Men, in my experience, just don’t care. I know that Dave has no modesty whatsoever, neither did my ex. Nor my brothers, nor my brother’s friends. I think this kicks in at about 15. Then it’s fine to prance your naked self in front of EVERYONE.
I don’t care who I’m naked in front of, as long as she has the same parts as I do. I won’t strip in mixed company, is what I’m saying, but a woman’s locker room even if it’s stuffed to the gills with gay and bi women? Who cares? We all have the same body parts, even if they’re in different shapes and such. Let them look, let them drool, let them throw up in their mouth a little bit; I don’t care as long as their hands aren’t on me.
Hm… come to think of it, I never have groped anyone as they walked by in the locker room!
That was basically the argument my friend was making. I am still, however, completely uncomfortable and I get out of locker rooms darn quick when there’s naked people.
This is an interesting thread. Because I remember reading some gay activist guy a while back making essentially the same claim - that gays are not attracted to straight people. And as this did not make sense to me, I started a thread about it, and there was pretty much a consensus that orientation makes little or no difference in terms of sexual attraction, but does make a difference in terms of likelihood of pursuing a relationship. But now I see you making what appears to be the same claim as the original guy - that you have “no interest” at all in straight men.
Is this correct? And if it is, would you agree that you are not typical in this? (In which case, your buddies are possibly undeserving of this rant, as they are likely unaware of your specific proclivities).
Sexual attraction and lack of interest are not mutually exclusive. I lust after Peter Dinklage (he may be short, but, damn, he’s sexy). He is hetero. Now if he were, say, a co-worker or a guy at the gym, I’d think he was yummy, but I’d just treat him like anybody else because there would be no point in asking him out–he’s straight.
Well there might be no point in asking him out, but there might be a point in checking him out. Which is what makes these guys uneasy, and what Jervoise has emphatically denied.
What he seems to be saying is that beyond the fact that he will “treat [straight guys] like anybody else”, he is also uninterested in them as well. (IOW, he does not think they are “yummy”)
Well, speaking only for myself, I have no interest in checking out guys in the locker room because as an American male, I have been socialized Not To Stare at Other Guys in the Locker Room. In addition, most naked men are not an erotic vision–they just don’t have any clothes on.
OTOH, if an especially hot guy were to cross my line of vision, I wouldn’t avert my eyes nor would I indicate any interest in any way.
So is nude sunbathing or other nude recreation considered a gay thing now? Or is it just that gay men tend to be perhaps less inhibited than their straight counterparts?
A word of caution: Do not use one of these devices to shave your scrotum. I had to shave my scrotum before I got a vasectomy, and I tried using my beard trimmer on it. OUCH! The vasectomy itself was less painful.
Jervoise, I totally concur with everything you say in the OP (well, most of it - it’s rather long, but I suddenly found myself giggling and nodding vigorously, so I KNOW you got most of it right)…
Lack of interest: I can appreciate a fine looking straight man, but there’s no desire to jump his bones. I can consider a good looking hetero objectively – “that’s nice, BUT…”
For that matter, I can appreciate a pretty woman in the same way: “mmm, that’s aesthetically pleasing, BUT…”
The “BUT” is what cuts off any potential for attraction.
To take a crude analogy, I could quite happily share a shower or spa with naked straight men without sprouting a boner. The situation would just lack the necessary plausibility required to make me sexually interested.
Lack of desire to ogle: put this down lack of interest, plus respect for others. I respect my straight friends’ sensibilities and I know they wouldn’t want me looking. I don’t really want to anyway, so it’s easy not to.
(On that note, even I don’t like gay men openly looking at me while I’m changing–it’s just inappropriate in the setting.)
Are my buddies undeserving of my rant? Well, yeah. I know it must be tough on them. That’s why I tried to keep it light-hearted; I hold no real rancour towards them for being skittish around me. I find the situation pretty funny, actually–it’s good to be able to laugh about the 21st century silliness of it all, rather than get all self-righteous and angry.
