A sip of something can even be a sex toy. Moet gets swapped from mouth to mouth. Beer
gets imbibed before a water-sports scene. "My lover and I were lying around in the woods,
drinking ale," recalls an outdoorsman. "I took a swig and started dribbling it over his bare
torso, he reciprocated, and soon enough we were naked, wet, and fucking."
Paradoxically, though, drinking can increase desire but impair performance: Even moderate
drinking can take some of the "hard" out of "hard-on." Then, too, there are alcohol's well-documented
sedative effects. Many of us have had the experience of dragging some hottie home from a bar,
only to have him end up passed out on the futon. And snoring is so not sexy. One bar cruiser
recalls, "Recently, I took this rather drunk boy back to his place, and though he was willing
to do just about anything, he couldn't really get it up. Or stay awake. Eventually I just
put him to bed and left."
Imbibing can screw up safety, too, with guys doing things they'd shun if they were
sober. It may seem somewhat surprising, then, that moderate drinking can actually be
good for your sex life. Studies show that moderate drinkers have a lower rate of
impotence than either heavy boozers or men who don't drink at all. That's because,
long-range, a drink a day can keep your veins unplugged, and cardiovascular problems
are a major cause of wilting willies.
Healthy or not, booze is the currency of the gay bar, which, though perhaps no longer
as central an institution as it once was, is still a vital gathering place for many
guys. Indeed, the importance of bar culture is no doubt one reason why queer men once
had higher rates of alcohol abuse than other folks, though newer studies suggest that
alcoholism in young queer men is no higher than in the population at large. "A positive
way of looking at that is that, with the decline of homophobia, younger men no longer
drink to deal with the pressures of oppression. On the other hand, many young gays now
abuse drugs, and maybe in the old days many of them would have gotten
drunk instead." And older gay fellows still drink at higher rates, often in response
to the difficulties of aging in a culture that puts a premium on youth.
No, alcohol isn't everyone's cup of tea. Prohibitionists don't approve, and alcoholism
isn't pretty. But for most of us, an occasional swig of something, be it fine Bordeaux or
cheap swill, provides refreshment and lubricates lust.
So drink up. Just don't drive home until you're sober.
Simon Sheppard
Now here's your chance to meet the man behind this column. OutUK has an interview with Simon Sheppard or you can take a look at some of his books that are currently available:
Looking for something very sexy and just as smart? Man on Man collects the best and hottest gay sex writing by Simon, who is also
co-editor of Rough Stuff: Tales of Gay Men, Sex, and
Power as well as a collection of gay erotica called
Hotter Than Hell.
In KINKORAMA : Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion he takes readers behind the unmarked doors and black vinyl curtains that lead to the sometimes shocking, often hilarious, relentlessly arousing scenarios of extreme sex. There
are also stories of bears in Tales from the Bear Cult: Beat Bear Stories from the Best Magazines.
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