Because some of you need lessons!

Straight Guys Try Gay Sex For The First Time

How To Top Like A Stud: A Penetrating Guide to Gay Sex

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Say goodbye to failed attempts at intercourse because your partner couldn’t take the pain. I’m going to show you little-known techniques that will allow your partner to experience the ecstasy of bottoming without any of the pain he’s come to fear or associate with it.

I’m also going to show you how to suck his dick while you fuck him.

Let’s start by helping him concentrate on desire, rather than fear of your hard dick.

First, you have to heat up his desire so much that his body aches for your hard dick to be inside of him. ACHES.

If he wants you in the worse way, his legs will begin to part and his sphincter will start to quiver with the right kind of anticipation—pleasure, not pain.

His body will swallow your dick.

THE SECRET TO PAIN-FREE BOTTOMING

Things are heating up. His cock is entering your hole and it’s uncomfortable. Then he tells you to relax.

How many times have you heard that from your partner? Hell, how many times have you said it to yourself?

Telling someone to relax increases anxiety and tension because you feel like a failure for not being able to relax! Tension is the main source of pain when it comes to bottoming. When an object is inserted into a tense, clenched set of muscles and tissue, it will tear and bruise the area.

He can start by eating your ass for 15 minutes, but how do pornstars do it every time? We had the same question.

So we sent a team of researchers to interview guys in the porn industry to see what they had to say. Cameramen, scouts, producers, directors and performers. The result were fascinating. We got a behind-the-scenes look into the secrets of the porn industry. Including how to get performers to bottom without pain or messy scenes.

We took what we learned and we developed the Sexhalation Method.

The Sexhalation Method (let’s shorten it to “Sexhalation”) is a new approach to sexual insertion. I developed it with a team made up of a yoga guru, a psychologist specializing in respiratory psychophysiology, and colorectal specialists.

Each expert contributed their fact-filled, field-tested views on relaxation theory, sexual response, anatomy, pleasure centers and pain points. Then we put it all together to create a step-by-step system that all but guarantees a smooth bottoming experience.

“RELAX! RELAX!”

But how?

Think nice thoughts?

More And More Straight Guys Are Giving Each Other “Bro-Jobs”

What is a “bro-job”?

In a nutshell, it’s when a straight guy gives another straight guy a blowie not in a meaningful sexual way but in a friendly, NSA, I’m-just-doing-you-a-little-favor, totally notgay sort of way. Or something.

Dr. Jane Ward writes about this not-so-new phenomenon in her book, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men, published by NYU Press last month.

In the book, Ward poses the following question: “A straight white girl can kiss a girl, like it, and still call herself straight—her boyfriend may even encourage her. But can straight white guys experience the same easy sexual fluidity, or would kissing a guy just mean that they are really gay?”

The answer: It’s complicated.

From fraternity hazing rituals, where pledges are told to grab each other’s dongs and stick their fingers up fellow pledges’ butts, to online personal ads posted by “straight” men seeking other “straight” men to sack off with, Ward examines the fascinating world of “straight guy-on-guy action,” which she believes isn’t nearly as gay as people might think.

Ward argues that the real reason “straight” men behave in these ways is to “reaffirm rather than challenge their gender and racial identity” and “to leverage whiteness and masculinity to authenticate their heterosexuality in the context of sex with men.”

In other words: They do it to prove they’re not gay.

Kinda like how a blossoming homosexual might experiment with a girl in high school or college once or twice as a way of testing the waters. We all know how that story ends.

“By understanding their same-sex sexual practice as meaningless, accidental, or even necessary,” Ward says, “straight white men can perform homosexual contact in heterosexual ways. These sex acts are not slippages into a queer way of being or expressions of a desired but unarticulated gay identity. Instead … they reveal the fluidity and complexity that characterizes all human sexual desire.”

What do you think? Does Ward’s theory make sense, or does a guy giving another guy a “bro-job” make him gay, or at least bisexual? Sound off in the comments section below.

Where’s The Strangest Place You’ve Ever Made Whoopie? Guys Reveal Their Answers.

