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Monday, June 8, 2020

SEXUAL LIBERATION...

We are lucky bastards. We’ve got it all. We fought through centuries of sex in the shadows, criminalisation, the blackmailing years. Many of us have avoided the fates of countless other anonymous victims of societal homophobia. Lest we forget.

Sexual liberation was fought @ Stonewall, and beyond, and we’ve expressed it proudly in our leather harnesses and pink go-go shorts at countless subsequent gay Pride parades. We’ve taken sex away from the public toilets and parks, and parked it proudly on our smartphones for all to download, click, block and swipe. Gay porn is a robust, wealthy industry, and we resource it without shame, advertising the latest titles in shop windows and inviting the hottest porn stars to be hosts of our favourite nightclubs.

The evidence of our sexual liberation is tantalisingly on display for anyone strolling through any gay district, past sex shops advertising the porn titles and fetish gear that were once hidden in suitcases under our beds. We celebrated the demise of pre-marital sex being a sin for our straight siblings; not that that was ever an issue for us. No, we were always exempt from religious or cultural shackles such as that.

There’s still more to do of course; slut-shaming/PrEP-shaming is still a thing, and those few ‘good gays’ who judge the vulnerable many for not consistently using condoms, or for succumbing to the availability of drugs and alcohol... well they’ll eventually retreat back behind their keyboards and find something else to troll. This brilliant fight for sexual liberation is mostly won, and the evidence/consequences are all around us; won through the sweat, suffering and activism of our forebears.

We deserve to be proud of such achievements. Even defensive.

And we are. We’re defensive about the liberties we’ve fought for, understandably. We’re defensive about our right to party, our right to use drugs, our right to have as many partners as we choose, and to have 24 hour saunas. Hetero-normative is a dirty word, and a longing for monogamy expressed on Grindr will unleash a swathe of rejections that could either force you into abstinence or drive you to drink. At the very least, it’ll make you date-less tonight. 

Is it possible for sexual liberation to ever go too far?

What would too far mean for you?

1 comment:

  1. Hmmm. Two things... I would not equate 'for succumbing to the availability of drugs' with the other things in that list. Being a slut isn't illegal. Alcohol, not illegal. Meth use? Really? You want me to NOT judge that? Do I understand how they fall into it? Of course. But I'm not participating or marching in that particular parade...ever. So, your point there is lost on me. Being anti-hard drugs is not trolling. It's self-preservation. And then the second thing... Monogamy still seems to be the norm, even on Grndr, and it seems to be those that cling to it that are the ones doing the shaming. Kind of tired of the whole hetero-norm thing being shoved down my throat. I mean, to each their own, but it seems to me that there are plenty of monogamous and non-monogamous folks on Grndr. So if you're 'dateless' maybe the problem is probably not 'them'. As for the sexual liberation/revolution? I paused when the whole gender identity canon was introduced and named, but now I understand. So, no... I don't think it can ever go too far - as long as it remains respectful, and by that I mean, respects the law. And respects basic human dignity, autonomy and adheres to norms re: consent. Sorry... I might just be in a bad mood.

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