Escorting is older than you think. It's a profession that has taken many different forms across many centuries. It's also one of those professions people frown upon and refrain from mentioning, let alone writing about. Of course, in the UK, escort services are widely used, and thousands of men use them daily. Interestingly enough, despite escorting being around for decades, mainstream lifestyle magazines often avoid the subject entirely. That's strange, considering that it is, in fact, a lifestyle. Engaging with escorts is also considered to be a lifestyle choice (in the same way that monogamy, polygamy, or polyamory are). However, some magazines have dedicated articles or two about this subject matter. And we're going to cover them right here and now. Interestingly enough, despite escorting being around for decades, mainstream lifestyle magazines often avoid the subject entirely. That’s strange, considering that the practice itself is, in fact, a lifestyle. In fact, engaging with escorts is also considered to be a lifestyle choice (in the same way that monogamy, polygamy, or polyamory are). But there are those magazines that did dedicate an article or two about this subject matter. And we’re going to cover them right here and now.

Published October 23, 2023 17:27 | by Reception

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Escorting is older than you think. It's a profession that has taken many different forms across many centuries. It's also one of those professions people frown upon and refrain from mentioning, let alone writing about. Of course, in the UK, escort services are widely used, and thousands of men use them daily.

Interestingly enough, despite escorting being around for decades, mainstream lifestyle magazines often avoid the subject entirely. That's strange, considering that it is, in fact, a lifestyle. Engaging with escorts is also considered to be a lifestyle choice (in the same way that monogamy, polygamy, or polyamory are). However, some magazines have dedicated articles or two about this subject matter. And we're going to cover them right here and now.

List of Lifestyle Magazines That Wrote on Escorting and Sex Work

Before we proceed, here is a small disclaimer. Some of the magazines you'll see in this article are UK-based, and others are merely UK versions of already popular US magazines. However, they still count since both are published here and cover UK-specific topics.

GQ Magazine

GQ has been around since 1931. It was initially known as Apparel Arts until changing its name in 1957 to Gentleman's Quarterly. The abbreviation GQ has stuck around as its full name since 1967. GQ Magazine usually sells around 100,000 copies in the UK over six months. The numbers vary, but they remain impressive.

The GQ magazine covers various topics, including sports, watches, men's fashion, grooming, fitness, and general lifestyle articles. One section, GQ Heroes, revolves around important and fascinating individuals in our everyday lives. The magazine chooses its Men of the Year awards, a tradition that has remained in the British variant of GQ since 2009.

Though GQ is no stranger to covering sex-related subjects, it has covered escorting only once. Back in 2012, the magazine published an article about male escorts titled "Jobs for the Boys." Broadly speaking, it gives men instructions on how to become male escorts and what kind of market they can expect to find.

Cosmopolitan

In 2023, Cosmopolitan is almost a household name. For a whopping 13 years, this magazine has been flying hot off the press. It was initially targeted at women as a "first-class family magazine." But the modern Cosmopolitan is a titan in lifestyle and contemporary topics. Even with the notable drop in recent years, the average sales in the UK still count well over 120,000 copies. It outperforms other titans, including Elle, which is also on this list.

The current Cosmopolitan website has more than a few exciting categories. It covers the essential items one expects from a lifestyle magazine, such as sex, fashion, beauty, entertainment, and relationships. However, it also focuses on contemporary politics, body-related problems such as health and exercise, quizzes, and broad topics like work, travel, career choices, shopping, etc.

Cosmopolitan has had several articles on escorting over the years, both positive and neutral (and even a few critical ones). The most prominent examples are:

Dazed Digital

Of all the magazines on this list, Dazed might have the smallest reach. Founded in 1991 as Dazed & Confused, this UK-based magazine has diversified into many ventures, including brand campaign management, online video services, and fashion-only magazines.

Selling around 45,000 copies across the UK yearly, Dazed is one of the less well-performing lifestyle magazines. However, its online platform, Dazed Digital, continues to see a lot of traffic. The daily visits are thanks to the multitude of topics that Dazed Digital covers, including fashion, beauty, art, photography, music, film and TV, and life and culture.

One key feature of the online magazine is the Dazed 100. This platform showcases 100 voices worldwide who are changing culture every year. It's a great chance to discover new talent and promote what's hip and modern to the readers.

While articles on escorting are sparse, there are more than a few that are about sex work in general. Dazed Digital has been quite open with its sex work representation, as you can see from the following headings:

Marie Claire

Originally from France, Marie Claire has been around since 1937, reaching a global public with the turn of the millennium. It came to the UK reasonably early, in 1941, and today, roughly 120,000 copies are sold on the isle every year. Just like Dazed Digital, Marie Claire's online platform was launched in 2006.

When going to the magazine's elegant, black-and-white aesthetic website, you'll see the usual categories for a lifestyle publication. Marie Claire authors write about fashion, hair and beauty, life topics, sex and relationship subjects, work-related issues, finances, and culture. The online shop is the most significant portion of Marie Claire. Patrons and readers can buy luxury items from world-famous brands at the click of a mouse.

With sex being a key category of Marie Claire, sex work and escorting get only some coverage. Escorting, in general, has largely been absent, though, and readers can only find a few articles covering it, such as What it feels like…being a male escort who earns £1,200 a night, as well as Why do men pay for sex.

Vogue

It's impossible to talk about fashion and lifestyle magazines and NOT cover Vogue. It's the go-to publication for women to get the latest news on beauty tips, art, fashion, shopping, and other contemporary topics. Similarly to Marie Claire, Vogue has its own integrated online store, perfect for longtime fans and subscribers.

Of course, one would assume that a woman's lifestyle magazine as famous as Vogue would steer clear of sex work and escorting. In reality, several articles on this subject did sneak in over the years. Two of the most notable ones are "Banning Sex Work Only Leaves Us More Vulnerable": What the OnlyFans News Means for Sex Workers and The Reality of Living Through the Covid-19 Pandemic as a Sex Worker.

Elle

We round up the list with Elle, one of the most famous women-oriented magazines on the planet. Though it has dropped in popularity somewhat, it still regularly sells over 80,000 copies per year in the UK alone.

Similarly to Vogue, Elle really needs no introduction. It covers basically every single topic that you may run into when reading Vogue or Cosmopolitan. Nevertheless, recent trends have seen a slight bend in policy. Namely, as a magazine for women, by women, it tends to tackle more concrete subjects such as sexism, racism, homophobia, women’s rights, and social justice.

With its tilt towards these somewhat less raunchy topics, you’d think that Elle wouldn’t cover something as sex work or escorting. After all, some people consider this profession to be disempowering for women, even dangerous.

However, Elle has, in fact, written a lot about escorting and sex work before. The most blatant examples are articles titled 'I Pay Male Escorts for No-Strings Sex and It’s the Best I’ve Ever Had’ and How the New UK Porn Block Could Put Independent Sex Workers at Risk.

Magazines and Escorting: A Summary

Regarding UK-based websites, the six described above have all covered escorting in some detail in the past. But they are by no means the only ones. Similar websites based in the US, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries have had their lifestyle mags writing about this form of business. And although the positive coverage of escorting in mainstream lifestyle mags is few and far between, you can expect those attitudes to change in the years to come.