Public sex presents a whole slew of health concerns and yadda, yadda yadda. So we’re all in agreement it isn’t the best choice, and getting caught can have severe consequences.

But let’s be real — there’s something hot about getting it on outside the confines of a bedroom.

We imagine AHT readers have some spicy stories to share, so by all means, hit the comments section.

Here are some Whispers to get the memories flowing. We have some serious problems with this first one:

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Five Reasons Every Straight Man Should Go Gay At Least Once Or Five Times

Straight men, take heed. You’re acting way more gay than ever before, and that’s OK. Marriage equality, having been baked into the constitution, gives you even more permission to be gayer than ever before. By God, homosexual sodomy is legal in every state.

Between cuddling with their bros, getting off on gay porn, and experimenting with anal play, it’s time for you hetero guys to just start hooking up with us gay guys already. And we’re not just saying this cause we wanna hook up with you. Really, you are not that hot. This is for you, dude.

Even if it’s just a one time thing.

Scroll down for five reasons why every straight man should try going gay …

5. It will satisfy your lifelong curiosity.

Any self-identifying straight man who says he’s never once thought about what it might be like to bed another guy is lying. It’s natural to feel curious about things that are foreign to you.

It’s always a good idea to outside of our comfort zone. That’s how we learn and grow. So why not stop fantasizing and actually give it a college try? Remember: If you don’t like it, you’ll never have to do it again.

4. Gay men make excellent lovers.

You know those filthy things you see in porn that kinda turn you on but that you would never actually ask your girlfriend to try because she’d probably think you’re a total pervert? Well, we’ll do it! All you have to do is ask. (Politely, of course. Well, demanding it can work too!)

When it comes to sexual inhibitions, many gay men, well, lack them. That’s why we invented things like Folsom Street Fair and Up Your Alley. That’s also why people like Rick Santorum and Ken Cuccinelli are so afraid. We’ll boldly go where your girlfriends and wives have never gone before. And it’ll make you feel so good.

3. The humbling experience of being penetrated.

As straight men, you’re used to being the ones doing the penetrating. But haven’t you ever wondered what it might feel like to be on the receiving end? Hint: It’s pretty f-ing amazing. Not only that it’s an extremely humbling experience, and in a good way. Watch your arrogance leave your body as fast as your clothing, to be replaced by the knowledge that you took it like a man.

True, the first time can be a bit shocking, and you’ll need need to prepare with some stretching and cleaning. (A new jock strap never hurts either.) But as long as you remember to breathe, you’ll be fine. We promise. And when it’s over, not only will you have experienced the most mind-blowing, earth-shattering orgasm of your life, but you’ll walk away with a greater understanding of what sex feels like for your female counterparts.

(P.S. Here are a few tips on how to lose you anal virginity with aplomb.)

2. It will make a gay man sooooo happy!

There are some guys out there who have dedicated much of their social lives to to seducing straight men, often with only sporadic success (of course that’s before we published this helpful little article). Many have tried, failed, and then lied about it. (We’re talking about you, gay dude who swears that he hooked up with his college roommate after a party one time and you, gay porn stars, who claim to have been seduced by Tom Cruise in an Italian Villa. Yes, we know he’s shorter in real life than he appears on screen. You can Google that.)

By giving into your own curiosities, you’re also giving some gay man out there bragging rights for a lifetime. For the remainder of his years, he will tell his buddies about the time he got naked with a hetero guy. You could be that hetero guy.

1. You might like it.

Remember when you were a kid and you said you hated brussels sprouts, even though you had never really tried them, then when you were adult you realized that, actually, brussels sprouts are pretty delicious, especially when tossed with olive oil and roasted?

The same could very well apply to gay sex. You may take a dip in the man pond and realize it’s actually a ton of fun. And, no, just because you tried it once and kinda liked it doesn’t make you gay. You’re more than welcome to go back to your straight “lifestyle” in the morning.

We won’t judge you for it.

