Today, from the Undergear people, hype for some loungewear that looks like it’s intended for rentboys in a male brothel — in particular a toga far removed from either ancient Rome or John Belushi in Animal House:
Note the well-worn double entendre on Greek. In fact, the smoldering young men are so taken with their sexy clothes and what they’re leading to that they’ve fallen into a line of iambic tetrameter (with the internal rhyme shapes – drapes).
On the left: P.O.V.® TOGA SLEEVELESS SHIRT & P.O.V.® TOGA CROPPED PANT [$49 & $38], with the ad copy:
Turn bedtime into your own private party with this sexy men’s loungewear from the P.O.V. Collection. Named for their alluring shape and silky drape, the P.O.V. Toga men’s sleeveless shirt and cropped pants are made from a light, airy blend of nylon/spandex with a sexy cutaway front. The lounge shirt’s sensual stripes, comfy pullover and cutaway front is sure to lead the way to the bedroom. The matching pants feature an elastic drawstring waist for a great fit and easy access.
And on the right: P.O.V.® TOGA ROBE [$55], with almost the same copy:
Turn bedtime into your own private party with this sexy sleeveless men’s robe from the P.O.V. Collection. Named for its alluring shape and silky drape, the P.O.V. Toga Robe for men is made from a light, airy blend of nylon/spandex with a sexy sleeveless design. The lounge robe’s sensual stripes, comfy hood and thin rope belt is sure to lead the way to the bedroom.
If these garments seem too modest and understated, Undergrear also offers some sheer black fishnetwear that will show off your junk for the enjoyment of your, um, companion of the evening; these can be viewed on AZBlogX, here, under the heading “Slutty loungewear”, along with a digression on the sarong.
Now on (male) hustlers, who also work under the names callboy, escort, and rentboy / rent-boy / rent boy. (Some trade on their careers as models, pornstars, or (sexual) masseurs, and advertise themselves under those job titles. Male sex worker now seems to be the technical term used most often by researchers on this world.) From Wikipedia:
Male prostitution is the act or practice of men providing sexual services, usually to other men, in return for payment. When compared to female prostitutes, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there may be differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.
[and back to the toga theme:] … Male brothels existed in both Ancient Greece and ancient Rome
There is, however, a fair amount of literature written primarily from “inside” the hustler world. Among the books in my library:
Adams, Matt. 1999. Hustlers, escorts, and porn stars: The insider’s guide to male prostitution in America. 2nd ed. Las Vegas NV: Insider’s Guide.
Dorais, Michel. 2005 [French original 2003]. Rent boys: The world of male sex workers. McGill-Queen’s Univ. Press.
Friedman, Mack. 2003. Strapped for cash: A history of American hustler culture. LA: Alyson Books. [the glossiest of these books]
Itiel, Joseph. A consumer’s guide to male hustlers. NY: Harrington Park Press.
– 2002. Sex workers as virtual boyfriends. NY: Harrington Park Press.
Lawrence, Aaron. 1999. Suburban hustler: Stories of a hi-tech callboy. Warren NJ: Late Night Press.
– 2000. The male escort’s handbook: Your guide to getting rich the hard way. Warren NJ: Late Night Press. [nuts and bolts for a guy who’s thinking about getting into the life]
Rechy, John. 1963. City of Night. NY: Grove Press. [fiction]
– 1967. Numbers. NY: Grove Press. [fiction]
– 1977. The sexual outlaw: A documentary. NY: Grove Press. [nonfiction]
Steward, Samuel. [writing as Phil Andros, a number of fiction books with hustler characters]
– 1991. Understanding the male hustler. NY: Harrington Park Press. [fiction presented as memoir]
Sycamore, Matt Bernstein. 2000. Tricks and treats: Sex workers write about their clients. NY: Harrington Park Press. [sex workers both male and female]
Whitaker, Rick. 1999. Assuming the position: A memoir of hustling. NY: Four Walls Eight Windows.
(Not all the authors have been able to resist the lure of jokey phrases in their titles: “getting rich the hard way”, “tricks and treats”, “assuming the position”.)
There is at least one documentary about guys in the life:
101 Rent Boys [produced/directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato] is a 2000 documentary film that explores the West Hollywood hustler scene. The producers recruited 101 hustlers from on and around Santa Monica Boulevard and paid each of them $50 for their time. The boys, who were from diverse ethnic, racial, regional and economic backgrounds, were interviewed in motel rooms on such topics as how they entered into prostitution, their sexual orientation, drugs and their first johns. The film focuses on a few of the boys more extensively while much smaller clips of other subjects are used. (link)
The film is, by turns, thought-provoking, funny, bleak, moving, and disturbing.
Meanwhile, the world of gay porn is packed with films featuring hustlers; the rentboy looking for love, or finding it unexpectedly, is a recurrent theme of the genre (which often veers between romance and hard-driving sex), though sometimes the hustler life is just an easy hook to hang a series of sex scenes on. And then there’s the puppy-dog enthusiasm of the guy who runs the Gay Rentboys site:
I travel the world looking for the hottest hustlers money can buy, film my interactions with them like reality style TV, and get them to have hot gay sex for my cameras. Then I review them for you. I love to get these hot and horny young guys to do all kinds of kinky stuff like pissing on each other and getting straight hustlers to get gay fucked for the first time. Currently my site features US rent boys, Czech rent boys and Thai rent boys and I will be filming in a city near you soon!
(Regular readers of this blog will have noticed the verb gay fucked, of course.)
