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From: News Australia
With his athletic good looks and intense gaze, Nicky Blue Eyes is every bit the sexy soldier that fantasies are made of.
The former US Marine Corps member is one of countless military men capitalising on his masculine image and the fetishisation of servicemen by selling gay sex online.
After serving in the military for seven years, Nicky Blue Eyes lost his left leg to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and a year later he realised he was broke.
“I had enjoyed escorting before so I thought I’d put an ad up (online) and see what happens,” he told Vice.
Blue Eyes (his escorting name) is 26 years old with and has been escorting fulltime for about three years. He was one of many men who had a profile on gay male escort service Rentboy.com, which was shut down by federal prosecutors this week.
His profile plays on his military service, billing him as a “Striking US Marine for Your Active Duty!”
“I recently returned home from active duty deployment in Afghanistan and have over a year of built-up testosterone waiting to be released,” it reads.
He explains that he has a top-of-the line prosthetic after losing his lower left limb during an IED detonation, and that 10 per cent of every date is donated to a charity for injured Marines.
The marketing tactic capitalises on his sex appeal as a military man and an archetype of masculinity. Even his prosthetic leg has made him unexpectedly desirable.
“I had no idea I’d be more popular than I ever was with two legs, that’d I get more clients than I could ever do in one day, and I’d be travelling all over the world. I had no idea that would happen,” he said.
The work has also helped him to regain his confidence and adjust to civilian life.
“(When I first got back to the US), it was really weird and incredibly difficult, especially for me being an active person, someone who moved around a lot,” he told me. “I’ve always enjoyed looking good and all of a sudden I was ... you know, I felt like I was disabled. I was disabled, I was crippled.”
While there are no statistics on how many veterans end up in sex work, Vice found pages of results on Rentboy when the search terms “military”, “army” and “marine” were entered.
“The idea of the hyper-masculine has long been the subject of high regard for gay men and, today, there are clients who still revel in [the military] fantasy,” Hawk Kinkaid, chief operating officer at Rentboy.com, said.
“The military represents a machismo, a clumsy grace, a radical heroism,” which, he added, appeals to some gay men. “Especially when, for hundreds of years, the internalised fear was that we were ‘less than’ other men.”
But there is also a broader story about the solace that men are finding in sex work. Blue Eyes is not the only man who has found emotional relief in escorting.
A Rentboy escort told Gawker that making porn was the first time he felt handsome and desirable.
“I found it incredibly empowering. I had social anxiety and very low self-esteem; here was something that made me feel good about myself. That’s just how it worked. I felt handsome and desirable for the first time in my life, and it was a wonderful feeling,” he said.
He was also friends with some of his clients, which happens more than what people think.
“If you’re the kind of person who this work is a good fit for, you have to like people,” he said.
“When a lot of escorts/porn performers get to an age where they don’t think they should do it anymore or they can’t really do it anymore, they go to nursing school. I think it’s partially because both jobs require the same sort of patience and understanding and the ability to not get grossed out easily.”
The escort told Gawker that prostitution should be made legal in the US.
“Rentboy has made this a safer business to be in. It’s much easier to pick up and put down since you’re not tied to a pimp,” he said.
“If you get a day job or want to move or get in a relationship, there’s no one there telling you that you can’t because you have to keep working. There’s no one telling you, ‘If you do that, you’ll never be allowed to list with our service again.’ It gives sex workers total freedom.”
He said Rentboy was so accepted that there were “important, rich people” who use it and it was the number one destination for this kind of work.
“Celebrities use it. Political figures. Sometimes, kind of important ones,” he said.
The service, which has been running for 18 years, was shut down suddenly on Tuesday.
It comes after the release of potentially damaging information in the recent Ashley Madison hacks.
Rentboy’s chief executive and six of his employees were arrested Tuesday on charges of promoting prostitution.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused Jeffrey Hurant of selling advertisements to high-priced male prostitutes for several hundred dollars, then charging Rentboy.com customers up to $299 a month to access the ads.
The operation had taken in more than $10 million since 2010, prosecutors said.
Hurant, 50, was released on $350,000 bond on Tuesday after a brief court appearance. Outside court, he and his lawyer insisted his business was a legitimate companionship service, and that similar escort websites elsewhere had operated without becoming the target of a federal investigation.
“I think we do good things for good people, and bring good people together,” Hurant said.
Rentboy.com had pointed users to disclaimers that set guidelines banning offers of sex in exchange for money. But a criminal complaint cited several ads that referred to various sex acts, offered reviews of sexual performance and listed rates ranging from $150 an hour to $3,500 for a weekend.
“As alleged, Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this internet brothel made millions of dollars from promotion of illegal prostitution,” Acting US Attorney Kelly Currie said in a statement.
Hurant claimed in interviews he learned that the term “rentboy” was British slang for male escorts while he was attending Oxford University, according to the criminal complaint. He said he started the website because “escorts were a disenfranchised group,” it says.
“We just want to keep the oldest profession in the world up to date with all the latest technology,” the complaint quotes him as saying.
Rentboy.com also hosted an annual awards show for escorts called the Hookies, the complaint said.
Asked by an undercover investigator who went to the 2015 Hookies how the show started, Hurant responded, “Have you ever had sex with anyone and it was so good you had to tell someone? That’s what this is about,” the complaint said.
Each defendant faces up to five years in prison if convicted of conspiring to commit crimes involving interstate or foreign travel.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/the-military-men-who-become-escorts/story-e6frfm9r [login to see] 492
With his athletic good looks and intense gaze, Nicky Blue Eyes is every bit the sexy soldier that fantasies are made of.
