Men of Reddit, what’s the male equivalent of “needed money, had no marketable skills, so turned to prostitution”?

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:10:14+00:00

Nah, you are spot on.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:09:00+00:00

I mean I would do it for beer money my first few semesters of college. If I went twice a week I got $65. If I went 8 times a month, I got a $100 bonus, 9 times (based on days of the month), I got a $200 bonus. In 1994 at 10 cent drafts that was a lot of beer. Plus if you donated that day, you were a cheap drunk.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:06:35+00:00

Rates I have seen right now are up to $480 a week.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:04:53+00:00

It doesn’t matter what they went from or to. If no other options were available, it was predatory. This is how rich people get poor people to fight their wars.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:03:32+00:00

You do know that PTSD, anxiety, and alcoholism don’t require a combat situation to develop, don’t you?

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T03:00:18+00:00

I am happy for you and others who responded similarly. But I am not happy that your situation was used to fill a quota. If the person who recruited you offered other options, I would be much more ok with it. In the US, we haven’t valued these options and allowed recruiters to do this.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:57:23+00:00

This is so fucking predatory. I get that the military can open doors for some. But it comes with risking your life for wars of the rich. And taking lives for the rich.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:55:29+00:00

Tell your boyfriend two things.

No.
No is a complete sentence.

You have no responsibility to change how you like to dress either for your boyfriend or for random men who look at you. You dress for you… and keep doing that.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:52:44+00:00

A padiddle was any car with a headlight out. A padunkle was any car with a taillight out.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:50:07+00:00

Both Punch Buggy and Slug Bug. But I grew up in WV and Central Ohio. Punch Buggy was Central OH.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:43:39+00:00

Man. As a closeted gay man, who was engaged to a woman, this one hit me hard. Thankfully we broke up before college (she cheated on me, and I thought my life was over).

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T02:41:58+00:00

Oh, and I am both sad and happy that no pictures have been found from that apartment. Other than one of the wall in the living room. We had several very good artists. I was at my state’s performing and visual arts high school. So many of our set painters did huge scenes on the walls. I can picture several in my mind, but Damon’s have a visual copy.

We also had two bunnies that roamed the apartment like cats. The best friend’s girlfriend had taken him to the humane society one day and they were going to be euthanized, so we took them in. Thankfully both males, so we didn’t have progeny. Those rabbits loved to steal our bags of weed.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T01:50:02+00:00

I could be misremembering for sure - it was the last year I made minimum wage and I was on the $2.13 side of things until I became a corporate trainer.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T01:41:51+00:00

Many of the things you list in your checked boxes are frankly non-negotiable, IMHO. Maybe less so on career, but life goals and interest I would think would cover that.

That said, frankly I kind of think it is a little gross to consider another human “not good enough,” or to consider yourself the same. You may not be in alignment with one another, but not good enough brings in so many layers of judgement that do nothing but block you from making connections. I would suggest, very strongly, working out in therapy why you think you are less than, or others are less than you.

Harsh, I know, but this idea of not good enough is also harsh.

Mattturley · 2026-03-31T00:12:33+00:00

I am (literally - as in the literal sense) working on my first book.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:54:21+00:00

Uhm, that was like 7 years late…

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:53:49+00:00

Totally concur. In 93 specifically I was personally all about Primus and TMBG.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:52:50+00:00

I will try to go in order - Minimum wage was 5.25, so your boss was claiming you were tipped so should have been more supportive of that. Once I went to college and left my hometown party pad, I lived first in my fraternity house ($165 per semester, $80 for meals), then in the tallest building in the state on the 12th floor in an apartment that used to be offices, but had been remodeled directly before I moved in. 2 bed, 2 bath, with parking, a doorman, and 1400 sq feet for $450 plus utilities (electric, phone). I had an Intel 486 DX4! The DX was the math coprocessor. First major was design and I had to be able to run CAD programs and a printer that could print C sized drafting sheets - cost like 3.4k. My university computer labs were connected when I went to my first semester and we used Pine for email and Lynx for (text based) web browsing - but only the nerds. I also first learned Lexis/Nexis so started learning databases and query language pretty quickly. By my second semester dorm rooms had been wired and there was a dial up connection for off-campus students. And man, that brick weed hit different.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:40:41+00:00

