Meta: Rentboy!fic and the Sex industry. Squicks, kinks, reality and fandom
Rentboy!fic and the Sex industry. Squicks, kinks, reality and fandom and the intersection between them
Moderated by jamethiel_bane
Squicks, kinks, reality
and fandom and the intersection between them
Beta'd by the wonderful sageness , elementalv , sansets and the_antichris . Any remaining mistakes are mine own.
First of all, let me preface this with a disclaimer. For researching this meta, I contacted sex industry workers in Australia. Prostitution is decriminalised in some states in Australia. This changes the industry dramatically: what I have written here may not apply to your country. My sources didn't wish to be named, and are many and varied. A lot of information was taken from resourcing health and Education in the Sex Industry (rhED)--an awesome organisation that respects and reflects the sex industry and is committed to actively promoting the rights of sex workers.
Statistics are difficult to find on other countries: because of illegality, most activity is hidden. I was extremely lucky to have contacts in the sex industry, and to have those contacts be willing to talk to me and refer other people on to talk to me. I really don't
know how one would research this industry in a country where it is illegal.
Decriminalisation has changed the profile of the sex industry enormously, but, oddly enough,
not the profile of the male sex work industry. There are two brothels with a "stable" of male sex workers in Victoria. There are more parlours with transgendered sex workers, but the bulk of the male sex workers work as they always have: in escort services.
Secondly, I choose to concentrate on slash fiction, and therefore male/male prostitution. Male/female and het is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, and I choose to ignore it, for now.
Language: sex workers refer to each other as boys, but management refers to them as "gentlemen" or "workers". They don't refer to each as "whore", and "hooker" is considered a perjorative term, generally only used by parlour or escort workers about street workers. Customers are referred to as clients (never Johns), and having sex with a client is known as giving a "service".
The real life sex industry. The whys, wherefores and hows.
Why do people pay for sex? The reasons are many and varied: some people have needs that their partners won't/can't fulfill. Some people just want sex, and paying for it is more of a sure thing than going out and
cruising a bar. Some people like the anonymity and lack of emotional entanglements that come with paying a sex worker. There are a hundred reasons, and I'm sure you can think of heaps that I am not listing. What is more interesting than the whys of the clients is the why of the sex workers.
Why do men become sex workers?
The overwhelming reason is money. Certainly there are other reasons driving men to need the money (rates of addiction are spectacularly high), but it all comes down to money. While there may be some sex workers out there whose primary reasons are sexual, interestingly enough, Brothel/escort service managers are reluctant to employ them. A physical compulsion to have sex overwhelming enough
to drive a worker into the sex industry is likely to make them an unreliable worker, and will possibly lead to risky behaviours that would damage the reputation of the brothel. Also, it doesn't lead to the world's best "service". And a worker who is unreliable (although no worker is ever truly reliable: it's such a high-stress job that some unreliability is considered normal. But there are degrees and degrees) actively loses you money.
Self-image and esteem also plays a very strong role--some studies show that 90% of people in the sex industry have been abused in some form or another in their childhood and early adulthood. There is a strong correlation between lack of education and job opportunities and becoming a sex worker: initially, it seems like good money for easy work, even though the job is one of the more high-stress jobs around. But a lot of people are poor--why don't more people become prostitutes?
There is a certain frame of mind, bought about by grinding poverty, chronic illness and abuse in many forms. A--I guess the best word I can think of for it is disassociation between the mind/perception of self and the body, where the body is seen as a commodity rather than as a part of themselves. It's a protection against bad things that have happened in their lives previously, and it enables people to become prostitutes. However, prostitution only reinforces the disassociation, as their body literally is a commodity. Decriminalisation has gone a long way to ensuring that these people do not get stuck in the sex industry forever: with no arrests for soliciting on their records, sex workers will find it easier to get mainstream jobs. However, it does not address the issues that drive people into the sex industry. But then, nothing except fixing abuse, poverty and desperation will do.
Every brothel has to have a licensed manager on premises, during hours of operation. Hours of operation are set by the local council in the area, which has to abide by the laws governing brothels as set out by the state government. To become a manager, an application is made (and a fee is paid) to the Business and Licensing Authority (BLA). They set a test, based on the legislation, and perform a police check, as part of the push to get organised crime out of the industry. A licensed manager is required to inform the BLA which brothel/s they are working for (rarely enforced), and to make sure the legislation is enforced.
