Would you wear an earring on the right ear?

Do you wear an earring on one ear? If yes, on which ear do you wear it? Did you know that there is supposedly some rule that says that straight men wear earrings on the left ear and gay men on the right? (And some people mistakenly extend this rule by saying that bisexual men therefore wear earrings on both ears.) I find it actually amusing that I’ve heard of this “rule” back when I was a kid and still unsure of my own sexuality.

If you search the web and various Q&A sites, you’ll find that while many people are aware of this supposed convention, most are in agreement that it is ridiculous: men—gay, bi or straight—should feel free to wear any number of earrings/piercings on any ear they want (or even any other body part). I think there used to be a period in Western history wherein men wearing any earrings at all were considered gay, but I think the modern era is already past such foolishness.

Then again, I think the knowledge of such a rule is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unless you have any other particular reason in wearing an earring on one ear or the other, I think most men who do not want to identify as gay (like the vast majority of discreet PLU guys) would choose to wear their earrings on the left ear. I mean, why would you want the drama, the gossip, and the teasing that comes with wearing an earring on the right ear, right? Well, if you actually observe guys with one pierced ear, you’ll find that almost all of them are pierced on the left.

So, what do you think?

Discreetionary: panic buying

panic buying [PA·nick BUHY·ing] noun 1. A behavior done by a person in places for socializing near their closing times, characterized by a lowering of that person’s standards for interaction. etymology: from the economic concept of panic buying in which the connecting idea is that of a buyer’s perception of shortage or an expectation of reduced market supply.

When I first encountered this term in the PLU context, I immediately understood what it meant. Although the real economic panic buying means that people buy lots of stuff and the PLU version does not at all mean getting lots of guys, both concepts are similar in that there is an expected shortage of supply (i.e., the bar or club is closing soon). This is especially true for guys who haven’t scored yet. You can observe this all the time in bars, clubs, bathhouses, and even in gyms!

Unless you’re a really lucky person, I’m sure you’ve felt the urge to engage in panic buying even if ultimately you retain your pride and decide to remain scoreless instead of lowering your standards. I guess the motivating factor behind panic buying is that there’s an expensive entrance fee to a place and that your goal is to score and you haven’t scored yet. If your goal in going to a venue is different or the entrance is cheap or free, then there would no panic buying at all.

I’ll admit that I’ve done my own share of panic buying. Hehehe. If you want an informative discourse about panic buying, check out the latter half of this conversation between McVie and his friend.

Take the 2009 MSM Sex Survey

Thanks to AJ, I learned about the 2009 MSM Sex Survey. It’s a survey for men who have sex with other men (MSM) in Asia. The results of this survey will help researchers analyze trends regarding sexual practices, beliefs, and knowledge of Asian PLUs especially with regard to HIV and AIDS. The survey is completely anonymous and would take about 15–20 minutes of your time. I encourage you to take it.

Yes, one big problem with this survey is that the respondents are completely self-selected (assuming that they only have the website and word-of-mouth to rely on). It’s unlikely that the survey will manage to get a random or representative sample of the Asian MSM population. But that’s the nature of polls that target PLUs; the problem of getting a good sample should not discourage you from participating. Any data is better than no data at all as long as the people who analyze the results mind the caveats of the sampling strategy.

Gay Sex in the 70s is a must-see documentary

I said in my very first post that the three most important milestones I consider in the history of gay people in the last century are: the Stonewall Riots, the recognition of AIDS, and the mainstream rise of the Internet. Spanning the time period between the first two milestones, between June 1969 and June 1981, is the 70s. And boy, what a crazy decade that was! Well, what do you think happened after the centuries of repression that’s been violently released by the Stonewall riots and before the grim realization that unprotected sex has fatal consequences? Lots and lots and lots of gay sex. And that’s what the straightforwardly-named documentary Gay Sex in the 70s is all about. (See the official website.)

If there’s one word to describe this decade, it would be hedonistic. In a soundtrack filled with disco beats, Gay Sex in the 70s takes us back to that hedonism as told through the eyes of several gay men that lived back then in New York City and survived to tell the tale. Many reviews have said that this movie would be enlightening to younger viewers and boy was I ever enlightened! I had an inkling that gay sex was prevalent but I never imagined that gay sex was shockingly common back then. Sex occurred in abandoned piers, at the back of trucks, and along alleys. It happened at the backrooms of gay bars, in the dance clubs, and in the bathhouses that were open 24/7. Gey men even had sex publicly in Fire Island Pines, which seems to be the New York City–equivalent of Puerto Galera except that Fire Island looks like a more upscale gay paradise.

I’m actually quite disturbed by the recklessness of gay people back then when it came to sex and even drug usage. (I guess this is because of hindsight and the fact that I grew up in the age of AIDS.) Unlike straight men who might get girls pregnant, there seemed to be no adverse consequences to having gay sex back then. Even when they contracted STDs like gonorrhea, they just took antibiotic shots and rared to go back to the cruising scene as soon as the symptoms were gone. Gay men disdained condoms then and would be so addicted to sex (most of it unprotected) that it even affected other parts of their life. Sex was the norm—until they started dropping like flies. The media at that time called this unknown disease as the “gay cancer” and it was then that HIV and AIDS was discovered, to the horror of everyone.

Watching this film, I’m now not surprised that Christian fundamentalists latched to the conclusion that AIDS is a “gay disease” brought down by God to punish the homosexuals. I think that’s patently false, but one cannot avoid the likely conclusion that the unbridled gay sexual revolution in the 70s played a huge role in the spread of AIDS outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Anyway, the movie avoided ending itself on that depressing note by stating that the sexual energy was instead channeled into a positive form of activism whereby gays took charge in spreading information about AIDS, caring for AIDS victims, and basically making AIDS awareness and prevention strategies what it is today.

As far as documentaries go, Gay Sex in the 70s is not as polished as say, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth or even Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911. But the content of the film is what really matters and I heartily recommend PLUs everywhere to watch this. It’s very eye-opening and provides much needed perspective to the history of gay people. The movie is currently showing at Robinsons Galleria and I think it’s screening for only one week until Tuesday. Please do watch it if you can.

Guys4Men: the end of an era

So Guys4Men, possibly the most popular PLU personals website for the Philippines ever, bid goodbye to cyberspace last Wednesday without so much as a bang, having migrated its hundreds of thousands of user profiles to PlanetRomeo, also known as GayRomeo. In an announcement posted on the home page last month, admins of Guys4Men, which is popular in Asia and North America, said that they would be joining forces with PlanetRomeo, which has a strong following in Europe. I didn’t think that this was “joining forces” as much as Guys4Men throwing in the towel and letting itself be “acquired” by the other website.

I once tried GayRomeo last year but I find its interface too cluttered and its overall look too conspicuous. I preferred Guys4Men’s simplistic and almost bare-bones interface much better. Plus all that white makes the website less likely to attract attention from people around you in an Internet café or a coffee shop than PlanetRomeo’s blue-filled I-am-not-surfing-at-a-serious-website screen. (Then again, PLUs have learned to recognize G4M’s screen from a mile away.) One thing from G4M that I will particularly miss is the calendar. That’s where I primarily get my info about upcoming events and movie screenings. PlanetRomeo has no easy equivalent.

Guys4Men will be much missed.