Male Prostitution

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

This is not so much a rant, but an observation. For some reason the bit in The Laughing Corpse when Anita and JC go to Tenderloin never sat right with me. I figured out why today:

A young man who couldn't have been anymore than fifteen stopped me. He was wearing a vest with no shirt and a pair of torn jeans. "You interested?"

...

"We don't get many women down here," he said. -- Laughing Corpse, Chap 23

Well no, you wouldn't get many women there. You would however get many men. I was always under the impression that male prostitutes usually (although not always) cater to other men and not women. The above exchange implies that the guy only catered to women which I think is very telling of LKH's discomfort with homosexuality. It's not directly homophobic, but she sacrifices "real" elements of the world to push her own world-view. I don't think she did it intentionally - she's just narrow-minded. But I do think that this type of ignorance is a lot more dangerous because it's so flippant.