A Consumer's Guide to Male Hustlers (4 page)

A common stereotype is that hustlers are young guys. Hustlers 2, 5, and 7 state in their ads that they are in their thirties. It is a safe bet that one or two of the other advertisers are in the same age bracket. Very recently, a new trend started, at least in San Francisco—
old
hustlers advertising their services, at a slight discount. For instance:

Naked Runner, 51 yo $40
²

²
.
Bay Area Reporter
, September 11, 1997, p. 61.

This ad is significant for another reason. There are those who justify hustlers' high fees because youth is fleeting and sex workers can practice their trade for only a few years. The Runner, as well as advertisers 2, 5, and 7 belie this theory.

So you think hustlers sell love for money? Hustlers 4 and 5 sell kinky fantasies. Number 4 makes quite sure that prospective clients do not mistake his sessions for lovemaking. He bills himself as a "nasty top," and charges his clients more than the others for the honor of being pissed on. Most likely, he makes out as well, or better, than the others.

Hustler 7 is in a category all by himself. Graciously, he will allow clients to suck on his "big bone." He probably realizes that his repertoire is quite limited, so he offers two incentives: a low economy price, and convenient hours. Hustler 2 is the flip side of 7. He, too, is somewhat limited. Like 7, who loves to be blown, 2 wants to be paid for fulfilling
his
fantasy of being an "oral slave."

Only numbers 1 and 6 come close to being all-around hustlers, who are there to please their clients by fulfilling the latter's sexual needs. As a matter of fact, only number 1 comes close to a preconceived notion of what hustlers are all about: he is a good-looking, young, and versatile college student. At least, this is what his ad claims.

What do these advertisers have in common? They are not down- and-out indigent folks. All of them have phones and pagers, and enough money to pay for the ads. Five of them have private living spaces that are decent enough for hosting their clients.

None of them follows a script. They work when it is convenient for them, sell a take-it-or-leave-it service package, and put a monetary value on their services that makes sense only to themselves. (Why would number 4—the pisser—ask for $125, almost the top fee for all hustlers in this publication?) They are truly independent contractors, carving out their particular niches in the market.

There are, of course, many hustlers who do not work from their homes, or do out calls (going to clients' homes).
³
They hang out in certain streets and bars. Later in this work, I describe the difference between "models," masseurs, and street hustlers. For now, let me point out that street hustlers, who lack the luxury of specifying their specialties in the media, are much more likely to be " generalists," that is, all around practitioners of gay sex. Even so, they, too, set limits on what acts they will or will not do, on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Some, for instance, will tell their clients that they get screwed only by their lovers, others that they do not French kiss. Most, not all, German hustlers will offer a blow job as a matter of course, while most of their Mexican counterparts will reject this act out of hand.
⁴

³
. The out call—hustlers going to clients' homes when summoned—is a relatively new phenomenon. It could only have come into being when telephones became widely available, and service cheap enough to be readily affordable.

Throughout history there have been male whorehouses, with male prostitutes on the premises. They were much more the norm, at least in some cities, before the advent of the telephone. (Now there are model agencies that do referrals and take a cut from the model's fee.) Male bordellos go far back in history. Phaedo, one of Socrates's most famous students, had worked (involuntarily, as a war captive) in one of the many male bordellos of ancient Athens, where the philosopher met him. See
Sexual Variance in Society and History
, Vern L. Bullough (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 113. There are still plenty of places in the world where one can find male bordellos. A few random examples: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Tokyo, Quezon City.

I do not intend to deal extensively with male whorehouses. The dynamics in a bordello are very different from the street hustling or "model" scenes—precisely because in-house whores are employees, not independent contractors.

⁴
. There is nothing modern about hustlers performing only certain sexual acts or imposing a surcharge when called upon to do more. "A Guardsman [England, end of the nineteenth century] might charge extra for taking an 'active' role in anal intercourse [taking a 'real liberty'] but would baulk at taking a 'passive' role." Quoted in
Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past
, edited by Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chancey, Jr. (New York: New American Library, 1989), p. 210.

In many ways, street hustlers are even more independent than models. They observe no time frame, adhere to no schedule, make appointments reluctantly, and rarely keep them. They can walk away from clients they dislike. Doing so is a much stickier scenario for models, both with in and out calls.

Because hustlers are often regarded as the counterpart of female prostitutes, it is vital to understand the independent-contractor nature of hustling. Female prostitution brings a lot of heavy baggage with it: vicious pimps; strong males beating up weaker females; venereal diseases; and the tremendous difficulties facing "fallen women" who want to liberate themselves from this trade.

This kind of baggage has little or nothing to do with the male hustler. He has no pimps to answer to, is physically as strong as— often stronger than—his client, is as likely or unlikely to spread venereal diseases as any other casual gay-sex partner (a subject I'll discuss at length later), and can weave in and out of the hustling scene relatively easily.
⁵

⁵
. I interviewed many Filipino CBs (the local abbreviation for "call boys") for my guidebook to the Philippines [
Philippine Diary: A Gay Guide to the Philippines
, Joseph Itiel (San Francisco: International Wavelength, 1989)]. In spite of their terrible living conditions (p. 50), and their abysmal poverty, the CBs were, in general, a happy-go-lucky lot. The real complainers were the CBs who worked in
casas
—male whorehouses. Their complaints were similar to those of employees everywhere: the management was screwing them. (A few complained that it was more than just a figurative screwing.)

