ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes important recent studies of male sex workers based in the United States and Canada, especially those who attract clients via online webpages and digital advertisements. It concludes that male escorts make conscious—often entrepreneurial—decisions to engage in sex work. In addition, they appear to take fewer sexual risks with their commercial partners than expected. This research contradicts the stigmatizing narrative that scapegoats sex workers as morally bankrupt vectors of disease transmission who need to be saved from their own bad decisions. However, two recent events are likely to have considerable negative impact on sex work in the United States: (1) the RentBoy raid of 2015, which shut down what was then the most popular male escorting website in the world, and (2) the 2018 enactment of federal legislation intended to stop sex trafficking, especially the trafficking of children. Although some escorting websites have remained active since the RentBoy raid, it sent a clear signal that their owners and participating escorts are subject to prosecution by the US federal government. The 2018 legislation allows the prosecution of websites that might host sex traffickers, even if that is not their purpose, thus exposing many of the chief online advertising venues to possible legal action. In response, Craigslist discontinued its personals section. Although the online environment has significantly enhanced the safety of escorting (especially as compared with street-based sex work), the recent developments that could limit escorts’ access to online advertising may further marginalize them and endanger their physical and mental health.
