A Consumer's Guide to Male Hustlers Read Online Free PDF Page A

come into being when telephones became widely available, and service cheap enough to be readily affordable.
    Throughout history there have been male whorehouses, with male prostitutes on the premises. They were much more the norm, at least in some cities, before the advent of the telephone. (Now there are model agencies that do referrals and take a cut from the model's fee.) Male bordellos go far back in history. Phaedo, one of Socrates's most famous students, had worked (involuntarily, as a war captive) in one of the many male bordellos of ancient Athens, where the philosopher met him. See Sexual Variance in Society and History , Vern L. Bullough (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 113. There are still plenty of places in the world where one can find male bordellos. A few random examples: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Tokyo, Quezon City.
    I do not intend to deal extensively with male whorehouses. The dynamics in a bordello are very different from the street hustling or "model" scenes—precisely because in-house whores are employees, not independent contractors.
     
    4 . There is nothing modern about hustlers performing only certain sexual acts or imposing a surcharge when called upon to do more. "A Guardsman [England, end of the nineteenth century] might charge extra for taking an 'active' role in anal intercourse [taking a 'real liberty'] but would baulk at taking a 'passive' role." Quoted in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past , edited by Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chancey, Jr. (New York: New American Library, 1989), p. 210.
    In many ways, street hustlers are even more independent than models. They observe no time frame, adhere to no schedule, make appointments reluctantly, and rarely keep them. They can walk away from clients they dislike. Doing so is a much stickier scenario for models, both with in and out calls.
    Because hustlers are often regarded as the counterpart of female prostitutes, it is vital to understand the independent-contractor nature of hustling. Female prostitution brings a lot of heavy baggage with it: vicious pimps; strong males beating up weaker females; venereal diseases; and the tremendous difficulties facing "fallen women" who want to liberate themselves from this trade.
    This kind of baggage has little or nothing to do with the male hustler. He has no pimps to answer to, is physically as strong as— often stronger than—his client, is as likely or unlikely to spread venereal diseases as any other casual gay-sex partner (a subject I'll discuss at length later), and can weave in and out of the hustling scene relatively easily. 5
    5 . I interviewed many Filipino CBs (the local abbreviation for "call boys") for my guidebook to the Philippines [ Philippine Diary: A Gay Guide to the Philippines , Joseph Itiel (San Francisco: International Wavelength, 1989)]. In spite of their terrible living conditions (p. 50), and their abysmal poverty, the CBs were, in general, a happy-go-lucky lot. The real complainers were the CBs who worked in casas —male whorehouses. Their complaints were similar to those of employees everywhere: the management was screwing them. (A few complained that it was more than just a figurative screwing.)
    In my time in San Francisco, there have been very few male whorehouses. However, there have always been referral agencies, which take a commission from the hustlers' fees. Here, too, complaints (mostly about favoritism) abound. In a whorehouse, the male prostitute, just like the female, cannot weave in and out of the job.
    When a hustler ceases being an independent contractor, he gives up his freedom and becomes an employee. Though this might be to his financial advantage, as an employee he loses his freedom to be completely independent (and irresponsible, if that is what he wants) and is more likely to regard himself as a male whore, with all the prejudices this term connotes.
    Female prostitution, by definition,