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I was watching a documentary about male gigolos and while it explored the world of male escorts, a refreshing change from the usual exploration of female sex workers a la Belle de Jour, I squirmed throughout the documentary. Many thoughts collided in my head. I wondered how on earth certain women paid for one ‘central’ if not disguised (by sunglasses) gigolo in the documentary, who resembled a textbook serial killer or pedophile (in the glasses).
While I realise that women pay for sex, I couldn’t understand how women would pay for the scary males in this documentary. One gigolo, claiming to be the highest paid in London, lacked any refinement and conversation skills and he needed major dental work! By the end of the documentary, this supposedly ‘highest paid’ gigolo wasn’t getting any work, blaming the credit crunch for his client’s lack of funds (sure, sure), and decided to try St Tropez! There was another, ‘caring’ gigolo, who refused to confirm whether he had sex with his (often elderly) clients, operated on a more professional level and had the vocabulary to converse, while spending his free time educating himself on wines – which comes in handy when you’re dining in posh restaurants with your client.
But then there was a comical Italian wannabe gigolo, who thought it was relatively easy to transform into a sophisticated gigolo. You can watch a sample of his style below:
This one had me squirming only because I’ve gone out with these sorts of men in the past. My friends and I would come across them during our holidays in Mediterranean hot spots: sleazy, money hungry and hypersexed (has nothing to do with quality though). These sorts of men view sex as a physical conquest and a sport.
In the documentary, the Italian’s search for work took him to a job interview for a web site that was to list male gigolos for affluent women. He was requested to take a photo of his erect cock for the interviewer (away from the interviewer) and an interesting thing occurred. He couldn’t get it up on demand, leaving the interviewer (a rather older snake oil merchant type) with one question: if he can’t get it up on demand, how would he get it up for the “lesser attractive clients”?
It’s a valid question. Anyway, the guy did eventually get it up at home, over some porno, but still, it makes you wonder about the website and the sexual approach taken by male (the older dude) flesh peddlers who think that women only want a porn star lookalike. I know many women who are professional, have little time for the dating game, who need escorts to accompany them to events. The thing is, these women also need males who are intellectually capable of stringing a few sentences together, so as not to look like complete tossers during functions, dinners, and the like.
But the thing that had me reeling, and I’m thinking (correct me) that this is common for those who are sex workers, is the notion of sex workers thinking they are something “exceptional”. The shlock TV show about Belle de Jour tends to be arrogant, its narrator coming across as that. I have to admit, when Belle De Jour was ‘unmasked’, I felt a little schadenfreude, and really questioned the TV representation. A few of my friends laughed about it as well. Sure, I’m aware of sex workers being the same as your next door neighbour, of them not resembling a model/goddess, but Belle had to be simply off her head to represent herself as this uber goddess, when really, she resembles a standard, if not drab, academic type and no men or clients have come forth to refute her claims. A part of me still thinks there aren’t any, who’ll admit to paying astronomical prices to bed her. I’m just saying what many have been thinking or have been afraid to say.
Coming away from this documentary about male gigolos, I wondered if some men would ever get it right. Incidentally, the Italian wannabe gigolo was out of work for three months, and during the documentary, still unemployed and heavily in debt. I think the Belle De Jour hoopla misrepresents much sex work -as a regular and ‘high’ income.
Think about it: If these gigolos were making soooooooo much money, why would they then need television exposure?
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