

Here's a book review of this book...

 

NG

 

http://harringtonparkpress.com/reviews/msws/journal-history-sexuality/

[+ VeryHappyCustomer]

The societal attitude toward male sex workers is ... [t]he client is being victimized by the sex worker. In films, that subtext is nearly always present with older women and their gigolo lovers. Even among many board participants, there is a strong undercurrent of victimhood, the old pitiful john who has nothing going for him but a thick wallet.

This was a running argument I had with a young man over the course of half a dozen weekends. He grew up in a Mormon sect (not LDS) and was taught that gay men were weak and helpless. He was muscular from manual labor, and identified as straight. Every visit began with him apologizing for "taking advantage" of me (the helpless gay man) and me listing reasons I did not feel taken advantage of: 1) I called the shots; 2) I could afford his services; 3) he was a beast in the sheets.

[P Gren]

This was a running argument I had with a young man over the course of half a dozen weekends. He grew up in a Mormon sect (not LDS) and was taught that gay men were weak and helpless. He was muscular from manual labor, and identified as straight. Every visit began with him apologizing for "taking advantage" of me (the helpless gay man) and me listing reasons I did not feel taken advantage of: 1) I called the shots; 2) I could afford his services; 3) he was a beast in the sheets.

This is discussed in the book - a more nuanced understand is needed to understand male versus female sex work when the clients are men

[+ newguy]

This was a running argument I had with a young man over the course of half a dozen weekends. He grew up in a Mormon sect (not LDS) and was taught that gay men were weak and helpless. He was muscular from manual labor, and identified as straight. Every visit began with him apologizing for "taking advantage" of me (the helpless gay man) and me listing reasons I did not feel taken advantage of: 1) I called the shots; 2) I could afford his services; 3) he was a beast in the sheets.

This sounds SUPERHOT. I also have (fantasies?) of being taken advantage of,

in very much a counterpart situation...

NG

[+ newguy]

$120 dollars for a hard cover? That is what I paid to my last escort. A little bit expensive for a book.

I may be very ignorant, is the author some kind of celebrity? Why does @P Gren call him by his first name and assumes we all know who he is talking about?

It's also in softcover for $35.00

 

NB

[marylander1940]

"The difficult easy life" 12 recounts about male prostitution. Great book!

 

http://www.libreriaberkana.com/static/img/portadas/facil.jpg

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

I've got a copy and it was well-worth the price.

 

Harrington Park Press produces quality, interesting books.

[marylander1940]

Does look like there is an English language translation available

 

I'm sure.

[SuperJunior]

This is one of the themes discussed in the book.

 

Sorry. I was probably too vague in my earlier post. What did you think of this book?

[+ newguy]

"The difficult easy life" 12 recounts about male prostitution. Great book!

 

http://www.libreriaberkana.com/static/img/portadas/facil.jpg

is this available in a print edition anywhere (possibly in English)? I could only find it as an ebook

in Spanish.

NG

[marylander1940]

is this available in a print edition anywhere (possibly in English)? I could only find it as an ebook

in Spanish.

NG

 

I'm sure I've heard @Avalon is researching on here for the next edition...

[+ Avalon]

I'm sure I've heard @Avalon is researching on here for the next edition...

 

;-))))

[+ newguy]

I'm sure I've heard @Avalon is researching on here for the next edition...

 

I've heard that 7 - 10 others on this forum are also helping. We need

to involve actual buyers & sellers in the next big book on

male sex work.

 

"Nothing about us without us"!

[+ newguy]

I just finished reading Victor's book - its a huge tome - on the history and current observations/analysis of male sex work. Anyone else read it? What did you think of it? Other titles to suggest on male sex work?

 

The illustrations and graphics are also great!

NG

[P Gren]

I've heard that 7 - 10 others on this forum are also helping. We need

to involve actual buyers & sellers in the next big book on

male sex work.

 

"Nothing about us without us"!

I thought there was a fair bit about clients in the book. But it also included lots more perspective from the provider side of things, which isn't often the case within the literature. The chapter doing a quantitative analysis of escort ads interested me, a new perspective as well. On an objective level (well as objective as you can be I suppose) it was interesting how the data from the ads basically supports the reality of some of the discrimination and preferences within the men who have sex with men population. At a generalized population level the cheapest escort you're going to find is an Asian top ... because there is less demand ... for a lot of the reasons that have been discussed on another current thread.