The Magical World of Male Prostitution
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Hello, everyone. Stuck Are You Here? And I'm Gabby. And welcome back to the podcast, my hoes. Welcome back to... Oh, dear God. This is late. It is filled with chaos and...

Look, there's going to be some context that is set here right now. But what is going on? Super quick rundown. About three weeks ago, we got our mortgage bill in the mail and we looked at it and we're like, oh, that's not right. Why is that $600 more than our actual mortgage that we've been paying for years? And then we looked at it and our property taxes went up by so much that we were like, oh, yeah.

What? Because I guess they reassessed last year in 2024. So now we were like, well, that's crazy because that's not what our house. We can't pay that much money for this house. So we decided that very day to call the realtor and sell.

And then our realtor came over like a few days later and she was like, oh, yeah, we get this done. We get this done. What are you guys looking at? Like a month or something. But now is the best time to list it because, you know, it's right when everybody's trying to put their house on sale. So I was like that. And then in two weeks, we emptied the entire house. We got it like, you know, prepped to be shown. And in one day it sold.

So now we have no house, actually, which is kind of like we're planning on our part because we actually close in this month and we're not going to be in the country. So we had to get an attorney person to deal with that because we're actually leaving for Scotland in two weeks on top of everything else. And, you know, that doesn't leave us with much time to house hunt for the house that we need to live in.

Yeah. So we're going to have like no house in a very short time. But it's cool because we'll be out of the country for it. But then when we get back to the country, that's where the actual issue arises. So we also need to find a house. To describe what we have done as chaotic would be a severe understatement. Just poor planning on our part. But the gag is, the gag is, the gag is the housing market in the state

city that we live in is actually rated the third worst place for young millennials and Gen Z to buy. So wish us luck. We're fucked. Anyway, we're also really stressed because emptying an entire house in a few weeks is crazy. So yeah, there's just been so much absolutely so much that has been done. And when Gabby says that we are getting fucked, that is, I think, a perfect transition.

This is a really hard sell to try and push into this. We're talking about prostitution today, everybody. Yay. Yeah. But not the one you think. No, no, it is not. Gabby, do you want to take it away? Because what happens when people typically think of prostitution and you, this is the thing that she has worked extensively on. Oldest profession, right? It is. So I was like, oh my God, that's so crazy. It's the oldest profession. Women have become queens. Yeah.

you know literally starting at the bottom now they're here and i was like what have men done for the i want to hear about the men in women dominated fields so here we are um he was like can you write me an episode i was like hell yeah i can and now you have to tell the entire story from the very beginning like you know the one little sound of music let's start at the very beginning

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to do that. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I went all the way back. I was in archives, y'all. Like, it was so fun to research this. I truly, truly, truly, truly, truly believe now that we have to pay for a whole new house because we're crazy. You should start an OnlyFans. This is the time to launch it. See? Uh-huh.

This is your moment, babe. Hey, I'm already part of Lexington Only Cans. All right. Lexington Likens? The Lexington Only Cans. All right. We're big, beefy guys in tin cans of armor. All right. It's the Lexington Only Cans. You can have your very moment in your armor.

You know, just like partial armor. Can I do like what I do for my surprise videos? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Except the lance that one is receiving at that time. But we turn the camera the other way for you. Got it. Right. I think this is your moment. How are you going to pay for the house?

You didn't think that? That's a fantastic question. Considering that it's like in this job and everything it is that I do, right? Oh my God. It's entirely dependent upon me working. Well, here's the gag though. Have you ever had to get a mortgage if you're self-employed? Because it is not for the faint of heart. Like it will have you daydreaming about like,

a nine to five with no days off. Like I literally, literally was sitting there talking to the mortgage broker daydreaming about how I bought our house in 2020 when I was making $40,000 a year. And I got approved for the mortgage by myself, by my loan sum. Okay. Literally $40,000 a year. They were like, hell yeah, here's your house, girly. And that was so much easier. It was like 20 minutes on a lunch break. And now that we're making significantly more money,

It was actually, I was literally sitting there like, oh, I remember that job. I literally almost emailed my old boss like, hey, can y'all by any chance give me my job back? Just for like a little bit, please. I'm not even joking. I was that desperate. So that's where we're at. Anyway, this is not a therapy session. We should jump into the meat of the thing. Yeah, meat, meat, meat. You had to use the word meat when describing this. I like to go deep immediately.

This is going to be filled with... Damn it. I can't even... Every single thing that I say is related to this in some way, shape, or form. You really got to stop joking on your words. On your words. I am going to go into a coughing fit at this rate. Okay, yeah. The way you... Anyway, let's just go. Oh my God.

Anyway, my friends, as we've already talked about here, we're talking about prostitution. But here's the thing. When you think of prostitution, as Gabby said, you're typically thinking of women because, after all, historically, it is a field that has typically been dominated by women and it is the oldest profession on Earth. It is. It really is. However, this is something that is much more varied and has had significant impacts on politics and society for quite literally centuries, if not millennia.

So this week's episode is going to deal with prostitution throughout history, but not the one that we would normally talk about. Today, we are specifically looking at men, their cultures, the practices that shape male prostitution throughout history. And Gabby put this a little bit in here. Just say it. Just just say about how unrelated.

you've already kind of said this here in the first place. Oh, I just said that if you did do OnlyFans, it would probably make you better money than all of your little academic projects because it's like way less time to research. Like you will never have to write another 20 page essay on the Panama Canal. Think about it. Think about it. And have you seen like any of the like, like Ari Kitsia and Blue Eyed Kayla Jane? They're like my favorites.

