I observe that desperate women throughout history have opted for prostitution as a way to survive. Prostitution for them may not be a respectable job title, but at least it feeds them or provides them with what they need (drugs and etc.), which can turn into a vicious cycle. Now, the focus of this thread is not about women, but men. Why don’t men choose to become prostitutes for the same reasons as women? In human trafficking cases, why aren’t men often used in prostitution and the illegal sex trade? Why are comfort women, well, women? If there are female soldiers in the military, would comfort men be needed too?
Don’t get out much, do you?
All answers will be somewhat speculative but…
- Heterosexuality is more prevalent in mankind than homosexuality.
- Human reproduction allows men to have repercussionless sex.
- Possibly because of #2, men are more likely to be interested in sex as a pastime, where women are more interested in sex as an emotional bond.
- Between all the previous items, the market for male prostitutes is smaller.
- Male, homosexual sex has often been available freely since, because of #2 and #3, both parties are out there cruising for more sex. This further reduces the marketplace.
- Girls are more likely to have been molested by a family member and, subsequently, are more aware that sex is a product.
- Men have had and continue to have more career options in life.
- Young, runaway boys do sell themselves on the street. It’s certainly not as common, but it does happen. I don’t think many turn it into a adult career though.
People will provide paid services if there is someone willing to pay them. Relatively few women are ready to pay for a good or service they can generally get for free, and more particularly one that men will reward them in various ways to accept.
I’m not sure if this thread is serious or not - and I kind of doubt that it is - but the reason that there are far fewer male prostitutes than female prostitutes is simply because of supply and demand; there is much less demand for the former than the latter.
Um… I am not sure why men - as you seem to suggest - would be willing to offer sex to a woman, just because she asks for it. A man may (1) not be in the mood, (2) value marriage, (3) live in a jurisdiction where prostitution is illegal because it is tied with fornication and adultery, which are considered evil in that jurisdiction, (4) not be ready for sex, (5) not know how to obtain sex legally and safely and outside-of-marriage, (6) charge the woman with sexual harassment/assault. I believe the same applies to women too.
Not completely. Men don’t get pregnant, but they do get STDs.
Straight men are at much less risk of STD transmission from heterosex than women are, though.
I don’t think astro is saying that all men are willing to provide sex to a woman who seeks it; just that there are enough men willing to do so to mean that female demand for male prostitutes is generally pretty low. Most women, most of the time, who want to have sex can find a man who will oblige without needing to be paid.
What UDS said and to add to that. Both men and women sell their bodies when desperate. Women sell it for sex. Men for labour.
LOL. This is the best fucking laugh I’ve had all day.
It’s more common than most people realise (though actual figures in this area are never really reliable).
The OP and most of the replies assume that men might become prostitutes to service women (“gigolos”). Gigolos aren’t a myth, but they are rare. But if you have the desire, you may find employment in this field, just not for lonely housewives.
I haven’t had the opportunity nor desire to study rent boys, but I am pretty sure that there are plenty of men who sell their bodies to other men. I would consider sex for favors/patronage/care to be (a form of) prostitution, even if cash isn’t exchanged per transaction.
There’s even a phrase “gay-for-pay” (and the flipside to it, gay males who perform in straight porn/sex work for the money)
Good point. Historically, as with “respectable” jobs, men had a wider variety of opportunities for exploitative work at jobs or indentures requiring high physical effort or danger.
Even if you focus on the illegal side of things, desperate men on the wrong side of the law have more chances to get what they need through mugging, burglary, running drugs/moonshine, being someone’s hired thug, etc.
By closing time at the bar, someone will find her sufficiently appealing.
They say every woman is sitting on a gold mine.
OTOH, women historically have lacked the means typically to pay for sex, on average, compared to men. Since the 60’s and the sexual revolution, as the Freakonomics author mentions in an essay about the prostitution business, competition from “free” has shrunk the market. If one ever existed for men servicing women, it is even more shrunk than it used to be.
How often has it been even remotely acceptable for women to go to prostitutes? Even in 2015 my liberated modern female friends who believe sex can be divorced from romance would be horrified at the thought of a male hooker. They would deem it gross. And it’s still going on in many places that women are considered “bad” for wanting sex.
Men put the pussy on a pedestal. Women then have to defend it, or else we get tossed on the scrap heap. It still happens that a woman is beaten or killed if has sex outside of wedlock, in some countries.
Anyway, I read a report not too long ago that points out women would probably have casual sex just as often as men. The rewards just aren’t there. Most of the time when a man has sex, he is going to have an orgasm. This is so not the truth for women, and if we’re not even going to get that much out of it, it’s less interesting to risk pregnancy, STDs, social disapproval and the rest of it.
I’ll see if I can find the report.
Umbridge, you really think a woman in a singles bar who offers to have sex with a guy who’ll buy her a drink is going home alone?
Yes, but as Aanamika pointed out, the risk and reward curves for that woman taking a random man home from a bar is usually different than for a man taking a random woman home from a bar.
Women are more likely to suffer from violence from men than vice versa.
Women get pregnant, men don’t.
Women are more likely to get infected with an STD than a man.
Women are less likely to get physical enjoyment out of a random sexual encounter.
Women are less likely to get emotional enjoyment out of a random sexual encounter.
Women are more likely to suffer social consequences from a random sexual encounter.
Obviously women do indeed sometimes have random sexual encounters with men, otherwise men would never have random sexual encounters with women. But we’re talking risk/reward, and for women the risk is generally greater and the reward lower.
As for male prostitution, it obviously happens, but it’s a lot less common than female prostitution. If the customers are male, the rent boy has to compete with all the horny gay guys who might want to have sex with his customers for free. And there are a lot fewer gay men than there are straight men. So the market is much smaller. On the other hand, lots of rent boys would be out having meaningless random sex even if they weren’t getting paid.
If the customers are female, what exactly are the gigolos providing that a guy at the local bar can’t provide? While there are prostitutes who offer blowjobs in the alleyway for $20, and there are men willing to pay for this service, there aren’t any men offering cunnilingus in the back alleyway for $20, because there are no women who want this service.
If she’s Dolores Umbridge, then yeah. There’s the saying “don’t put your dick in the crazy” (also don’t let it put its dick in you).
Go to The Gambia, or Sri Lanka, or the Dominican Republic, and you’ll find plenty. Female sex tourism is very much a thing.
One factor is that women have typically been financially dependent on their husbands, and so extra-marital goings on are potentially more dangerous than for a primary earner.