Tuesday, March 6, 2018
I don't necessarily agree with the premises of these articles but I think they're helpful to stimulate thought and discussion.
The "Bud Sex" Craze
Is it 'Heteroflexible' or just Gay?
When Brokeback Mountain, a short story turned movie (amazingly directed by Ang Lee) first came out, it was a cultural shock, a boundary pushed, a meditation on moral downfall, if you will. For the first time, very directly, the public was faced with a truth that was rarely ever talked about or even acknowledged in its existence.
The Beginnings
At the time, the book was such a huge leap forward into the unknown and unexplored, that it seemed it would take decades for the nation (and the world) to understand it, forgive it, and then effectively recover from it - especially given the context and rural surroundings of thie “sinful” urges and the actions taking place. However, when brought to the screen by the much-loved and familiar faces of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (celebrity symbols of masculinity and alpha dominance), the much of the public took interest and liking to the plot. Now, a decade later – people are talking about the gay populace without a hint of distress or judgment. Well, more people at least…
Naturally, with sexual progress, it was a matter of time before we’d get to be shocked with something new. These days, we are threading very tricky waters – those where men help each other tame their sexual urges while still declaring themselves as ‘straight’ men who love women, but just look to “help a bud out”.
The situation has gotten so alarming that both gay and straight men are getting confused; who’s who in the mix of likes and dislikes - and what does this whole thing mean in the long run? While some straight men claim same-sex interaction is simply a testament to being even more heterosexual, others are seeing it as the ultimate testament to their male friendships.
Maybe they should just admit they love 'gay' sex (and sometimes even the use of men’s sex toys) and drop the heterosexual pretense of “wing men” and “best buds” drama? No?
Research and intrigue
A sociology doctoral student from the University of Oregon, Tony Silva, turned this newly emerged hetero/homo situation into his social research, publishing his findings in Gender & Society.
He interviewed men that identified as exclusively or mostly straight about their sexual habits and identities. The people he talked to all lived in rural areas of Illinois, Idaho, Oregon, Missouri and Washington - known for their “social conservatism and predominant white populations”.
He found that labels like “heteroflexible” (predominantly identifying as heterosexuals while enjoying same-sex encounters with men) and “dude sex” (sex between white, masculine “bros” in urban and military contexts) were very common - and just as confusing. As explained in his study, “bud sex” is “a type of encounter that reaffirms the participants’ heterosexuality by framing their same-sex sexual activity as simply “helpin’ a buddy out,” relieving “urges” or having sex without sexual attraction.
What the research found was that “bud-sex” was re-contextualized in ways that were reaffirming for the interviewees’ own heterosexual identity. Predominantly, these relationships were formed with other straight-identifying men who didn’t behave stereotypically “gay” or “fem”. Cultivating relationships with men who weren’t effeminate and are “firmly straight” and “love women” allows these men to avoid romantic/emotional entanglements with each other and enjoy talking about women together, without that complicating their relationship in any way.
With this new sexual trend, the whole binary concepts we’ve grown accustomed to – of straight being straight and gay being gay – gets questioned. In the long run, we’re unable to predict the outcome of future relationships forming, but we do know that there’s no going back from here.
Would the situation be a little less alarming if they were simply going gay for pay? Maybe.
Still, these “bud sex” guys are so focused on proving they’re hetero that they even get offended when being linked to homosexuals. They prefer to enjoy the physical benefits of homosexuality – while living safe and securely in their outwardly heterosexual lifestyle. The best of both worlds?
Peter Minkoff is a lifestyle writer for The Authentic Gay. He worked as a freelance writer for local newspapers before blogging.
https://www.inverse.com/article/31091-gay-sex-heterosexual-homosexual-gender-fluidity-alcohol
Note that the article uses the term "gay" while the scientific abstract refers to "same sex."
On any given night in any given bar, at least one thing is certain: Drunk people will be horny. But to whom all that sexual energy will be directed toward isn’t always clear. Recently, scientists conducted a small study that suggested that heterosexual people became more curious about gay sex as they got drunker. Their study isn’t definitive, but it does ask us to reconsider the nature of drunken horniness.
To study this, the researchers went straight to the action, heading to a bar-filled neighborhood in an unnamed midwestern American town to recruit drinkers stumbling around outside between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. In the paper they published in The Journal of Social Psychology in April, they describe the details of their “field study,” which involved first finding 83 participants and asking them how many drinks they’d had that night and their sexual orientation. Then, each recruit watched videos of attractive people hanging out alone at the bar, chatting with the bartender. After watching, each person was asked a series of questions about what they were willing to do, romantically and sexually, with the person in the video.