7 MALE ORGASM Facts You NEVER Knew!

The male orgasm is a mysterious thing. Like did you know men have g-spots too?! And how much semen does a man produce in his life? Find out what else you never knew about the male orgasm and sexual health, brought to you by Glyde Condoms!

Nine Ways To Avoid Sex For The Next Year So You Can Donate A Pint Of Blood

The FDA has decided that the blood coursing through your veins isn’t a lifetime threat to the American public — just a year-long threat. So sometime next year, you can start donating blood.

Or more accurately, you can start the clock running on when you can donate blood in 2016. Because to do so, you have to avoid “sexual contact” with another man for at least a year. For your ordinary homo, never lacking in opportunity or desire, that’s an extreme challenge.

And don’t forget that sexual contact means everything because the FDA thinks everything you do is equally risky, even though it’s not.

So to donate blood, you need to get ready now, which means giving up sex for a year.

To help you meet this noble goal, here are ten tips guaranteed to strangle your libido…

1. Watch a Pat Robertson marathon.

Every night, you can spend time among the wreckage of the televangelist’s psyche by watching the hundreds of hours he’s spent on CBN. Let Pat remind you that gay sex isn’t very pretty, that you can catch AIDS from towels, and that being gay is like demonic possession. You’ll be so turned off sex or laugh so hard that the effect will be the same.

2. Take a walking tour of the deep, deep South.

You know, places like Tupelo, MS, the headquarters of the American Family Association and Bryan Fischer. Or Alabama, where you can count the number of antigay license plates you see. Or Louisiana, which refuses to remove an unconstitutional sodomy law from its books. Just be sure to stay clear of New Orleans, or you won’t be able to donate blood until 2017.

3. Visit Russia.

Yes, the land of Vladimir Putin, which has been proven to cure homosexuality (at least in the case of Gerard Depardieu). Alternately, Putin’s fellow homophobes can beat you to a pulp if they suspect you’re gay, in which case you may need blood before you can ever donate it.

4. Join the Catholic celibacy movement.

Yes, it’s officially a trend, because the mainstream media has reported on it. You can be a perfectly good Catholic by denying one of God’s greatest gifts and at the same time satisfy neither your puzzled LGBT siblings or the conservatives who would just assume purge you from the Church. But you will be able to give blood. (Obviously, celibacy doesn’t apply to priests.)

5. Become a Salvation Army officer.

Catholicism isn’t military enough for you? There’s always the Salvation Army. It’s every bit as repressive, but it comes with a uniform.

6. Borrow an Ebola quarantine tent from Chris Christie.

Want to cut yourself off from any human contact? Chris Christie has a bunch of tents left over from his disastrous (and unscientific) decision to throw a nurse who helped Ebola patients into quarantine. The downside? No cable.

7. Start swilling soy sauce.

Soy reduces testosterone levels and with it sex drive. Put soy sauce on your corn flakes in the morning, have an edamame shake for lunch, have a soy burger for dinner. After a while, you’ll probably feel nauseated as well, which will help you reach your overall goal.

8. Take up a really boring hobby.

How about collecting old phone books? Or sculpting butter? Or photographing roundabouts? (It helps if you’re British for that last one.) Plus as a bonus, you can shop at Hobby Lobby and contribute to the erosion of LGBT rights at the same time!

9. Become a Republican. 

Never mind. No one’s that desperate to donate blood.

TOSSED MY SALAD LIKE HIS NAME ROMAINE | 5 ASS EATING TECHNIQUES TO MAKE HIM MOAN

My day starts off just like many people. I wake up pitching tents with my #morningwood. My cell phone is on the charger volt the bed with me because the last thing I did was probably checked my Jack’d or Tinder messages the night before. I’m on my back and roll to my side, my dick is throbbing so I do what every red-blooded man does: scroll through Tumblr.

A few heart-taps and re-blogs, maybe even watch a clip that was just a little too long to get me where I need to go—on to Vine. After enough stimulation (and probably a #tunasub), I get up, head to the bathroom to really get my day started, sort of. In the restroom, I put on my favorite music, hop in the shower and give myself a steamy concert to whatever artist is on the playlist. This particular morning, I jammed out to Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda, twerking as much as possible in the shower without falling over and the words really struck me.