I've seen them because you show me them extensively, but they're not things that I watch. And they're gorgeous. You could finally get that like weird credit card slot between your eyebrows fix. You could get some cosmetic stuff then too. Wow. I'm just trying to be honest with you, okay? Uh-huh. Like I'm trying to level you up. Got it. All you got to do is lose a little bit of clothing. And apparently cosmetic surgery too. No, no. They probably put Botox or filler in there. I think filler. I've thought about this extensively. Anyway, what were you going to say?

I don't even know what I was going to say at that point because yeah, the comment that she makes is something that people have described regularly that I have a very line-throwed face and

Why are you pointing at me? I'm trying to tell you to get back to the episode. Anyway, yeah, sure. All right, let's talk about human sexuality and history and stuff. According to the book, Economic Sexuality and Male Sex Work, throughout history, male sex work has existed alongside female sex workers. It has been a fairly common thing with men back then and even still today being the main buyers and sellers of male sexual services, which is something that I guess...

is not necessarily surprising because when you look at male-female dynamics, typically speaking, it is a lot easier for a woman to have sex with someone than a man

And so for a man, they're more likely going to have to pay if they're unable to find something otherwise. But the really interesting thing about male sex work through history is it is so closely tied to how receptive people are to homosexuality that it makes it a little more complex and nuanced throughout history. And like this book is really, really good. Actually, if you guys want to read it, I think it was like free online where I was reading

email us we can like send you the link to the article that I used because it was it was really you'll see like during Christianity and everything where the views on homosexuality were kind of shifting so then the views on male prostitution even though they were being taxed and everything started to shift as well naturally yes so it was just

I mean, obviously, they were having shifting views towards all prostitution, but it was just very interesting how closely tied those two are. Of course. Yeah. And I mean, as you said, like, that is something that makes absolute sense. The of course, when people are talking about male sexuality, specifically male on male sexuality, there is one culture that typically is almost always presented first and foremost, ancient Greece.

Now, it's interesting when we talk about this, right? It's not as common as what a lot of people think about, but there were specific classifications that we need to address. So male prostitution was something called cornea. And this term, you know, like porn, literally like porn. And this term was different from the accepted pedastria.

which was the practice of pedistry, which I've explained this a couple of times here. But for those who are unfamiliar, pedistry was the practice of a young boy having sexual relationship with a adult male. It was kind of like a mentorship, right? Yeah, which wasn't always sexual, but it was heavily implied that it was in at least in certain areas. Sparta, Athens, especially Athens among aristocracy. Like that was the thing that was

something that was, we can't even say. Well, I did go into that a little bit here because there were different views and then views shifted and then they even got laws in place to regulate it. The second half of the basketball season is here and the race to the playoffs continues on PrizePix, the best daily fantasy sports app to cash in on your favorite sports.

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Hey, guys. Back at the playground again, huh? Yep. You know what this playground could use? A wine country. Heck yeah. And some waves. So we could go surfing. I love that. A redwood forest would be cool. I'm in. Ski slopes. Let's do it. Um, can a girl go shopping? Yeah, baby. Wait. Did we just invent California? Discover why California is the ultimate playground at visitcalifornia.com.

It's very important. And I thought, you know, there was a lot on it. Exactly. And so the relationship in this context would typically involve an adult male called the Erastus. And the Erastus was typically at least 20 years old, but more likely over. While the younger male was called the Eromenos, which was much younger. Like typically it would be pubescent, not necessarily pre-pubescent, but like early pubescent.

The older man would have potentially been married already to a woman, or maybe they weren't at all yet. We're not exactly sure of the finer details of their personal lives, and it's kind of different for each person. Now, while that practice would very obviously consider we're talking about people that are underage today in the modern day world, that would obviously be illegal. However, at the time, it was allowed through varying parts of society, though it was highly regulated.

The way that they viewed human sexuality was significantly different than how we view it today. In certain ancient societies, it was less important if you were attracted to men, women. And I kid you not when I say this, it was more important that you were the dominant one in the bedroom. You weren't supposed to be submissive.

Really? You weren't supposed to know. Like, that was literally a thing. I remember there was a whole thing with Julius Caesar. Well, they went off of, you know, just who was dominant and who was submissive instead of the age. Correct. And that was one of the big things. I remember when talking about Greek, like homosexuality in Greece, is that if you had an individual that was an older male that liked to be taken by younger men,

Or specifically, even if it wasn't younger men, if it was just men of your own age or otherwise, like you were actually not just, you know, it wasn't pedestry. You were just a full on homosexual. That was actually not something that was accepted because if you as an adult man, as a proper member of society, were the one who was the receiver rather than the dominant one, then in that case, you were actually looked down upon.

Now, in some places, it was allowed and expected, like when we talked about stuff in Athens, while in other places, there were laws that were put in place to outlaw the practice or, at the very least, control that. Anyway, I mean, honestly, that's enough about that. This episode is more about male prostitutes and less about specifically...

homosexuality in race. So male prostitution in Greek culture, that varied from practice of pedistry significantly with a lot of restrictions placed on what anyone involved in porneia could do. Like anyone who was involved in porneia, this is again, the male prostitution, they were forbidden as an example from addressing the Athenian assembly.

And men that provided sexual services to other men were not granted the full privileges of their citizenship and could not garner political power. This is one of those things that I was talking about specifically that if you were a person that was already an overestablished man and you were with just other men and you were receiving this kind of attention, then that was not something that was accepted. I wonder if it had anything to do with being able to sway political power.

