Why Male-Prostitutes are Feminism's Best and Last Hope

If you seek scholarly thoroughness or moral compliance, I’ll ask you to look elsewhere – these are thoughts on things as they really ought not to be.

I was caught late yesterday evening walking through the shadows of Kampala’s paved, albeit poorly lit high-end streets, where the clean air and silent neighborhoods can easily make one forget about the dusty, sewer-reeking, poorly-planned mess that is the rest of Kampala city.

My nocturnal promenade eventually led me via Speke road, which for all intents and purposes, has come to be accepted as Kampala’s premier red-light district, where the more expensive type of harlots are procured by ‘monied’ Ugandan men and dollar-rich tourists alike.

While it wasn’t my first encounter with these scarlet-ladies; having received my fair share of seductive whispers and invitations to ‘procure’, coercive taunts about my manliness and terribly crude insults hurled at me over my refusal – this particular walk sparked off a few provocative notions in mind as I gazed at the scantily clad damsels sauntering about their strategically chosen street-corners and defiantly flaunting their God-given wares for the men of this world to see.

A long-forgotten jocular phrase from Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross came to mind, unbidden;

‘Oh ye harlots – what the Lord God has given you for free, you package into a costly commodity, and now sell for a fee …’

I don’t usually linger long in the sin-infested dominion of those lascivious, scheming Jezebels – lest my mortal-self succumbs to temptation.

I was struck, suddenly, by the realization that while prostitution is unlawful in Uganda, as in many other countries, the practice seems to go an almost unabated and with the full knowledge of law enforcement authorities.

As a matter of fact, prostitution in this country is practiced with impunity in broad-day light, for these ladies can be found at their ‘stations’ as early as five-pm!

Don’t raise your eyebrows and wonder how I come to know all this if I don’t patronize them – I just know, period!

As I was saying – the practice seems to be something we have come to accept as an inevitable part of humanity’s history and future – the way one may view a shadow; perpetually present yet inconspicuous, clinging eternally to one’s heels.

But what I stopped a moment to ponder was how the mainstream prostitution community is made up entirely of women!

Obvious? I don’t think so.

This is something I realize we’ve taken so much for granted in our debates on gender and human sexuality; perhaps because we think it’s patently nature’s design that men are never meant to be courted by women.

Even in the Western hemisphere, where sexuality is less policed and the traditional stigma with which it’s allegedly treated in our own communities is minimal – it is almost anathema to imagine a place where male prostitutes are proudly to be found advertising their fleshly wares.

And by the way, I’m not talking about gay prostitutes – no – I’m taking about male heterosexual prostitutes who stand on street corners and wait to be ‘bought’ by women.

Before we proceed, understand that my purpose here is not to point out how immoral prostitution is – that’s a debate I feel is dead and tired.

My objective is to advocate the (genderial) liberalization of prostitution!

As a matter of society’s advancement in the field of eliminating gender-based disparity and inequality – we should have male prostitutes as freely tolerated (or accepted) as female prostitutes seem to be.

Why should it be okay for women to make money from a resource they merely acquire by 'lottery of birth', and the same is not possible (or permissible) for men?

Why should women be free to just spread their legs, moan some intelligible and insincere blandishments, and be several thousand shillings richer a few minutes later?

On the other hand, the only respectable way, apparently, that a man can make ends meet is to perspire like a beast of burden under the sun; until the sweat running from his brow constitutes several bucketfuls.

Why should society turn a blind-eye to, and in an increasing number of cases legalize, the practice of women’s commercialization of their bodies, yet look down with disapproval or express outright condemnation when men attempt to do the same?

Come to think of it – the main arguments, however stale and misguided, that are usually advanced in favor of (female) prostitution are that the woman is poor and driven into it by financial straits, or that women’s bodies are autonomous property that can be used as desired.

I don’t see how the two lame reasons can’t be advanced for men. They too are hard-hit by economic downturns and, also, ideally should have full say over their 'own' bodies.

I think the absurdity of the argument I’m trying to make here is couched in long-held memes world-over; where women are always at the receiving end of sexual advances, and men the initiators.

A man that, even casually, is seen to be pursued by a woman is accused of being a sissy; and the poor woman is labeled un-ladylike and ‘desperate’.

This is where Feminism comes into the picture.

With their thorn-brandishing, dagger-drawing and wild sword-swinging style; radical feminists need to see the day male prostitutes can be freely purchased by economically empowered women who pull-up at the street-corner in dark window-tinted SUVs, as the dawn of feminism’s long-awaited great victory.

Indeed – when a male prostitute is bought by this rich, powerful woman; who’s bored by her husband’s monotonous underperformance and needs some ‘variety’ – or just a young campus girl who’s tired of being pursued by unattractive men and all she has to do is get her 5K note, walk to Speke road, and have her needs furnished; then the hulking illusion of male ‘power’ will surely have been dealt a fierce blow.

How much longer do you really think men can go on claiming to be so powerful and superior after it becomes possible for any girl to walk to town and, with some spare change, buy herself a ‘man for the night’?

In short, the overarching effect of such a phenomenon would be the absolute demystification and denuding of traditional male grandeur!

Women will also finally be getting the much sought-after power in the bedroom; where they have long complained about being compelled to give men pleasure, and often not getting any in return.

A prostitute, on the other hand, is told what to do and how, by the buyer – which means the male prostitute dances to the purchasing woman’s whims and caprices.

That day – when strapping young men with neatly-trimmed hair, bulging biceps and tight-fitting shirts and jeans whistle seductively at bypassing dames and attempt to get their attention in hopes of being laid in exchange for a few shillings, is the day feminists will have truly leveled the playing field.

Or should I say – will have finally put men in their ‘place’.

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The crux of this essay’s argument is this – 

The commodification of sex, and thus of the human body, are the greatest abasement of self and person one ever could undertake. 
This is pretty much in the same way that the acme of Pan-African attainment – and thus of black redemption – will be the capture of white slaves and active pursuit of European slavery.