Times change and so has sex work. In the 70’s and 80’s  I used to hear about young men (and women)  who turned to selling their bodies because they were

A).  Homeless  and/or

B).  needed  drug money.

I don’t know how true that was but sign onto  any escort site say in, Chicago or any other big city, and EVERYONE  is an escort!   Everyone wants some extra money.  And a good number of guys make a good living at it.

Male Sex Work and Society
is the first volume to explore male sex work from a rich array of perspectives and disciplines across the social sciences and humanities.

In recent decades, male sex work has emerged as an important area of study, as well as a social activity in its own right. As new ways of thinking and speaking about male sex work have emerged, it is no longer conflated with homosexuality or the female sex industry. Historical and cultural variations in male sex work are now acknowledged, enabling this activity to be understood in complex and dynamic terms, thus challenging older perspectives that view male “prostitution” as deviant and pathological.

Previously neglected aspects of male sex work, such as servicing a female clientele (the gigolo) and upper income types of service (escorts), have gained both scholarly and popular attention. The collection also looks at male sex work representations in popular media, including film and literature.

This is a fascinating book that  aims to help enrich the ways in which we view both male sex work as a field of commerce and male sex worker themselves.

Leading contributors examine the field both historically and cross-culturally from fields including public health, sociology, psychology, social services, history, filmography, economics, mental health, criminal justice, geography, and migration studies, and more.

The data and observations compiled here are quite remarkable.  Different countries are looked  at, the escorts themselves  and the men who hire them.

Male Sex Work and Society   512  pages!

Much-needed…. Most of the articles are research centered and bring quantitative analysis to historical, national, and cultural events. This research constitutes the most evident strength of the collection…. Scholars researching male sex work will appreciate this crucial step in the right direction.

(Publishers Weekly)