While much is known about prostitution and sex work from studies of female sex workers and their customers, relatively little is known about men who sell sex, either to women or other men. Particularly poorly understood are their motivations for doing so, the circumstances in which the sale of sex occurs, the meanings attached to the acts by both sex worker and client, and the HIV-related risks involved. Each chapter, written by a national expert, is based on months and even years of interviews with male sex workers, including young boys and elderly men in some countries. The workers discuss why they do the work, what it is like, and what their behavior means to them. For example, those who have regular sex with men often strenuously affirm their heterosexuality, though there is considerable variety in their attitudes. Each chapter relates the experiences of the male sex workers to the political economy of their neighborhood and assesses the implications of their work for HIV transmission and the AIDS epidemic. The researchers and the sex workers discuss the value of different kinds of health promotion interventions.

About the Author
Peter Aggleton, Director of the Thomas Coram Research Unite, Institute of Education, University of London, is the author or editor of half a dozen books on AIDS.

Reviews
"What is exciting about this book is that it crosses so many boundaries, bringing together as it does accounts from every continent and from a wide range of disciplines. The various authors seek to situate sex-work within a range of frameworks: sociological and psychological, but also historical (Sri Lanka), economic (Britain and the United States), political (Brazil), legal (Canada), even linguistic (Thailand)." -Dennis Altman, from the Foreword "This international collection was put together to be a multi-national response to the lack of information about male prostitution throughout the world. Spanning Europe, Latin America, India, and North Africa, this collection of policy recommendations is put together from interviews with the prostitutes by regional experts, who also offer recommendations on the value of different kinds of health promotion and intervention efforts." -Lambda Book Report "Each chapter provides fascinating data, gathered primarily through interviews and ethnographies, on the lives of men in this occupation... This volume is the first to bring together male prostitution in a global perspective...[and it] makes contributions to studies of sexuality and lesbians in the workplace as well as to military sociology. By implication, it also makes important contributions to public policy debates on gays in the military." -Contemporary Sociology "A big asset of the book is the inclusion of sex workers' narratives... [this book offers] original and important contributions to a nascent area of study... [and] constitute[s] an enlightening reading for health and sex educators and a welcome addition to the literature on sexuality and gender." -Journal of Sex Research



Book Information
ISBN 9781566396691
Author Peter Aggleton
Format Paperback
Page Count 282
Imprint Temple University Press,U.S.
Publisher Temple University Press,U.S.
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 23mm