Drugs are illegal in brothels. The police have automatic right of entry and search, providing certain conditions are met (they don't need a warrant) and if drugs--any drugs, even legal ones like alcohol are found on premises, the manager can have their license, without which they can't work, yanked and the brothel can lose its license as well. This ensures that managers are fairly draconian about drugs on premises--which means that sex workers who are addicted to drugs, and can't go without a hit for six to eight hours (the length of a shift. Sex workers are generally not permitted to leave the premises for the length of their shift) will end up on the street, not in brothels.
Street workers are either addicted to drugs, or underage. For rentboys, also, there is an element of shame: they feel that working in an street environment, alone and not in the company of other prostitutes is somehow more shameful and less secretive/discreet than working in a brothel. There are just about no other reasons that a worker would choose to work on the street, rather than in the security of a brothel or escort service. If a worker objects to the brothel's "cut" (a portion of the fee paid by the client goes to the brothel to pay overheads, staff, managers, etc) they might apply for a license to run an escort service for themselves, but that requires passing the background/police checks that the BLA performs when granting a license. And also, they would need to pay tax. The taxation industry is quite hungry for the revenue from the sex industry-- they actually stage
raids on brothels and regularly subpoena records. This is what happens when a largely cash industry suddenly becomes open to taxation! However, with 500 brothels currently in operation in Victoria, and the industry still operating on a cash basis, it's very difficult to track and enforce.
Escort agencies also need to have a license, but under the conditions of that license, no services can take place on premises.
Prices and earning capabilities
These are the prices as they currently exist in the state of Victoria. This is mostly anecdotal (sex workers telling me the average) with calls to about five parlours/escort services to ascertain if they fit within the average.
In a parlour, it is around $170-$200 for an hour's service, with the worker receiving about $100. Half hour services are available, at around $120-$150, with the worker receiving $60-$75. A worker will generally only see, at a maximum, about 3-4 clients a night.
Most of the male sex worker industry is based around the escort business. Prices vary a lot more than for a brothel, and quite often are based on the negotiating skills of the worker. In general, they tend to be higher (from $200-$300, depending on how far away the booking is and how much of a regular the client is.) Most bookings are an hour, occasionally going for longer. On a busy night, an escort would see 4 to 5 clients. The agency takes a fee (usually $80), the driver is paid ($20 for short jobs, $50-80 for longer jobs) and whatever is left over is for the escort.
Gay for pay: sexuality
There is an interesting dichotomy between female sex
workers and male sex workers. Female sex workers tend to have much more defined boundaries ("I don't do ...") whereas male sex workers have a much more limited clientele (it is rare for females to employ a male sex worker; this is generally a very specialised niche) and so their own personal sexuality becomes more or less irrelevant. Male sex workers define themselves as everything from gay to straight, transgender, pre-op and post-op. While this affects the kind of clients that choose them, it doesn't generally affect how they view their sexuality outside of
work. I talked to sex workers who have had sex with over one hundred male clients, who defined themselves as straight.
When asked if work was pleasurable, most sex workers are equivocal. It's not totally horrible--sex workers who find it traumatic tend to leave within a very short period of time. However, most sex workers compartmentalize to an incredible extent: sex with a client is a "service", and a distinction is drawn between ejaculation and orgasm. Which, as far as I could gather, were exactly the same physical chain of events. The line appears to be in the emotional component: with a client, it's ejaculation. With a partner, it's orgasm. This allows the workers themselves to have sexual relationships outside of
work, but unless their partner is someone who has been in/is in the industry, it is very difficult to maintain a relationship.
Top or Bottom
Strangely enough, sex workers who are capable of "switch-hitting" are very, VERY rare indeed. Most sex workers tend either to be a top or a bottom. Tops are rarer than bottoms, but when I asked, a source couldn't say whether it was due to lack of customer demand, or the difficulty of reliable performance. It generally runs at about a 3:1 ratio of bottoms to tops.
Faking Sexual Arousal, or: Viagra is your friend
For a bottom, arousal is irrelevant. You would think that the ability to get an erection on command is an essential skill for a sex worker, but to quote my anonymous source: "Hon, you're just there to get fucked. I don't think they really CARE if you get a hard-on or not." Unless the client was absolutely awful as a top, the more experienced a bottom is, the more likely they are to get an erection while giving a service. It's Pavlovian conditioning to an extent, and relates back to the difference that sex workers draw between orgasm and ejaculation.
