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From: sdo@brunix.UUCP (Scott Oaks)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Gay magazines
Message-ID: <10521@brunix.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-May-85 17:54:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: brunix.10521
Posted: Sun May  5 17:54:37 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 04:02:22 EDT
References: <383@sdchema.UUCP>
Reply-To: sdo@nancy.UUCP (Scott Oaks)
Organization: Brown University Computer Science
Lines: 32
Summary: 

In article <383@sdchema.UUCP> bang!blia!eric  (Eric Allmanam) writes:
>
>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.

I can't agree with this analysis:  if I had been raised in a different
world, then perhaps I would differ from straight people only in the manner
in which I have sex.  But since I was raised here and now, I (and
presumably other gay people) have certain interests which are not shared by
the population at large:  there are a variety of issues which affect
me--coming out, job security, living a "non-traditional" lifestyle--which
far extend specific sexual practices.  These things also separate gays from
straights, and it isn't necessary that a magazine catering to gay
people focus only (or even primarily) on overt sexuality.

Having said that, I must state that I don't necessarily mind the ads in
Christopher Street et. al.  Certainly I don't mind looking at the men :-).
And Eric's later argument--that ads in straight publications are also full
of sexual overtones--is one with which I agree.  But the assumption that
gay = sex (and only sex) is one I find troubling:  it denies a wealth of
other attitudes and feelings which we all experience.

Scott Oaks
Brown University
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