Like, viewership? Like, you know? There were arguments. Like, hell, what was it? Alcibiades, I think, was the guy who was, like, one of the most beautiful men in all of Greece. And he was famous for...

Stealing other men's wives. Yeah. Well, it's not just that also men. Stealing other men. Because who was the character that you also were obsessed with with Doctor Who? The captain. He was. Was it Captain Jack? John Byron, I'm pretty sure was the actor. I think he was the character who was omnisexual, not just pansexual or whatever. He was omni is what I think they described it because he literally would have a relation with anyone in anything. That's what he would do. So.

Alcibiades is kind of that, if you want to describe it. Captain Jack Harkness. There you go. That's the guy. So that was Alcibiades. So there was actually a thing to be said about politicians, but they didn't want them to potentially be swayed by these relationships and sexual favors and that sort of thing.

So, yeah, that was a thing in the Roman Empire. Men could participate in prostitution with other men if they were not doing so as servants and as long as it was voluntary, like you couldn't be forced into this. Well, you shouldn't have been able to.

And this was a legitimate practice. It was such a legitimate practice that the Roman Empire would tax the earnings of all sex workers and they had to actually register being a prostitute as their job.

But at the same time, you would also regulate and apply restrictions for sexual services that made specifically being a prostitute less appealing to Roman citizens as citizens could not offer services to slaves, foreigners or people of lower social standing.

That meant that many male sex workers at this time were slaves or foreigners. And due to the actions that restricted slaves and foreigners in the empire later on, this reduced the total amount of male sex workers, which led to male sex work becoming significantly more lucrative because go figure, supply and demand.

According to the book that we were talking about here earlier, Polybius said that male sex workers were regularly secured for talent. For a talent. For a talent. So that was like the amount of money, which was a lot of money.

Yes, sorry, for a talent, which, yeah, that's not specifically for their talent. You're right. That is quite literally a massive amount of money. So that Cato would even say that sex workers were more expensive than actual farmland. I think they're being a little bit dramatic, if I'm being honest. I mean, the farmland one, for sure.

Yeah, that entirely depends upon where you are. Like, surely not the farmland in Rome, because that would be a premium. But farmland that was outside of it probably. I think they were being dramatic. Maybe. However, as the Roman Empire became increasingly more Christian with time, as you said, the popularity and acceptance of male sex work naturally would decrease until the practice became punishable by death. That was a bit extreme. Which, yes, and that's the thing that has a tendency to happen specifically within more religious societies that

have these kinds of views. Now, ancient Rome, of course, was not the only place where male prostitution was practiced. In Japan, kabuki wakashi, or boys' kabuki, that gained popularity and became a driver of male sex work.

So interestingly enough, the popularity of kabuki led to different issues for the shogunate of Japan, with one of the main issues for the Tokugawa shogunate being that the kabuki led to the blurring and mixing of social classes, which made it harder for them to maintain order in society. And go figure, when we say maintain order, we mean literally control everyone in their place and not let them actually move around because that is something that potentially destabilizes society if someone can rise up beyond their stations.

And a lot of this information comes from sex, androgyny, prostitution, or onigata roles in Kabuki theater by Sarah Kate Burke. So this and the upheaval that Kabuki theater was capable of causing led to performances being moved to areas that were right next to the

pleasure quarters of the cities. Now, prostitution in Japan was regulated since the 1300s. But in the 16th century, these regulations became stricter, with all brothels being moved to the pleasure quarter. Now, that act was not necessarily seen as moral. You know, they just needed to control it so that they could control the order of society. That's the gist of it. All of these regulations leaned really hard into maintaining a well-ordered society that was...

Stratify. Yes, stratify. That is the key word. True. But the samurai was supposed to be above and beyond everyone. I don't know why, though. They, of all people, would probably have the most steam to let off, but who am I to judge? I know they had it for the lower classes because they were letting them have a little bit of fun so that they could control the masses. Which I'm pretty sure is why they should let us keep TikTok. Because be so for real, you guys. What do we have? Kabuki theater?

If I literally cannot rot my brain for six hours a day, what do I have? Well, it's not. Responsibility. Oh, my God, Gabby. Are you telling me I should go find some male prostitutes? Is that legal? In Australia, right? You have said, and I quote, when referring to going to Australia, that you would not set foot in that place. Unrelated. Every single snake could possibly kill you. Opera House. Yeah.

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- No, I don't think it's every single snake, but I know they got some big snakes. - I'm gonna show you some videos on some of the stuff that they have here. - It's actually just every single thing. And I like spiders, so I feel like even the big ones would be kind of cute, 'cause they'd just be like a big spider. - In some cases, probably not. - I watch big spider videos. I love spiders though. I would have a pet giant spider if they loved me, but I feel like it would be an exotic pet, wouldn't be allowed. - No, it was not. - How did we get here?

I'll be honest. When I said Kabuki, I was actually more so referring to just general dramas and specifically because you get obsessed with the stuff, the TikTok dramas that are divided like a 90 minute movie or series into 90, like 60 second parts that are. I still have to watch that.

Okay, guys. So you know those really, really terrible like shorts reels movies where you have to like pay to swipe and watch like the whole movie? Okay, they make like K-drama ones of those. And I got sucked in so hard because I don't like the like other ones, but the K-drama ones are so dramatic that you're watching it and you're like, oh my God, like it can't get worse. And then it does. And you're like, oh, no way. They made her walk over hot coals and then tried to brand her face after they made her like

cut ties with her own family. That's insane. It is. I don't know. We keep on going off topic with this. Now. Okay. So what we're saying, we were talking about samurai and not being able to actually do things. Yeah. Okay. So the samurai were not supposed to do this because this was supposed to be something for lower classes. They were supposed to be separate.

