One sex worker said most of his clients were older and larger women, but a woman close to his own age had the saddest story. Image / Getty
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Sex work is often portrayed as dangerous and tragic, but a host of male prostitutes have taken to Reddit to reveal the truth about their jobs.
The thread reveals an enormous discrepancy between straight sex work and gay sex work, where the former tends to involve lots of talking and nothing kinky, while the latter can be anything from simply cleaning someone's apartment naked to pure sex.
Here are five anecdotes.
A man called RyanJames01, who is an Australian sex worker and porn performer with four years of experience, is a consummate professional.
"I only see female clients. Looks wise, I see everyone. All ages, from 20 up until nearly 70. All body shapes and sizes. If you're working as a sex worker and you're discriminating based on looks you're not going to be very successful," he wrote.
"There's a common misconception that there must be something wrong with clients, that they're not able to go on a date or sleep with someone outside of seeing a sex worker. In my experience that's never the case."
He said most of his clients fit into three categories.
First is convenience, if a client doesn't have the time to invest in seeing someone, or if they're in an unfulfilling relationship they can't or won't leave.
Second is if they have a particular fantasy, and they want to try it out without the pressure of dating until they find someone willing.
Finally, he said he often had sex with people who wanted to tick something off a "bucket list", for example, women who have never had sex or lesbians who are curious about what sex with a man is actually like.
"A lot of the time it comes down to wanting a certain sexual experience in a safe environment where it's all about the client's desires," he said.
While many men in the thread started sex work as a way to make a decent amount of money in a short time frame, some fell into the work more naturally.
A user called TO_away_TO said his journey started when he was living in Toronto in the 90s and met an older woman at a neighbourhood bar.
At the time, he was 23 and she was 47, and he liked the fact she was very confident and direct about things she liked.
"We met many more times at hotels, bars and restaurants where she always picked up the tab. Each time we ended up in bed. She was divorced, financially well off, kids were off on their own," he said.
"About six months in, she asked me if she could 'loan me out' to a couple of her girlfriends. Of course I jumped at the chance, I went out with three of her friends a couple times each and it was always the same. Dinner, drinks then sex."
He said two of them were unhappily married, and the third was divorced, and while they didn't pay him cash they showered him in clothes and gifts.
"All of those women just wanted the companionship and sex they weren't getting at that point in their life," he explained.
A British user called MyFirstGayPorn revealed he only serviced one client.
"I was a uni student, he was married with kids. He was actually a very attractive man," he admitted, saying their sessions lasted only 10 minutes.
Initially, the client paid £80 (NZ$140) per session, but before long he raised the rate up to £160 (A$260) or more, depending on his mood.
"It lasted for three years and I easily made at least £600 (NZ$1056) every month. Paid off all my student loans and I'm now debt free!"
Another user, GayGayMcThrowAway made money with similar ease.
"I worked as a nude housekeeper in college for what I assume were gay men (30s-60s). I would just strip down and do various house cleaning tasks in the buff. If they had a secluded yard, I sometimes did gardening. I got paid 100 (US) dollars an hour on average (NZ$136)," he wrote.
He said most of the time, the clients simply watched, but he admitted he did engage in sexual acts if the price was right.
"My best experience was with this guy who lived in what had to be a $5 million dollar swanky modern looking house on a lake," he said.
"We ended up eating chef prepared food, crushing around in his boat and swimming naked in his pool and he paid me $3000 (NZ$4095) to spend the night.
"I didn't clean a thing that day."
However, not all jobs are straightforward transactions.
A user called JakeWolfe87 revealed he often found work through the US website Craiglist.
He said most of his clients were older and larger women, but he'll never forget one client who was close to being his own age.
"We met up at a motel near where she lives and went at it," he said.
"After a while, I lit up a cigarette as she laid in bed and she got up suddenly and began to vomit in the bathroom. After about a half-hour she comes out and apologises and proceeds to pull a HUGE bag of prescription pill bottles out of her purse.
"After she sees my surprise she tells me she has cancer and is trying to have a little fun since her boyfriend did nothing but work to pay her bills but would always be too tired to touch her."
He said while it wasn't uncommon that his clients were sexually frustrated despite being in loving relationships, this one made him particularly sad.
Most of the men featured in the feed agreed they didn't often do anything weird.
One user called KingOfCon - who worked as a male model at nightclubs in Shanghai - said his clients were usually wealthy women over 35 years of age.
His routine usually involved going to dinner and drinks at fancy restaurants before having sex, or attending events to act as the client's boyfriend for the night before heading up to her hotel room.
"I didn't have many weird requests, no pervy stuff," he said.
Of course, there's always one that goes a little off-script.
"The most memorable one I can think of was when I was asked to have sex with a 30-something woman in front of her much older husband.
"She kept yelling things at him in Chinese while we were having sex, as he was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, wearing nothing but underwear, a shirt and a suit jacket. He also looked super p***ed every time she yelled something at him."
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