XXXs

Hope everyone was having an amazing holiday! This post was supposed to go out yesterday, however, my family celebrates Thanksgiving on Wednesday instead of Thursday (long story) so I just totally forgot. SORRY READERS! Anywho, in my hometown of York, Pennsylvania the one big club that we have is a gay club called XS. I went last night with a few friends and I noticed something very interesting.At club XS they have hired a group of ten or so younger guys (18-24ish) to dance on stage wearing nothing but their underwear (they have a catchy name, but I can’t remember it for the life of me). These guys dance provocatively on stage while older (we’re talking some men in their 50s) men stuff dollar bills in their tiny underwear in exchange for some sexy dancing. Now don’t get me wrong, these boys are HOT HOT HOT, and seem to enjoy their job, but I can’t help but notice the intense objectification of them.

I’ve noticed when going to XS on college night (18+ night where everyone gay, straight, or otherwise comes out to party together) that the straight male population seems to be more at ease around the more effeminate gay guys. I see the most uneasiness when there is a situation where a straight guy can’t tell if the guy next to him is gay or straight (who cares right?). I can’t help but wonder if the patriarchal society is more comfortable with homosexuality when it is feminized because it seems less threatening to them, and they see homosexuality assuming a subordinate role. If so this seems to explain the nearly naked boys at the club, and the stereotype that all gay men must look/dress/act a certain way.

I see the intense objectification of gay men the same way I see it in relation to women, its a way for the hegemonic structure that patriarchy as put in place to make “others” (not straight white men) inhuman in some way. The boys dancing were nearly naked on stage and were using their sexuality to define them. It saddens me so much to see that, because I feel like, in the intense feminization of homosexuality in general, the patriarchy is somehow taking power away from it. I love going shopping with my gay friends and wearing the same clothes, don’t get me wrong (and looking at the hotties on stage was a good time, even if they would never be interested), but I have to wonder some times if they are doing it for themselves, or if they are doing it because the patriarchy has made it so that being feminized is the only way that gay men can be “tolerated” (not that any straight man is ever actually tolerant because they’re terrified that they might get hit on, btw those people, you’re probably not hot enough to be hit on anyway).

Women still have the same problem.  I’m all for sexual liberation, but are you doing it for you, or to impress the guy next to you? The same situation seems to be  happening in the homosexual male culture as well. I’ve even noticed my gay friends policing each other relentlessly so that they fit a certain image. It seems eerily similar to the situation I notice time and time again on campus with women.

Thoughts?