Gays in Locker Rooms
In the new book I’m working on now that’s part of the Glendora Hill cowboy series, the main character, Kick, is all grown up and he’s working as a web interviewer. In one scene he goes into a cowboy locker room to interview cowboys to get their reaction about having openly gay cowboys nowadays. I though it would be an interesting focus…and love story…because of the professional athletes like Michael Sam who have come out. This article to which I’m linking now talks about what gay men think when they are in lockers rooms. I have a feeling a lot of people might be surprised.
“As men we’re all born with a competitive, masculine drive, and are visual in nature,” said Jos W. one of my gym mates. “It’s not uncommon for guys to cast lingering glances at women, cars, food, you name it. When a guy checks out another guy it’s more often for his own validation that he’s either got work to do on his own body to look as good as the other guy, or to assure himself that he’s rockin’ his body just fine.”
I actually tend to agree with this. I think I’ve mentioned before how each time I’ve ever been to a nude beach I’ve been amazed at how NON-sexual it really is. When you’re nude for longer than ten minutes (for most people) in a locker room or anywhere else the novelty wears off and you actually don’t even realize you’re nude. It’s really not sexual. I think the locker room fantasy for gay men is huge in porn, but it’s only fantasy. When you put a gay man in a locker room with other men in real life he’s going to behave the same way most other men behave.
You can read more here. There are a few more excellent examples that disabuse what a lot of people might think gay men are thinking in locker rooms.
Grindr’s New Look
Grindr is coming out with a brand new look this summer that will be available for android, and a little later for iOS. There will be new updates in the way people view user pics, along with a few other things. (I’m not familiar with Grindr so I’m winging it here.)
“The update is part of Grindr’s continued focus on speed and simplicity when looking to meet guys and this new profile will make it easier than ever,” a Grindr representative said in an email statement to The Huffington Post.
You can read more about it here. There are also a few screengrabs.
As I’ve posted before, be careful who you meet and how you hook up on Grindr. Here are a few previous posts I published about Grindr. Especially if you’re traveling to US cities like Philadelphia or New York and you’re coming from somewhere that doesn’t experience the realities we experience every day in these cities. Trust me, it’s a whole different world. And the nickname “Killadelphia” didn’t happen by accident.
Gay TV: “Vicious”
For some reason this new TV show, Vicious, with mature gay characters has not been getting as much attention as anything Ryan Murphy, and I’m not sure why. It’s probably one of the best, and most accurate, sitcoms I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not only realistic, but the political self-indulgence we usually find in Ryan Murphy television is absent, too. Maybe because it’s British? I always find British sitcoms take comedy and reality to a completely different level than here in the US. And in Vicious you won’t find any of the insufferable politically correct clichés that I think are starting to wear us ALL down.
This is from wiki. I want to get the facts right:
Vicious is a British sitcom shown on ITV. The series stars Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as Freddie and Stuart, a gay couple who have been together for 49 years but endure a love/hate relationship.[1][2] The show premiered on 29 April 2013[3] and garnered 5.78 million viewers, though it received a mixed response from critics.
The first series ended on 10 June 2013, and was released onto DVD on 20 November 2013.[4][5] On 23 August 2013, it was confirmed that Vicious had been renewed for a second series, to air in 2014.[6]Starting in late June 2014, the show began airing in the United States on various PBS stations.
The show airs here in the US on Sunday nights on PBS at 10:30.
I’ve read a few reviews that I disagree with completely. This one from USA Today by Robert Bianco is a real gem.
The kind of Are You Being Served comedy that Ricky Gervais dismantled so devastatingly in Extras, Vicious is an affront to gay men, the elderly, sitcom lovers and fans of McKellen and Jacobi alike — and proof that some British shows are best left on their side of the ocean.
The above sentence is so absolutely incorrect I don’t even know where to begin. Vicious IS the prefect example of what I’ve always seen with mature gay men. It is the reality the politically correct in the US will shun in order to make gay men as heteronormative as possible.
Just trust me on this: the show is accurate…and more important, it’s fucking funny.
The reviews have been mixed, though. Here’s a much better one that actually gets what the show is about.
On the other hand, others, such as the Mail’s TV reviewer, thought it ‘an instant classic’, while The Times said it was ‘packed with zingers’ and hailed the fact that it ‘remembers the “com” of “sitcom” in a way that many others do not’.
I guess it’s all a matter of taste in some cases. But as I said, what bothers me the most is I’ve known so many mature gay couples who are literally just like this. In many ways the main characters reminded me of Frank and Marie Barrone from the Raymond Show. And whether you like or it not, this is the way many gay couples who have been together for the long haul spend their final years.
Cage James by Ryan Field
Here’s a preview cover for another upcoming release I’ll have out this summer, Cage James. This one will be launched after my next book in the Bad Boy Billionaire series, Small Town Romance writer. Keep in mind this isn’t the final cover. It still needs some work and I’m still going back and forth with the cover artist. More to come soon.
