But there’s nothing desperate about coal mining. I come from a coal mining area – my ex’s father was a coal miner. They may have been poor, but they had plenty of self-prespect, family and community life. In some places, it’s just what you and everyone you know does for a living, not something you fall into out of desperation.
Read up then. Soldiers were considered dregs, they were often not welcome in nicer parts of town, businesses rotinely refused to serve them. Kipling might be an eye opener. Maybe not outside the law, but certainly outside regular society.
The whole “our brave men <and women>” is a 20th century thing.
As for other professions, what about the guy who cleaned the cesspits?
Good point.
What about grave diggers?
There were the Night soilmen whose job was to collect the neighbourhoods crap. As the name suggests they did it at night, out of sight out of mind. Talk about a crappy job…badum tish.
If you’ve got a strong stomach they still exist in south Asia where the job involves removing raw sewage by hand. The Indian dalit caste system of ‘untouchables’ also ranks leather workers and those who handle the dead as lowest of the low.
Japanese burakumin were similar; tanners, butchers, undertakers and any profession that ‘defiles’ are considered the very bottom rung of society.
Gladiators (predominantly male, although their were female gladiators) whether ‘damnati’ - condemned to the arena - or volunteering and becoming in social and legal status little better than slaves in Roman society, considered ‘infames’ - a status shared with pimps and prostitutes. Commodus of Gladiator fame caused huge scandal when he entered the arena and slaughtered many helpless animals for his own amusement - this is thought to have contributed to his demise. Karma’s a bitch.
If the OP is including current prostitutes, especially non-highly-paid ones, I’d say the male equivalent would be day labor or petty theft. They’re all available to someone with no education, experience, references or fixed address, and they’re easy enough to do when you have a drug habit.
cite: personal experience.
Has anyone mentioned panhandling, yet?
I’ve heard (anecdotally) that one can make a fair amount of money just standing on a street corner, with a cardboard sign reading ‘will work for food’, ‘homeless vet’, ‘lost job- hungry kids at home’, etc.
I know for a fact that if a person has a visible disability/deformity (missing limb, etc.) they can make $150+ in 6-8 hours. I knew a man that was missing both legs just below the knee, he made enough to stay in a $25/night hotel, eat and support a $50-$75 a day drug habit.
And that was just on an average day, during the ‘holiday season’ he sometimes made $250-$300 a day!
Historically, the equivalent was becomming a mercenary - either in the service of your country or someone elses’.
Just as most prostitutes are down-and-outers while some become favoured and wealthy courtesans, mercenaries varied from little better than armed beggars and cannon fodder, to the wealthy and powerful.
Chicago alderman?
In terms of being “equivalent” to (female) prostitution, what comes to mind are jobs where your appearance is almost more important than any actual “skill”.
So what comes to mind are: bouncer, and to a more “skill” requiring profession, bodyguard.
Not to imply that a certain level of skill is not required in either of these, but what these have in common are an “intimidating look”. Both of these usually require this “look” to prevent any incidents more than the ability to deal with any incident (which would require skill).
ANY elected official! 
Do all those scurrying minions in James Bond movies, that vast army of white-armored storm troopers in Star Wars movies, count? I don’t know if those jobs are the lowest of the lowest jobs in the universe, but there are so many takers…how do they get those jobs?..anyway. I knew a (straight) male go-go dancer who worked in strip clubs on ‘ladies night’ and also in gay bars. He said the tips working in the latter were vastly better than in the straight clubs. (and he had plenty of offers to make a bit extra on the side, if you know what I mean.) But such a job only lasts as long as the dancer is fairly young, ripped, and not bad looking. He was wise, avoided drugs, saved up enough to put himself through school, and is making a good living today.
Was it, particularly? Cite?
Street crime is what comes to mind for men who are at their lowest. Failing that, panhandling. I don’t know if the military is truly for the dregs, you need a base level of physical fitness and education that most dregs probably don’t have. Of course I don’t know how applicable that was to society hundreds of years ago. But in todays society you will have trouble getting into the military with a criminal record, lack of physical fitness and lack of a HS diploma. So those people are not desperate.
I thought this thread was going to be about what (vaguely sexual) service do women pay men for, since men pay women for sex. To answer that question, in some asian countries women pay men to listen to them, pay attention to them and show sexual interest in them (without the sex). They are called host clubs. I don’t know what, if any, the western equivalent is.
In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo suggested the bottom rung of poverty for men was street sweepers (i.e. moving horse shit and mud out of the way of pedestrians) and rag pickers (i.e. looking through garbage for stuff to salvage).
Dickens and other Victorian writers seemed to think being a crossing sweeper was a pretty lousy job that paid a pittance. As opposed to prostitution, which was a pretty lousy job that paid more than a pittance.
In the book the ghost map the author claims a large percent of people (something like 10-30%) in London would recycle various waste materials. Used pieces of rope, dung, used wood, used bottles, etc. as their primary means of income. So those people would likely be the male dregs. The recyclers, kindof how nowadays homeless people collect bottles and cans.
Or just a “goon”. I suspect the large size and number of paramilitary groups in Europe between the wars had more to do with the desperation of unemployed men than it did with any ardent political convictions. No doubt, many enjoyed it, but I’ll bet most of those men would have rather been doing something other than beating up political opponents, battling the police in the streets, and baiting ethnic minorities.
Another profession I just thought off is traveling minstrel.
Message Board moderator?
The Duke of Wellington;
Speaking about soldiers in the British Army, 4 November 1831