‘I’m not a faggot, I’m a man’. Male sex workers doing masculinity talking sex

In this chapter, the authors link discourses on sex and sexuality with male sex work – specifically, men who sell sex to other men, in public places. The aim is to show how young males involved in sex work can neutralize identity labels and construct and exchange sexual capital by creating hierarchies of bodies, practices and desires. We describe how sexuality and sex are present in discourses as much as in our daily lives, and we engage more directly with previous research that has analyzed the role of language in sex work. Drawing on empirical data from an ethnographic study that has been carried out by the authors of this chapter, we analyze how men that sell sex to other men in public venues in the south of Italy use language to ‘justify’ their presence in the market and their actions. These justifications will be analyzed from the perspective of masculinities