‘Male Sex Workers. A comparative study of a fringe phenomenon in Italy and Sweden’ aims at mapping and analysing the phenomenon of male sex workers (specifically men that sell sex to other men, M2M or M$M) in Italy and Sweden.
While female sex work has been studied from different scholars worldwide, a lack of attention exists on the male side of the phenomenon.
This gap in the academic literature mirrors a more general ‘invisibility’ of the issue also in other domains – politics (governments and public institutions), press and public opinion.
Being a comparative research, much attention will be paid to the different legislation that exists in Italy (abolitionist country) and Sweden (neo-prohibitionist country) and on the effects of existing provisions on sex workers.
The project looks at the working conditions of sex workers and at the services provided to their clients.
A further gap in most studies, indeed, relates to the analysis of sex work as an actual work.
Interviews with sex workers (the so-called supply side) will be carried on in Milan and in Stockholm together with an online ethnography, since the phenomenon of male sex workers is strongly related to the use of internet.
If you are a man who bought or sold sexual services from a man in Italy or Sweden and would be able and willing to participate in this research, please, click here to contact me!