Ms. Minaj (showing respect where respect is due) has become the patron saint of rimmers and rimmees alike. She has boldly come out as a woman who enjoys the comforts of a man between her ass cheeks—moist tongue, supple lips and booty all mixing together in perfect harmony. She has given space, through her lusts, for a conversation many of us have neglected to have, even among the veteran ass-eating community.

Ass is the uncharted frontier. Many have spread it open. Several have plunged to its depths. Others have explored its vast and far reaching walls. But still many have not fully come to comprehend it’s wonders. The obstacle many of us fall into when figuring out a particular ass is we neglect to tell those seeking to explore us exactly how to treat our golden, chocolate, caramel, or cream-colored hills. That could be an attribute of not truly understanding our asses. We’ll gladly say fuck it, suck it, or eat it, but we rarely go the extra step of informing our partner on how to do those things. We leave them to their own devices and cross our fingers hoping he (or they) knows what he (or they) is doing.

I was blessed, once upon a time, with a partner who knew his ass so well that he told me, very clearly and explicitly, how he wanted it to be eaten. It wasn’t an instruction manual, per-say, but he definitely gave quick guidance to get him where he needed to go. He asked me to rim him in ways that I had never tried or even thought of, but his command of our bedroom activity turned me on more than any sex could have. He fucked me, mentally; now I blog.

Go the distance

Before you contemplate a technique, always remember eat it until the ass is juiced, then eat it some more. You always want your works space to be soft and supple. The tighter the boo-gina, the longer you’ll have to churn. The upside about eating it is that it will pay off dividends when it comes to fucking.

The kiss

Why is it that ass, and even pussy, is most often compared to either food or a mouth? Cakes, lil debbies, bunts, pound, red velvet, cream filling, frosting are all analogies many have used for ass, while the actual asshole is usually referred to as lips that pucker. Notwithstanding, if we’re going to call it lips, it demands to be kissed.

This kiss method is the process of kissing the ass. It involves a deep tongue dive followed immediately by a smooch. It doesn’t count unless it makes the “smooch” sound. Or you can try kissing the sides of the cakes between eating. The skin around the ass is actually as sensitive, to some, as the ass hole itself. Eating doesn’t have to be such a linear experience, detour on the cakes, take a rest stop on the crack, or take that left turn at those dimples where the ass meets the back muscles. Paint your whole workspace with your tongue and wait for the moans—they will inevitably cum.

The chewer

Teeth have few places in the bedroom: nipples (maybe), nibbles during kisses (try it and see), ass eating (huh?) Try this. There is a time in the juicing process when the ass is supple and it puckers. You, the eater, have massaged the anal muscles until not only is it soft, but it winks at you. Once the ass is winking, try sucking the booty hole until you can cup it gently between your teeth and chew. Don’t close your teeth completely, just massage the upper and lower of the anus with your teeth as your sucking with your mouth. The pressure offers the person getting eaten a sensation much like when your dick reaches the back of a deep throat.

The blower

When eating ass, warm and cool sensations are especially welcomed. Not be confused with warming or cooling lubes, the natural warming and cooling of the mouth does just fine. When eating, take a break and blow on the ass, then eat, then blow again. The cool air mixed with your warm tongue make for a longer-lasting, intense sensation.

The tongue fuck

A tongue offers an ass the same feelings of raw sex without many of the risks and pain/pleasure combination. When you tongue fuck, its like sticking a perfectly shaped member into an ass that is just big enough to feel magnificent, but not nearly long enough to have to do the “go slow” dance. It’s all the pleasures of a well-lubed dick without many of the pains and considerations.

Science Explains Why So Many Straight Dudes Fantasize About Having Gay Sex Together

We already know that straight guys are a lot more bisexual than people think. We also know that they secretly get off on watching gay porn. But we never knew exactly why. Until now.

