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Male Sex Work: Exploring Regulation in England and Wales
Author(s) -
Whowell Mary
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2010.00498.x
Subject(s) - sex work , masculinity , context (archaeology) , work (physics) , gender studies , sociology , female sex , visibility , political science , geography , medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , mechanical engineering , archaeology , family medicine , meteorology , engineering
Whilst sex‐work policy in England and Wales claims gender‐neutrality, local and national prostitution strategies primarily focus on female street‐based sex workers. Men who sell sex are generally absent or inadequately considered in such policies, and measures to regulate commercial sex markets are rarely considered in terms of their impact on male working practice. Drawing on the Coordinated Prostitution Strategy for England and Wales, this paper has two aims: first, to offer a gender‐based critique of the current policy framework for England and Wales by arguing that sex‐work policy is infused by a gendered understanding of sex work in which male identities are neglected or assumed deviant; and second to explore the notion that understanding sex work as it is performed locally is valuable when generating local and national policy. Informed by gendered readings of policy, social understandings of masculinity, and the (in)visibility of male sexual commerce this paper explores male sex work in the context of Manchester, England.