Dead Cow

[octothorpe]

I was having an interesting IMversation (no, that's not a word) with notdefined, and the subject turned to leather bars. A lot has been said over the years about the golden age of leather bars and biker bars, and how today it's just not the same, blah, blah, blah. A few interesting points came out of this:

• A lot of people know what a leather bar/biker bar is "supposed to be", but they always fail to make what they've got, into their ideal. This isn't a problem with the owner, it's a problem with the patrons who think this. If you don't like it, *change* it. A bar owner only provides a venue, the rest is up to the people who go there. I've gone into straight bars and made them gay bars for the evening. Nothing is stopping anyone from making their bar into their ideal.


• We're a much more "out" and open population. We simply don't need to sneak around dark alleys looking for sex in dodgy places. Of course, some of us still want to.


• Bars-as-hookup-spots have been made totally irrelevant by the internet. Why bother going through the cruise dance, when your sex partner can be delivered to your door, not unlike "Fresh Direct"


• There is a lot of nostalgia (and I mean this in the correct sense of the term, not just "memory") out there for that "Golden Age" of dodgy leather/biker bar. This is an age that never *actually* happened the way people like to think it did. Today, people either weren't alive when it was all happening, or they're just remembering their fondest bits. Many of the memories people have, are actually second-hand stories of "how it used to be", mostly because those who were around "back in the day", are sadly, no longer with us.

Discuss!!

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and as for internet vs. bars - as someone who is awful at cruising in bars, I haven't noticed much of an improvement online - I certainly haven't experienced the kind of "ordering in" that you describe.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Neither have I, but that's because I'm not really that kinda bloke. I suspect you're not either. However, we're not exactly a proper sample set.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure of that... when we had some particularly fun sex clubs here in LA, I certainly wasn't shy about going to them. The thing about online is that there's just no way to sense all manner of things that blend into attraction. And in a sex club, as opposed to a bar, a lot of the "cruising" is done away with; unless someone seems totally hostile, make some contact - rub a belly, stroke a nipple, &c. If he's not interested, move along... if so, go for it. ;)

I don't know - maybe it's my "pickiness" in terms of insisting on the men I play with having face fur that somehow gets in the way of on-demand internet sex. ;)