Male sex workers have been around through history but are a legally neglected lot. They should attract sanctions and restrictions like their female counterparts
Prostitution is an age-old profession, the term derived from the Latin word prostituta, which involves the practice of engaging in sexual relations in exchange for money or some other material benefit. Its practitioners have now mutated to the more acceptable moniker of “sex workers”, indicating a respect for their work rights and a more structured rule of engagement. Although a majority of sex workers are women, there are also gay, lesbian and heterosexual male ones, the last commonly known as gigolos. In fact, there is a significant emerging market for liberated women, who pay for sexual pleasure from men. Around 80 per cent of the estimated 42 million sex workers worldwide are female. This means that the remaining 20 per cent comprises male escorts. Yet they have got left out of the discourse on shedding taboos and are denied legitimacy by law.
A survey of websites in 61 countries has found that a quarter of Australia’s 516 male sex workers are now catering to women. Meanwhile, researchers from QUT’s Crime, Justice and Social Democracy Research Centre and the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, in the United Kingdom, found out that 50 per cent of the 5,487 male escorts cater to women and couples. In 2008, a scholarly paper revealed 300,000 male practitioners (serving either sex) were under the age of 16 years. New technologies like internet and mobile phones have promoted awareness of male sex work. The internet has also helped in safeguarding privacy and anonymity for potential male/female clients. There is no more need for gigolos to cruise public places, running the risk of arrest or violence. Professional escorts (indoor sex workers) usually advertise in print media through spa services or else on male escorting websites. However, such websites may face legal problems. In 2015, a well-known American website, Rentboy.com, was shut down by the United States Department of Homeland Security and its operators were charged for facilitating prostitution. However, recent research suggests a substantial growth in the number of online escorts worldwide.
Although not openly acknowledged as royal mistresses or concubines, royal histories across the world do have mentions of gigolos. It has been found in almost all modern and ancient cultures, though its prevalence has not been so common and prominent as that of female prostitution. In ancient times, male and female sex workers are believed to have plied their trade in sacred shrines. Yet the trade is horribly askew vis-a-vis men.
The isolation and stigma of male sex workers has been portrayed effectively in novels and cinemas in the West since the 1960s. Quite often, male prostitutes have been portrayed as tragic figures in films such as Midnight Cowboy (1969), which is about a tragic gigolo and won the Oscars, too.
Still male sex workers, compared to women (who have more slotted roles), have to provide varied services under different terminologies on mutually acceptable fee-for-service arrangement. They may be referred to as dancing partners, nude models, masseurs, rent-boys, male escorts, gigolos (implying female customers) and hustlers (more common for those soliciting in public places), among others. A large number of escorts catering to men and women engage in “non-tactile” services such as romance, tenderness, massage therapy and companionship, suggesting that sex is only part of the holistic service, where intimacy and emotional comfort is equally important to sexual pleasure.
Professor John Scott in his survey report quoted Maxime Durocher, a male sex worker since 2011, as saying, “Many of our clients come to see us saying (sometimes in tears) that they love their partner and they want to stay with them but they are missing something that needs to be addressed. They can’t continue living like this. They might need more tenderness, understanding, somebody to talk to, satisfying sex, certain sexual acts, or simply variety, diversity, novelty, something new.” Durocher continued, “Whatever they need, there are only two solutions: Getting it or leaving their partner. So by satisfying their missing desires, we provide them the opportunity of not breaking up relationships. We are most of the time the glue that keeps them together with spouses.”
In January 2010, Ian Daly had written about a 25-year-old gigolo, ‘Markus’ (his working name), who had been registered as the first legal male sex worker of America. Expressing his views, Markus had said that to become successful in this type of venture, he had to act not as a service provider but as a surrogate lover, encompassing everything that’s required of you, not only physically but emotionally and psychologically too. That’s even more difficult than the woman sex worker. “You can’t necessarily say, oh, it’s just a job.You actually have to say it’s a passion. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms. I view myself as an artist, a performer. It’s a craft. Whichever woman may walk through my door, she is appreciated. A surrogate lover will love that woman for a whole hour and she will be leaving much more empowered and much more confident of herself.”
In the absence of male brothels, gigolos usually operate through internet or walk down certain selective locations of metropolitan cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru. Apart from the money, they are also offered costly gifts besides the agreed amount.
Yet they continued to be a nebulous entity in the eyes of the law, which still has been worked to protect women from being preyed upon. There is no clarity as to the working rights of the male sex worker. There is the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 (SITA), as the nation was a signatory to the United Nations International Convention for the ‘Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of Others’ of 1950. SITA was amended twice in 1978 and 1986. The 1978 amendment enhanced punishments for certain offences in the Act. The 1986 amendment changed the nomenclature of the Act as “The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956” (ITPA). One of the significant changes in the Act was that the phrase “women and girls” was replaced with “person” throughout the Act. This was done to include all persons, regardless of whether male or female, who were abused sexually for commercial purposes. Section 2(f) of the ITPA specifically says that the term “prostitute” is to be construed accordingly — which is to say that the word is to be interpreted as per the facts and circumstances of each individual case. The key is to interpret the statute with the legislative intent in mind ie, what was the intention of the Parliament when it first drafted the statute. Surely, the Parliament had no intention that it would protect the female but leave aside the male. The phrase “female prostitutes” was used only because in those days female prostitution was more common. As male prostitution has not been explicitly and expressly mentioned in the Act, the Indian judiciary is expected to incorporate the rules of natural justice, utilise the dynamic methods of statutory interpretation and give meaning to the word as per its best judgement.
Unless the male sex workers are protected, they will continue to be vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and prone to social exclusion, loss of esteem and drug and alcoholic dependence. It is, therefore, vital that males be legally protected with as much sanctions and restrictions like female sex workers. As the phrase of “women and girls” was substituted by “person” in the ITPA Act, all types of sex workers and their clients should be prosecuted at par, failing which it will be the violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
(The writer is a legal journalist)
