I’m a 26-year-old masculine straight guy who loves exploiting the fantasies so many gay men have about straight men. When a gay guy is into me because I look like his straight-masculine-jock dream, it’s a power trip like no other. It’s always a specific type of bottom gay dude I seek out when I get on Grindr: a very feminine “thicc” guy with a pretty face and physical features begging for a dick. The kind of guy where from the right angles you can’t tell the difference between his big ass and a thicc chick’s big ass. And I always follow the same script: I send my dick pics, I make one of these thicc bottom boys want me, and I tell him to send me a video of him twerking like a stripper for me.
But I don’t go through with the meetup. I've experimented a few times and have gotten head from a few guys, but I have no interest in dick or fucking one of these dudes. I don’t want to harm anyone or live a lie, but I don't feel queer or bisexual at all. I actually feel like I’m “earning my heterosexuality” when I do this. It's like I’m proving to myself just how straight I am by teasing these gay guys. And in all honestly, I feel like I’m doing them a service because a lot of gay guys are looking for that rare, mythical thing—the straight and strict Dom top—and I can play that role. But on some level, this all seems pretty fucked up and I don’t know why I do this and sometimes I’m confused by it. I also worry this comes from a homophobic place. (“Look at this dumb twink, he's so stupid and obsessed with dick he’ll do whatever I tell him to, I'm the alpha.”)
And I guess it is homophobic because when you remove the intensity and power trip of being the straight male in this scenario, I just have no interest in guys at all. I know this was heavy. Sorry. But please answer my question.
—Ally Loves Personifying Homophobic Assholes
“I don’t see any major problems with this, and I’m not fully clear on what he perceives his problem to be,” said Alexander Cheves, the famed gay sex writer, author, and columnist. “For gay men, straight men can be a kink, and the reverse can also be true. Regardless of how he identifies, ALPHA enjoys dominating feminine gay men, who he ultimately denies. Sexual withholding—denying and being denied sex—is part of many fetishes and is really hot. So this guy’s kink involves withholding and, like many kinks, it involves role-play. He’s role-playing as ‘the straight strict Dom top.’”
And that’s fine, ALPHA. There are lots of gay men are into “straight strict Dom tops,” as you already know, and you’re giving these men something they want. You’re not giving them everything they want—you’re not meeting up with them—but you’re not obligated to give them everything they want.
“We all enter Grindr chats willingly, and we should do so knowing that anyone we talk to may have no plans of following through with their promises to meet,” said Cheves. “Many queer men do the same—talk and tease with no intention of meeting—and for similar reasons. The guys he is messaging are chatting with him consensually, so I don’t see any consent violations.”
Now if you were uploading or sharing the video clips these guys make for you without their knowledge, ALPHA, that would be a very serious consent violation. It would also be a crime in many places. But if feeling powerful and/or powerfully desired is all you want, ALPHA, and these femme thicc boys are willing to meet that need for you, and you’re meeting a need for them, there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing.
“Even the homophobia bit is not alarming to me,” said Cheves. “Shame, stigma, and prejudice have their place in many fetishes. I think these things often lead to fetishes in the first place. So long as ALPHA isn’t committing violence against these men or causing them harm, I don’t mind that he likes degrading them. I like guys who degrade me and call me a faggot, and I don’t much care if this fun part of my sex life comes from latent homophobia in me or the men I play with.”
There’s a big difference between screaming homophobic slurs at someone on the street and seeking out gay men who enjoy what linguist John McWhorter described on. my podcast as “theatrical subjugation.” While homophobia unquestionably shaped the desires of the men who find your schtick appealing, ALPHA, you’re not promoting homophobia or justifying homophobic violence. Indeed, implicit in stepping into these roles—straight alpha top, gay submissive bottom—is your ability and, even more importantly, their ability to step right back out of these roles. While playing erotic games with homophobic themes won’t eradicate homophobia from the earth (wouldn’t it be nice if it could?), a gay guy who consents to this kind of “abuse” gets to decide when it starts and when it stops.
“If ALPHA’s problem is ‘confusion’—a concern that maybe he’s not fully straight—that’s something neither of us can help him with, as that problem boils down to a foundational debate on what it means to be queer,” said Cheves. “Is there a discernible difference to an outsider between a straight man who titillates gay men for fun and a gay man who does the same? Not really. This could be his inlet, his way into queerness, his version of same-sex attraction.”
And if you were to decide you are some kind of gay or some kind of bi or a whole lot of heteroflexible, ALPHA, you wouldn’t be the first Dom top who liked feminine gay men but had zero interest in dick. Some gay bottoms are fine playing with tops who ignore their dicks; some gay men get off on having their dicks ignored. And since some trans men are gay and since some trans gay men are femme and since some trans men are subs and since not all trans men—gay or otherwise—get bottom surgery, ALPHA, that means there are lots of gay men out there without dicks for you to choose from.
“But unless he calls himself gay, he’s not gay,” said Cheves. “Being gay or queer isn’t really about the chemical processes of arousal in the brain and body. It’s a willingness to be one of us, to claim oneself as part of our tribe. If he doesn’t feel the need to do that or thinks doing so would be disingenuous—indeed, if he must be straight for this kink to work—then he’s straight. As long as he’s doing no harm—just having hot, consensual Grindr chats with guys before ghosting them—he can be whatever feels true for him.”
Alexander Cheves is a columnist for OUT Magazine and runs the popular Love, Beastly advice blog. His new book, My Love Is a Beast: Confessions, comes out next month. Follow him on Twitter @BadAlexCheves.
I call bullshit on RUBBED’s letter and query about reporting her former massage therapist. Business relationships can turn into friendships and friendships can turn into something more. In this case he fucked up, he should have been monitoring his emotions better, but she was a willing and equal participant in their evolving connection.
But she says she “went into instant shock” when her “very close friend” of three years told her he had feelings for her? SHOCK? Did she call 911? She seems to want it both ways: she wanted him to be her “very close friend” while at the same time maintaining a professional distance. Her reaction could have simply been, “I don’t feel that way about you, and I can’t see you anymore.” I think your advice was correct, Dan, but something about the tone of letter rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps it was the total lack of empathy for her “very close friend” (sorry I can’t help myself) who has also suffered in this, even if it was a consequence of his mistake.
—Getting Outraged Over Dumbass Letter On Rainy Day
People are allowed to have a WTF moment when something blindsides them—and RUBBED sounded blindsided—but I agree that she’s overreacting. Also, her former massage therapist is already out of work, GOODLORD, as some other readers pointed out. The business RUBBED helped him get off the ground shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic—a pandemic that’s still raging, thanks to all the idiots out there who refuse to get vaccinated. Unless there’s a pattern, I don’t think RUBBED should report her former massage therapist to the licensing board.
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