Males running riot

The sexual behaviour of homosexual males is not at all like that of straight females. It is in fact classic male behaviour. Three aspects will illustrate this: casual sex with multiple partners, the emphasis on the physical attractiveness of the partner, and interest in pornography.

In every major city in the world, there are places where homosexual men go to cruise for sex. There is the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Monte Caprino in Rome, the New Park in Taipei, Sanlihe Road in Peking, and right here in Singapore, East Coast Park. There are also bars and discotheques to the extent that the law allows or winks at. Some cities have flourishing gay saunas. Among Singaporeans, Bangkok springs immediately to mind. Yet even here in Singapore, many fitness clubs have acquired reputations as discrete 'hotspots'.

It never ceases to amaze me how universal this phenomenon is. You can come from an utterly different culture, speak a language no one understands, and have never been to a particular location before, but you can still tell (if you are homosexual yourself and attuned to it, of course) when you are being cruised. There's this scene from the Taiwanese film "Lonely Hearts Club", of two guys making eye contact with each other in a deserted stairway. We knew what was happening right off; I wonder how many heterosexuals did.

Most of the time, the objective is a quickie or a one-night-stand. That seems to be enough. Rarely does the encounter lead to long term relationships; it would be an unexpected bonus, although for some others, it may be seen as an unwanted burden. Casual sex is what the game is all about.

Straight males have an equal desire for one-offs and multiple partners. The world's oldest profession testifies to this. Furthermore, many cultures have celebrated the cult of male conquest, and some have even institutionalised it through the concept of harems.

Unfortunately, they also created patriarchal societies and it became important for the male to defend his rights to his women and know who his offspring were. Hence measures had to be taken to ensure that women did not sleep around. All kinds of physical and legal restraints were invented, but at the same time, most cultures promoted the ideal of a faithful wife. Girls and women were taught that sex was a dirty thing, unless as part of marital duties. It may well be that natural female sexual behaviour is  as lusty as male behaviour, only that the cultures we are familiar with have (generally) conditioned them to be more "demure". Or, there is some degree of biological determination that makes females less interested in casual sex than males. At this point, I don't think there is conclusive evidence one way or the other.

Regardless, it seems to me then that straight males face a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, they want casual sex, and in their case, it would have to be with women, but on the other hand, women who agree to it are stigmatised, and so very few of them would be equally willing. Furthermore, preaching sexual fidelity to women cannot be so easily separated from the idea of sexual fidelity in men. This must create a hell of a neurosis!

Homosexual males don't face this dilemma. Their partners, being male, are on the whole equally interested in casual sex. Their problem may be simply one of numbers (being a minority) and scattering, but all said and done, I sometimes suspect that homosexual males have an easier time getting one-night-stands than straight males. Male homosexual behaviour is not at all female behaviour from a man's body, but rather, is male behaviour without the constraint of women -- male behaviour run riot.

Much of contemporary culture is saturated with sex, and the biggest part of this is the use of the young woman's body. Straight males go ga-ga over attractive, shapely females, the more undressed the better. And women know this, hence we have this scene:

Woman (nearing forty) crying while sitting at her dressing table, husband in background, sitting on bed. Woman upset over husband's recently discovered affair. She asks, "Am I no longer attractive to you?"

Imagine reversed roles. Man sitting on bed, asking his straying wife, "Am I no longer attractive to you?" . . . Difficult to imagine, isn't it?

Speaking very generally, and I know someone somewhere is going to attack me for this, women know that to get a man's first impulsive attention, it has to be looks, looks and looks. Make-up, skin-care, weight control, bust enhancement, skimpy dresses, practised smile and to-die-for gait. They seem to accept that fact that men are … well, they just are.

Mix around with homosexual men and we can see that they are just as much spellbound by looks as straight men, with the only exception that their eyes are fixed on other men. Again, there's the stress on the young adult, beautiful face, shapely toned body, lots of skin and bulges at all the right places. It's no coincidence that these phrases apply equally to the ideal description of a female in the eyes of a straight male. The fact is, except for the sex of the object of attention, the tendencies of a homosexual male are exactly the same as for a straight male.

Browse through any magazine aimed at the gay male market, and it hits you how idealised (and how unrepresentative of the spectrum of human physiques) the images are. It's all looks, looks and looks.

Which brings me to pornography. Pornography is a predominantly male pastime, with a huge market. Most people bring complex and contradictory attitudes to it, but there is no doubt that in most men, interest in it is very strong. "Oh, it's gross", they remark groaningly on a scene. "Hey! wait a minute, don't fast forward. I just said it was gross, I didn't say to fast forward."

Just as there are countless girlie magazines, you-see-one-and-you've-seen-all videos, and peepshows for the raunchy straight male, there are similar XXXX magazines, videos and shows for the homosexual male. They are particularly noteworthy when you consider that even though straight females outnumber homosexual males many times, the market for male pornography is largely aimed at other males. The heterosexual male's interest in pornography is mirrorred in homosexual males, far more than in straight females.

But seriously, my point is this: despite the stereotype of queens and fags, the sexual behaviour of homosexual males is very classically male. Strange how this isn't obvious to most people.

© Yawning Bread 

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