Read A Consumer's Guide to Male Hustlers for Free Online

not get screwed by clients, earned three stars.
    I relate this story to make the point that hustling is not a passive activity, in which the client does all the work, hands over money, and departs.
    It is not even that simple when, one would assume, this is all the action the script dictates. For instance: a hustler, in drag, will be picked up by a "straight" client who, presumably, wants to have sex with a man while fantasizing that he is screwing a woman. What the client really wants is to be screwed by the female impersonator. This sort of thing happens even more frequently in Latin American countries where machismo is the name of the game. 1
    1 . In my guidebook to Costa Rica, I summarize an interview with male prostitutes in drag. One of them describes how many of her "straight" customers want her to reverse roles. Pura Vida: Gay and Lesbian Costa Rica , Joseph Itiel (San Francisco: Orchid House, 1993), p. 97.
    Because hustling is not merely a passive activity, the hustler needs to provide much more than just a receptive ass. To screw, he needs to have an erection. Some customers will insist that the hustler jack himself off and ejaculate while they are watching him. Others will insist that he go down on them. These activities may have to be performed even when the hustler is not the least bit attracted to his client.
    For a hustler to be even moderately successful, having a pretty face and muscular body is neither necessary nor sufficient to guarantee success. Every time a hustler has sex with a new client he is confronted with a novel physical and psychological challenge. In spite of what society at large thinks about male prostitution, and how hustlers themselves might regard it, hustling is not just a job to make ends meet, but, rather, a vocation for which one must have a calling. By "calling" I mean natural skill and intuition, and the ability to learn from experience.
    Of course hustling is about money—but there is a lot more to it. In the next chapter I will discuss the various reasons why a young (and quite often not-so-young) man chooses to become a hustler. While the reasons are complex and even convoluted the calling always needs to be there.
    To illustrate my point, and put a human face on this theory, I will tell the story of my six-year affair with one hustler.
     
    MAESTRO JED'S STORY
    I met Jed in the summer of 1979 when hustlers still stood at the back of the St. Francis Hotel at Geary and Powell in San Francisco. Jed was twenty-three years old, slender, and of medium height. He had large green eyes, with long eyelashes, jet-black hair, and a remarkably large Adam's apple. I have heard it said that men with large Adam's apples are well-endowed, and that Jed certainly was. He was also one of those lucky guys who have an athletic build without having to work for it—broad-shouldered, with a slender waist, and a tight abdomen. Jed's skin was a bit on the tan side. He was the son of a German woman and a Hispanic man from New Mexico. Jed's father was probably a mixture of Native American, Mexican, and Spanish. Jed's facial features were a blend of his European lineage, and what Mexicans call La Raza —the ethnic blend of the New World.
    I have shown Jed's (clothed) photos to many people. They almost always refer to him as "very sexy" and then invariably ask, "Is he well hung?" Nobody ever calls him handsome.
    My first time with Jed was awkward. In the car he spoke little and did not make much sense. For such an indecisive person, he had a surprisingly assertive baritone voice. But he spoke very little. By the time we got home I thought of him as somewhat "slow," which made me feel better than classifying him as retarded.
    As soon as we hit the bed I forgot all about his "slowness." Jed and I had already agreed on what type of sex we would have. But it is more fun if both parties enjoy the session. I asked Jed, "What do you like to do?" to which he replied, "I like to please."
    Jed was versatile (by