Adventures in the Erotic Oasis: Sex and Danger in Men's Same-Sex, Public, Sexual Encounters

Understanding men who have sex with men (MSMs) is one of the important theoretical and practical challenges for the emerging discipline of men’s studies. Historically scholars of “deviant behavior,” mental illness, and psychiatry have contributed to a large body of knowledge concerning gay (or “homosexual”) men. However, as gender and sexuality scholars further refine Understandings of the gendered expericnces of males, those men whose behaviors appear to contradict (or fail to substantiatc) assumptions of societal norms become increasingly problematic, in the academic sense. These are the inspirations behind the present research: the problematizing of men’s sexual activities. Striving to further our understanding of men’s samesex sexual activities facilitates the development of the thcorctical underpinnings of men’s studies. Sexual activity requires at lcast two individuals who locate one anothcr and negotiate and act out desired behaviorshteractions. My focus in this articlc is on furthering the understandings of the first two of these challenges. While “traditional” heteroscxual and coupled homosexual relationships presume to mitigate the problcmatic aspecls of these two challengcs, h e exact opposite niay be true for sexual encountcrs outside the bounds of a relationship. For men who engage in sex with other men on a recreational or casual basis, onc way to resolve these challenges is to scek out sexual encounters with anonymous others in public places. A well-developed body of literature has documented the participation of men in public and anonymous sex with other men (Corzine & Kirby, 1977; Delph, 1978; Desroches, 1990; Donnelly, 1981; Earl, 1990; Gray, 1988; Humphreys, 1970; Maynard, 1994; Sundholm, 1973; Tewksbury, 1990; Weatherford, 1986). The important conclusion to derive from this body of research, which reiterates Kinsey, Pomeroy & Martin’s (1948) findings, is the understanding that mcn having sex with men is not an uncommon occurrence. The process of cruising-seeking sexual partners, often in public places-has a long history in gay male communities (see Maynard, 1994). Such behavior is so well known, and so commonly practiced, that one theo-