Travis S.K. Kong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099876
- eISBN:
- 9789882206625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099876.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. ...
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This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. Contrary to the overtly one-sided and dominant representation of male sex workers as depressed, depraved, dissolute and violent sociopaths in popular Chinese culture and media representations, it is found that the option of sex work has offered new possibilities for survival, livelihood, and self-development for young migrants in a class-stratified society confronted with massive tensions between rural and urban developments. In the discussion of male prostitution, one view is that it is a survival strategy enforced by poverty, homelessness, and powerlessness — a form of slavery arising from economic, social, and cultural deprivation. The other view is that prostitution is a “rational” choice for men who are constrained by their marginalized positions in a highly class-stratified social structure. Male prostitution is a contested but negotiated arena of power, and the identity of the male sex worker involves a strategic self that constantly negotiates risks and dangers, excitements and gains, in the process of sexual transaction.Less
This chapter concentrates on the male sex workers in Beijing and Shanghai. There are forty-five in-depth interviews of money boys mainly coming from rural or semi-rural areas to big cities in China. Contrary to the overtly one-sided and dominant representation of male sex workers as depressed, depraved, dissolute and violent sociopaths in popular Chinese culture and media representations, it is found that the option of sex work has offered new possibilities for survival, livelihood, and self-development for young migrants in a class-stratified society confronted with massive tensions between rural and urban developments. In the discussion of male prostitution, one view is that it is a survival strategy enforced by poverty, homelessness, and powerlessness — a form of slavery arising from economic, social, and cultural deprivation. The other view is that prostitution is a “rational” choice for men who are constrained by their marginalized positions in a highly class-stratified social structure. Male prostitution is a contested but negotiated arena of power, and the identity of the male sex worker involves a strategic self that constantly negotiates risks and dangers, excitements and gains, in the process of sexual transaction.
Jenna Mahay and Edward O. Laumann
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226470313
- eISBN:
- 9780226470337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226470337.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter describes the organization of four sex markets in Chicago. It characterizes sex markets as the spatially and culturally bounded arenas in which searches for sex partners and a variety of ...
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This chapter describes the organization of four sex markets in Chicago. It characterizes sex markets as the spatially and culturally bounded arenas in which searches for sex partners and a variety of sexual transactions take place. The chapter focuses on how local organizations, social networks, culture, and space interact on the ground to create the sex markets found in the four neighborhoods. Its interest in the organization of sex in the city follows from the early Chicago school's interest in the patterns of urban life. All these elements interact in a given sex market to structure the sexual behavior of its participants in patterned and predictable ways, but they can often also have unintended consequences. The chapter focuses on heterosexual sex markets and discusses the overlap between heterosexual and homosexual sex markets.Less
This chapter describes the organization of four sex markets in Chicago. It characterizes sex markets as the spatially and culturally bounded arenas in which searches for sex partners and a variety of sexual transactions take place. The chapter focuses on how local organizations, social networks, culture, and space interact on the ground to create the sex markets found in the four neighborhoods. Its interest in the organization of sex in the city follows from the early Chicago school's interest in the patterns of urban life. All these elements interact in a given sex market to structure the sexual behavior of its participants in patterned and predictable ways, but they can often also have unintended consequences. The chapter focuses on heterosexual sex markets and discusses the overlap between heterosexual and homosexual sex markets.
