Machos vs Hostos

A masseur once asked me if I had boyfriends before. I said "yes, three this year." He asked me where they worked, but I told him to take some guesses first, which he tried. For some reason, he thought aloud "ano ba mga easy-money na trabaho?" He assumed all my relationships were with guys in the "easy money" industry (what made him think that?)

Anyway, I told him I had one with a macho dancer this year and then with a hosto afterwards.

"Ano ba yung hosto?" asked the masseur.

From someone in their so-called "easy money" industry, he didn't know what it meant. Quite odd. We hear often of "hostess" in girlie bars, but almost none of those "hostos." Before I entered into this world, I've only heard of male hostos going to Japan for work. But what do they do?

I thought hostos and macho dancers were one and the same. I even thought they were the same as "call boys." But talking with guys from different bars, apparently, there would be differences... huge.

Macho dancers, obviously, dance on-stage, half naked with their signature snake-like movement.When you "table" them, they would be wearing their sando/wifebeaters, boxer briefs and their boots. Hostos (or sometimes referred to as "models" in some gay bars), on the other hand, don't dance on stage. They are fully clothed the entire night, even when you "table" them.

Both entertain you -- macho dancers impress with their faces and bodies, hostos impress with their faces and chit-chat.(Masseurs, on the other hand, impress with their face or body AND hand skills).

There also seems to be a heirarchy among them. I think they consider "call boy" as lowest (those peddling their bodies on the street). Both hostos and machos seem to find dignity that they are not sex-workers strictly speaking and offering paid sex -- just purely dancing or entertaining. One macho I talked with was thinking of "ibenta ang katawan" (selling himself) as a "last resort" just to make money. Unless the gay bar condones "bar fines"; but not all machos in these gay bars accept these out-of-bar offers. Maybe because they "respect themselves" ("parang nawawalan ako ng respeto sa sarili ko kapag gawin ko yun"), or they have sugar mommies/daddies who forbid them to go out with another customer.

In "pure hosto bars" (no macho dancing, only male "GROs"), hostos feel relieved they are not working as macho dancers -- they don't need to bare their bodies, which they think is just one step higher from being "call boys". Some of these hostos even detach themselves from "macho dancers", often referring to them as "sila"/"them", even if where they work can be considered as part of one big gay bar industry. However in macho dancing bars, some hostos (or models) feel they are not the "stars" of the bar. They feel they are not skilled enough or buff enough or brave enough to be macho dancers. The result -- these models get less exposure, thus get less customers, and less income, of course.

Who gets higher pay? I think it will only depend on the bar they work in -- how much "budget" or "daily allowance" the bar gives (usually ranges from P150-200 a day) and how much commission per drink they get (around P80 to 100 per drink). But mind you, drinks for these boys (called macho drinks) in macho bars are much more expensive than a pure hosto bar. So clientele for these two bars will also be different (and another blog post altogether).

So how did I answer the masseur when he asked me what a hosto is? Simple. Those guys working in a bar, only entertaining customers over drinks and chit-chat. In which he replied, "oh, just like a guy version of hostess". Nagtanong ka pa.


GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; follow me at twitter: @gbgoer