ADVANCE PRAISE FORMale Sex Work and Society | |
This is literally the definitive guide to contemporary issues in the study of male sex workers. It is a pleasure to read, and a must for those who study male sexual health and sexuality. Particularly strong is the inclusion of multidisciplinary perspectives, an international focus, contributions by leading experts in the field, and the broad-based consideration of historical, structural, technological, and organizational factors. The book delves deeply into the lives of male sex workers, making it clear that their career choices involve benefits and pleasure, rather than problems and risk exclusively. For the first time, the research is presented in a neutral manner, resisting the typical approach of pathologizing men who participate in commercial sex.
DR. JEFFREY T. PARSONS, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, and Director, Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Editor-in-Chief, Sexuality Research and Social Policy
This is a wonderful collection Male Sex Work and Society is a tour de force covering historical, cultural, and economic aspects of male sex work, as well as demographic patterns, health outcomes, and policy issues. Drawing from a variety of geographic regions and presenting original research findings, the contributors identify both similarities and insightful differences between male and female sex work. The book is a major contribution to our understanding of a commercial sector that is sizeable but often neglected in policy debates on sex work.
DR. RONALD WEITZER, Professor of Sociology, George Washington University, Washington, DC; Editor, Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business and Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry
This is a wonderful book that is full of excellent scholarship that appraises male sex work and the male body as an object of agency, pleasure, and desire. Cross-disciplinary and global in scope, it is most importantly a vehicle for the voices of male sex workers and both new and established scholars. The volume makes compelling reading in a field that is coming into its own, and it is beautifully illustrated and produced.
DR. MAGGIE ONEILL, Professor of Criminology, School of Applied Social Sciences, and Fellow, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University, Durham, UK
The volume provides up-to-the-minute coverage of a wide range of historical and contemporary issues on male sex work in empirically rich and theoretically grounded chapters. Six case studies in various geographical areas allow the interrogation of global themes such as migrancy, regulation, and culture. Key scholars in multiple disciplines debate both new and longstanding topics relevant to male sex work, such as health, regulation, and culture. New research findings are provided on advertising, economics, clients of male sex workers, and mental health. The book places male sex work within the broader context of same-sex eroticism, emotions, and commerce, making it a core book for scholars and students perplexed by issues of sexuality, masculinity, and general sex work studies. This volume should be required reading in any innovative course on sex work or related topics.
DR. TEELA SANDERS, Reader in Sociology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
This book is a state-of-the-art study of male sex work. Editors Victor Minichiello and John Scott have assembled many of the most distinguished scholars in the field, who view their subject from a range of perspectives, methodologies, and disciplines This richly detailed, humane, and innovative book retrieves male sex work from silence and invisibility on the one hand, and its association with scandal and stigma on the other. Male Sex Work and Society gives men who sell sex a voice and agency, and it moves readers beyond the popular images of the 19th-century messenger boy and the 20th-century hustler.
The threads connecting male sex work to sexual identity and orientation are shown to be as complex and elusive as those between male sex work and masculinity. The books findings also have profound implications for how governments approach public health and regulation of the sex industry. This is a groundbreaking study that will have a powerful impact on our understanding of this challenging, elusive subject.
DR. FRANK BONGIORNO, Associate Professor of History, Australian National University, Canberra; Author, The Sex Lives of Australians: A History
Victor Minichiello and John Scotts book shifts our attention from male sex work as a social problem to a social phenomenon. They and their contributors reveal male sex work as a lens through which we can view shifts in local and global sexual cultures. This terrific book helps us rethink the history of sexuality itself!
DR. GARY W. DOWSETT, Professor and Deputy Director, Australian Research Center in Sex, Health, and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
I really enjoyed this book. In this excellent collection, Minichiello and Scott bring together high-quality scholarship. The contributors bring a new and searching understanding about male sex work, which as we know takes different forms, assumes varying meanings, and evokes many conflicting responses from cultures around the world. The volume reframes the pathologizing discourses that have dominated research for so long and rightly focuses on the ever-shifting historical, cultural, and social contexts in which male sex work operates. The contributors demonstrate how male sex work must be understood in the context of both globalization and the digital revolution, as well as sexual and gender subordination. Through this book we begin to grasp the ways in which power, commerce, and exploitation can operate on the male body. We also hear the voices of male sex workers themselves and the ways they exercise empowerment and choice in their everyday lives.
DR. JEFFREY WEEKS, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London South Bank University, London, UK
Featuring a fantastic selection of authors from multiple disciplinary backgrounds, this collection sets a new standard for scholarly accounts of male sex work. The empirical depth is remarkable and the conceptual contributions are refined. Male Sex Work and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in sex, sexuality, identity, work, and GLBTQ issues.