Sex work is (also) a male thing : The long journey towards legitimisation

This chapter analyses an unexplored field of study: male sex workers. Indeed, while their female counterparts have been widely researched, there is a lack of attention on men who sell sex. For this reason, we aim to (re)shape the representations, theories, rhetoric, organisation, and types of male sex work as a complex, uncomfortable, and controversial phenomenon. First we engage with a social history of male sex working, passing through the different views and definitions of male prostitution, from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire to the French Empire of the 19th century and Italy in the early years of the 20th century. The second part of the chapter highlights the most recent studies on men who sell sex to other men, particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries. Although the fight towards legitimisation of this stigmatised category is not yet won, scholars show how the Internet and the new technologies have changed both the characteristics of sex workers and how sex work is performed. In other words, is it now possible to define sex work as a job like any other?