Thursday, August 28, 2008

A normal part of gay life?

Before I start my rant, let me get one thing straight: as long as you're two (or more, whatever's your game) consenting adults, I believe what you do in your own bedroom is your private business, of which I need to know nothing about. So, I'm not in the business of forcing some moral on other people, and that's not the point of what I'm going to write.

Yesterday there was a documentary on Dutch television about (apparently famous) Amsterdam gay sauna Thermos. For those of you not in the know on what a gay sauna is: it's basically a sex house disguised as a proper health and beauty center, where everyone goes around fucking just about anybody. As you might have guessed, I would rather chop my head of than setting one foot into such a place, so everything I'm writing about it is just from television of from hear say.

Anyway, as I wrote before, adults should be able to make up their own minds on attending such an establishment or avoiding it, so that's not the issue here. What is the issue, is that the people who were interviewed in this documentary basically made it look like every gay man in Holland is a regular sauna visitor, and that going to such places is just part of every day gay life. In a way, they even made it look as if there's something wrong with you if you're not willing to go along to places like that.

What pisses me of, is the fact that here's another stereotype many people already buy into when thinking of gays, namely the fact that as it seems everything is just about getting as much sex as possible, preferably from as many different men as possible. Never mind the fact there are tens of thousands gay guys like me, who want nothing to do with it. Never mind this is something that grosses me out just as much as it does the average straight guy. Never mind I'm actually ashamed of the very excistance of places like this.

Moreover, when I logged on to gay.nl only a few moments after the documentary, there was already a discussion going on, so I decided to join in. Wait a minute... did I say discussion? Basically they all agreed there's nothing wrong with gay sauna's and yes, it is integral part of gay life. When I tried to voice a different opinion, basically all I got as a response was either ridicule or arguments that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic discussed.

So I'm wondering: is it really just me who doesn't agree with what's going on in these gay sauna's (or darkrooms, or crusing spots alltogether for that matter), and who still actually believes in the possibility of a monogamous relationship? Surely there must be others thinking the same way?

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