About a year ago I was contacted by a woman who is a documentary film maker. She has been working on a documentary about the male escort industry for women.
She has travelled all over the world to talk to escorts and record their stories. I have done a number of interview with her in that time and am going to be seeing her again this week.
It has been an interesting experience and I am looking forward to seeing the finished product in due course.
I have always been somewhat sceptical of the media and their approach to the subject of escorting. There is usually a lot of pre-judgement and pre-conceived ideas about us and the industry and our clients. I agreed to participate in the end. partly at least because I think anything that raises the profile of male escorts for women is a good thing. So few women even know that we exist, or that we offer a service that they might enjoy. A new (Australian) documentary on the subject might be beneficial all round.
There is of course always the risk of prejudices tainting the outcome, but I think that in this case we are on fairly safe ground.
The one thing that I have always thought should be mandatory for someone reporting on our industry is that they actually experience the service that we offer. After all, to me it seems a lot like trying to describe ice cream without ever having eaten any. Until you have eaten ice cream it’s all just words. The experience is something else altogether!
The lady in question declined my offer for first-hand experience unfortunately, so we shall see …
I will keep you posted.
John.
Sounds interesting, John. Good luck with it.
Thanks Rachael,
I have done three interviews on camera with her so far, which were quite fun. Today is just a talk to answer some questions (no camera).
I think that the main thing that she has found surprising so far is that my regular clients and I are able to separate physical intimacy from love.
The two don’t always have to go together, but many people believe that you can’t or shouldn’t have one without the other. Sadly that puts huge pressure on our partners to always provide us with everything we need in life, which is to my mind, unfair all round.
When we can separate love and sex a little it can actually make relationships stronger and more enjoyable, which has certainly been my experience.
John.
The interview went well on Monday, despite it being about 37 degrees in Parramatta. Thankfully the Commercial hotel where I met with Sally had legendary air-conditioning and cold drinks on tap.
Sally (the lady making the documentary) told me that to get broadcasters interested that she has had to broaden the scope of her documentary from the original topic of women paying for sex, to women’s sexuality in general.
It’s a sign of the continuing general conservatism of our society that the idea of a documentary about woman paying for sex is seen as unsaleable. Where as “Louis Theroux, and the Brothel” (a documentary exclusively about men paying for sex) was just fine for the ABC to broadcast and didn’t need to be “broadened” to make it acceptable at all.
BTW – Louis Theroux didn’t feel up to the challenge of actually experiencing what paid for sex was like either. It’s a recurring theme as mentioned, and another indicator of our conservative attitudes to sex (in a public context).
John.