In my time in San Francisco, there have been very few male whorehouses. However, there have always been referral agencies, which take a commission from the hustlers' fees. Here, too, complaints (mostly about favoritism) abound. In a whorehouse, the male prostitute, just like the female, cannot weave in and out of the job.

When a hustler ceases being an independent contractor, he gives up his freedom and becomes an employee. Though this might be to his financial advantage, as an employee he loses his freedom to be completely independent (and irresponsible, if that is what he wants) and is more likely to regard himself as a male whore, with all the prejudices this term connotes.

Female prostitution, by definition, involves an active male penetrating a passive female. I am sure there are many refinements and innovations that a good female prostitute can add to this scenario. However, there is no likelihood that the roles would be reversed, that is, the prostitute penetrating her clients. When a man hires a hustler, who will penetrate whom is an issue that needs to be worked out between the parties!

The sample ads illustrate not only the variety of services offered by hustlers but also that the hustlers who will not penetrate or be penetrated have different tricks in their repertoire which are good enough to please their clients.

* * *

In a recent ABC 20/20 TV program
⁶
exploring prostitution in the 1990s, a heterosexual interviewee states, "Of course I would like to get sex for free. But women are not interested in me." For gays the situation is somewhat different.

⁶
.
20/20
, ABC, January 31, 1997.

When I used to go to the baths there was always
someone
I could have gotten it on with (for free). The problem was not finding a sex partner but, rather, finding an acceptable one. Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, just to get it over with to catch some sleep before going to work, I did it with someone I was not attracted to at all. Later, I would hate myself for having done it.
⁷

⁷
. Baths, sex clubs, and similar venues provide more availability of sex partners than bars. The point is that gays have places where some sort of sex is almost
always
readily available. Heterosexuals usually do not have similar facilities.

The availability issue is where the hustler's main role comes into play: he ensures the quality of the encounter in a convenient time frame. Unlike the female prostitute, who provides sex that might otherwise be unavailable at all to her heterosexual partner, the hustler provides quality sex to his client, compared to just getting off.

I have been told more than once that I do not appreciate the chase. It would be more accurate to say that I do not appreciate the hunt without the trophy. I have no quarrel with gays who, unlike me, enjoy the chase and do not care whether they score or not. But there are many people I know who constantly hunt unsuccessfully, and then complain bitterly how unfulfilled they are sexually. They are the ones who would benefit from the services of hustlers. What deters them is that they buy into the heterosexual self-loathing for using what they consider the male equivalent of a female prostitute.

Female prostitution is regarded by the world at large as an exploitative practice. Hustling is tarred with the same brush. Unfortunately, many hustlers, as well as their clients, buy into this viewpoint. Expressions like "exploitative sex" are bandied around—though it is far from clear who is exploiting whom. Clients who sense that the hustler is having as good a time as they are
and
is being paid for it sometimes feel exploited by the arrangement. Hustlers, when they have to put up, in their lingo, with assholes, sometimes feel that no amount of money can compensate them. (Members of other professions do not have to put up with assholes?) The good thing about hustling, compared to female prostitution controlled by pimps, is that either party can terminate an unsatisfactory relationship at will.

A corollary view maintains that hustling damages the practitioner physically and emotionally. I have had the opportunity to observe a number of hustlers over long periods of time. Many years of hustling have not healed the ones who were damaged, nor damaged the ones who were whole.

More to the point, really, is that lots of jobs involve a certain amount of danger. For instance, I have been reading a lot lately about the meatpacking industry. Meatpackers' pay has gone down to just above minimum wage. Workers in this industry are almost certain to experience episodes of carpal tunnel syndrome, and serious injuries to their hands are a reasonable expectation.

Models operating out of their homes probably have a
less
stressful existence than many other workers. (Of course, they do experience some stress, especially on the first date with a client.) Their unique advantage is that most of their clients,
certainly
not all, understand that if they want hustlers to show them a good time, they need to be nice to them. In the real world, bosses and supervisors often go out of their way to be nasty to their subordinates. Also, like any other independent contractor, a hustler is free to discontinue his working relationship with a client he does not like. Most people in the work place have to put up with the same untenable situations for years on end!
⁸

⁸
. Arguably, the fact that hustlers get paid so much for doing relatively very little may not be good for them psychologically.

Some hustlers buy into society's view that hustling is degrading.
⁹
Ironically, it is the degradation imputed to hustling that senselessly drives up the fees of the practitioners. Hustlers do not earn as much as one would think when reading their ads. This point will be discussed at length later on. But they do get a spectacular amount of money for relatively easy and fast work. Just look at sample 4!

9. John Preston, a former hustler himself, writes, "Underneath the contempt that some people hold about prostitution is the strong pattern of contempt for sex. ... If you believe that sex is good by itself without needing the justification of romance, then why shouldn't it be purchased honorably from a man who sees himself as possessing something worthwhile?"
Hustling: A Gentlemen's Guide to the Fine Art of Homosexual Prostitution
, John Preston (New York: Masquerade Books, 1994), pp. 26-27.