And so that's where Kabuki became a problem that needed to be controlled. The actresses were also sex workers, which this is a thing historically that in most cases throughout history, actors and actresses were seen as much lower class. And they didn't actually, unlike the Hollywood stars of today, they didn't make much money at all. Even some of the most famous ones. So their job was kind of like selling themselves. Yeah.

It's kind of like using TikTok to promote your YouTube channel. No, in their case, it's more like using TikTok to promote your OnlyFans, which some specifically do. It's a good marketing strategy.

So, yeah, that happened. Again, actresses were also sex workers. Now, this led to Samurai, the people who were not supposed to participate in prostitution, running up huge debts, competing for the services of Kabuki actresses. See, why couldn't they just be normal about it? Like, why couldn't they just be normal about it? And then nobody would have banned prostitution. Well, that's not what they banned. You'll see what they banned. Some people are just down pat, Gabby.

And you've seen people on the internet. Yeah, but to like run up a huge debt for a prostitute, like, please, budget better, samurai. So in 1629, in order to curb this, women performers were banned from performing entirely. They wanted to stop this. And of course, as you can imagine, this would then lead to the rise of the all boys kabuki. In Japan at the time, there was a large focus on androgynous male beauty.

So it wasn't particularly difficult for the men and boys to hold the attention of the male audience as they performed erotic dances and skits. And the male kabuki actors were also available to hire as prostitutes.

In Japan, the sexual relationship between two males was called nanshoku and meant way of youths. During the Tokugawa period, there were a lot of proof of this in different forms of media. And pre-Tokugawa, this type of love was practiced in religious communities as well as between samurai while on military campaign, which is understandable given the fact that these communities had very little to no women. They were highly militarized and far away, or in the case of, you know, specifically talking about monastic communities that were more

more isolated. In these types of relationships, the age of the partners determined the passive and the active partner, instead of anything like social standing, since partners in this context would have the same or very similar social standing. But anyway, back to the whole Wakashu Kabuki. Now, as you could tell, the ban on women from Kabuki theater didn't really do anything to stop the problem that Kabuki presented the shogunate.

As in 1642, they banned female impersonation on stage and the Kabuki theaters did exactly that and then leaned into non-shoku plots. Like, how did they think they were going to? They went, okay, so males can't play females. Hmm. No idea. Just straight up show man on man action. And let's just do that. All I thought when I was reading this is, man. Yeah.

So then in 1648, they banned homosexual prostitution and practices by actors, which everyone pretty much just ignored for the most part, which then led to a ban on wakashu kabuki entirely in 1652.

Like, they just kept on trying this shit. Of course, eventually the ban was removed and Kabuki would be allowed back just in time with strict regulations put in place to reduce the androgyny of actors. But it is... Yeah, they had, like, very specific... I think they, like, cut their hair short. Like, it was a long list of things that they could not do to decrease how androgynous the men would look. Like, they had to have short hair. They had to dress in a certain manner. Like, they...

They were strict. They were like, you can have this, but we need you to be really normal about it. We need you to be really... Kev, did they... I don't... This is not a joke when I'm saying this. I mean this with all seriousness. Did they don't ask, don't tell Kabuki theater? I feel like that might have been what they did. I don't know. They were just really...

I don't know. I feel like the Tokugawa shogunate just had no, they had no clue because if you ban something, people are just going to do it harder in like a different way. It feels like someone trying to regulate the internet with pornography. And it's just like, yeah. And just, it's like, you know, when you tell the internet to behave and then they're like, Oh, we can behave in like the most insane way. So they just find the craziest way to like be,

You know, they're like, you guys can't have anything. You cannot do anything like we're so. So I'd be pissed. I'd find a way to make it creative. Yeah, I know. OK, well, then now let's look at medieval Europe, which, as you can imagine, in a Christian society is going to be very different. Now, their view of male homosexuality dissuaded male sex work as they were both together. However, the practice is still something that persisted. In fact, the term Ardasa was used to describe the men that engage in sex work.

And by the end of the 17th century, male prostitution was established and thriving in many major European cities. The book that was primarily used for this research discussed the various ways in which male sex workers could communicate that they were, you know, offering. Like as an example, it's not medieval, but in Victorian London, the Piccadilly Circus was a place that was known for having male sex workers that were available to hire. In addition, there were specific styles, colors, clothing, action that could be taken public to indicate that

you were a male sex worker. And so even though it was a criminal act to participate in male sex work, the punishments weren't necessarily as drastic as they previously were. Like you're not going to be straight up executed.

So people got away with it. And in general, you could also bribe an official or someone to look the other way. And you never know. They had like these stories of really well off, powerful men who were accused. And, you know, it was strict discipline.

or supposed to be strict but everyone kind of ignored it until they got tied up in an actual like someone took legal action against them and then they had to actually go to trial for it and then they got charged with it but then nothing came of it you know they just got charged with the crime and then it was like okay typically like nobody punished standing yeah like nobody did anything like he didn't have to serve time or anything it was just kind of like i guess it was just more of like a

So I show there's more of a social. The only time where it wasn't was when someone actually had some political power or authority because that was oftentimes used as a ploy. Like if they if there was accusations or inclinations of it, you could use that to kick them out of office. And then this could be. I'm pretty sure today. I think they still do that today. Literally, the world has never progressed. Sexual scandals in general. That is something that happens. Do we have a president?

