About

Our Purpose

We want to capture the full dimension of male escorting. This includes males who offer services to both other males and females.

We acknowledge that male escorting is mostly about men who have paid sex with other men and our research has largely focused on this. The majority of websites are marketed for men. Likewise, research shows that gay identifying men form a large percentage of escorts and clients.

But there is a significant number of male escorts who are not gay and offer services to other men or women.

We make several assumptions about the future possibilities in sex work:

  • that sex work will be decriminalised across the globe (in some places this reform will occur in our lifetime, in others not)
  • that as a result, stigma around paid sex will be lessened and same-sex relations will be legal in most or all nations and widely accepted (although this will be a slower political and public civic right issue in some states), and
  • that people will be more comfortable with the diversity of sexualities, probably debunking the old lines between heterosexuality and homosexuality.

We don’t affirm that one sexuality is superior or inferior, one more legitimate than the other, or both are the same. We acknowledge that people express their sexual selves and freedom with great diversity and embodiment of their world views. Hopefully, this context will lessen the need to segregate information for people into separate boxes.

We want to move the agenda beyond coping with the effects of stigmatisation to how stigma can be eliminated. We don’t want to over-dwell on marginalisation, even though it is an everyday reality, particularly for gay men.

We want to extend a dialogue on male sex work to existing and new and untapped audiences on this topic and create forums that assist in the deconstruction and removal of stigmatisation.

The authors

Professor Victor Minichiello

Professor Victor Minichiello is an internationally recognised social scientist, who conducts studies in a number of countries on topics related to sexualities.  He has written many books and research papers on the sexualities of young and older people, homophobia, ageism, and the sex industry that have influenced policy, the delivery of services, and social attitudes.

He holds a number of academic professorial appointments in medical, law and health faculties.

Professor John Scott

Professor John Scott’s research interests include the ecology of crime (especially rural crime); social control, with a focus on public health regulations; the social construction and governance of sexual deviance, with a focus on sex work; masculinity and violence; and the supply and regulation of drugs.

Widely published, his achievements include 15 books and major research reports and more than 60 papers and book chapters, many with leading international journals and publishers. He has also had sustained success in attracting nationally competitive grants and industry funding, including two ARC Discovery grants and an ARC Linkage grant. He currently holds an ARC Discovery grant and two National Drug Law Enforcement Fund grants.

Professor Scott has served as a Chief Examiner with the NSW Board of Studies and as a member of the NSW Community Relations Commission.