Gentlemen4Hire, the UK’s premier straight male escort company is a legal enterprise. “We don’t sell sex, only companionship,” says Simon Gillmore, its founder.
The Office for National Statistics revealed almost half of sex workers in the UK are men, and yet the idea of working as a male escort remains a social blind spot. In our society, selling sexual services is seen as deviant behaviour and the result is a stigmatisation that comes with the profession. It is clear that prostitution is about selling sexual services, but are hired male escorts used only for sex?
In the UK, prostitution is legal, yet the police have trouble regulating the industry. Not many people are aware of this legal profession, buy and sell sex in England and Wales is legal, however some activities remain illegal and criminal under Sexual Offences Act 2003 – soliciting in public place, kerb, crawling…
Most research suggests that its decriminalisation will improve the safety and health of sex workers and their clients but this needs to be communicated to members of the industry. Sex workers in countries where it is illegal are more likely to face violence and contract disease, report says.
According to a survey conducted by John Scott in 2018, professor in Criminology and Law at Queensland University, the UK is currently counting 42 websites advertising male escorts, with there being 13364 online profiles, and 7828 actual escorts, 4106 of these are for men and 3722 are for women. "This represented an increase from the previous year," says John. Numbers are increasing for a range of factors, "changing sexual mores and attitudes to a commodification of the male body, easier access, more difficult regulation via the internet, and easier marketing, but most of all a greater demand among women," adds John.
Simon Gillmore, the founder of Gentlemen4Hire, the UK's premier straight male escort company since 2007, is also witnessing this increase, traffic to the website has grown at least 10% every year. "Probably because women are busier than ever so have less time for dating but still want company of a man," says Simon. Today women of all ages, from 20 to 50+, are hiring a male escort for varied reasons and contrary to what some may think it is not all about sex.
Bastian, 30, started working as a male escort signing up on Gentlemen4Hire one year ago, and as for many other escorts, the main reason for starting in the industry was the benefits of the job. “I earn a lot and I still get to have a lot of spare time to work on my own projects,” he says. Bastian is a furniture designer and finding a job that will allow him to develop his furniture work was his priority.
Doing this job is primarily about money but he enjoys the work and satisfaction gained from it intellectually and physically and many may preferred to other forms of work. “We are in this to make women happy,” says Bastian. There is no need to feel ashamed with doing this job, and to him it is no different from any other services. “All my friends and family know about it, they think it’s an admirable job and are really supportive about it,” says Bastian. However, regarding his career, Bastian choose not to reveal his last name, he says, “I do not want the stigmas to have a negative impact on my future designer career”.
The male escort industry seems to have been associated with prostitution, although being a male escort contains a lot of “interaction, building personal relationship, going to events, as well as the sexual aspect,” says Bastian whereas prostitution is purely sexual. It is clear that people’s opinion about this industry has been stigmatised for decades. Female escorting has been subject of many issues around women being forced into it or doing it as a last resort.
But those men are on the websites because they want to be hired and enjoy it. Perhaps the lack of information in the UK regarding this profession is increasing biases, for Bastian, this must change. Clearly when it comes to sex, people gets to be quite pejorative. Sex workers will argue that they are not selling their bodies, but simply offering, like any other services, their talents at a certain price. “But society has a real problem with the idea of selling sex despite the fact that it is bringing a lot of money in the economy,” says Simon Gillmore.
Indeed, prostitution in the UK contributes to the economy by almost £9bn, according to the UK office for National Statistics. Of course, there is more to take in to consideration when debating the principles of prostitution.
Looking at the meaning of the term clearly gives us an insight of the job they’re doing. In the urban dictionary an escort is described as ‘someone who is paid for their time’. In the Cambridge dictionary it is also defined as ‘someone who is paid to go out to social events with another person, and sometimes to have sex’. Still people have trouble to accept that what two consented adults do in their free time is their business.
Women are paying for someone’s time to make them feel special for a few hours. “The men get paid and the women should have a nice time so it’s a win-win,” says Simon. Women are paying male escorts as an approach to get back in the dating scene without worrying about sex or romance, sometimes it is only a way to enjoy some company on a night out.
The leading websites for straight male escorts, Gentlemen4Hire for example, show a number of profiles that specifically state they will not have any sexual intercourse with their client. “None of our escorts on the site advertise sexual services, just companionship,” says Simon. Bastian gets, on average, six clients per month, and while for now none of them specifically hired him for sex, “so far I’ve had sex with all of them,” he says. Of course, sex is happening most of the time because there’s attraction and desire between two adults, but only naturally.
An escort should be no different from any other service. Sex has been, and still is a controversial subject. “Part of that probably comes from the natural censorship that we have in the UK which kind of makes it a difficult subject to discuss,” says Bastian. Not enough is known about male sex workers and people still think of sex workers in terms of working the streets, being female and illegal. This stereotype is wrong and male escorts should be recognized for the fair value of their work, although for some it may not fit an idealised notion of masculinity it still is an industry on the rise.
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