Did he finish his term before he impeached or did he just like, you know, the one there? I mean, Bill Clinton got impeached. But like, did he finish his term? And then they did like just like ultimately he ended up finishing his term. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Just because you're literally pointless. That was for show. It's the exact same thing. It was for show.

There was no point. He finished being president. Sorry, not to be political. I'm just saying it was just Joey. Yeah. So this is not just something among aristocracy. What's fascinating when I was looking into this is that beginning in the early 19th century, it was common for British soldiers, which we say common. It was something that became more common for some British soldiers to supplement their pay by hustling.

And when we say hustling, we're not talking about in the modern day, oh yeah, I'm hustling. I'm doing my side job. I'm making bank. No, with hustling, like prostitution, they often could earn as much as an entire week's pay in just half an hour.

Well, good for them. Which I mean, makes sense. Yeah. Oh, well, to be fair, British get your coin. Soldiers have been poorly paid throughout basically all of history. There was different ways. Hold up. You're not going to speed past that because these people literally took over the entire world and the people doing it were not being well paid. Oh, God. Again, the majority of people. Why did they do it? Typically for stability promotion. Yeah. Oftentimes people join the military because they would quite literally need something that was

So it was the exact same thing as the modern day preying on like the U.S. military preying on certain demographics. I mean, in general, that's how a lot of militaries would function. So it would actually you would actually learn things while in the military. It would offer you a stable paying job. And the thing is, the health care, I'd go military for the health care, honestly, if they'd let me in. But they've never done that. Yeah. Looking at you, Air Force. Yeah.

So in addition to being attractive to those seeking straight trade, soldiers were thought to be more trustworthy than general male prostitutes and were then less likely to blackmail their clients instead of, you know, a typical street hustler, which this is fascinating here. So the straight trade is something that is crucial to note. And this is going to sound weird that I'm bringing up a whole thing with essentially gay porn when talking about this, but

But what is a male fantasy regarding women and lesbians? Hello, my name is Matt. And I'm McKinley. We are the father-son team that brings you History Dispatches. History Dispatches is a short daily history show where we talk about topics from all over the world and all throughout history. We talk about people, places, events, and even objects. While anything is fair game, we have a soft spot.

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I don't know. That a male, like, that a man would be so good at sex or so attractive that he made a lesbian want to be with him. Do people have that fantasy? Gabby, it's a thing, but it goes both ways. In the same way for, like, women that would be, that are, like, attracted to, like, gay men, that is a thing. Like, in the case of fujoshis or others, like, that is a thing. When it comes to homosexual men, there is a thing, specifically, that

that homosexual men not being attracted to men who are extremely effeminate, they like the men that are straight passing in some cases here. That's what it's talking about. The straight trade is that the ones who were able to pass as very masculine straight men were extremely popular as male prostitutes.

That's what they would do. So the tradition of soldiers selling sex to gay clients is something that dates back all the way to the early 1700s, and that continued well into the 20th century. This would be barracks prostitution, where hustling soldiers would frequent bars and they worked soldier promenades, regularly initiating new recruits into hustling because they could get other men and become basically pimps within their own barracks. So...

You know how like some people argue that like people have been so straight for so long and all of a sudden they're not.

This is literally just showing that everyone's always just been themselves. They just weren't allowed to be themselves. It's true. It's true. So this is one of the things I think, what was it percentage wise is like 90% of people are, are straight or something or like 85%. But, but it's like, there is a large percentage of people. It's obviously not the majority. It's not even necessarily from that. We say common, but it is much larger than what people think about it throughout history.

That's the reality. I feel like sexuality is a spectrum. I feel like it's more complex and people just finally have the ability to name and engage with that side of themselves in modern society. I think they were able to back then, too, but it was probably a little bit more complex depending on the time period and location and social restrictions. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, exactly.

Now, this is the interesting thing. This is why I specifically mentioned the soldiers, because on the reverse side of the more masculine prostitutes, we have the exact opposite. One of the things that was popular in both America and Europe at the turn of the 19th century were...

individuals that would pass themselves off as women or effeminate. And these were known as the actual term was fairies. Essentially, if you wanted to compare this to anything, it's pretty much like what you'd see with a modern day drag queen with people or these men who would go and dress themselves as women or in an effeminate fashion.

And they wouldn't put on a show. What would they do? They would put on a show with their body in a different way. Interesting. So it was more like for their job. For their job. That was in a way that some like female prostitutes may wear silky clothing or partially see through things or things like that. They would.

advertised themselves dressed in an effeminate manner. And some would work in brothels or saloons that were all fairy types, as in that is pretty much that every single individual in there that was working was dressed in that way. Some would even go and work in female brothels as exotic artists

offerings for male clients and others would just work on the streets depending upon where they were either in their own kind of strolls or strips and could have a mixed menu that would provide their services to the public. If you guys hear snoring, the dog is asleep on me and he's snoring. Sorry. Anyway, what is so fascinating about all this is that there is this kind of

It's not an arms race. It's not the right term. The competition. There is this comparison or ranking of popularity between the fairy types and the more masculine straight types. During the Depression around 1932, so many men were destitute and would take to prostitution that the straight acting hustler became vindictive.

The normal thing that was the one that became significantly more popular, which was, you know, something that was typically done by some soldiers and others before, which tended to push out the more effeminate fairies. Now, whether they were actually gay or not by this point was kind of irrelevant as so many people at this time were incredibly desperate because it was literally the Great Depression.

So as homosexuals became more visible and identifiable with time in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, due to a liberation, straight or straight acting hustlers began to actually be afraid that of selling sex to other men, because by doing so, they could be identified as homosexual. This being at a time where... That is so shady, you know? Yeah. Like...