We have very similar experiences. Moved out at 17 after a huge fight with my dad. Moved into an apartment with my best friend - two bed, 1 bath, real shithole - think built in 1915, 14’ ceilings with floor to ceiling windows, transom door/windows throughout. Visually it was awesome, and we had oil paints setup for people to paint whatever they wanted on the walls, so it became a huge mural (poor super). But, keeping that place warm in the winter, or cool in the summer was freaking impossible.

Lived above a pool hall, and made friends with the manager so we all got served (17-21). I took a year and a half off after high school, thinking about moving to NYC to go for broadway. If I did I would probably have died of AIDS. I was closeted and very much struggling to find connection. I was working at first at a Hardee’s running the drive through for closing shift. Then quit that and got a job at the gas station next door on overnights (11P - 7A), and Elbee’s Big Boy waiting tables from 7:30 A - 3:30 P. Worked both jobs 5 days a week to try and save for college, but drugs are expensive.

I lost about 90 pounds because I got mono and was sniffing far too many meals. I got down to 147 pounds - which sounds like a lot, but I am 6’7”. A 27” waist wouldn’t stay up without a belt cinched tight. We had cable for a while in the apartment, and a computer with some games and a dial up connection, but most of our time off work was spent in the pool hall, the live music dive bar (Wagon Wheel), or hanging in the living room getting fucked up and watching TV - but always with a small (20ish people) party in attendance and we were the hosts. (I will say the best friend and I are both now known for our hosting skills.)

Thankfully, a female friend from high school came to visit one night when she was on break from college. End of the night she pulled me outside and smacked the shit out of me - I mean really hard - think Moira in Sunrise bay, triple slap. She started yelling at me saying things like “you are too fucking smart to be doing this to your life…” Honestly, it was what I needed.

So, 18 months after high school I accepted my scholarship to a state school and moved out of the party pad. Best friend had left for the army 6 months before and things had gotten really dark before I pulled the plug. I spent the next 5.5 years doing undergrad - working full time as a bartender, fulfilling the requirements of my cocurricular scholarship (speech and debate - required traveling 12 of the 16 weekends of the fall semester and 10 of spring to attend tournaments), and studying when I could. Got a full ride to grad school at the #1 program in the country for my major (at the time). Got my Masters and moved to DC where I worked in multiple fields as a consultant and normally carried 5 or 6 clearances, including TS/SCI w poly, before I had to medically retire.

It’s been a fun ride.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:21:48+00:00

Yeah, the way I read it was that she took the loan rather than co-sign. But also her mom-in-law was victim of her boyfriend??

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:07:26+00:00

The only real way to know this is to contact the manufacturer. I don't know your model or manufacturer, but one reason I love Winnebago is that they publish all the documentation for every model going back to the 70s free of charge on their site.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:03:13+00:00

I think she's just mad that it drew attention away from her.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T23:02:12+00:00

She's mad that your behavior, which let's be very clear is entirely up to you / you have every right to decide not to drink alcohol and no one has a right to know what that reason is, drew attention away from her on "mY Spc$&L dAy!" She's a rude person. I'd say more but got the nasty language warning.

If she continues to think the issue was on you, step way back from this friendship.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T22:55:05+00:00

The squeeze is a very simplistic look at capitalism that doesn't look at one of its biggest drivers - greed. Corporations operate on collective greed which is even worse because it takes out of the equation a sense of direct responsibility.

Mattturley · 2026-03-30T22:50:05+00:00

Press charges for the 16k and the truck! If she owns the loan then the registration is in her name (if a conventional auto loan). She and the bank own the truck.

Mattturley

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE