I was interviewed a couple weeks ago by a BU radio student about the recent brouhaha over cruising in the Fens.  She was pretty with it, pretty hip, and let me know she was totally down with cruising.   So when she asked, "why do you think gay men do it?" I almost swallowed my tongue.  I mean, isn't it kind of obvious?  Why do gay men go yard-saling?  We love a good bargain.

I mean — hello! — two words: FREE SEX. 

Actually, I told her I didn't think the cruising instinct was a gay thing at all.  If women were as eager to give it away as men (and trust me ladies, you can't imagine), straight men would be on it.  Not to minimize the sanctity of straight sex, but it wouldn't surprise me if straight men actually invented gay sex to give them a break from it now and again. 

Of course, as more gays get married they, too, can participate in our culture's hypocrisy about sex, and its impossibly rigid definition of what it's supposed to be and do.  Definitely something to look forward to if Obama ever gets around to addressing DOMA!

There's a piece in the Globe Sunday Magazine that asks "why do men buy sex?", by which they mean straight men.  Thankfully the piece is actually not about that silly question (the answer is obviously: "because they can't get it for free") but about "john school"...

"...a daylong educational course for any men who have been arrested and charged with soliciting sex on the streets or over the Internet in Worcester. The crime is a misdemeanor punishable in Massachusetts by up to a $500 fine and a year in prison. But unlike other men arrested for the same crime anywhere else in the state, they were given an option.  By paying a $200 fee and sitting through a six-hour series of presentations and testimonials about prostitution by [former prostitutes], they’re avoiding a conviction."

The thought of sitting through a six-hour tongue-lashing for what probably would have been a lousy three minute handjob has understandably reduced the recidivism rate in Worcester.  More power to 'em!  I mean, men who pay for sex have to for a reason, and it's better for all of us if they stay home and jerk off to porn instead. 

It goes without saying, no one should be forced to prostitute themselves, by other individuals or circumstances.  But that's a different matter altogether than why men buy sex.  The best answer to that I've seen recently is from comedian Louis C.K.  And it's definitely NSFW...


Just so you know.