Letters to the Editor
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For anybody interested in this topic...
For anybody interested in this topic, I recommend that you watch The Great Happiness Space (dir. Jake Clennell), a documentary about "host boys" in Osaka, Japan. The interesting thing Clennell points out is that much of the business these clubs get is from female sex workers who have a fair amount of money to spend, and when they do, they decide to spend it on the fantasies of "normal" or "ideal" relations woven by host boys. So, it isn't just a case of rich women playing around with boy toys. There is actually a far more complex, interesting, and quite depressing element to this particular economy.
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The Great Happiness Space
a documentary that reveals the inside world of so-called geisha boys. It's pretty interesting.
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Gee, Tracy
I'm sure you could sneer a little harder if you put some effort into it. Isn't it just AWFUL how women make money off being sociable and entertaining in Japan? Why can't other countries have OUR standards? SUCH barbarians! There's a saying about glass houses, and until we live in a society has no need for people who earn a living giving other people companionship, sex, or the illusion of being cared about, how about we just keep our little cultural judgments to ourselves? That okay with you?
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America is so out of tune with the rest of the world.
Geisha guys, or hosts as they are called in Japan, is nothing new. Hosts have been a part of Japanese pop culture for the past 30-40 years, and yes, they only provide "non fluid exchanging" companionship. The idea is to meet a stand-up comic kind of guy, who looks good, can sing karaoke, give complements, and pour drinks.
Why Japanese women are paying on average about a $100 an hour for such service remains a question that baffles even me, but in Japan there is nothing worth watching on TV, and that might explain it.
One thing I saw was Japanese women (both young and old) fighting over time to spend with the top ranked hosts.
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Fools and their money...
Next topic.
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Somebody to love
I thought fairly seriously about going to Japan and being a host-boy for a while.
Honestly, there are days at the office when it's still tempting.
Given conservative cultural expectations still very much in place, to my knowledge, on married women in Japan (which do not, by and large, involve keeping your job), it doesn't even seem all that surprising that this profession is thriving. We all need at least some human companionship, but not everyone has time for all the baggage it comes with even under optimal conditions.
Also, I don't know if there's a really clear analogue in North America, but I do know that the working girls around here have small but not insignificant numbers of johns who pick them up and pay for their company and conversation as much as (and sometimes instead of) sex. Not a dissimilar phenomenon, I don't think.
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I've been to a "host bar" in Korea
Remember, that "hostess" bars are on every block here. Men pay huge tips to have their whisky poured for them, and to be flattered and giggled at by twentysomething expensively dressed women.
Often, after a separate negotiation, sex can be arranged at another location, usually a hotel. It's not even assumed that such a negotiation will take place.
Mention "host bars", though, and there's always a whiff of scandal about it. It's believed that men can go off and engage in such activity, and it's normal, but if women go off and have their hearts toyed with by professionals, it puts the whole family at risk.
Remember too, that even though Korea's gender equity is very low for such a developed nation, women handle the family finances and investments, and men get by on a (usually generous) allowance. They fear that women will put the family at risk by going to such places, so they're very low key, as they're illegal.
The thing is, who are the customers, usually? Bar Hostesses. They have to take all the crap their male customers give them, so where do they go when their shift is over? The Host bar, to give it right back.
My host bar experience, about 5 years ago: Arrived at midnight. Men came in to our room in groups of three, said their names, turned around, and left. We had to pick one by name (or in my case, number, as I didn't hear his name clearly). They came in, mine fed me fruit (peeled the grapes and put them on a toothpick), sang to me on the karoke machine, flattered me, and sat with his arm around me for a few hours. The ladies who brought me were former hostesses, and had a grand time, but there was no sexual tension in the room. It was just them getting off on being the boss.
It was fun in an anthropological way, but it was also over a thousand US for the three of us, so I certainly wouldn't have sprung for it. I don't need to pay money to feel like the boss, I can just tell my husband that I want to be the boss tonight.
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To just another day
A few of my coworkers (both African American, and of lighter skin color) tried it as Hosts, and at first things well. They were pursued as an exotic oddity, but when it came time for conversation, and the trivial politesses, my coworkers could not cut it. One of my coworkers did make a lot of money as an erotic male dancer in Tokyo, but he was told to quit before his chain-of-command found out what he was doing. But a lot of my coworkers told me about American English teachers (both male and female) that were making a fortune doubling as erotic dancers on the side in Tokyo.
However, the real money is as a "scoutman" in Shibuya, but my conscience wouldn't let me do that.
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Uhhhm?...Miss Tracy?....
Dear Miss Clark-Flory,
I think it can safely be assumed (quite aside from your predictable, Nancy Drew sneering) that the sort of woman who's apparently capable of earning enough to spend up-to-50,000$ per night on an escort probably & also knows how to choose escorts who are quite capable of producing "stimulating conversation."
I would assume that even you would recognize the irony in your latest posting/"blog"spurting/whatever....
apparently, the women (whom, one would gather, are highly intelligent and productive businesswomen) are just TOO stupid?...and the escorts who somehow seem to be worth the price are....stupid also?.....
I keep forgetting to remember how everyone but Broadsheet is all ,like,..stupid.
quite sincerely yours,
David Terry
www.davidterryart.com