For a top, Viagra is their friend. Again, it also becomes a Pavlovian response: the more experienced a worker is, the easier they find it because the body is conditioned and knows that pleasure is coming. Before Viagra, there were nasal sprays, and before those, there were very, very few tops.
Most sex workers are adept at faking sexual arousal, but were actively uncomfortable when asked about feeling real sexual arousal with a client. Answers ranged from "Never" to "A guy bangs your prostate enough, you're going to ejaculate. It's simple mechanics" to "Yeah, look, sometimes. But it's more about the sex than the client. Sort of, the sex happens to you and it's good, but it's more internal than actually connected to the client." One worker put it more explicitly: "You do feel arousal. But, you can't get lost in it, because then you would start going after your pleasure rather than theirs, and it's about them. It's a service. You get to be selfish with your lovers."
The consensus also seems to be that concentrating on the pleasure leads to loss of control, which, apart from potentially giving a bad service to clients is also risky for the worker. Too much enjoyment in the ejaculation caused during services adds to the self-esteem problems that most sex workers suffer from: to quote one worker, "If I'm enjoying this, it must mean I'm a whore." It blurs the lines between work and pleasure--a boundary difficult enough to set in the first place.
Security, policy and procedures
There is a definite class system in place in the sex industry. Street workers are the lowest tier on the ladder: work is dangerous, hours are long, there is danger. It's illegal, they have to constantly keep an eye out for police, but the more they move around, the less likely they are to attract a client. Brothel or escort workers look down on street workers.
Most brothels have security, either on premises, or a phonecall away. An escort has a driver and a mobile phone. The worker rings five minutes after arriving in the room--a lot of the time, that is enough to tell a worker if the client is actively dangerous. At 10-15 minutes to the end of the alloted time, the driver calls the worker. If the worker DOESN'T answer the phone, emergency procedures are put into place. This may include breaking into the room, and/or
calling the police. Different escort services have different procedures, but they are generally a variation on this.
Male street workers are a lot less blatant than female street workers. They don't associate much in groups, only the transvestites actually "work the streets". They hang around in parks, alone. Places with plenty of dark corners. It is primarily a youthful industry: it is very rare to see a male worker over the age of 35.
Other stuff
Protection is always, ALWAYS used in brothels. There may be one or two sex workers who are prepared to accept extra for giving blowjobs without condoms, but management will hear about it, and not allow that worker to work again in their parlour. It's illegal, and doesn't make sense for prolonging the working life of their workers. They're also sneered at by the other sex workers.
In escort services, it is up to the individual worker as to whether they use a condom for fellatio or not. It's still technically illegal to not use one, but it is more difficult to police than in a brothel: management is more or less resigned to the fact that they cannot control what goes on in the rooms off their premises.
Street workers unfortunately don't always use protection. However, there are
outreach/support groups out there who are attempting to get them to, and there has been some small measure of success (as evidenced by the used condoms I saw as I walked down the
streets of St Kilda. Which, ewww, but at least they're using them!)
Anal sex without a condom is frowned on by just about everyone: no worker I spoke to admitted to doing it consensually with a client.
And now the the disjunct- Rentboy!fic.
How's that for a segue? Actually, I couldn't think of a more harmonious transition, so this is it.
I adore Rentboy!fic. I don't know why, I just do. Everything politically correct in me tells me I shouldn't. My own experiences with researching this essay tell me that there is not a lot of correlation between the real life sex industry and rentboy!fic. Yet still, I read it. And hopefully, this post will inspire people to write more!
In general, in my *cough* research for this section of the essay (which may have included reading every rentboy
fic I could find) I was able to identify five subtypes of fic.
The Pretty Woman fic, aka Twuuu Wuv¹ comes riding to the rescue
Okay. We've all seen the film. Worker encounters client. Client pays forservice. Worker and client fall in love, whereupon client takes worker away from all this and they all live happily ever after.
This is the archetype I have the most serious problems with. I have read some EXCELLENT fics in this archetype, but it has an attitude of work in the sex industry as inherently degrading, that no worker has the power to change their lives with out the rescue of the Twuu Wuv. Largely, the reason I have such large distaste for this particular archetype is the power balance. It actually plays into roles of traditional gender stereotyping, which is certainly interesting to do within the confines of slash fanfic. Some things to think about anyway.