You want to... They quite literally were just using it for personal gain and they did not want... That's not cool. Yeah. Because the thing is, and this is the really crazy part. This is why I brought up the whole thing with pornography before and about the idea of the fantasy. Because what is so...

Strange in the sense is that they couldn't identify themselves as homosexual because if they did, their homosexual clientele that preferred the idea of being able to turn a straight man gay, that is something that would hurt their business. So they couldn't do that. And so, guys, we can go on and on about the acceptance and regulation of male sex work throughout history.

The book that we talked about here at the beginning definitely goes very in-depth on that topic, and I do honestly recommend it. It's a very good read. But for the rest of the episode, let's look at some of the more famous male prostitutes because this is something that varies a lot. Now, the first of this, Gabby, do you want to talk about it? Because it's one that you were mentioning here before. If I say any words, I will call. Okay, fine.

What we're going to be talking about here first is Phaedo of Elis. Now, if you remember our earlier discussion when we were talking about things in Greece, the relationship between young boys and older men, well, Phaedo was a young man who was essentially forced into this type of relationship. At first, he was born in Elis, but when the city went to war, he was captured and sold into slavery. Now, at this time, Phaedo was a young boy, but he stood out as being very good-looking

So much so that this actually ended up being a problem for him. He was singled out for his appearance and then forced into a house of prostitution. However, Plato did manage to slip out to listen to the philosopher Socrates, who eventually persuaded others to ransom him from the brothel so that he could be free and study philosophy. Plato would actually end up remaining friends with these individuals and would even become a philosopher himself with time. He even started his own school of philosophy and became well known for his own work.

So that's kind of how that ends. He's one of the most famous cases of a male prostitute where it turns out well. So that's a good ending, right? Well, how about a spicy court case in the United States? What? Yes. So...

When we talk about all this, we've kind of brought up things with Victoria in London. We talked about ancient Europe. We talked about things in Asia, but we haven't mentioned as much of the stuff of the United States. Now, American male sex work is something that is older than obviously the foundation of the United States, right back to the colonial times. And although the colonies did prosecute men for sodomy because they

Puritans, that was something that, especially in the early days, a lot of the very dogmatic religious beliefs, it is not something that you would want. In more than 10 cases, men were executed for the crime. But,

A number of cases are known to involve element or solicitation. This is the guy I was talking about earlier. This is the one? Yeah. Okay. I think we read the exact same story. Okay. Because you wrote this part. Okay. But I read this and I was like, I don't know. So essentially, in the year 1677, there was a guy called Nicholas Session who was tried for the crime of sodomy.

Now, for clarification, the crime was not simply homosexuality. That was not it. That was not the big thing. It was solicitation for sodomy. Because what I saw from a lot of what I was researching is for things like this, they mostly minded their business and big name. You know what I mean? Yes. People were like, because there are a lot of laws today even that are interesting that, you know, cops just kind of.

Because they aren't going to go into people's homes and be like, hey, I mean, I hope not. I hope. Well, I mean, some cases they do. And that's what ends up in legal courts. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. You don't see this on TikTok all the time. It's like police. And here's the thing. I see a lot of stuff and of police doing things that are blatantly illegal. And then I feel like those are real things. Whenever you see like the whole thing.

Am I that trusting? I'm always like, oh, this is so crazy. Somebody wrote, recorded that skit. Oh, but that whole thing that you mentioned about people are like cops not going into people's homes to see whether or not they were having sex. No, that didn't happen. But there are very famous cases of things being blatantly ignored because the police did not want to get involved. Who was it?

Imagine writing the police report. It was, I think it was Jeffrey Dahmer. Like he was the one who ended up. I don't know anything about Dahmer because I was so deeply unsettling every single time. Every, every fact I've ever learned about him has been against my will because I don't, I don't, it's so unsettling. So upsetting. I've learned a lot of stuff about different things for serial killers and whatnot. I hate the topic of serial killers. I don't know. It gives me the creeps. It gives me so much anxiety. I can never sleep. So,

How bothered would you be if I explained one of the things that happened with the police? And this is what the thing is. Just do it. Just do it. Basically, one of his victims was a young male who he propositioned for sex. And I believe this was Dahmer that did this. And I hope I'm not confusing him with another serial killer. After basically not drugging him, he injected something into his skull in order to basically incapacitate him. And delirious, this young man ran outside

begging for help from the police, but he was not in his right state of mind because he had stuff literally injected into his skull. And I believe Dahmer was able to come out and convince the police that it was a lover's quarrel between the two of them. And the police, not wanting to be involved in a homosexual dispute, stepped away. That man was murdered that same day.

Did the cops get into trouble? I don't remember. I don't think there was any disciplinary action or anything that happened for them. That's one of the big problems that would happen. Anyway, the story of Session. So the thing is, in the court documents, it was revealed that Session had a long history of propositioning young men in the surrounding community for sex. He'd been privately reprimanded for his activity at least twice over the course of 20 years and is known to have had attempted to have sex with other men in return for compensation.

In his sodomy trial, it was revealed that he had in at least two instances offered payment in exchange for sexual services. And Samuel Barbo would testify that Session had offered him a, quote, bushel of corn if he would disrobe for him. And Peter Bull would testify that Session had offered him gunpowder in exchange for, and I am not kidding when I quote this, one blue at my breach.

Session was convicted of sodomy, but his sentence didn't meet with any jail time or anything. He was just kind of reprimanded.

