Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Fallen Men: A Study of Male Sex Work and New Attitude to Sexuality in Contemporary Indian Society
Vinod Kumar
ABSTRACT:
There is substantial scholarship on sex work in India. Most of it focuses on female sex work/workers and talks about their lives, rights, and struggles. This scholarship, however, often does not engage with lives and histories of male sex workers whose presence is becoming increasingly visible through dating apps and over-the-top (OTT) platforms in contemporary Indian society. My research paper, therefore, focuses on a 2024 Netflix series Tribhuvan Mishra: C.A. Topper, which represents the career of a male escort/gigolo in the National Capital Region in India. It demonstrates that the series represents a new attitude to sexuality wherein a certain class of Indian couples, men, and women are breaking free from reproductive and monogamous forms of sexual relationships and are taking control of their body, pleasure, and sexuality. The series shows this cultural shift through Tribhuvan Mishra’s sexual escapades and adventures, the protagonist who takes up male sex work as a sideline. The account of Tribhuvan’s life as a male sex worker also reveals a change in Indian notions of masculinity, gender roles and sex work in the country today. The paper, thus, examines contemporary Indian sex life while also encouraging a study of male sex work/workers, of its past and futures, which is scarce in the field of sexuality studies in India as well as South Asia.
keywords: gender, Indian culture, masculinity, media, sex worker