And, other than it’s the government doing the forcing, as opposed (usually) to individuals, how is that different? Because I’d bet historically (until at least the 20th century and maybe not then), in every society forced sex was far, far, far more common than conscription.
When I opened this thread I honestly was expecting: ‘In what proffession can men make a large amount of money, without having any education or particular skill’.
I think politics is still the right answer though ;).
Another possibility although limited in time would be rowing on large ships. It was a job/life so horrid that it was mainly done by prisoners and slaves. Also litter carrier, which permanently disfigured the hands of the men who did it into somehting between a claw and a club. (not medical litters, but taxis carried by humans in streets that couldn’t support wheels.)
Medical testing, blood/sperm/organs for cash.
At one time, one of the most humiliating jobs for a white male was picking cotton.
Basically unskilled male bodies have no intrinsic value unless your procilvities run that way or you need muscle.
First they would sell their women. To a husband, to slaver, to a john.
Small time crime. Burglary, pickpockets, drug dealing, etc. Women addicted to drugs often turn to prostitution, men in the same circumstances to small-time crime.
One thing to keep in mind is that there weren’t a whole lot of options out there for uneducated women at all. There were plenty of jobs out there for unskilled men, but virtually none for unskilled women. Marriage was the default assumption and spinsterhood was a luxury for wealthier families. For that reason, I don’t really think there is a historic male equivalent to prostitution-- healthy unskilled males simply weren’t put in that position of being totally unemployable.
One other thing, though. Perhaps coincidentally (although I can think of lots of possible shared causes), in most Western countries prostitution became illegal at around the same time conditions and pay began to get better for people engaged in manual trades. Criminalization increased the stigma of sex work by making the workers criminals, removed the various protections offered by regulations, and firmly established prostitutes as part of the criminal underworld. Just as factory and manual labor jobs in the 19th century aren’t really comparable to 21st century equivalents, the same is true of prostitution. I’d argue that today (in most cases) being a prostitute is clearly worse than most menial entry level jobs, whereas in the 19th century and earlier that was a lot less clear cut.
Since *Tale of Two Cities *has been mentioned, one may note with Leo Bloom the many possible roles for a man on a continuing downward slide beginning with poverty, and ending with …
“The nadir of misery: the aged impotent disfranchised ratesupported moribund lunatic pauper.”
Full cite in spoilers.
[spoiler]
[Ulysses, Ithaca]
Reduce Bloom by cross multiplication of reverses of fortune, from which these supports protected him, and by elimination of all positive values to a negligible negative irrational unreal quantity.
Successively, in descending helotic order: Poverty: that of the outdoor hawker of imitation jewellery, the dun for the recovery of bad and doubtful debts, the poor rate and deputy cess collector. Mendicancy: that of the fraudulent bankrupt with negligible assets paying 1s. 4d. in the #, sandwichman, distributor of throwaways, nocturnal vagrant, insinuating sycophant, maimed sailor, blind stripling, superannuated bailiff’s man, marfeast, lickplate, spoilsport, pickthank, eccentric public laughingstock seated on bench of public park under discarded perforated umbrella. Destitution: the inmate of Old Man’s House (Royal Hospital), Kilmainham, the inmate of Simpson’s Hospital for reduced but respectable men permanently disabled by gout or want of sight. Nadir of misery: the aged impotent disfranchised ratesupported moribund lunatic pauper.[/spoiler]
Hawaiian surfing instructors in the 1950s?
I recall reading about an old-time steelmaking job where you monitored the heat of molten metal by staring at it and judging the color; thing is, that eventually rendered you blind.
Men and women on the bottom of society have both always sold their bodies; it’s just that women sold sexual services, and men sold their lives & health. Lowest-tier male dominated jobs tend to cripple or kill the men who do them, often even today much less before there were such things as OSHA.
Of course, back then being a prostitute was just as likely to kill you or at least give you a crippling disease. During the earlier parts of the progressive era, at the same time that workplace safety regulations were being passed in other industries, many localities passed rules designed to make sex work safer both for workers and clients. However, when regulation gave way to prohibition, those rules went away and it reverted to the dangerous unregulated trade it still largely is today.
My point stands, men are far less per capita prostitutes and many of them are juveniles. You can be sold into sexual slavery just as easily as being impressed (and regrettably still can be so sold).
Pretty much everything I have read states that until the early 20th century in many society the army was seen as the place where you went where there was no other prospsect. The British Army was not for nothing known as the scum of the earth. Furthermore, Field Marshal Robertson, CIGS during most of WWI and a former ranker recalled his mother’s horror when she heard he had enlisted
Not surprisingly perhaps. The military and naval service meant a hard dangerous life, in far off locale, with an excelent chance of dieing in action or of assorted diseases, not to mention poor food, brutal discipline.
Menial jobs that destroy your health and lead to disfigurement, disability and early death have never been the preserve of men. Sometimes I think some people have a bizarre fantasy that before 1970 women all stayed at home in the luxury of child rearing. For the large part of history, women have been working with a child strapped to their backs. Menial farm and factory work has frequently involved back breaking work for women - google London match girls’ if you want to learn about disfigurement in Victorian factory workers.
Prostitutes are not part of the poorly but respectably employed. They have fallen out of society and are rejected and reviled by those very factory workers. A closer analogy for men would be petty thieves - dirt poor, living on the streets and their wits, desperate and regarded as scum.
I would like to add, my family includes a long list of army and navy men stretching back several hundred years. All married and supporting families, from which i can trace decent. They may not have had much other opportunity, apart from working on farms, but to class them amongst prostitutes - desperate, reviled, criminal - is laughable.
Were these men officers? Because that was different. Being a “Tommy” was frequently seen as a hard luck profession.
There are a lot of rubbishy stats on that page. The source given for the “average age of male entry into prostitution” stat doesn’t actually say that at all. The source given for the claim that 20% of prostitutes are men doesn’t say that either. The latter does cite a 14-year-old age of entry for male prostitutes, but it seems to be based on someone’s opinion rather than research data. This is pretty typical for stats in this area. You can’t really believe most of them.
I was thinking about the OP’s question, and I must admit the first thing that came to mind was “Coal Miner”
Nope. I come from a long line of farm labourers, dockers and servicemen. Poor, but certainly not living on the margins of society and outside of the law.