‘Four Men, Four Lives: A Psycho-social study of experiences of Male Sex Workers in Manchester’

Abstract

Recent studies of male sex work present a more positive view of the subject than earlier research which viewed male sex work and the men who engage in it as deficit figures (Aggleton & Parker, 2015; Ellison, 2017; Ellison & Weitzer, 2016; McCabe, 2011; McPhail, Scott & Minichiello, 2015; Minichiello, Scott, & Cox, 2017). Stigma, however, is still a significant concern in the literature. Focusing on the everyday lives and lived experiences of male sex workers who access support from the Men’s Room, Manchester (TMR), this study provides new knowledge about how insight into the wider lives of male sex workers can contribute to constructing them as fully human, a way to counter the everyday
experience of stigma. It demonstrates how a long-term, non-interventionist model of support provides care, relationships, peer-to-peer connections, and access to social spaces and a cultural life, which attends to both immediate and future needs of the men in this study. Drawing on a psycho-social methodology that prioritises opportunities for dialogue, the data collection methods of map-making and repeat interviews allowed the exploration and appreciation of the everyday lives and lived experiences of the male sex workers in this study, their relationships, and their changing relationships to selling sex.