OK, so we knew that Justin Bieber was different from the rest of us. But it goes beyond the whole money/talent/sex symbol thing. It appears that he also diverges from most young men in another way: his willingness to pay for sex.
Bieber was spotted coming out of a Brazilian brothel last week, and a Panamanian woman working in the world's oldest profession gave an account of an encounter with the pop-music megastar.
That makes him a bit of an outlier in his gender and generation, if a recent University of Chicago study is accurate. Not only did fewer men — way fewer men — say they had paid for sex, but younger men in particular (Bieber is 19) were less likely to admit to dalliances with prostitutes than one or two decades ago.
Last year, just 9.1 percent of men said they had ever paid for sex, or been paid for it, the nationwide General Social Survey found. Previous numbers: 13.2 percent between 2006 and 2011 and 17 percent from 1991 to 1996.
There could be a number of factors in play: easier access to free sex for younger men, fewer men serving in the military (where such experiences are twice as prevalent) … or people just plain lying.
Certainly Bieber tried to cover up (literally) last week's visit to the Brazilian bordello in search of, er. the title of one of his hits, "Somebody to Love." His bodyguards tried to drape the singer in sheets as he exited.
Alas, protruding from the sheets was his wrist, with its telltale Selena Gomez tattoo.
Bill Ward • 612-673-7643