A subtype of this plot: Sexual healing
Where a worker or ex-worker meets our Hero, and our Hero teaches him to feel again.
Certainly, the extreme disassociation between sex and love that sex workers need to be in the industry and the attendant physical and mental
issues that go with this, either as a cause or effect, can be very trying for a relationship. I applaud the authors for recognising this. The trouble is, that this kind of emotional damage is best dealt with by a trained professional, not by a partner who has a vested interest in the outcome.
Actually, that would be really interesting--to read this kind of fic where the author shows the stresses that therapy puts on a relationship, or where the partner's possible ulterior motives actually hinder the course of the Sexual Healing. I don't think I've read any of those fics--if they exist, and are out there, leave me a link in the comments. Or you could write it. That would be fantastic.
Overall, I feel that
the Sexual Healing scenario is a combination of hurt/comfort, and a use of the sex industry as a means of denoting a power dynamic where, once again, the sex worker is unempowered. But! It is possible to play with these archetypes, so go! Have fun!
The Undercover fic
Or, I'm really gay for my partner, watch me discover it.
It is possible that my huge. Huge and somewhat inappropriate love for this genre of fic biases me here. I think, meta-wise, that it has the underlying theme of freedom from societal constraints which have prevented them from discovering/declaring their love. Why should being
undercover as a rentboy make this easier? I have NO IDEA. But I still love the stories.
Also, I have noticed a huge element of objectification in these fics: the partner going undercover is usually dressed in skimpy, revealing clothes which they would never wear in a million years. Maybe the whole genre is an excuse for us to dress Ray in tight cut-offs.
Ummm...
Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. I was saying something. Objectification! That's
it!
Possibly this reflects fandom being a mostly-female space? That after years of being objectified by society, this is our revenge? Maybe women find objectifying men just as hot, and this is an outlet! I don't know. What do you think?
Seekrit Rentboy Past, or Public Persona/Private Acts.
This is probably the subtype of rentboy!fic that I have the most affection for. Jim discovers Blair (Look, it could be. Or it could be Fraser and Ray, or Rodney and John. Go with it! Whatever works for you!)² worked as a rentboy when younger. Or maybe he still works as a rentboy. Cue obsessing and imagining.
This is about possession. Obsession. The desire to know your lover, know everything about your lover. It can also be used as (as with the "Undercover" fic to signal a change in the relationship, enabling one character to see another in a sexual way.
This fic can deal with sex and shame, but usually does so in a positive way. This is one of the few rentboy!subtypes that doesn't disempower the character that was/is a sex worker. Instead, the partner who discovers it is usually made to face up to some private kinks that they didn't know they had. It's a vehicle for forcing self-discovery, AND for equating the sex worker as an uninhibited sexual being. Which isn't usually the case, but it's nice to read.
In real life, jealousy is a
crippling force on a relationship. A large proportion of sex workers are not able to sustain relationships outside the industry, leading to them further being trapped.
I'm not sure that I actually would like this subtype to reflect real life more. I like the fact that no-one gets demeaned (or if they do, it gets fixed), and that being a sex worker is not automatically equated with being powerless.
The Journey Through Hades, or the effects of current sex work on an established relationship
This type of fic is the rarest around. As a matter of fact, I can only think of two that I know of: one Numb3rs one, and a Mag 7 that I have heard about but haven't been able to source. If there are more out there, let me know!
This is where the sex industry and sex work is used as a form of trial for our heroes. Whether it's the non-sex worker trying to hold on, or the sex worker trying to work AND maintain a relationship, if thought is put into this it is probably the most realistic of the rentboy!subgenres. The main problem I have with it is reconciling the sex industry the writer depicts with the one I discovered doing these interviews. But hey, this is fanfic- we're ALL ABOUT suspension of disbelief.
And in conclusion
I would like to see more rentboy!fic. I would like to see more research put into the real life sex industry. While I am not prepared to put you in touch with my sources, I am certainly happy to answer any questions you might have.
If you disagree with me, about anything, LET ME KNOW! I would love to discuss this and am remarkably hard to offend. If you found this useful, if you didn't, if you don't think this is at all relevant.
So. That's it from me! Now, any questions? Comments? Bueller?
¹ Yes, I HAVE watched The Princess Bride too many times. Shut up.
² Sigh. I would like to apologise for any brainstrain caused by the overuse of parentheticals in this meta. If it's any consolation, I did make myself go through and take half of them out, so it could have been much worse. Also, I actually talk this way.
