Straight men acting gay
Why do some straight men have sex with other men?
According to nationally-representative surveys in the United States, hundreds of thousands of straight-identified men have had sex with other men.
In the new book Still Straight: Sexual Flexibility among White Men in Rural America released today, UBC sociologist Dr. Tony Silva argues that these men – many of whom enjoy hunting, fishing and shooting guns – are not closeted, bisexual or just experimenting.
After interviewing 60 of these men over three years, Dr. Silva found that they like a range of relationships with other men, from hookups to sexual friendships to secretive loving partnerships, all while strongly naming with straight culture.
We spoke with Dr. Silva about his book.
Why do straight-identified men have sex with other men?
The majority of the men I interviewed reported that they are primarily attracted to women, not men. Most of these men are also married to women and prefer to have sex with women. They explained that although they loved their wives, their marital sex lives were not as active as they wanted. Sex with men allowed them to contain more sex. They don’t consider sex with men cheating and s
For a long second, friendships between lgbtq+ men and unbent men – what some now summon “bromosexual” friendships – were uncommon. Homophobia was likely one reason; another was that straight men probably assumed they didn’t have much in common with gay men.
But lately, “bromosexual” friendships have started to receive more attention, acceptance and interest. They’re being explored and depicted in movies, books and blogs. In October, The New York Times even passionate an article in their Style section to “The Go up of the ‘Bromosexual’ Friendship.”
This sort of normalization is excellent news. But social scientists still haven’t studied the dynamics of these friendships: why they expand and how they’re maintained.
We’re part of a team of community, evolutionary and social psychologists that has recently begun a explore program with the goal of studying this very topic. Specifically, we’re interested in looking at the reasons homosexual men and direct men become friends (or remain friends after the homosexual friend comes out). We currently hold a survey research underway that explores some of the positive outcomes of “bromosexual” friendships, including our theory that gay men and straight men
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Straight men acting like they consider gay sex is gross is not believable. We realize men love seeing other men’s penises and erections. This may seem prefer a statement that surprises you, but consider this: in porn designed for straight men, semen coming out of a penis is literally the “money shot.” Getting to see another male climax is the climax of the story for the straight male viewer. Men really love penises, both their own, and other people’s.
Another factor that reflects the thought of straight men pretending they consider gay sex is gross, is vertical men’s interest (obsession?) in anal sex. Based on hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of media, we know quite definitively that many men really like to put their penises in anuses.
The first time I noticed that str
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Abstract
Last October, gay magazine Out ran a spotlight on Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who had recently written a scathing letter to politician Emmett Burns criticizing him for his anti-gay platform. According to Out, Kluwe’s letter was published on the popular sports website Deadspin and has since gone viral, sparking tremendous controversy and debate in the worlds of sports and politics, as well as in general news outlets. Kluwe’s advocacy of gay rights was clearly unusual, otherwise it would not have garnered the general attention that it did. A gesture of support for queer rights is not itself newsworthy, at least not in this day and age; what made this one unusual was the fact that it came from an NFL athlete. The NFL has traditionally not been particularly hospitable to the gay rights movement, possibly because professional sports leagues have always been seen to be bastions of heterosexual masculinity. As a straight dude, I’ve noticed that my fellow straight men seem to be an underrepresented demographic in the American political arena for homosexual rights. Even more underrepresented are pro athletes, who are culturally perceived to be in th