Marxist and socialist political traditions have often acted as a counterweight to popular understandings of prostitution as a biological or social fact. Marxists have generally studied prostitution in terms of systems of production and related forms of labor and seldom have viewed it as a valid type of work. They instead associated prostitution with alienation, and of being an effect of moral decay or cultural collapse under particular social conditions. Marxists have argued that prostitution would cease to exist in a world free of economic, gender, and sexual exploitation, and thus the problem of prostitution would be solved with the resolution of more pressing political problems. This noted, while Marxists and others on the Left have had much to say about female sex work, they have had very little to say about male sex work.

Male sex work has largely been undertheorized in the social sciences. One reason for this lack of attention seems to be the fact that most male sex work involves adult males and, as such, there is an assumed equality in the exchange, with power relations often ignored. The other issue is the cultural assumption that all sexual experiences involving men are positive and actively sought. Men are assumed to have agency in sexual matters and to make rational choices involving sexual conduct, whereas feminine sexuality is constructed as lacking agency. Therefore, it is easier to present female sex work as an inherently exploitative practice.

Linda Niccolai indicates in this chapter that a highly diverse and growing market for the male sex industry is emerging in contemporary Russia. While the sex work market in Russia is clearly distinct from other regions, there are many parallels elsewhere, especially in terms of the structure and organization of sex work. While some of the chapters in this book provide distinct local examples of masculinity (for example, the chapters on Latin America and China), there are also indications that globalization has produced a greater tolerance and awareness of gendered difference, which has translated into legal reforms and increasing social tolerance toward male sex workers.