Moderated by jamethiel_bane
Squicks, kinks, reality
and fandom and the intersection between them
Beta'd by the wonderful sageness , elementalv , sansets and the_antichris . Any remaining mistakes are mine own.
First of all, let me preface this with a disclaimer. For researching this meta, I contacted sex industry workers in Australia. Prostitution is decriminalised in some states in Australia. This changes the industry dramatically: what I have written here may not apply to your country. My sources didn't wish to be named, and are many and varied. A lot of information was taken from resourcing health and Education in the Sex Industry (rhED)--an awesome organisation that respects and reflects the sex industry and is committed to actively promoting the rights of sex workers.
Statistics are difficult to find on other countries: because of illegality, most activity is hidden. I was extremely lucky to have contacts in the sex industry, and to have those contacts be willing to talk to me and refer other people on to talk to me. I really don't
know how one would research this industry in a country where it is illegal.
Decriminalisation has changed the profile of the sex industry enormously, but, oddly enough,
not the profile of the male sex work industry. There are two brothels with a "stable" of male sex workers in Victoria. There are more parlours with transgendered sex workers, but the bulk of the male sex workers work as they always have: in escort services.
Secondly, I choose to concentrate on slash fiction, and therefore male/male prostitution. Male/female and het is a whole 'nother kettle of fish, and I choose to ignore it, for now.
Language: sex workers refer to each other as boys, but management refers to them as "gentlemen" or "workers". They don't refer to each as "whore", and "hooker" is considered a perjorative term, generally only used by parlour or escort workers about street workers. Customers are referred to as clients (never Johns), and having sex with a client is known as giving a "service".
The real life sex industry. The whys, wherefores and hows.
Why do people pay for sex? The reasons are many and varied: some people have needs that their partners won't/can't fulfill. Some people just want sex, and paying for it is more of a sure thing than going out and
cruising a bar. Some people like the anonymity and lack of emotional entanglements that come with paying a sex worker. There are a hundred reasons, and I'm sure you can think of heaps that I am not listing. What is more interesting than the whys of the clients is the why of the sex workers.
Why do men become sex workers?
The overwhelming reason is money. Certainly there are other reasons driving men to need the money (rates of addiction are spectacularly high), but it all comes down to money. While there may be some sex workers out there whose primary reasons are sexual, interestingly enough, Brothel/escort service managers are reluctant to employ them. A physical compulsion to have sex overwhelming enough
to drive a worker into the sex industry is likely to make them an unreliable worker, and will possibly lead to risky behaviours that would damage the reputation of the brothel. Also, it doesn't lead to the world's best "service". And a worker who is unreliable (although no worker is ever truly reliable: it's such a high-stress job that some unreliability is considered normal. But there are degrees and degrees) actively loses you money.
Self-image and esteem also plays a very strong role--some studies show that 90% of people in the sex industry have been abused in some form or another in their childhood and early adulthood. There is a strong correlation between lack of education and job opportunities and becoming a sex worker: initially, it seems like good money for easy work, even though the job is one of the more high-stress jobs around. But a lot of people are poor--why don't more people become prostitutes?
There is a certain frame of mind, bought about by grinding poverty, chronic illness and abuse in many forms. A--I guess the best word I can think of for it is disassociation between the mind/perception of self and the body, where the body is seen as a commodity rather than as a part of themselves. It's a protection against bad things that have happened in their lives previously, and it enables people to become prostitutes. However, prostitution only reinforces the disassociation, as their body literally is a commodity. Decriminalisation has gone a long way to ensuring that these people do not get stuck in the sex industry forever: with no arrests for soliciting on their records, sex workers will find it easier to get mainstream jobs. However, it does not address the issues that drive people into the sex industry. But then, nothing except fixing abuse, poverty and desperation will do.
Every brothel has to have a licensed manager on premises, during hours of operation. Hours of operation are set by the local council in the area, which has to abide by the laws governing brothels as set out by the state government. To become a manager, an application is made (and a fee is paid) to the Business and Licensing Authority (BLA). They set a test, based on the legislation, and perform a police check, as part of the push to get organised crime out of the industry. A licensed manager is required to inform the BLA which brothel/s they are working for (rarely enforced), and to make sure the legislation is enforced.
