What do you think?
Rate this book
Rent Boys: The World of Male Sex Trade Workers
From the author of Don't Tell and Dead Boys Can't Dance. Candid interviews and personal stories explore the lives of male street hustlers, strippers, and escorts.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 17, 2016
I'm giving this five stars because it was serendipitously exactly the book i was looking for in terms of some research i'm doing right now. This is a short (100-page) sociological study about contemporary male sex workers in Quebec at the turn of the millennium. It began as a study funded by a grant to research populations of disease vectors for HIV, but broadened into a much more diverse survey of the lives, circumstances, histories, etc of the men surveyed. Dorais and his fellow author(s) treat their subjects with human dignity and respect, and endeavor to present their findings in unbiased and non-judgmental means.
December 12, 2021
Great! Quick and educational read that analyzes male sex work and their ideologies of their industry. Recommend! Also wish there was more, so interesting.
February 6, 2025
a great look into male sex work in the early 2000’s. would be very interested to read an updated version of this in today’s age !
March 26, 2025
Shallow and uninformative.
March 10, 2011
This interesting translated sociological work drew my eye on a library shelf. So I grabbed it. I wish all such books were written with such an elegant style. I mean, check out this line from the intro: "In fact, the male prostitution market is a universe shot through with illusions." PERIOD.
31 - Technique in strip club: the sexier options are never posted, but may be offered to "a special client like yourself." This technique must have begun 3000 years ago.
32-33: "Most strippers consider their own attractiveness to be a function of their gaze as well as their physique."
45: Even a down-and-out Francophone hustler has a great way of putting things: "At first hustling seemed pretty positive, I even thought I might find love that way. But I quickly lost that illusion: if you want to hustle, you can't love yourself."
50: "In the end [the dancer] finds it comic and pathetic that he, a heterosexual man with a child, dances in a gay bar for other men in exactly the same situation, with spouses who have no idea what their husbands are up to."
74: phenomenon of a rentboy "...posessing a condom totemically without actually using it" - interesting psychological detail.
Worth the read if you want to know about the topic.
31 - Technique in strip club: the sexier options are never posted, but may be offered to "a special client like yourself." This technique must have begun 3000 years ago.
32-33: "Most strippers consider their own attractiveness to be a function of their gaze as well as their physique."
45: Even a down-and-out Francophone hustler has a great way of putting things: "At first hustling seemed pretty positive, I even thought I might find love that way. But I quickly lost that illusion: if you want to hustle, you can't love yourself."
50: "In the end [the dancer] finds it comic and pathetic that he, a heterosexual man with a child, dances in a gay bar for other men in exactly the same situation, with spouses who have no idea what their husbands are up to."
74: phenomenon of a rentboy "...posessing a condom totemically without actually using it" - interesting psychological detail.
Worth the read if you want to know about the topic.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews