Word: leathering
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Manhattan they go by names like the Eagle's Nest, the Spike, the Mine Shaft and the Anvil. In San Francisco they are called the Brig and the Ambush. They are all homosexual "leather" bars that cater to macho style and sadomasochistic taste. Along with some bathhouses, sex-gadget shops, magazines and private clubs, they make an increasingly visible subculture in the gay world. That leather fringe is now also visible on movie screens, as the backdrop for a film that has been denounced and picketed by homosexuals: William Friedkin's Cruising, the story of a gay murderer...
Some patrons of the leather bars do not seem to mind Friedkin's deadpan, nonjudgmental look at their world; hundreds of them hired on as extras and played themselves onscreen. "The most positive benefit of Cruising," says one extra, "would be for it to make gay men examine their promiscuity, the areas they frequent, the type of sex they seek out, even the thrill of danger. The life we save...
...other homosexuals remain touchy about the idea that gays consciously seek danger. They insist that only between 1% and 5% of homosexuals lean toward leather. Says Charles Brydon, co-director of the National Gay Task Force: "There just is not any evidence that gays are into S-M any more than straights are." Though they admit that activities at the bars are remarkably exotic, gays insist that the possibility of bringing home a dangerous sex partner is remote...
...average heterosexual who wants to play sadomasochistic games with his wife or girlfriend will be disappointed. Despite the male fantasy of a masked, booted, whip-wielding beauty, most women seldom want anything to do with SM. In male-to-male relationships, there is no such shortage of players, and leather bars make them easy to locate...
...constructs an unconvincing apologia: "What is happening around you smacks of decadence. But not of evil. These places are not hellholes of murder. There are no victors and victims. It is all theater, and these guys are pussycats." Well, not really. In various Village Voice articles on the leather bars, Bell has made the point that many homosexuals, far from being pussycats, seem to crave danger along with their sex. For example, one of the most popular trysting spots for New York gays in the mid-'70s was a rotting pier in Greenwich Village, where homosexuals regularly risked mugging...