I met the fella from Denver at the Desiree Alliance Conference while sitting by the pool. I was reading a comic I’d gotten from someone and he wanted to know what it was about. Instead of talking to him about it like any other person, I just held it out and showed it to him because I am painfully awkward. I’m working on it. Thankfully I got another chance to talk to him when we were sitting by the pool a few days later and I told him I was going to take him upstairs and marry him in the hotel chapel. Also, this conference was in Vegas.
He’s a good guy, but most importantly he’s one of the few male sex workers I know so I figured he’d be a good interview. I was right.
Tell me who you are, what work you do, and where you’re located.
I’m Matthew Jackalinski. I do mostly erotic massage and I work mostly in Denver and Tucson.
Why do you do this work? When did you start?
I started about two and a half years ago. Wow! How time flies! The money is so much better than I get doing anything else. Also, I believe in providing erotic/intimate touch as a mental slash emotional health service. 🙂
What do you do outside work?
Raise chickens, parent a 4.5 year old, play music, paint, draw comics, sometimes make movies, hit on people, eat marijuana laced foods, listen to Terry Gross, masturbate, gossip, cook. I love that question.
Why?
Why do I love that question?
Yeah.
Because it is recklessly open ended. And that open-endedness suggested how complex and varied a hooker’s life can be. Being a sex worker seems like such a huge commitment of identity, but it’s just one of many identities that tends to take up lots of emotional and intellectual space.
I asked because I identify with this as work…and no one works all the time, right? Plus, a lot of people think of us as less than human reminding people that we are human beings too is a big deal to me I think that mindset of us as less than human is part of the reason we are treated the way we are by people who dislike our work.
Exactly exactly.
Are you out?
I’m coming out! It’s a bear! Huge upheavals in my life in the last 5 months with coming out to my family.
What do you enjoy about this work?
The cum showers!
That can’t be all!
And blowing people’s minds. Sex with people who are open to being touched.
Good. And… If you could go back to the day before you started working, with the knowledge you have now, would you do it again?
Yep, I’m a proud whore.
Oooh. I like that answer!
Matthew’s comics can be found here.
OMG I love your blog and I love Mathew! I was at Desiree last summer & had the pleasure of meeting this sweet, sweet boy. I’ve been screening his amazing film “Frida’s Informal Economy” at the film festival I run here in LA. Much love to you!