I use one kind to thin my oil based paints.
As for circle jerks, in my experience you didn’t even hint that you masturbated, at all. I think you got called “queer” if people thought you did, but then, that was a universal insult.
We had a few “strange” kids, but no one ever talked about gettin’ friendly with a sheep, or his dog, or anything.
Not so urban legendy in some frats:
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19900125&slug=1052653
Moderating:
Both of you: Please comment on the content, not the contributor.
And @Crane , no personal attacks are allowed outside the pit. You know that. Close to a warning.
I’m just visiting here from 1944, and I can say that this was absolutely a thing. In fact, the later 1950’s were about when I became aware of a personal bullshit meter; I liked to hang out with girls, and couldn’t understand why a guy would choose to fool around with another guy.
Dan
Explain Liberace.
The popular view was reflected by a jury failing to convict Liberace of wrong doing in spite of the fact that he was the international icon of homosexuality.
Perhaps, I missed your point.
Huh? Liberace won a big settlement against the Daily Mail after an article implied he was homosexual. He specifically stated in court that it was untrue and libelous and was award £8000, the largest libel settlement ever at the time. It’s extremely unlikely the jury would have given him a cent if they thought he was gay.
From my experience in high school, any sign of homosexuality was mercilessly mocked and made you a target. It would be unimaginable for a straight guy to willing do anything sexual with another guy.
When I was a kid, a friend had an idea for a practical joke - at a sleepover, he talked us into doing a circle jerk. We’d turn out the lights (it’s not gay if you can’t see it), and he’d start doing that thing where you pinch your cheek and rapidly shake it, making a squelching noise that, allegedly, sounded like masturbation. Once he got everyone involved, he’d flip the light on, and catch us all there with our willies out.
Plan worked great, until the part where he flipped the lights on. Instead of catching us with our dicks out, he caught us all pinching our cheeks and wiggling them to make a squelching noise.
In prison perhaps.
Where? Were you alive in the 60s? No one* knew.
Austin Powers:
Yeah, and I can’t believe Liberace was gay. I mean, women loved him! I didn’t see that one coming.
*"Hollywood, and I assume especially gay Hollywood knew, but they weren’t talking.
I believe that a lot of people (not just in Hollywood) suspected he was (as with other campy celebrities like Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly), but they still remained publicly closeted until the '80s or later.
I find the “celluloid closet” fascinating.
At the time, I was too young and too sheltered to catch anything real subtle. Why would I think Paul Lynde or CNR were gay (and yet, not Fannie Flagg? Hello, Match Game!) as opposed to just being “campy”? (or “British”, as the joke goes.) TV back then wouldn’t put those people on TV, unless they were meant to be the butt of jokes, or so it seemed.
On this board, there’s always someone that says “of course we all knew”, but, no, “we” didn’t. Out in mainstream America, no one talked about it. How would we find out?
Even worse, I think if middle America knew, the celebs would have lost a lot of their audience. Sure they could probably handle Paul Lynde, but not Raymond Burr.
Now that you did such a great job on Liberace, explain the Stonewall Riots.
For the rest of you,
One of many horrifying quotes:
After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, New York’s newly established State Liquor Authority issued regulations that prohibited bars from employing or serving gay people or even allowing them to gather on their premises. During the Second World War, the federal government followed suit by prohibiting homosexuals as a class from serving in the military, and after the war, it extended that ban to civilian federal agencies.
The core principle that governed such rules was to exclude people who were openly gay from many workplaces and the urban public sphere of bars and restaurants, and to prevent them from even being represented or discussed in plays, films, and cabaret performances. The point was not just to condemn, humiliate, and discourage people who were queer, but also to render homosexuality invisible and therefore, the authorities hoped, unthinkable.
And in Canada it wasn’t until 1990 or thereabouts that being gay in our military ceased to be illegal.
From the story, I am wondering if they actually planned to do anything with the sheep or if was just there for show to scare the pledges because of the various legends. Honestly, that’s something we thought about with our pledges - letting a sheep roam through the house to mess with their minds.
I have no idea, but that article still cracks me up (it was a big deal in the NW when it came out for all the rival and not-so-rival schools). “overheated and agitated” sheep. Pledges wearing only their underwear and coated in peanut butter. Comedy gold.
In case anybody is unaware, there is a great documentary by that name. It follows history of homosexuality in American cinema. Oddly, I saw it on the digital over the air channel Decades. I feel it needs an update. But, as I said it’s a great film.
That was reportedly the annual hazing ritual on our high school wrestling team; the seniors would announce they were going to have a “team bonding” circle jerk in the dark, then at some point the lights would go on to reveal everyone but the freshmen fully clothed and laughing.
Although if even I, about the last person in the world who would ever have considered joining the wrestling team, knew about this, I question if anyone ever really fell for it.
It has never been proven Hoover was gay or even a cross dresser. He appeared to be one of those dudes who suppressed his sex life for his work.
After Hoover died, his enemies likes to accuse him of things (and not a few were true) but remember, back in those days being called a “queer” was a huge insult. I think/hope we are mostly beyond that now.
Note that anti-gay stuff was common. In one of the police novels by Wambaugh, (Choirboys?)one of the characters casually burns the penis of a gay man with a cigar, and the reader is supposed to chuckle or think that was a Good Thing.