In the back of New York Magazine there are classified ads, there are personal ads, there are massage parlor ads (I guess), and many many ads listing a number to call, ie. “Role Playing for men only, call Miss Fitt, 212-XXX-XXX”. What are these numbers to contact for? Escort service? Whores? They don’t seem particularly salacious, but is that what role-playing means?
Best bet would be to call and ask, I suppose. 
Barring that, “Role-Playing” as I’ve encountered it is usually a euphemism for some of the more theatrical types of S&M and bondage games. A gentleman who enjoys dressing up as a French maid, for example, might want a discreet evening of “role-playing,” or perhaps someone wanting to play “Bad-Boy Adolph and his Fierce Nanny Eva.”
That said, in some parts of the country “role-playing” has been used to mean cross-dressing. Hard to tell in this case, but I suspect the former is more likely.
-andros-
Anyone up for a rousing game of “The Coarse Stable Boy and the Innocent Milkmaid” ?
Dibs on the Stable Boy part.
(Thanx and a tip of the hat to Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS)
Uke
It can actually mean anything in which the participants act out… well… roles.
If you’ve ever wanted to be the teacher with a cute girl teling you she’ll do anything to pass the class, or if you’ve harbored secret fantasies about seducing a cop, or any of a million other situations… these are the folks to call; for enough lucre they’ll cater to your particular fantasy.
I had a friend who did this kind of thing by phone - our relationship, let me hasten to add, was strictly non-commercial and non-recreational. But she was between gigs in her real career, and took this kind of thing to pay the bills.
- Rick
Andros, you usually spell-check so carefully; I’m a little surprised that you misspelled Eve’s name. She’s one of our favorite posters, after all.
Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine
Ba-dum-ching!
Thank you, try the veal, tip your servers!
For a lot of people, many of them men, the real expression of their sexual feelings leaves them with other emotions, which they are unable to express. While it is not true that all the ads you read are for prostitutes, it is probably true that some are. Exploring the expression of desires outside one’s own limits is a fairly popular subculture phenomenon in the US. It is also a lucrative industry.
Aside from the people making money, though, there are a lot of others who do role play, and many do not engage in the acts you (or the law) would consider sex. The images and practices of such things as Bondage, and Discipline are sexual, but the participants do not always have sex, in the sense of intercourse, or even physical touch. Other role-play might involve very dissimilar areas of human experience. Dominance and submission often have highly sexual connotations, but may or may not include sado-masochistic elements, or sexual contact.
There are also many other areas of role-play. It is important to note that the people involved occupy the entire range of human character, from very ordinary, to extreme in every sense. Some are only playing, some are seriously engaged in making the role their life. Some are making a buck, and have very little emotional involvement. Some are helplessly living out a desperate drama imposed by their own poor self-image. Pretty much like any other thing humans do, you really can’t be sure who the people are, just by one aspect of what they do.
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”> Tris </P> <HR>
“After a time, you may find that ‘having’ is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as ‘wanting.’ It is not logical, but it is often true.”
-Spock: Star Trek
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That’s what Role-Playing means? Who’d a thunk it? I guess those nerdy guys in high school had a little more going on than meets the eye!
Perhaps Cecil needs to update this column: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_309b.html
Just a side note, role playing can also be the Dungeons and Dragons type role playing as well, where people sit around in groups and narrate what they are doing in Mystical worlds instead of acting it out. This is popular among the comic book crowd.
And the D&D crowd advertise for players, “men only” in the personal section? Hm. I guess my imagination just went wild.
<P ALIGN=“CENTER”> Tris </P><HR>
“Some see the glass as half-empty, some see the glass as half-full. I see the glass as too big.”
– George Carlin
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Yeah, well, I used to be a hard-core gamer. I stopped playing for a long time, and learned something about sex.
Sorry, was that a cheap shot?