Male Sex Work and Society (44 page)

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Tags: #Psychology/Human Sexuality, #Social Science/Gay Studies, #SOC012000, #PSY016000

BOOK: Male Sex Work and Society

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Experiences of Childhood Abuse among Male Sex Workers

Many researchers exploring mental health issues among MSWs inquire about men’s experiences of abuse as children. The relationship between mental health issues among adult MSWs and childhood experiences of violence and abuse are undoubtedly complex. The few studies exploring this issue are limited by small, cross-sectional samples, and therefore cannot establish a causative relationship between childhood abuse and adult sex work. Nevertheless, rates of childhood sexual abuse appear to be alarmingly high among some samples of MSWs. Nearly one-half (5 out of 12) of a small sample of street-based MSWs in Dublin reported a history of childhood sexual abuse (McCabe et al., 2011). Over 40 percent of men in a sample of both street-based and Internet-based MSWs in the urban northeastern United States reported experiences of sexual abuse as children (Mimiaga et al., 2009). Over one-fourth (28.3 percent) of male escorts in another U.S. city reported a history of sexual abuse as children, and these men also had higher rates of internalized homophobia and reported greater sexual risk behavior with clients (Parsons et al., 2005). Among a sample of 30 male escorts in a rural area of the northeastern United States, only six men (20 percent) reported a history of childhood sexual abuse; however, a majority of the sample (67 percent) reported a history of childhood (nonsexual) physical abuse, which often was not measured in other samples. Overall, it appears that experiences of childhood abuse among MSWs may be common, although not always more common than among comparable samples of gay and bisexual men (Parsons et al., 2005). However, given the lack of large random samples of diverse MSWs, it is difficult to assess whether rates of childhood abuse are indeed higher among MSWs than they are among comparable samples of men who are not sex workers but do have sex with men.

Experiences of Violence among Male Sex Workers

Reported rates of adult experiences of violence or sexual assault at the hands of clients, law enforcement, or other perpetrators are similar to rates of childhood sexual abuse among MSWs. Among male escorts in a rural area in the northeastern U.S., 20 percent reported having experienced physical or sexual assault as adults; it was unclear whether the perpetrators were clients or other individuals (Smith & Seal, 2007). High rates (43.7 percent of sample n = 50) of sexual assault at the hands of clients were reported by young (ages 18-32) male Cambodian erotic masseurs (Davis & Miles, 2012). One-fourth of U.S. street-based and Internet-based MSWs reported experiencing sexual assault as an adult (Mimiaga et al., 2009). Another sample of MSWs from various sex work venues who were attending a sex worker health clinic in San Francisco reported high rates of “sex work related violence,” with 18 percent of the sample experiencing violence from clients, 3.2 percent from a third party (manager/employer/pimp), and 4.8 percent from police (Cohan et al., 2006). In another study, nearly half (48.83 percent) of the MSWs in a Brazilian sample reported experiencing violence at the hands of clients (Cortez, Prado, Boer, & Baltieri, 2011). In one sample of MSWs in the United Kingdom, sexual assault at the hands of clients was reported by just over 16 percent of men; many of these instances of violence related to disagreements over a client’s desire to have sex without condoms (Jamel, 2011). Taken together, these findings indicate that men working in the sex industry are vulnerable to victimization at the hands of clients, law enforcement, or other parties, contrary to the masculinist narrative of MSWs as agentic, and thus less vulnerable, than female sex workers (Dennis, 2008). Certainly, these accounts of MSWs as victims of violence at the hands of clients contradict earlier framing of MSWs, especially street-based MSWs, as antisocial and a danger to clients and the larger community (Kaye, 2003).

Conclusions

A limited number of meaningful conclusions can be drawn from studies reporting on mainly small and disparate samples of MSWs who are drawn primarily from Western developed nations. In fact, it might be fair to question the grouping of diverse populations, such as heterosexual men working the streets of Ireland, relatively privileged gay and bisexually identified male escorts advertising on the Internet in the urban northeastern United States, and impoverished male sex workers in Cambodia (Agustin, 2007; Pisani, 2008). Furthermore, the exploration of mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma among men working in the sex industry continues to reflect a paradigm of male sex work as a social problem (Bimbi, 2007; Scott, 2003), often neglecting an exploration of men’s psychological resilience, health, and coping strategies (Koken et al., 2007). Current research on the mental health of MSWs, sparse as it is, mainly represents the experiences of Western men and draws from samples that are quite small and lacking in diversity. This poses a significant limitation on our ability to draw any real conclusions about the mental health of MSWs as a population, but it does provide a good deal of direction for future research.

FIGURE 9.2

“Escort Tips of the Trade @ Work,” a handout from HOOK Online. Reprinted with permission from HOOK Online.

FIGURE 9.3

“Escort Tips of the Trade @ Work,” additional view of handout from HOOK Online. Reprinted with permission from HOOK Online.

In order to move beyond a patchwork of descriptive findings that report rates of mental health problems and experiences of violence among different groups of MSWs, a larger theoretical rationale must be developed to support grouping men under the heading of “sex workers” and determining which variables warrant study. The potential for reaching men working in the sex industry while sampling them within their larger communities also presents an opportunity to examine between-group and within-group diversity in samples of sex workers and non-sex workers. To identify predictors of mental health outcomes, longitudinal research must be conducted, ideally as part of a larger sample of men who may or may not engage in sex work. Some research has identified overlap between samples of MSWs and clients of sex workers (Koken, Parsons, Severino, & Bimbi, 2005; Pisani, 2008), which highlights the complexity of men’s positions within their larger communities and changes in sexual behavior over the lifespan. It is likely that such findings would be more widely reported if researchers were asking a broader variety of questions of their study participants. Finally, research that approaches sex work as only one aspect of a man’s life experience might lead to diversification in the representation of MSWs in the media and a shift in the cultural meanings attached to male sex work.

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