If you turn
on your Grindr or Scruff or any other hook-up app, you will see your screen
littered with torsos within small boxes. I would say that a large percentage of
these profiles will state things like, “Masc only,” or, “No fems,” or, “Be a
real man,” etc. Others will state, “Masc guy here,” or, “Athletic,” or, “Real
man,” blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.
In gay sex masculinity is hot
right now, and it has been for a long, long time. And beyond all these
declarations of a desired gender performance, you will see another word float
around with frequency: “top.” This is as in, “Top here” or “Bttm looking for
top” or “You be a top.” and so on and so on. Top. Top. Top.
It seems that
everyone is a top on Grindr. If some anthropologist in the future only looked
at today’s Grindr profiles for information on gay men, then they’d think
bottoms were on the brink of extinction. This is obviously untrue, and I
believe the use of “top” on online profiles is more a way to bait people into
responding to a message sent on one of these platforms. It’s like a worm on a
fishing hook.
Tops are
highly desired not only because of the sexual aspect of topping but because
many see the “top” identity as synonymous with masculinity or being a “real
man.”
The
patriarchy tells us that to be a man is to be the penetrator, the phallus, etc.
And in this line of thought, bottoms are seen “less than,” “feminine” or “the
woman” because they are the taker of the phallus. A notion too many of us buy
into. Tops in the gay world are seen as ideal men, and not just because of what
they do in the bedroom but because of what they represent to society: a “real
man.” That means that we have some self-loathing to work through.
It seems that by using this term we are
actually describing bigger issues at hand, things that have to do with gender,
power, and desire, things that transcend just sex or our Grindr profiles and
deserve more attention and analysis than crassly labeling how one uses his
penis a privilege.
I consider myself a top but can go both way and enjoy both ways the same. When I'm horny thought and want to get fucked, I always search out the twink or fem tops. I hook up with jocks too, but I'll tell you, the fem have pleased more so than the built jocks. And the queeny guys I know have more balls then my gym friends.....there first to run from conflict.
ReplyDelete