The former US Marine Corps member is one of countless military men capitalising on his masculine image and the fetishisation of servicemen by selling gay sex online.
After serving in the military for seven years, Nicky Blue Eyes lost his left leg to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and a year later he realised he was broke.
“I had enjoyed escorting before so I thought I’d put an ad up (online) and see what happens,” he told Vice.
Blue Eyes (his escorting name) is 26 years old with and has been escorting fulltime for about three years. He was one of many men who had a profile on gay male escort service Rentboy.com, which was shut down by federal prosecutors this week.
His profile plays on his military service, billing him as a “Striking US Marine for Your Active Duty!”
“I recently returned home from active duty deployment in Afghanistan and have over a year of built-up testosterone waiting to be released,” it reads.
He explains that he has a top-of-the line prosthetic after losing his lower left limb during an IED detonation, and that 10 per cent of every date is donated to a charity for injured Marines.
The marketing tactic capitalises on his sex appeal as a military man and an archetype of masculinity. Even his prosthetic leg has made him unexpectedly desirable.
“I had no idea I’d be more popular than I ever was with two legs, that’d I get more clients than I could ever do in one day, and I’d be travelling all over the world. I had no idea that would happen,” he said.
The work has also helped him to regain his confidence and adjust to civilian life.
“(When I first got back to the US), it was really weird and incredibly difficult, especially for me being an active person, someone who moved around a lot,” he told me. “I’ve always enjoyed looking good and all of a sudden I was ... you know, I felt like I was disabled. I was disabled, I was crippled.”
While there are no statistics on how many veterans end up in sex work, Vice found pages of results on Rentboy when the search terms “military”, “army” and “marine” were entered.
“The idea of the hyper-masculine has long been the subject of high regard for gay men and, today, there are clients who still revel in [the military] fantasy,” Hawk Kinkaid, chief operating officer at Rentboy.com, said.
“The military represents a machismo, a clumsy grace, a radical heroism,” which, he added, appeals to some gay men. “Especially when, for hundreds of years, the internalised fear was that we were ‘less than’ other men.”
But there is also a broader story about the solace that men are finding in sex work. Blue Eyes is not the only man who has found emotional relief in escorting.
A Rentboy escort told Gawker that making porn was the first time he felt handsome and desirable.
“I found it incredibly empowering. I had social anxiety and very low self-esteem; here was something that made me feel good about myself. That’s just how it worked. I felt handsome and desirable for the first time in my life, and it was a wonderful feeling,” he said.
He was also friends with some of his clients, which happens more than what people think.
“If you’re the kind of person who this work is a good fit for, you have to like people,” he said.
“When a lot of escorts/porn performers get to an age where they don’t think they should do it anymore or they can’t really do it anymore, they go to nursing school. I think it’s partially because both jobs require the same sort of patience and understanding and the ability to not get grossed out easily.”
The escort told Gawker that prostitution should be made legal in the US.
“Rentboy has made this a safer business to be in. It’s much easier to pick up and put down since you’re not tied to a pimp,” he said.
“If you get a day job or want to move or get in a relationship, there’s no one there telling you that you can’t because you have to keep working. There’s no one telling you, ‘If you do that, you’ll never be allowed to list with our service again.’ It gives sex workers total freedom.”
He said Rentboy was so accepted that there were “important, rich people” who use it and it was the number one destination for this kind of work.
“Celebrities use it. Political figures. Sometimes, kind of important ones,” he said.
The service, which has been running for 18 years, was shut down suddenly on Tuesday.
It comes after the release of potentially damaging information in the recent Ashley Madison hacks.
Rentboy’s chief executive and six of his employees were arrested Tuesday on charges of promoting prostitution.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused Jeffrey Hurant of selling advertisements to high-priced male prostitutes for several hundred dollars, then charging Rentboy.com customers up to $299 a month to access the ads.
The operation had taken in more than $10 million since 2010, prosecutors said.
Hurant, 50, was released on $350,000 bond on Tuesday after a brief court appearance. Outside court, he and his lawyer insisted his business was a legitimate companionship service, and that similar escort websites elsewhere had operated without becoming the target of a federal investigation.
“I think we do good things for good people, and bring good people together,” Hurant said.
Rentboy.com had pointed users to disclaimers that set guidelines banning offers of sex in exchange for money. But a criminal complaint cited several ads that referred to various sex acts, offered reviews of sexual performance and listed rates ranging from $150 an hour to $3,500 for a weekend.
“As alleged, Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this internet brothel made millions of dollars from promotion of illegal prostitution,” Acting US Attorney Kelly Currie said in a statement.
Hurant claimed in interviews he learned that the term “rentboy” was British slang for male escorts while he was attending Oxford University, according to the criminal complaint. He said he started the website because “escorts were a disenfranchised group,” it says.
“We just want to keep the oldest profession in the world up to date with all the latest technology,” the complaint quotes him as saying.
Rentboy.com also hosted an annual awards show for escorts called the Hookies, the complaint said.
Asked by an undercover investigator who went to the 2015 Hookies how the show started, Hurant responded, “Have you ever had sex with anyone and it was so good you had to tell someone? That’s what this is about,” the complaint said.
Each defendant faces up to five years in prison if convicted of conspiring to commit crimes involving interstate or foreign travel.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/the-military-men-who-become-escorts/story-e6frfm9r [login to see] 492
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