Now, it's important to say this, but Session was a prosperous landowner in Connecticut, and most of the men who accused him were of lower social class. There are, of course, accusations that these poor men were trying to blackmail or take action against Session, like in the case of the Salem Witch Trials. But here's the thing. Session was first privately sanctioned to stop propositioning young men and was only publicly tried when apparently he attempted to sue his indentured servant for slander because that servant

Daniel Saxton, wished to be released from service due to Session's numerous sexual advances. It was only after Session took legal action against his servant that he was investigated and then brought to justice. As Saxton defended himself against Slander, he actually showed that Session had a history of making sexual advances towards others and this involved payment.

Given the private investigations and warnings that had already been issued, it's kind of funny, but Session never would have gone to court or anything if he had not tried to silence his servant in the first place. Now, this next one goes back in history and is actually dedicated to you, Gabby. My initial knowledge of this specific event actually comes from a manga called Kingdom, which I will tell any of you right now that are listening is incredibly badass. And you, Gabby, specifically wanted a male prostitute that slept with women,

Which I realize now me saying that sounds weird. Yeah, I want one. Apply here. Oh my God. Anyway. You set yourself up for that one. I know I did. Anyway, Lao Ai. This is not necessarily a prostitute, but more so a performer, if you will. And it's a complicated thing.

A Chinese man by the name of Lao Ai lived from 258 to 238 BC during the rule of Qin Shi Huang. This king was a man named Jin, and his father had died, leaving his mother a widow. Now, as queen mother, as the queen dowager, she had a lot of power. And specifically, she openly enjoyed the company of lovers without any kind of shame. She just did what it is that she wanted. And she herself had once been a concubine of

like before marrying the king. Now, the man, Lao Ai, was rumored to have a great body. So he performed a striptease for the queen and was apparently so impressive. She was so instantly attracted to him that he became her primary boy toy. Now, here's what you need to hear.

and why I included this. According to Sima Qian's record of the Grand Historian, Lao Ai had a giant penis, being of such size that, quote, it could be used as an axle for a wooden carriage.

There are really many reasons to listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science. It's kind of a challenge to summarize them all, Molly. Okay, here's a reason to listen to our show, Big Picture Science, because you love to be surprised by science news. We love to be surprised by science news. So, for instance, I learned on our own show that I had been driving around with precious metals in my truck,

before it was stolen. - That was brought up in our show about precious metals and also rare metals like most of the things in your catalytic converter. I was surprised to learn that we may begin naming heat waves like we do hurricanes. You know, prepare yourself for heat wave Lucifer. - I don't think I can prepare myself for that.

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Hello everyone, my name is Wesley Levesay from the History of the Second World War podcast. My podcast is a mostly chronological retelling of the Second World War, and I hope you will join me on a journey through the most cataclysmic conflict in human history, as we try to answer the questions of not just what and where, but how and why.

Join me on a journey not just through the famous campaigns, battles, and events, but also on a trip around the globe as we broaden the scope of Second World War history beyond the well-known battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. During weekly episodes, I seek to provide new insight for long-time students of the war while also being a great jumping-on point for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Second World War.

This podcast has made it to the invasion of Poland in 1939 and start listening now to find out how the world would find itself embroiled in its second worldwide conflict in just 20 years. You can find History of the Second World War on all major podcast platforms or at History of the Second World War. That is a description. Yes. This ability drew the attention of Lu Buwei. Oh my God. He was like the two whatever...

Growth master. Oh my God. Yeah. You have to be like, I don't know.

Maybe we cut that. I don't know. James, you decide, because I don't know if anybody would know what I'm talking about. If they're chronically online, they probably would know. I know. Oh, my gosh. I need to get off TikTok. Actually, they should, damn it. I take back everything I said earlier. So this ability drew the attention of Lu Buwei, who actually himself was having an affair with the Queen Dowager. And Lu plotted to make sure make use of Lao's sexual prowess in order to make himself more popular with the Queen because, you know, oh, he gave her this great gift.

So, Lu and the queen organized a false castration in order to allow Lao Ai to be admitted to the queen's palace as a eunuch. But he wasn't actually a eunuch. And so from there, their affair could run in full swing. And it would seem that they actually did have feelings for one another because they did have a long-term relationship and ended up having two children together.

However, in the year 239 BC, the king found out about his mother's affair with Lao Ai and also found out that he had two half-brothers from him. It came to his attention that maybe, you know, they might be trying to take over the throne, and that was a bad thing. Lao Ai heard about how upset the king was, and so he formed his own little army, thinking that he was going to have to fight for his son's lives and defend himself.

but his forces were completely and utterly obliterated. Lao Ai was killed. His body was ripped apart. His sons were killed and every member of his extended family were also exterminated. Zhang even put his mother in prison for hiding the affair. And that's kind of it. After some time, he actually did end up forgiving her and she was allowed to leave prison. But yeah, that's how that went. Years later, the king would go to unified China and actually become the first emperor.

That was a terrible story. Okay. Yes, it was. We have two more positive ones. One is kind of positive. The other one is more so positive, I guess. Boo. Boo this man. Okay. In another case, we move back to Italy with Febo di Poggio or Poggio.

Now for context about when this takes place, for anyone that knows art, Michelangelo is remembered as being one of the most famous painters and sculptors in history. And he's remembered for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, creating the Statue of David, and so much more. But also the big thing is that if you've ever seen the Sistine Chapel...

