Uncovering the Myth of the Male Sex Worker: A Comparative Study of the Lived Experiences of Male Sex Workers in Scotland and New Zealand

Male sex workers (particularly non-heterosexual or "queer" male sex workers, hereafter QMSWs) are vastly underrepresented in academic research and allied social policy as well as being generally invisible within wider societal discourses regarding sex work. I aim to develop and expand upon my previous research in this area by exploring the lived experiences of QMSWs in relation to client-perpetrated violence of an emotional, physical, or sexual nature, structural violence i.e. socio-political and economic violence (Galtung 1969; Shannon et al. 2007), as well as their experiences with the criminal justice system within the UK (as either victims, offenders, or both). This study is analytically informed by Goffmanian models of stigma and social performance (1956; 1963), theoretical interpretations of hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities (Connell 1995; Clarkson 2006; Eguchi 2006), and implements elements of queer theory in both its methodological and epistemological underpinnings i.e. queer ethnography (Rooke 2009). Although ethnographic studies of QMSWs are extant (cf. Luckenbill 1985; Bloor et al. 1990), ethnographic studies which seek to explore the lived experiences of violence(s) and the criminal justice system remains a relatively uncharted area, with studies particularised within a UK context being especially limited. This study seeks to bridge the theoretical gap within this nascent subfield by ethnographically exploring the lived experiences of QMSWs in relation to client-perpetrated violence, structural violence, and the criminal justice system, and ultimately aims to highlight the plethora of socio-structural inequalities faced by QMSWs within Britain today.