Panoramic and provocative in its scope, this handbook is the definitive guide to contemporary issues associated with male sex work and a must read for those who study masculinities, male sexuality, sexual health, and sexual cultures.

This groundbreaking volume will have a powerful impact on our understanding of this challenging, elusive subject. While the internet has brought the previously hidden worlds of male sex work more starkly into public view, academic research has often remained locked into descriptions of male sex workers and their clients as perverse. Drawing from a variety of regions, the chapters provide insights into the historical, popular cultural, social, and economic aspects of sex work, as well as demographic patterns, health outcomes, and policy issues. This approach shifts thought on male sex work from a hidden "social problem" to a publicly acknowledged "social phenomenon." The book challenges myths and reconceptualizes male sex work as a discrete field. Importantly, it provides a vehicle for the voices of male sex workers and new and established scholars. This richly detailed, humane, and innovative collection retrieves male sex work from silence and invisibility on the one hand and its association with scandal and stigma on the other. The findings within have profound implications for how governments approach public health and regulation of the sex industry and for how society can make sense of the complexities of human sexualities.

A compelling scholarly read and a major contribution to a commercial sector that is often neglected in policy debates on sex work, this handbook will be of great interest to scholars of criminology, sociology, gender studies, and cultural studies and all those interested in male sex work.

Author: John Scott
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 01/09/2023
Series: Routledge International Handbooks
Pages: 628
Weight: 2.3lbs
Size: 9.69h x 6.85w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780367716042

About the Author

John Scott, PhD, is a professor and the head of the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Trained as a sociologist, John has published widely on a range of themes, including sexual and gendered crime, and is passionate about the promotion of social research from the global south. He co-edits the International Journal for Crime , Justice and Social Democracy , and his recent work includes the co-authored Southern Criminology (Routledge, 2018).

Christian Grov, PhD, MPH, is a professor in the Department of Community Health and Social Sciences at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. He is the editor of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Dr. Grov's research focuses on the sexual health and well-being of sexual and gender minority individuals, with a substantial body of research on sex work, including having co-authored the book In the Company of Men: Inside the Lives of Male Prostitutes .

Victor Minichiello, PhD, is an adjunct professor at the School of Social Justice at Queensland University of Technology and an emeritus professor at University of New England in Australia. He has published a number of pioneering books that shaped the field of HIV/AIDS, gerontology, and qualitative research in Australia. His research on ageism, sexual health, and sexualities is internationally recognized. He pioneered a number of landmark quantitative and qualitative studies on male sex work in the early 1990s, when the topic was considered highly controversial and a taboo among funding bodies and mainstream society.