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From: bam@sdchema.UUCP (Bret Marquis)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Gay magazines
Message-ID: <383@sdchema.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-May-85 11:35:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdchema.383
Posted: Fri May  3 11:35:06 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 6-May-85 00:21:04 EDT
Reply-To: bang!blia!eric  (Eric Allmanam)
Organization: U.C. San Diego Chemistry Dept
Lines: 35


I would argue that the "problem" with "gay-oriented literature" is that
it is inherently sexually oriented.  To put it another way, the only thing
that really makes gays different from straights is (as a psychologist
friend of mine once put it) sucking and fucking.  When I read gay
magazines, I have implicitly stated that I am interested in whatever
it is that separates gays from straights: sex.  When straight men read
Playboy they have made the same statement, and although Playboy makes a
big deal of having "legitimate" articles, they still have sexually
explicit centerfolds and advertisments.

Of course, advertisers appealing to a gay-oriented market try to make
their ads as interesting as possible to that clientele.  What can you
assume is appealing to the widest possible cross-section of gay men?

There seem to be two problems here.  First, the straight world does not
assume that what they see in a "straight" magazine such as Hustler
represents the entire straight world since they have a lot of contact
with the straight world, but since most heterosexuals have a limited
contact with the gay world, every "gay" magazine is a major data point.
Second, I think that if you look around a little more you will see
flagrant sexuality all around you:  gym ads featuring scantily clad
women; Pepsi is the new generation (of bimbos?); sexy women licking
their lips in cars, on couches, while peering into refrigerators;
billboards with the writing superimposed on the, ah, delicate portions
of the anatomy......  need I go on?  The straight world is in some
sense desensitized to the straight sexuality surrounding them, but an
equal level of gay sexuality seems "blatant" to them.

eric
-- 
Bret Marquis

(sdcsvax,ihnp4)!bang!bam
Bang World Communication Center - San Diego.