A new study out of the University of Portsmouth in England has uncovered why some straight dudes have gay sex fantasies, and it all boils down to a little thing called progesterone.

Progesterone is a hormone that appears in both males and females and contributes to the formation of social bonds. Researchers found that when hetero guys are reminded of the importance of forging male friendships, they report an increased willingness to engage in sexual behavior with other guys.

The levels of progesterone were measured in the saliva of 59 males. Then, each men was randomly assigned to one of three groups and asked to complete word puzzles: one using friendship words, one using sexual words, and a third using neutral words.

Afterwards, men who were asked to complete the friendship word puzzle showed 26 percent greater homoerotic motivation than men given the sexual or neutral puzzles. Moreover, men with the highest progesterone levels who were given the friendship puzzle showed 41 percent greater homoerotic motivation compared to men with the highest progesterone levels in the other two groups.

Researchers concluded that gay thoughts go hand in hand with the need to create alliances with members of the same sex, which can be traced all the way back to the teamwork mentalities of the earliest hunter-gatherers.

“From an evolutionary perspective we tend to think of sexual behavior as a means to an end for reproduction,” Dr. Diana Fleischman, the report’s author, said. “However, because sexual behavior is intimate and pleasurable, it is also used in many species, including non-human primates, to help form and maintain social bonds. We can all see this in romantic couples who bond by engaging in sexual behavior even when reproduction is not possible.”

Fleischman continued: “Having some degree of attraction to the opposite sex is a type of adaptive behavior, and in any adaptive behavior you will see extremes of the spectrum, hence some people will only be attracted to members of the same sex.”

Ultimately, Fleischman said, “the research suggests that having exclusively heterosexual thoughts is a disadvantage — it’s better to be a little bit attracted to the opposite sex.”

Would you? NEW “SUGAR CUM” PILL PROMISES TO MAKE YOUR MAN’S SPUNK TASTE SWEETER

Forget dessert, try your man’s sweet spunk instead.

HîPleasures’ newest product, the “Sugar Cum” pill, promises to make your partner’s “secretions” taste sweet.

As stated on their website, “Sugar Cum is an all-natural pill used to invigorate anyone’s sexual experience. The ingredients are 100 percent all natural, safe, and even nutritionally beneficial for you. Yes, that’s right, you could see a marked improvement in your health just from taking Sugar Cum.”

HîPleasures is the brainchild of adult product manufacturer Brittani Feinberg and the first in a line of sex enhancements the company will be producing, according to Miami New Times.

It has long been known that dietary choices influence the taste of gonads with garlic and pineapple being popular choices for varying degrees of effect but Sugar Cum portends to ensure a happy and pleasant tasting experience whenever it is used. If Sunderland’s report is to be trusted, Jamba Juice might want to jump in on this for intellectual rights. In the meantime, we can’t shake the image of a very young Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem enjoying themselves in Bigas Lunas’ delightful Spanish allegory Jamón Jamón or the egg yolk scene between Kōji Yakusho and Fukumi Kuroda in Juzo Itami’s masterful ramen western, Tampopo.

Sugar Cum’s recipe revolves around a blend of wheatgrass, cinnamon, pineapple, açaí and papaya; the latter one a sure chuckle-inducer for our slangy Spanish speakers. Like all products of this nature, one should be aware that its use is not preventative of pregnancy and STD risks, so employ it in a safe and responsible manner. A package deal of five packets (ten pills each) is currently available for $19.99 here.

The Male Multiple Orgasm: It's No Urban Legend

While any connoisseur of foreplay will tell you that the work leading up to that earth-shaking orgasm is more than half the fun of sex, there’s no arguing that the climax itself is a treasure none of us would want to sacrifice. But for most guys, no matter how much time is invested in foreplay, the climactic explosion is over rather quickly. Well, what if you could fire off a barrage of climaxes without worrying about a lengthy reload time? After all, why should the “multiple O” be for ladies only?