Drugs are illegal in brothels. The police have automatic right of entry and search, providing certain conditions are met (they don't need a warrant) and if drugs--any drugs, even legal ones like alcohol are found on premises, the manager can have their license, without which they can't work, yanked and the brothel can lose its license as well. This ensures that managers are fairly draconian about drugs on premises--which means that sex workers who are addicted to drugs, and can't go without a hit for six to eight hours (the length of a shift. Sex workers are generally not permitted to leave the premises for the length of their shift) will end up on the street, not in brothels.
Street workers are either addicted to drugs, or underage. For rentboys, also, there is an element of shame: they feel that working in an street environment, alone and not in the company of other prostitutes is somehow more shameful and less secretive/discreet than working in a brothel. There are just about no other reasons that a worker would choose to work on the street, rather than in the security of a brothel or escort service. If a worker objects to the brothel's "cut" (a portion of the fee paid by the client goes to the brothel to pay overheads, staff, managers, etc) they might apply for a license to run an escort service for themselves, but that requires passing the background/police checks that the BLA performs when granting a license. And also, they would need to pay tax. The taxation industry is quite hungry for the revenue from the sex industry-- they actually stage
raids on brothels and regularly subpoena records. This is what happens when a largely cash industry suddenly becomes open to taxation! However, with 500 brothels currently in operation in Victoria, and the industry still operating on a cash basis, it's very difficult to track and enforce.
Escort agencies also need to have a license, but under the conditions of that license, no services can take place on premises.
Prices and earning capabilities
These are the prices as they currently exist in the state of Victoria. This is mostly anecdotal (sex workers telling me the average) with calls to about five parlours/escort services to ascertain if they fit within the average.
In a parlour, it is around $170-$200 for an hour's service, with the worker receiving about $100. Half hour services are available, at around $120-$150, with the worker receiving $60-$75. A worker will generally only see, at a maximum, about 3-4 clients a night.
Most of the male sex worker industry is based around the escort business. Prices vary a lot more than for a brothel, and quite often are based on the negotiating skills of the worker. In general, they tend to be higher (from $200-$300, depending on how far away the booking is and how much of a regular the client is.) Most bookings are an hour, occasionally going for longer. On a busy night, an escort would see 4 to 5 clients. The agency takes a fee (usually $80), the driver is paid ($20 for short jobs, $50-80 for longer jobs) and whatever is left over is for the escort.
Gay for pay: sexuality
There is an interesting dichotomy between female sex
workers and male sex workers. Female sex workers tend to have much more defined boundaries ("I don't do ...") whereas male sex workers have a much more limited clientele (it is rare for females to employ a male sex worker; this is generally a very specialised niche) and so their own personal sexuality becomes more or less irrelevant. Male sex workers define themselves as everything from gay to straight, transgender, pre-op and post-op. While this affects the kind of clients that choose them, it doesn't generally affect how they view their sexuality outside of
work. I talked to sex workers who have had sex with over one hundred male clients, who defined themselves as straight.
When asked if work was pleasurable, most sex workers are equivocal. It's not totally horrible--sex workers who find it traumatic tend to leave within a very short period of time. However, most sex workers compartmentalize to an incredible extent: sex with a client is a "service", and a distinction is drawn between ejaculation and orgasm. Which, as far as I could gather, were exactly the same physical chain of events. The line appears to be in the emotional component: with a client, it's ejaculation. With a partner, it's orgasm. This allows the workers themselves to have sexual relationships outside of
work, but unless their partner is someone who has been in/is in the industry, it is very difficult to maintain a relationship.
Top or Bottom
Strangely enough, sex workers who are capable of "switch-hitting" are very, VERY rare indeed. Most sex workers tend either to be a top or a bottom. Tops are rarer than bottoms, but when I asked, a source couldn't say whether it was due to lack of customer demand, or the difficulty of reliable performance. It generally runs at about a 3:1 ratio of bottoms to tops.
Faking Sexual Arousal, or: Viagra is your friend
For a bottom, arousal is irrelevant. You would think that the ability to get an erection on command is an essential skill for a sex worker, but to quote my anonymous source: "Hon, you're just there to get fucked. I don't think they really CARE if you get a hard-on or not." Unless the client was absolutely awful as a top, the more experienced a bottom is, the more likely they are to get an erection while giving a service. It's Pavlovian conditioning to an extent, and relates back to the difference that sex workers draw between orgasm and ejaculation.
