The male prostitute or hustler is a frequent stereotype in literature and movies in the West from the 1960s on, and especially in movies and books with a gay perspective in which he may be considered a stock character. He also appears occasionally in popular music, some contemporary fashion advertising, and the visual arts.
Video Male prostitution in the arts
Stereotypes
The most common stereotype of the hustler is as a sexy but tragic figure. This stereotype reveals both a fascination with the hustler as a sexual object and sadness or disdain with his situation and life style. This stereotyped male hustler is often an under-aged or teen-age "street kid" or "runaway" forced to leave home because of his sexual orientation or because of sexual abuse. He is often portrayed as a drug addict or thief. The plotline frequently focuses on the crisis of leaving the trade or the street ("one last trick"), or on making enough money for an important use (a medical treatment, a gift). The climax often has one of two possible outcomes: the hustler either abandons the trade and re-integrates society, or he meets a tragic end. This tragic image of the hustler can be contrasted with the stereotype of the female hooker with a heart of gold: instead of being portrayed as someone in control and contented, the hustler is lost, homeless, broke or exploited.
In movies and books that take the point of view of the client or of a boy/girl friend who loves the hustler, the hustler is often depicted as an impossible love object who will only bring hurt or frustration. The lover may grow jealous of and disturbed by the hustler's work; occasionally the loving boy/girl friend will be drawn into the lifestyle of their hustler boy friend. Older clients who fall in love with hustlers are frequently prey to emotional (and sometimes physical) pain; this is especially true in the case of "rough trade" (where the hustler identifies as straight), and this depiction has been reinforced by several famous incidents of violence against clients (such as the deaths of Pier Paolo Pasolini and Rudolph Moshammer).
In contrast to the previous depictions, the male prostitute has also sometimes been portrayed as an idealized rebel living outside the law and free of bourgeois conventions. This almost Nietzschean image of the hustler as moral and sexual outlaw owes much to the writings of Jean Genet, William S. Burroughs and John Rechy (among others).
While less frequent in cinema and novels, the male prostitute with exclusively female clients (the "gigolo" or "escort") is generally depicted in a less tragic manner than the gay hustler (the gigolo is portrayed as older, athletic, well-dressed, etc.), and films like American Gigolo have done much to paint the character as a sophisticated seducer. This portrayal has also led to cinematic satire (the Deuce Bigalow films).
The portrayal of the client or "john" of male prostitution in popular culture is far less codified than that of the hustler and runs the gamut from the lonely married man, the self-hating in-the-closet guy, the exploitative or endearing businessman, and even the serial killer.
The diversity of these stereotypes reveals much about each author's or director's personal view of love, sexuality, power and morality.
These stereotypes may have a basis in fact, but they should not be taken as true in all cases.
The same issues that surround male prostitution (including the financial security and social status of the young "kept" lover, the older lover's obsessions and insecurities with regards to his or her youthful love-object, the sexual freedom or moral indifference of the hustler, etc.) often appear in movies and literature that portray amorous or sexual relationships--without prostitution--between an older man or woman and a younger male lover, for example, in Pasolini's novel and movie Theorem, Harold Prince's film Something For Everyone (1970) and Bill Condon's film Gods and Monsters (1998).
Maps Male prostitution in the arts
In literature
The following novels, memoirs, and plays feature male hustlers as major characters.
In theater
In cinema
Films with a hustler as a main character
Other films that include hustlers
- Advise & Consent (United States: 1962, by Otto Preminger) - Ray Shaff, a former associate of Senator Brigham Anderson, now supports himself as a hustler in New York City.
- The Cheat (la Triche) (France: 1984, by Yannick Bellon with Victor Lanoux and Xavier Deluc)
- JFK (United States: 1991, by Oliver Stone) - Kevin Bacon plays a gay hustler associated with Oswald
- By The Dawn's Early Light (Denmark: 1993, by Knud Vesterskov, narrated by David Wojnarowicz)
- L.A. Confidential (United States: 1997, by Curtis Hanson) - includes a subplot with a young would-be actor, played by Simon Baker, who agrees to sleep with the D.A. for cash, but ends up with his throat cut
- Boogie Nights (United States: 1997, by Paul Thomas Anderson, with Mark Wahlberg and Burt Reynolds)
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (United States: 1997, by Clint Eastwood, with Kevin Spacey; Jude Law and John Cusack) - based on John Berendt's best-selling book, a prominent Savannah citizen (Spacey) shoots to death his lover
- Happy Together (Hong Kong: 1997, by Wong Kar-wai, with Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai; in Mardarin, Cantonese and Spanish) - the brash and irresponsible Ho Po-Wing (Chang) makes his money from the street
- Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (United States: 2001, by Steven Spielberg, with Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law)
- Vers le sud (Heading South) (France: 2005, by Laurent Cantet)
- A Single Man (US: 2010, Tom Ford)
Documentary films
On television
The following television programs feature a hustler as a main character:
In photography
The following photographers, in their work, frequently use the image of the male prostitute:
- Alberto Sorbelli
- Larry Clark
- Terry Richardson
- Nan Goldin
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Jack Pierson
- Wilhelm von Gloeden
- Philip-Lorca diCorcia
See also
- Male prostitution
- Gigolo
- Female sex tourism
- Pederasty
- Sexual tourism
Notes
References
- Katz, Jonathan Ned (1976). Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.. New York, Harper Colophon Books. ISBN 0-06-091211-1 (1985 edition).
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