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“He’s 5’9, 180 pounds, a former Marine, and if you’re a woman in search of no strings romance, Markus Bestin can be yours from $300 an hour.” (ABC News)
America’s first legal male prostitute made his national debut this month.
Interested customers can find Markus Bestin at the Shady Lady Ranch in Las Vegas.
In interviews Bestin has likened himself to Ghandi and Rosa Parks. So what motivates this prostitution pioneer?
Newsy has perspectives from ABC News, MSNBC, HLN and The New York Post.
ABC News says the owner of the Shady Lady Ranch expects Bestin to raise some eyebrows – and some money- but overall he has gotten a warm reception in Nevada.
Reporter: “Feedback from the surrounding community has been positive for the most part.”
Woman: “There’re women that need it too (laugh)”
Man: “It could be good for the economy, more business. Whatever.”
More money for the house, but what about the working men? MSNBC says the prospect of getting paid to play has plenty of men interested.
Reporter: “The men will be paid similar to the women, hours are negotiable, and as for where they come from..”
Davis: “I have 150 applicants sitting in my email, in my folder. Some are going to make it, some won’t.”
So far only Markus Bestin has earned the title ‘Male Prostitute’, but he prefers the term ‘gigolo’. As Nightline reports, Bestin’s achievement has him proud as a peacock.
Bestin: “I’m basically doing what Rosa Parks did when she decided to sit up front on the bus instead of the back or what Ghandi did when he had the sit down protest against the British Embassy. You know, I’m basically trying to reset social norms.”
Reporter: “Those are some big comparisons. You feel that strongly?”
Bestin: “Yeah, I do.”
A New York Post reporter went undercover and hired Markus, paying $500 for two hours. Although she didn’t sleep with him, her session included a “visual inspection, a group shower and hand-holding in the heart-shaped tub.” In her article titled, “My night with a Prosti-dude” she recalls some of Markus’s most memorable musings.
“The reason he’s such a good lover is because he was ‘sensory deprived’ by his mother.”
And: “I’m not a hooker,” he says repeatedly. “I’m a surrogate lover.”
Not everyone shares Markus’s passion for prostitution. On Father Jim Chern’s blog he writes:
“The whole thing … disturbed me on so many levels. Not just because it’s a glamorization of sin. But it showed the effect of sin on all of us. … It seems that we constantly go for or accept the 'least common denominator.' Brokenness and the exploitation of it for others entertainment seems to be the norm.”
But the obvious questions remains, will women come running? On HLN Joy Behar asks Bestin’s boss just that.
Behar: “What makes you think that women are going to pay for sex? You know, we don’t have to pay for it? They’re all over, they just want it. We can just get it.”
Davis: “I know, I know, but you know what? There’s also women who don’t want to go out and expose themselves to diseases. There’s women who don’t want a relationship.”
So Ladies, is Markus tempting or tacky? Will Markus, the sexual pioneer, go down in the history books?
Writer: Ann Langworthy
Producer: Newsy Staff
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