The perception is that any woman can approach any man and offer sex, and the man will eagerly accept. This isn’t the truth, but I think that it’s more true than it would be if you reversed the genders of those involved.
Even if I’m wrong, and the reality is that women are just as willing to pay for sex as men are, I don’t think that teenaged boys — brought up in a culture which teaches them that men are horndogs and male virgins are less manly, but women have less desire for sex then men and any woman who is not a virgin is a “slut” — I don’t think those boys would consider selling sex for food a viable possibility.
Let me be clear here: I do not, myself, believe that women are any less sexual beings than men are. However, I think that’s the message that is being culturally ingrained into our young people, and it’s colouring their perception of sexual gender roles as I describe above.
Male prostitutes are overwhelming hired by male clients, even if the sex worker himself identifies as heterosexual.
Boys at risk of becoming prostitutes would know this.
Edit:. I actually have known a guy that used bar style hookups to secure temporary lodgings but the transactional nature was more hidden. From the perspective of the women they had gone home with a nice guy and had a good time then discovered he needed a place to crash for a while but he would love to help around the house and babysit for her.
Unfortunately, he is someone I had to kick out if my life and weekly role playing game for breaking explicit rules about safe sex with my ex girlfriend. He did something without her permission and then reacted badly when asked to stop by her.
Admittedly, I am not female, so my perspective on the outside looking in may fall short. But, it seems to me that the sort of men a woman looking to pay for sex would desire would likely be on the experienced end of the spectrum. Likely corresponding with an age group far less likely to need a side hustle.
I suppose there’s ladies who would pay for the eye candy factor, or for the fantasy of an underage boy, but it’s hard to imagine that as being the norm among the women willing to pay for sex.
It’s very easy for me to believe this is happening, because this is the exact dynamic of much sex tourism in developing countries.
If you ever visit a developing country you won’t have to look far to see attractive young locals dating older foreigners who are not always particularly attractive. The foreigner gets sex that would be harder or more expensive to get at home. The local gets expensive meals and other material benefits, and this is the “transactional” part, not a straight up swap of money for sex.
Usually it’s a foreign man and local woman, but it does go the other way too. It’s not always coercive or cruelly exploitative, and indeed the exploitation may be fully mutual (and I’m not saying that for self-justification, I’ve never been in such a relationship). Sometimes the tables are turned completely as the local exploits a soft-hearted foreigner as a way to get out of the country, then quickly abandons their benefactor once they’ve made it out.
It should not surprise anyone to hear that this goes on in some form in the United States. I do suspect it’s probably more prone to one-way exploitation of hungry teen girls by better-off sugar daddies.
