Julia Bindel writes in today's Observer about what she calls "the myth of the male brothel". It is, she says, nothing more than a ruse adopted by the pro-prostitution lobby to divert attention from the fact that the sex industry, in the main, benefits men and harms women.
The facts seem pretty incontrovertible. In January, a story of a male prostitute in Nevada soon faded after he left, having received fewer than 10 customers in as many weeks. Websites advertising male escort services for women charge less than their female counterparts, suggesting a struggling market.
Five years ago, the pimp Heidi Fleiss soon abandoned plans to open a brothel staffed by men when market research showed it would not be a runner.
That's not to say that women don't pay for sex - Bindel herself was the first journalist to write about the phenomenon of female sex tourism in Jamaica - but the fact remains they constitute a tiny market compared to the numbers of men who do.
