diff --git a/django/utils/safestring.py b/django/utils/safestring.py
index ad8054fe0f..50b0c03686 100644
--- a/django/utils/safestring.py
+++ b/django/utils/safestring.py
@@ -144,4 +144,4 @@ def mark_for_escaping(s):
         return EscapeBytes(s)
     if isinstance(s, (six.text_type, Promise)):
         return EscapeText(s)
-    return EscapeBytes(bytes(s))
+    return EscapeString(str(s))
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.7.2.txt b/docs/releases/1.7.2.txt
index 31a96a4ccd..84188cd494 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.7.2.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.7.2.txt
@@ -175,3 +175,6 @@ Bugfixes
 
 * Corrected ``contrib.sites`` default site creation in a multiple database
   setup (:ticket:`24000`).
+
+* Restored support for objects that aren't :class:`str` or :class:`bytes` in
+  :func:`~django.utils.safestring.mark_for_escaping` on Python 3.
diff --git a/tests/utils_tests/test_safestring.py b/tests/utils_tests/test_safestring.py
index 65242e46fb..aaa4a07d1c 100644
--- a/tests/utils_tests/test_safestring.py
+++ b/tests/utils_tests/test_safestring.py
@@ -31,6 +31,15 @@ class SafeStringTest(TestCase):
         self.assertIsInstance(mark_safe(b), SafeData)
         self.assertRenderEqual('{{ s }}', 'a&b', s=mark_safe(s))
 
+    def test_mark_safe_object_implementing_dunder_str(self):
+        class Obj(object):
+            def __str__(self):
+                return '<obj>'
+
+        s = mark_safe(Obj())
+
+        self.assertRenderEqual('{{ s }}', '<obj>', s=s)
+
     def test_mark_for_escaping(self):
         s = mark_for_escaping('a&b')
         self.assertRenderEqual('{{ s }}', 'a&amp;b', s=s)
@@ -47,3 +56,12 @@ class SafeStringTest(TestCase):
     def test_html(self):
         s = '<h1>interop</h1>'
         self.assertEqual(s, mark_safe(s).__html__())
+
+    def test_mark_for_escaping_object_implementing_dunder_str(self):
+        class Obj(object):
+            def __str__(self):
+                return '<obj>'
+
+        s = mark_for_escaping(Obj())
+
+        self.assertRenderEqual('{{ s }}', '&lt;obj&gt;', s=s)