I’m taking a class this semester entitled “The Local and Global Complexities of Prostitution.” Yeah, prostitution.
My professor’s name is Marie Louise Janssen. Janssen has her Ph.D. in sociological anthropology. She’s a great teacher, but this story isn’t about her.
Our class has featured a few guest lecturers but last week’s lecture included the strangest guest to date. A man who went only by the name “Jeroen” came to lecture our class about the everyday life of a male prostitute.
We had read many articles about the lives of these laborers in the world’s oldest profession. After all we thought we had learned, it was very interesting to see the subject of our studies in person.
Jeroen told us his story from the beginning. He explained that he became a prostitute because of his immersion into the local gay community.
“I was young, and I was still learning how to be gay,” he told us. “I was just hanging out at a bar in London, and some guy approached me and offered me fifty pounds to go with him to a public toilet outside. Fifteen minutes later I was back at the bar, fifty pounds richer.”
He continued to explain that he experimented with prostitution on and off and then took it up as a part-time job when he went to college.
“Then I failed out of university and decided to go pro,” he said.
Jeroen now runs an escort service over the Internet. He uses his Web site to get into contact with his customers and set up “dates.” He told us that he services a great variety of different clients and has traveled around the world with some of them.
“A great amount of variety, yes, but mostly married men,” he said of his average client profile.
Having studied this taboo profession for so long we were full of questions. When a member of our class asked if safe sex was a priority in his work, Jeroen replied, “I suck without a condom, but in the gay community everyone does.”
When asked if he enjoyed his work he told the class, “some times more than others. Sex isn’t just a job – it’s also my hobby. So of course I don’t always find a customer attractive – but in the end, it’s always just sex.”
Jeroen was adopted from Korea and raised by a Dutch family that accepts him and his lifestyle decisions. Jeroen told us that since he was adopted he feels that his parents appreciate him more, and that’s why they accepted his lifestyle so easily. The studies we have read indicate that this is not the norm for most prostitutes.
In all of my studies in the United States, I have never taken a class that went anywhere near the subject matter that this class focuses on so closely. I didn’t think that some of my strangest memories from Amsterdam would take place in class.
 
Will is paying attention in class.
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