Customer Reviews

Rent Boys: The World of Male Sex Trade Workers

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I purchased and read this book for the purpose of research. I found the book easy to follow, well-documented, and, oddly enough, felt (even though documentation, not empathy, is the purpose of the author). Certainly worth your time if only for the glimpses inside a world most of us do not understand, or do not even know exists.

The book is short and can be read in one sitting. Dorais doesn't ramble.

This book is a majjor disappointment. The sample is small--40 male sex workers--and geographically limited to Montreal and Quebec City. Inclusion of the ethnically diferent Toronto and Vancouver would have made the study more representative, at least of Canada. Although readable, it is academically oriented. More important, the author pays scant attenttion to the role of the internet in commercial sex while over-emphasizing escort agencies, which have virtually disappeared in North America because of the internet. Thousands of men worldwide advertise their availability and services, along with fees, usually with pictures fore and aft of the merchandise, on such sites as Rentboy, Hourboy and men4rentnow. Some of these sites also feature reviews written by clients. Certainly Dorais has captured the pathos of hustlers, the boys, often drug addicts, who offer themselves on the street and other public places.And he calls attention to the absence of services to help the prostitutes find other occupations.

The book is well written and deals aptly with the lives of male escorts but focuses more on male escorts in Canada than anywhere else in the world.