Offering a new perspective on male prostitution, In the Company of Men employs qualitative methodology to present a real-world view of the issues, both obvious and obscure, surrounding the world's "second-oldest profession." In the Company of Men: Inside the Lives of Male Prostitutes is the only book to document male prostitution from the perspective of a group of men working for a single male escort agency. The in-depth account goes behind the scenes to shed light on the very hidden world of Internet male escorts, their customers, and the niche they inhabit in modern American society. At the same time, it has much to tell us about post-modern identity, culture, and sexuality-and the transformative influence of the Internet on sexual behavior and male prostitution. Through numerous interviews, the book examines the sometimes-dichotomous relationship between the image men convey and the lengths to which they go in order to meet their most private needs. Readers travel down a cyber Sunset Boulevard to see what attracts young men to work as escorts, how an escort agency serves economic and personal goals, and how a community can evolve among the men involved. Field observations from more than 200 contact hours at the agency and with the escorts First-hand accounts and stories from interviews and interactions with men working as male escorts and with managers at their agency

Panoramic and provocative in its scope, this handbook is the definitive guide to contemporary issues associated with male sex work and a must read for those who study masculinities, male sexuality, sexual health, and sexual cultures. This groundbreaking volume will have a powerful impact on our understanding of this challenging, elusive subject. While the internet has brought the previously hidden worlds of male sex work more starkly into public view, academic research has often remained locked into descriptions of male sex workers and their clients as perverse. Drawing from a variety of regions, the chapters provide insights into the historical, popular cultural, social, and economic aspects of sex work, as well as demographic patterns, health outcomes, and policy issues. This approach shifts thought on male sex work from a hidden "social problem" to a publicly acknowledged "social phenomenon." The book challenges myths and reconceptualizes male sex work as a discrete field. Importantly, it provides a vehicle for the voices of male sex workers and new and established scholars. This richly detailed, humane, and innovative collection retrieves male sex work from silence and invisibility on the one hand and its association with scandal and stigma on the other. The findings within have profound implications for how governments approach public health and regulation of the sex industry and for how society can make sense of the complexities of human sexualities. A compelling scholarly read and a major contribution to a commercial sector that is often neglected in policy debates on sex work, this handbook will be of great interest to scholars of criminology, sociology, gender studies, and cultural studies and all those interested in male sex work.