There's a lot of naked dudes because Michelangelo really liked working with nude male models. He covered some of them. Covered some of them. Right? Because when we were there, they were like, oh, he had to put little wrappies around the, you know. It's true. It's true. But he did all. But in order to use for inspiration gap, he had a lot of naked male models. Well, actually, he didn't do it. They paid someone else to do it. Remember? Yeah. To cover things up. Yeah. Mm hmm.

So there was a lot of naked men in the Sistine Chapel for basically no reason. Just he wanted it. And so people who hated him called him godless for putting so many images of nude people on display because this really didn't have anything to do with Bible stories. He just wanted them naked. Tell them about the Garden of Eden. Well, yeah. So that was obviously the case. But he depicted all the scenes throughout history is kind of like this.

As they should be. Who's that visionary? While it may seem fairly obvious now, you know, he was likely gay and had a lot of male lovers throughout his life during the 1500s. He even once wrote that, quote, it was impossible to share true feelings of love with a woman.

Wow. Okay. Probably. So one of the male sex workers, and this is why we bring him up for context. One of the male sex workers that was in a relationship with him was called Febo de Poggio. Question. Yes. Before we continue, did he mean like women can love other women or he meant like men couldn't feel true love with other women? Because that's important to me. That, um, like,

him that it was impossible for him to share love with a woman. I believe. Speaking from personal experience, that's a you problem, my guy, because some women are top tier. True. Very true. I married one. Oh, I mean, I could marry one. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, one of the male sex workers who was in a relationship with him was Bebo de Poggio, and he was a much younger man. And when I say that he used Michelangelo like a sugar daddy,

I'm serious. This was a male prostitute that in exchange for his services and relations would demand very expensive gifts. In fact, the artist was apparently so wrapped around his finger that he was nicknamed the little blackmailer.

Now, when we say that, the word blackmail sounds harsh, but it's probably more of a joke because Michelangelo wrote a bunch of poems about Febo de Poggio, how beautiful he was, how much he loved him, etc. So it's, I mean, it's very likely that he was straight up in love with this guy and that the whole thing was kind of like an inner joke. Eventually, they would break up and Michelangelo would write that he was betrayed, but he didn't write why or how. He didn't go into details. It's very possible that...

Poggio stole something from him, maybe a lot of money, because after all, he was a whole sugar daddy. Now, since he was already very demanding with money, that is a very real possibility. Eventually, they both moved on. And this is a very rare recording of this type of relationship in history.

Speaking of money, though, we have the final case, Shai Shahar, which this is remarkably recent. I didn't realize this. This is actually a story for history behind modern male prostitution. So Shai Shahar was an American man who moved to Israel in 1980. He met an American documentary producer who needed an English speaking connection with the army of Palestine.

So he asked the director for credit as one of the producers in the film and that if he could connect with the Palestinian army and he succeeded.

He basically managed to finesse his way into getting a movie gig and afterwards would be invited to some of the after parties when the film was finished. He met a very wealthy woman at a lawn party who gave him a new suit, gave him some cash, gave him a business card for a male escort agency because apparently she was so taken with him that with his personality and good looks, he would be great as a gigolo.

Now, at the time, he was already 35 years old, which I'm 30. 35 years old for a person that is a prostitute is most certainly older. But even though he was already at this age, he thought, what the hell? We might as well see where this takes him. And so he did it.

He ended up being remarkably popular. According to his story, he had sex with over 500 women, participated in 40 threesomes with different couples. He charged $150 for the first hour and $100 for every additional hour afterwards. And if a woman wanted him to fly somewhere to be their date, he was paid $1,000 for his time plus travel expenses. And this is back in the 80s.

Wow. So now if you think of a place in the world with prostitution, there are two places you probably think of. What are they? Amsterdam. Correct. That's the big one here that we're going to mention. The other one would probably be Thailand, like Bangkok and that kind of thing. I would never have thought that, but sure. Yep. So Amsterdam's red light district is something that was famous for prostitutes. Is there a men version of the red light district?

Because I think I saw that question asked on Reddit. That is a fantastic point. The answer is that there wasn't really an Amsterdam. They were famous for displaying female prostitutes. And for years, the district displayed only women until the 90s when Shai Shahar went down in history as the first male sex worker to sit in a window and offer his own services. So they actually sit in window. Yes. They still do that. Yes.

Did I go there? Yes. In windows. Yes. Are they wearing stuff? Some. I don't know. I feel like I would not. I'm very like open to things, but I don't know. I feel like it'd be overwhelming. You know, I like my nudity to come with a warning. I do agree. Yeah. So he did that. Now, the thing is, since he was straight, he only took on female clients who he says were mostly married women that wanted to have a fling without any kind of emotional attachment.

And after working as a gigolo for five years there in Amsterdam, he would say that after so many nights, he didn't really see women as individuals anymore, just a way to get money. Now, he recognized eventually that the lifestyle that he had been living and his how it had affected his viewpoint was very unhealthy. He knew that he would need to retire and he would actually have to do something if he wanted to ever have something more fulfilling.

So he gave it up and eventually he did actually succeed in properly dating, got married. So he got a wife and later became a burlesque performer and started off Broadway musical performances. Either way, we could go on and on about his work, but really there are other types of work that we need to get to at this point, like sleep, because again, it is really late. There are plenty more episodes and videos to make my friends. And with that, we are going to go ahead and end things here today.

Thank you all very much for listening. I really do appreciate you all. And this is, this has been a hell of an episode to try and record here in the first place. If you hear any little snores in the background, that is our dog. And yeah. The dog said, shut up and go to bed. Good night, everyone. Goodbye. Bye. Do you find it hard to sleep at night? Then the Calm Cove podcast can help you sleep deeply all night long.

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