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

homes probably have a less stressful existence than many other workers. (Of course, they do experience some stress, especially on the first date with a client.) Their unique advantage is that most of their clients, certainly not all, understand that if they want hustlers to show them a good time, they need to be nice to them. In the real world, bosses and supervisors often go out of their way to be nasty to their subordinates. Also, like any other independent contractor, a hustler is free to discontinue his working relationship with a client he does not like. Most people in the work place have to put up with the same untenable situations for years on end! 8
    8 . Arguably, the fact that hustlers get paid so much for doing relatively very little may not be good for them psychologically.
    Some hustlers buy into society's view that hustling is degrading. 9 Ironically, it is the degradation imputed to hustling that senselessly drives up the fees of the practitioners. Hustlers do not earn as much as one would think when reading their ads. This point will be discussed at length later on. But they do get a spectacular amount of money for relatively easy and fast work. Just look at sample 4!
    9. John Preston, a former hustler himself, writes, "Underneath the contempt that some people hold about prostitution is the strong pattern of contempt for sex. ... If you believe that sex is good by itself without needing the justification of romance, then why shouldn't it be purchased honorably from a man who sees himself as possessing something worthwhile?" Hustling: A Gentlemen's Guide to the Fine Art of Homosexual Prostitution , John Preston (New York: Masquerade Books, 1994), pp. 26-27.
    I know personally one of the advertisers in the above sample. He is a part-time hustler. Recently, he was very proud when he obtained a data-input job at $12 per hour, a $4 raise from his previous work. The job involves a one-hour commute each way, with a schedule that ruins both his days and evenings, and robs him of his weekends. As a hustler he works out of his home, is picked up by his clients, or is given cab fare. He charges somewhere between $75 and $100 for about an hour of his time. Often clients add a tip.
    A fair and very generous compensation for his services, based on what he can he earn at a regular job, would be $25. Throw in another $5 to cover his ad and phone expense, and make it $30. He would be delighted to make that much money at any part-time job, except when working as a hustler. The markup is a compensation for the imputed degradation of male prostitution, to make it "worth his while." Miraculously, at $100 per session, the "degradation" of prostitution becomes a yuppie "modeling" or "escorting" job. 10
    10. Hiring hustlers anywhere in the world, whether hustling there is legal, illegal, or in legal limbo, is never an inexpensive proposition. I suspect that it is the nature of the profession, not its legal status, that allows hustlers to charge as much as they do.
     

 
    Chapter 3
    Hustling—A Vocation?
     
     
    In the late 1970s, an enterprising San Franciscan came up with a neat idea. He would go through the hustlers' ads in the gay papers, make anonymous dates with the advertisers, and rate their services by awarding them stars. He called his publication David's World . For a while, some San Francisco hustler ads would state: "* * * in David's World ." Few ads displayed four stars—the highest possible ranking. And, needless to say, no hustler advertised a low ranking in David's World . Most displayed three stars.
    Alfonso, a model, told me about the rating method, after he himself had gone through the interview. To attain a four-star rating a hustler had to be reasonably attractive, well-groomed, have a pleasant personality, and live in a presentable environment. He also had to be able to perform adequately the following tasks: make good body contact, be willing to screw and be screwed, blow, and French kiss. Alfonso, who did