For a top, Viagra is their friend. Again, it also becomes a Pavlovian response: the more experienced a worker is, the easier they find it because the body is conditioned and knows that pleasure is coming. Before Viagra, there were nasal sprays, and before those, there were very, very few tops.
Most sex workers are adept at faking sexual arousal, but were actively uncomfortable when asked about feeling real sexual arousal with a client. Answers ranged from "Never" to "A guy bangs your prostate enough, you're going to ejaculate. It's simple mechanics" to "Yeah, look, sometimes. But it's more about the sex than the client. Sort of, the sex happens to you and it's good, but it's more internal than actually connected to the client." One worker put it more explicitly: "You do feel arousal. But, you can't get lost in it, because then you would start going after your pleasure rather than theirs, and it's about them. It's a service. You get to be selfish with your lovers."
The consensus also seems to be that concentrating on the pleasure leads to loss of control, which, apart from potentially giving a bad service to clients is also risky for the worker. Too much enjoyment in the ejaculation caused during services adds to the self-esteem problems that most sex workers suffer from: to quote one worker, "If I'm enjoying this, it must mean I'm a whore." It blurs the lines between work and pleasure--a boundary difficult enough to set in the first place.
Security, policy and procedures
There is a definite class system in place in the sex industry. Street workers are the lowest tier on the ladder: work is dangerous, hours are long, there is danger. It's illegal, they have to constantly keep an eye out for police, but the more they move around, the less likely they are to attract a client. Brothel or escort workers look down on street workers.
Most brothels have security, either on premises, or a phonecall away. An escort has a driver and a mobile phone. The worker rings five minutes after arriving in the room--a lot of the time, that is enough to tell a worker if the client is actively dangerous. At 10-15 minutes to the end of the alloted time, the driver calls the worker. If the worker DOESN'T answer the phone, emergency procedures are put into place. This may include breaking into the room, and/or
calling the police. Different escort services have different procedures, but they are generally a variation on this.
Male street workers are a lot less blatant than female street workers. They don't associate much in groups, only the transvestites actually "work the streets". They hang around in parks, alone. Places with plenty of dark corners. It is primarily a youthful industry: it is very rare to see a male worker over the age of 35.
Other stuff
Protection is always, ALWAYS used in brothels. There may be one or two sex workers who are prepared to accept extra for giving blowjobs without condoms, but management will hear about it, and not allow that worker to work again in their parlour. It's illegal, and doesn't make sense for prolonging the working life of their workers. They're also sneered at by the other sex workers.
In escort services, it is up to the individual worker as to whether they use a condom for fellatio or not. It's still technically illegal to not use one, but it is more difficult to police than in a brothel: management is more or less resigned to the fact that they cannot control what goes on in the rooms off their premises.
Street workers unfortunately don't always use protection. However, there are
outreach/support groups out there who are attempting to get them to, and there has been some small measure of success (as evidenced by the used condoms I saw as I walked down the
streets of St Kilda. Which, ewww, but at least they're using them!)
Anal sex without a condom is frowned on by just about everyone: no worker I spoke to admitted to doing it consensually with a client.
And now the the disjunct- Rentboy!fic.
How's that for a segue? Actually, I couldn't think of a more harmonious transition, so this is it.
I adore Rentboy!fic. I don't know why, I just do. Everything politically correct in me tells me I shouldn't. My own experiences with researching this essay tell me that there is not a lot of correlation between the real life sex industry and rentboy!fic. Yet still, I read it. And hopefully, this post will inspire people to write more!
In general, in my *cough* research for this section of the essay (which may have included reading every rentboy
fic I could find) I was able to identify five subtypes of fic.
The Pretty Woman fic, aka Twuuu Wuv¹ comes riding to the rescue
Okay. We've all seen the film. Worker encounters client. Client pays forservice. Worker and client fall in love, whereupon client takes worker away from all this and they all live happily ever after.
This is the archetype I have the most serious problems with. I have read some EXCELLENT fics in this archetype, but it has an attitude of work in the sex industry as inherently degrading, that no worker has the power to change their lives with out the rescue of the Twuu Wuv. Largely, the reason I have such large distaste for this particular archetype is the power balance. It actually plays into roles of traditional gender stereotyping, which is certainly interesting to do within the confines of slash fanfic. Some things to think about anyway.
A subtype of this plot: Sexual healing
Where a worker or ex-worker meets our Hero, and our Hero teaches him to feel again.
