I skimmed through the article quickly with my messy knowledge of Tex-Mex Spanish, then again with the awkward and inelegant Google Translate version. It's really interesting to see the normalization in the culture, although I think we've seen it in straight culture for generations.
For example, I'm remembering a scene in "Biloxi Blues" where the G.I. Private (Matthew Broderick!) loses his virginity with a prostitute. There's always been a lot of that sort of thing going on, whether in the military, or with college students going to Texas' infamous "Chicken Ranch" in La Grange, or with some uncle or even father taking a young fellow to a brothel to "become a man." I've no idea how widespread it was or is, but it's a sort of archetype. We've seen it in the Wild West, we've seen it in Merrie England, we've seen it portrayed in romantic/tragic opera, and on and on.
Why is anyone surprised?
For self-identified gay men and bi men, and for straight-identified men-seeking-men, I edit and publish reviews on
CRUISING for ESCORTS. There are indeed a lot of older men who hire younger men. There's also guys who simply are in the course of their careers, maybe travel, maybe not. There's even younger guys who may be coming to grips with their sexuality and find it hard, fearful to put themselves out there in the meat-marketplace.
So if they have the money, it can be easier to hire someone than to play the missed connection and flakiness games so characteristic of Internet dating these days.
It's not like years ago when I was 20-something. If I felt confident and I wanted to, it was easy enough in DC to walk into the Frat House or J.R.'s and find a nice older man to take me to his home or his hotel room. I didn't get paid, my reward was the experience.
There's fewer and fewer bars now with that atmosphere -- some in the leather scene, some places, or some times -- and generally today's gay bars are more places to hang out with people you know rather than places to hook up with someone new.
But back to the article and to Spain, I wonder if they have a similar discussion to the US one about "rape culture," respect for women, and that "no means no." We've had so many highly publicized cases and discussions about this in recent years.
To me it's better for a young man to to hire a professional - and not someone coerced into the business or the victim of human trafficking - than to force himself on someone he met at a party or was out with on a date.