Women are Victims, Men Make Choices: The Invisibility of Men and Boys in the Global Sex Trade, Jeffery Dennis

HugeSaladFork · 2015-01-27T21:38:58+00:00

This is a good one for /r/MRRef

2015-01-27T15:26:15+00:00

Abstract

The invisibility of men and boys in scholarly discussions of the global sex trade was analyzed through a sample of 166 recent articles published in social science journals. Most failed to acknowledge the existence of male sex workers at all. When male sex workers were discussed, they were assigned considerably more agency than female sex workers, the chief danger ascribed to them was HIV rather than violence, and the question of their sexual orientation was always addressed,whereas female sex workers were always assumed heterosexual. The results are discussed in the context of world system theory, Orientalism, and heteronormativity.

Introduction

Male sex workers are easy to spot anywhere in the world. They lounge outside a doughnut shop on Highland Street in Los Angeles and a Lebanese cafe near the Center Pompidou in Paris, in an arcade in Prague, and in a sex club in Cleveland. They pretend to study the train schedules at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and the shop windows at the Grand Place in Brussels. They mingle with the crowds at York Minster; they dance at strip clubs in Dayton. On a certain street in Tijuana, any man or boy who makes eye contact with you is for sale. They wait in Internet chatrooms for men whose proﬁle contains the keyword ‘‘generous.’’ They post advertisements as escorts, masseurs, or models, or openly as sex workers; one Internet directory lists over 5000 in the USA, searchable by physical attributes, services provided, and price.

Yet they are almost completely ignored by social service agencies, administrative bodies, the mass media, and scholarship. The rigor of academic arguments and the immediacy of ﬁeldwork usually allow scholars to qualify or even reject popular stereotypes, but in this case they do not: scholarly discussions of sex workers nearly always specify ‘‘she,’’ ‘‘her,’’ or ‘‘the woman,’’ as if no man ever sold his sexual services. Scholarly discussions about children exploited through prostitution nearly always specify ‘‘she,’’ ‘‘her,’’ or ‘‘the girl,’’ as if no boy has ever been exploited. This study will investigate the extent of the invisibility of men and boys in scholarly discussions of the global sex trade, and suggest explanations in the combined discourses of Orientalism, sexism, and heteronormativity.

Title	Women are Victims, Men Make Choices: The Invisibility of Men and Boys in the Global Sex Trade, Jeffery Dennis
Author	_12345
Upvotes	13
Comments	2
Date	January 27, 2015 3:24 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2tuhy3/women_are_victims_men_make_choices_the/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/women-are-victims-men-make-choices-the.989553 https://theredarchive.com/post/989553

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