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By Ryan Van Meter
When massage therapist and acupuncturist Seth Popham went to
meet new clients in the sitting room at the Seattle spa
in which he worked at three years ago, he was greeted
with a look of abject terror.
I came to recognize this look and knew it indicated that
the client was going to say, I didnt think I was going
to have a male therapist!
Popham isnt the only male massage therapist who feels
that he is terrifying clients. Dave Murdock, a
nationally certified therapist working at a spa in
Atlanta sums it up this way: Your potential male
clients are afraid you might be gay and your potential
female clients are afraid that you are not.
Shawn True, a therapist in Batavia, Illinois, used to
work at two spas where he was the only male therapist on
staff. The receptionist would field calls, and when no
one else was available, even after assuring the client
that I was experienced, most people would decline and
wait for a female therapist, he says.
Massage therapy has been traditionally thought of as a
womans profession, and women do make up the majority of
therapists. The American Massage Therapy Association
estimates that 16 to 18 percent of therapists in the
United States are maleroughly 41,240 to 46,440 of the
258,000 total therapists.
But
what can therapists like Popham, Murdock and True do
when they encounter clients who prefer female
therapists? Moreover, what is at the root of gender
preference? Do men really massage differently from
women? Is the preference something that amounts to
sexual discrimination or simply personal preference of
clients?
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American Massage Therapy Association®
