Today was Veteran's Day and at one point in the morning, a very loud crashing noise was heard over the Chelsea-Flatiron neighborhood where I work. It was the boom of fighter jets. Surely such a sortie in an urban area is proscribed.
I learned something interesting about this day. In Britain it is still called Armistice Day, and the whole country comes to a standstill at 11:11 on 11/11--the time of the actual ceasefire. People do not take the day off, but they observe the memory of the losses Britain sustained during World War I, and flowers are placed on cenotaphs nationwide. Seeing Gods and Monsters put some of this in perspective. It is undoubtedly one of the inspirations for the Yom Hashoah observance in Israel that memorializes the Holocaust.
We observe the day with a day off from work and a "special sale" at the department and electronics stores.
In the evening I wen to the New School and attended a panel hosted by OUT Magazine. It was called Policing Desire, and it concerned the Mayor's move against the sex industry shops in New York City.
The panelists included the lawyer defending the 107 business, only 12 of whom might survive the proposed rezonings, a sex worker, a conservative gay editor at the Daily News, activist Amber Hollobaugh, and a historian.
What was so interesting was the theme of the demonization of sex and the people who work in the sex industries. Did you know how a bartender at a strip club often has trouble finding a bartending job elsewhere because he works in a strip club. Pouring drinks is pouring drinks, right? Not for some.
The most important element of the evening came from Amber Hollobaugh, who said that Homosexuality has become the stand-in for Sexuality in our society. Sexuality is a topic so many people have trouble discussing. ay issues bring this out into the open, for better or worse. Facing gay issues forces hetersexual society to face the fears it has over these topics.
The most controversial comment of the evening was from the sex worker, who countered the idea of "what if two people are fucking in Times Square?" with the answer, "Who are they hurting?" And what if kids see it? "What if they do?" She pointed out that kids often see sex. In working class homes where privacy is often nonexistent, kids bear witness to glimpses of sex. Of course, this is seen a practically traumatic, yet no one is too worried about the images of violence to which kids are exposed constantly in the media. One audience member mentioned how her kids were exposed to a couple (hetero) making love on the beach in Cherry Grove, and she had to explain to the kids what was happening. Meanwhile, she also noted that while Fire Island is known as a gay place, even within that place there is a secluded place where public sex happens, and we all know it's called the Meat Rack. We also all know that the activity happens at night. Her point was that public sex--gay and straight--is usually self-governing enough to not be "in your face" at all times. Usually, you have to go out of your way to "stumble" across sexual activity in public places.
So what's all the fuss?
The issues of public sex and policing it are very controversial, and thought provoking. I found myself agreeing with a lot of things that I never really mulled over about much in the past. A lot of these issues are also discussed to the nth degree with much excellent information, history, and insight in Michael Bronski's The Pleasure Principle. The upshot is that in our porno-puritanical society, pleasure is seen as something to be meted out in small doses, as something "deserved." Gay people represent unfettered, undeserved pleasure, and nothing represents that more than the issue of public sex. This is why someone like George Michael or Pee Wee Herman are demonized when they are caught with their pants down. If they were caught holding firearms on their persons, like Harry Connick was, it would have been a temporary scandal, or nothing at all. So Harry Connick is still in movies, ironically playing serial killers and thieves, but Pee Wee is "ruined." But Hugh Grant still gets roles.
If you smell something fishy and ironic, your ollefactory senses are in perfect working order.
It was also duly noted that the "gay movement" has gotten more conservative in it's attempts to go mainstream and "fit in," and both the panel and the book discuss how the central defining characteristic, sexuality, has been all but eliminated from the discussion of gay rights.
I could go on and on, but I will leave off with this: It may be seen as "distasteful" and "indecent" but is outlawing sex establishments really imperative in this society? Is there a single reason we need undercover cops quite literally baiting people by exposing themselves in restrooms?
Perversity is as pervistiy does. It's time to really examine our motives when we desexualize our discussions, and we demonize sex in general. It's been shown, historically, that this sort of repression is a precursor to more censorship and proscription.
So, what exactly is it everyone is so afraid of? Think about it.
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