The Men's Room: VIDEO
The Men's Room, a 15-minute short film dealing with male sexuality, intimacy, and the concept of public decency is set to have its debut on Sunday at the Atlanta Film Festival. It's directed by Jane Pickett and starring Russell Sams and Blake Robbins.
Here's the synopsis from the filmmakers: "When Thomas ventures into a park for a sexual encounter with a stranger, he uncovers a striking complexity composed of desire, fear, and betrayal when his would-be anonymous sex partner turns out to be a cop. The Men's Room explores the seemingly unwelcome yet enduring pastime of public sex, a world of secrecy and code lurking just below the surface of normalcy."
Watch the trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...
The Men's Room Trailer from Nature Show on Vimeo.
In 1970, a PhD dissertation by Laud Humphries was published. It's a good study of tearoom cruising and the men who do it. I feel that many of the insights he had are as valid to day as they were then. The commenters who long for empirical studies might find it worthwhile.
Do guys still cruise tearooms? Google Senator Larry Craig before you advance an opinion.
In Long Beach, CA recently there was another flareup of the old controversy about the cops sending plainclothes officers into public restroom in parks and along the beach to scratch their crotches and try to lure gay guys into making a sexual advances. In the past some cops have been very aggressive in the pursuit of lewd conduct arrests. Leaders of the gay community here have tried for at least a quarter century to get the police to patrol these restrooms with uniformed officers rather than plainclothes officers. They refuse to do so. In this day of scarce resources, the Long Beach police seem to feel it is worthwhile to keep on doing this.
One last comment: a number of years go I heard Laud Humphries speak. He said one of the questions he had researched over the years was where, geographically, does tearoom cruising exist. He finally decided it happened only in countries that had public restrooms.
Posted by: Jay | Mar 13, 2012 9:58:21 PM
What JMG said.
Plus, it's an absurd idea that everyone's idea of good sex will conform to popular standards of cleanliness and privacy.
It's the sort of authoritarian idea LGBTs should have learned to fight against, rather than conform to.
Posted by: Randy | Mar 13, 2012 10:01:21 PM
People still do this? Hello, it's not the 1950s.
Posted by: Keith | Mar 14, 2012 2:19:11 AM
They forgot the undercover cop who busts gay men and the drug users who come in to shoot up in one of the stalls.
Posted by: Seaguy | Mar 14, 2012 4:26:29 AM
BREAKING NEWS! -- Young men still cruise washrooms for sex and not necessarily because they are uncomfortable with their sexuality. In fact, many of them do it because the washroom space offers them a wide and constant selection of men -- and dicks!
Unfortunately, your prejudices against washroom sex (and your hard-held assumption that only ugly, old, and closeted men do it) are making you blind to the fact that pretty, young, and openly gay men are also doing it.
Similarly, Grindr is not displacing washroom sex either. Many young men are using Grindr to locate sex partners in their area, which they end up hooking up with IN WAHSROOMS! Don't believe me? Just check out cruising websites like squirt.org and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Clearly -- and unfortunately -- people are pulling facts and statistics out of their asses.
So please, let's not hate on washroom cruisers because they have the courage to do what you can never imagine yourself doing. Respect, and recognize that it takes a certain kind of skill and awareness to do it successfully, and to do it well.
Thanks.
Posted by: The News-Breaker | Mar 14, 2012 5:03:02 AM