The biomechanical means of “coming” are different for men and women, yet consecutive climaxes for guys are not out of the question. What separates the boys from the girls in this area is the refractory period. For men, this physiological phenomenon that occurs after ejaculation leaves one flaccid and unable to regain an erection for a period of time. Since many women have either very short or non-existent refractory periods, they can often achieve multiple orgasms. The key, therefore, for repetitive orgasms in men, is reaching climax without ejaculation.

Ironically, men possess the highest potential for pulling off this hat trick before we’re even old enough to appreciate sex. Due to the lack of a refractory period prior to puberty, young boys are technically able to experience multiple orgasms. This comes to an end, however, after one encounters his first ejaculation.

The most famous research in this area comes from well-known biologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey. With a keen interest in variability, Kinsey combined evidence provided from research findings on 196 pre-adolescent boys with descriptions obtained from adults and their partners to produce a list of six different types of orgasm.

Two of these types involve signs that in other circumstances would be regarded as distress, such as sobbing or hypersensitivity around orgasm. The results were “violent attempts to avoid climax, although they derive pleasure from the situation ... and quickly return to complete the experience or have a second experience.”

Considering the aggressive denial these young boys were expressing to what was happening in their own bodies, along with voluntarily returning for more, it isn’t difficult to conclude that what was happening was multi-orgasm.

It’s not altogether impossible for adult men to achieve multiple orgasms, though. Men who experience the ‘dry orgasm’—or orgasm without ejaculation—usually have the potential for producing consecutive, uninterrupted climaxes.

There are also techniques, like those used by multi-orgasmic women, that involve relaxing and just letting go. These methods, which necessitate mental and physical controls over emissions, have often resulted in continuous multiple “full-body” or “expanded” orgasms.

Coined in 1995 by Patricia Taylor, Ph.D., the term “expanded orgasm” refers to climaxes that can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Taylor used this research when she recorded the intense sexual experiences of 44 couples from various backgrounds and referenced it in a video she produced in 1998.

Another option for achieving perpetual pleasure is one of which many gay men are well aware. The back-door route to the “multiple O” involves digital stimulation of the prostate. When this is done right, the result is intense emissions orgasms for some men. The Aneros, a dildo-type device that is designed to stimulate the prostate—the “G-spot” of the male body—helps men reach these kinds of orgasms.

“The discovery of the G-spot for women opened up an era of sexual expansion for millions,” according to sex educator Charlie Glickman, Ph.D. “Just as G-spot exploration forever transformed women’s experience of orgasm, prostate play offers men erotic pleasure beyond what they imagined possible.”

Multiple orgasms in men can also be induced through forced retention of ejaculate, a technique that involves applying pressure to the perineum, the spot that is centered between a man’s anus and scrotum. Unfortunately, eternal bliss comes with a price—the practice has resulted in retrograde ejaculation, which is the rerouting of semen away from the urethra and into the urinary bladder. Long-term damage to the nerves and blood vessels in the perineum can also occur. The old adage “if it feels good, do it” doesn’t apply here. It’s just not worth the risk.

'No Fats or Fems'

Since the app Grindr made its debut, I have been troubled by a trend I've noticed. Let me come out and say that I am by no means unfamiliar with Internet-enabled cruising and the kinds of human interaction they bring about. What I have been confronted with, though, on a continual enough basis to make it undeniably some sort of social phenomenon, is the (at times) overwhelming presence of douchebaggery on the app. There's a veritable epidemic of it.

I am not the only person to think this is the case. The link is instructive in explaining exactly what makes one a douche, at least in my opinion and that of the site's readership. It takes the form of asking, in the profile that is broadcast, that certain types of people should not contact the profile owner if they are:

Too short, or too tall ("over 5'7" and under 6'1"), Asian ("not into rice," "gook free zone"), fat ("175lbs or less"), fem ("no broken wrists," "masculinity is not subjective"), black ("no chocolate," "All blacks, keep moving cuz I ain't interested unless u can prove not all blacks are the exact same mkay?"), not as hot as the profile owner, Latino, ugly, hairy, old ("no older than 30"), closeted, uncloseted, bisexual, not bisexual, not a college guy, not a jock, a fag, into the scene, a ginger, Catholic, Republican, not "musc," not "prof," not "VGL."