Certainly, the extreme disassociation between sex and love that sex workers need to be in the industry and the attendant physical and mental
issues that go with this, either as a cause or effect, can be very trying for a relationship. I applaud the authors for recognising this. The trouble is, that this kind of emotional damage is best dealt with by a trained professional, not by a partner who has a vested interest in the outcome.
Actually, that would be really interesting--to read this kind of fic where the author shows the stresses that therapy puts on a relationship, or where the partner's possible ulterior motives actually hinder the course of the Sexual Healing. I don't think I've read any of those fics--if they exist, and are out there, leave me a link in the comments. Or you could write it. That would be fantastic.
Overall, I feel that
the Sexual Healing scenario is a combination of hurt/comfort, and a use of the sex industry as a means of denoting a power dynamic where, once again, the sex worker is unempowered. But! It is possible to play with these archetypes, so go! Have fun!
The Undercover fic
Or, I'm really gay for my partner, watch me discover it.
It is possible that my huge. Huge and somewhat inappropriate love for this genre of fic biases me here. I think, meta-wise, that it has the underlying theme of freedom from societal constraints which have prevented them from discovering/declaring their love. Why should being
undercover as a rentboy make this easier? I have NO IDEA. But I still love the stories.
Also, I have noticed a huge element of objectification in these fics: the partner going undercover is usually dressed in skimpy, revealing clothes which they would never wear in a million years. Maybe the whole genre is an excuse for us to dress Ray in tight cut-offs.
Ummm...
Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. I was saying something. Objectification! That's
it!
Possibly this reflects fandom being a mostly-female space? That after years of being objectified by society, this is our revenge? Maybe women find objectifying men just as hot, and this is an outlet! I don't know. What do you think?
Seekrit Rentboy Past, or Public Persona/Private Acts.
This is probably the subtype of rentboy!fic that I have the most affection for. Jim discovers Blair (Look, it could be. Or it could be Fraser and Ray, or Rodney and John. Go with it! Whatever works for you!)² worked as a rentboy when younger. Or maybe he still works as a rentboy. Cue obsessing and imagining.
This is about possession. Obsession. The desire to know your lover, know everything about your lover. It can also be used as (as with the "Undercover" fic to signal a change in the relationship, enabling one character to see another in a sexual way.
This fic can deal with sex and shame, but usually does so in a positive way. This is one of the few rentboy!subtypes that doesn't disempower the character that was/is a sex worker. Instead, the partner who discovers it is usually made to face up to some private kinks that they didn't know they had. It's a vehicle for forcing self-discovery, AND for equating the sex worker as an uninhibited sexual being. Which isn't usually the case, but it's nice to read.
In real life, jealousy is a
crippling force on a relationship. A large proportion of sex workers are not able to sustain relationships outside the industry, leading to them further being trapped.
I'm not sure that I actually would like this subtype to reflect real life more. I like the fact that no-one gets demeaned (or if they do, it gets fixed), and that being a sex worker is not automatically equated with being powerless.
The Journey Through Hades, or the effects of current sex work on an established relationship
This type of fic is the rarest around. As a matter of fact, I can only think of two that I know of: one Numb3rs one, and a Mag 7 that I have heard about but haven't been able to source. If there are more out there, let me know!
This is where the sex industry and sex work is used as a form of trial for our heroes. Whether it's the non-sex worker trying to hold on, or the sex worker trying to work AND maintain a relationship, if thought is put into this it is probably the most realistic of the rentboy!subgenres. The main problem I have with it is reconciling the sex industry the writer depicts with the one I discovered doing these interviews. But hey, this is fanfic- we're ALL ABOUT suspension of disbelief.
And in conclusion
I would like to see more rentboy!fic. I would like to see more research put into the real life sex industry. While I am not prepared to put you in touch with my sources, I am certainly happy to answer any questions you might have.
If you disagree with me, about anything, LET ME KNOW! I would love to discuss this and am remarkably hard to offend. If you found this useful, if you didn't, if you don't think this is at all relevant.
So. That's it from me! Now, any questions? Comments? Bueller?
¹ Yes, I HAVE watched The Princess Bride too many times. Shut up.
² Sigh. I would like to apologise for any brainstrain caused by the overuse of parentheticals in this meta. If it's any consolation, I did make myself go through and take half of them out, so it could have been much worse. Also, I actually talk this way.