There was no guarantee, however, that the person in the video would match up with the participants’ stated gender preference.
Some straight men watched an attractive woman at the bar, while others saw a video that featured an attractive man. The same applied to female participants. (The study was limited to cisgender people.) In this way, the researchers from Wayne State University and Western Illinois University were able to test how people’s “sexual willingness” toward same-sex and other-sex partners changed in relation to how many drinks they’d had.
The first few questions were relatively innocuous: Would you buy the person in the video a drink? Would you buy them more than one? But they got racier as the series went on, culminating in the inevitable: Would you have sex with this person?
Some of the results came as no surprise — straight men were generally more sexually interested in women, straight women were more interested in videos with men, and men were more sexually interested in general. But the most notable results had to do with same-sex situations.
It turns out straight men grew more willing to entertain the idea of a homosexual hookup as they got drunker. While their willingness to have sex with a woman didn’t change with the number of drinks they had (that is, they were equally DTF with women whether they were sober or drunk), their willingness to have sex with a man did. “Most notably, alcohol intake was related to increased sexual willingness of men with a same-sex partner, suggesting a potential shift in normative casual sexual behavior among heterosexual men,” the researchers write. In other words, straight men who’d had up to ten drinks were roughly as interested in men as they were in women.
The findings were slightly different for women, whose willingness to have sex withboth men and womenincreased with the amount of drinks they’d had.
The authors conclude that “alcohol consumption may lead people to engage in sexual behavior that is incongruent with their self-reported sexual identity.” And in this study, they add, “this was especially true of men.”
They admit they can’t say for sure why this happens, but they offer up two speculative explanations. The first is obvious: Alcohol lowers our inhibitions. It’s entirely possible, they write, that a straight person’s hesitation about hooking up with a person of the same sex is one of the inhibitions that booze melts away.
Their second is less predictable — and especially timely. These days, the researchers point out, “it is possible that contemporary culture may foster and even support incongruent sexual behavior,” and they suggest that the results of this study might not have looked the same had it been carried out in a different decade.
While we’ve got a long way to go before society completely accepts the full spectrum of gender preferences, we’ve come a long way from the days of total heteronormativity, and that relaxation of social rules might explain why people are more willing to consider exploring the world outside their stated gender preferences. The researchers point out Katy Perry’s same-sex innuendos on “I Kissed a Girl,” together with Kevin Spacey’s occasional hookups with men on House of Cards, to illustrate this point. Women, they’re careful to note, appear to receive more encouragement to hook up with other women — but they also write that “erotic plasticity is evident in men as well, and it may be on the rise.”
These days, shows like the CW’s teen drama Riverdale make it a point to portray gender fluidity without judgment. In a world like that, a study like this one probably wouldn’t even happen — labels like “straight” and “gay” would soon be obsolete — but for now, scientists must make do with exploring what it’ll take for society to get there.
Abstract:
Sex is ubiquitous in the media but only a fraction depicts sexual interactions between same-sex partners. This field study, conducted outside of bars in the Midwestern United States, examined 83 heterosexuals’ sexual willingness with a same- or other-sex partner. Participants viewed a randomly assigned video vignette of a same- or other-sex partner. Alcohol intake, partner attractiveness, and sexual willingness were measured. Using moderated regression analysis, we found that alcohol intake predicted sexual willingness with the male target for both men and women, but not with the female target. The attractiveness of same-sex partners was related to sexual willingness. Sexual willingness was only influenced by alcohol intake and perceived attractiveness of a same-sex prospective partner. Most notably, alcohol intake was related to increased sexual willingness of men with a same-sex partner, suggesting a potential shift in normative casual sexual behavior among heterosexual men.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Friday, March 2, 2018
Friday Nite Flicks - Love, Simon
Okay, so it's not really a flick, just a trailer but looks good . . .
Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying, and life-changing. Directed by Greg Berlanti (Riverdale, The Flash, Supergirl), screenplay by Elizabeth Berger & Isaac Aptaker (This is Us), and based on Becky Albertalli’s acclaimed novel, LOVE, SIMON is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love.
CAST
Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Duhamel, Logan Miller, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Tony Hale, Natasha Rothwell, Keiynan Lonsdale, Miles Heizer, and Jennifer Garner
DIRECTED BY
Greg Berlanti
SCREENPLAY BY
Elizabeth Berger & Isaac Aptaker
BASED UPON THE NOVEL
“Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli
PRODUCED BY
Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Pouya Shahbazian, Isaac Klausner
Nick Robinson on IMDB
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Ryan Vona - sexy guitar playing dude with hairy chest - UPDATE
The pic below is full size so you can click on it and get a close-up of those beautiful hairy feet . . .
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