The takeaway from these attempts at filtering contact for me is the incredible degree of specificity that some Grindr users want in the types of other human beings saying "sup" to them. There is also the suggestion that the speech act itself could be some form of violation. Of particular note is the phrase "not into," taken to mean not sexually interested in.

It is not the fact that some people are "not into" certain types of other people that perplexes me. It is instead the incredible brazenness with which people will associate pejorative views of others with their publicly visible identity. Most troubling is the ease with which some profiles will confess extreme prejudice or use racist epithets, somehow made allowable as a language of sexual attraction or personal preference.

The larger question is whether this phenomenon is specific to the app, or if it just finds its most easily seen form in Grindr. Unfortunately and of course it is the latter. There is something about the blend of social-media publicity and a paradoxical pretension to anonymity fostered by the Internet that is enabling of things liketrolling.

Yet the things placed on these profiles would not be readily said at the outset of conversation or, arguably, read of a person. One possible explanation may be that, before lines of code and satellites enabled it, these interactions had to take place where physical gay bodies gathered. Grindr delivers heads and torsos in the space of a smartphone screen. In an interesting twist, Grindr is still grounded in physical location, since it takes advantage of GPS. It allows bodies of all types to congregate without the usual geographic and social barriers, the placement and accessibility of gay spaces being governed by the usual suspects of history, race and class just like everything else.

Those barriers to access have been altered by technology. That these activities have become dependent on smartphones underlines a new-ish emphasis on the class difference -- smartphones and data plans do not come cheap. Ostensibly, though, anybody is capable of getting a smart phone and getting on the app, given the right amount of capital. Grindr, for better or worse, is now the type of site where gay identification can take place, allowing different generations, classes, races, and orientations to project their bodies onto the Grindr grid and have a look.

It relieves users of most of the affective labor of cruising, that is, bodies coming into physical proximity. However, it does bring all types of people's bodies together, boxed off with the thinnest margin of black pixels to separate one from the other. I believe that this is the fundamental source from which douchebaggery springs. Grindr radically reorients queer bodies and social mores by having a low threshold for access, the relative protection of semi-private usage, and an organization based on proximity. There is the potential for a lot of very different-looking bodies "touching." Differences that one are not used to interacting with could be right next door.

The class basis of Grindr will begin to erode when the relative novelty of current smart phone technology thins and they become more affordable. As access increases, more and more different-looking people will be readily visible on Grindr, but the customs and suppressions determing which bodies congregate in which spaces that we're accustomed to is not performed. Some users feel the need to perform this policing themselves.

Some of the things people are "into" on Grindr are crude, demeaning, or ignorant. As the Internet continues to democratize, more and more types of bodies will have access. We have already seen the beginning splinters of market products for GPS-enabled cruising: Scruff is an alternative gathering space for those who find Grindr offputting. While I understand the potential desirability of these services (and think Grindr could use some serious competition), I worry that it just mimicks the same damaging social structures of "real life" interaction, and that we are losing queerness as a unifying identity across difference.

The user agreement for Grindr stipulates that no "offensive" materials be included in a profile; violation is supposed to lead to profiles being disabled. Far more often "offensive" is taken to mean pornographic, rather than what I would consider the far more toxic blatant racism. So I wonder if people are thinking about how we are interacting with one another on Grindr. The "block" button is is great but seductive: it lets users kick others out of their own personal Grindr neighborhoods. It does nothing to add to a broader discussion about what the "Grindr community" (as the company that runs the program calls it) could find offensive, should find offensive, or should stop.

The novelty of Grindr's meeting space allows for a community-developed praxis. What speech is allowable as expression of sexual preference in this new queer space? Use that question as a conversation starter if you're out of torso compliments. Douchebaggery, on the other hand, does advertise quite handily which users I myself would be wasting time saying "sup" to.