Gabriel Rotello published Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men in 1997. The Nation described it as “The most important book about AIDS and gay men since And The Band Played On. And it is far better.” The Boston Globe wrote, “Rotello’s ambitious book is the Silent Spring of the AIDS epidemic.”
NPN’s Jendi Reiter revisits Sexual Ecology to see how sexual practices change over time, how porn influences these practices, and how porn advocates certain risky behaviors, such as promiscuity.
This acclaimed and controversial book by gay activist and journalist Gabriel Rotello examines why the AIDS epidemic hit the gay male community, and why it persists 20 years after its causes and prevention strategies were discovered. Rotello’s study is useful to the antipornography movement in several ways. First, it shows how malleable and culturally determined our sexual behaviors are, as opposed to porn defenders who represent certain sex acts as what all people “naturally” crave. Second, the sexual ideal that he sees destroying the health of the gay community–unprotected multipartner anal sex–is one that is now being sold to heterosexual men through mainstream porn. Finally, Rotello’s ecological and epidemiological approach offers a less stigmatizing way to debate the merits of different sexual norms. “Just as environmentalists ponder the creation of ‘sustainable’ economic growth that doesn’t destroy the planet, or ‘sustainable’ cities that don’t pollute, can we create a sustainable gay culture, one in which people are free to be homosexual, but one that does not destroy the very souls it liberates?” (p.17)
Rotello observes that all infectious diseases are ecological. The human behavioral environment is as important a factor as the biological properties of the virus. Variations in technology and culture explain why the same virus will remain rare in one population but start an epidemic in another. Epidemics depend on the infectivity of the virus, its prevalence in the community, and the rate of contact between the core group of infected people and the general population.
Isolated cases of AIDS have been documented in the US as far back as 1952, and retrospective analysis of the data finds dozens of other likely cases going back to the 1930s. Because HIV is actually much harder to transmit than other STDs, “[T]o stir up an epidemic with such a germ would require a level of sexual partner change far higher than that practiced by most societies for most of history.” (p.20) Those conditions were created by the sexual revolution of the 1960s, combined with a culturally influenced shift in the types of sex acts favored by gay men.
Before gay liberation, anal sex (which has a much higher risk for HIV transmission) was less common than oral sex and masturbation. The whole division of the world into gays and straights entered the conventional wisdom only recently. “Queer” men serviced partners who did not consider themselves homosexual because they were in the dominant position. Gay pride brought with it the idea that gay men should have sex with one another; elevated the importance of anal sex as equivalent to heterosexual intercourse; and created a climate of solidarity through promiscuity in bathhouses and other public places. In the urban gay culture of the 1970s and 1980s, concurrent multipartnerism became the new social norm, even for men in committed relationships. All these developments, driven by politics and culture rather than irresistible and unchanging sexual needs, vastly increased both the risk of infection in any given encounter, and the contact rate necessary to spread the virus beyond a core group of high-risk individuals.
Today’s mainstream heterosexual porn similarly promotes rates of partner change (“50 Guy Cream Pie”) that are far beyond what any society has considered sustainable for sexual health. The one community that adopted this porn myth on a massive scale–gay men in developed countries–was hit with a devastating epidemic within a generation. Nonetheless, porn continues to hold out extreme promiscuity as the universal and natural state of male sexuality, so central to male identity that critical analysis of its historical and ecological contexts is taboo.
Rotello encountered similar resistance to re-examining the myths of sexual liberation. In an effort to remain “sex-positive” and affirming of gay sexuality in a discriminatory society, AIDS prevention groups have shied away from asking for changes in behavior other than condom use. The persistent high rates of HIV transmission show that this strategy has failed, and a public-health initiative entirely dependent on perfect condom compliance is naive.
A safe-sex culture that began and ended with condom use, Rotello observes, created an “every man for himself” climate where getting infected was a personal failure of self-protection, ignoring the ways in which sexual desires were influenced and safer options made less attractive by gay men’s collective self-understanding. This radical privatization of responsibility for safe sex resembles the narrow individualism that often dominates discussions of porn–whether the topic is men’s right to express their “natural” personal need for sexual variety, or porn actresses’ complete responsibility for the abuses they endure in their “chosen profession”. Discussing the social construction of desire is dismissed as right-wing moralism. Among so-called “third wave” feminists, as among gays, it’s understandable that members of an oppressed group would be drawn to ideologies that let them affirm their sexuality. However, the choice between sexuality and safety is a false one.
A crucial opportunity was lost during the early years of the epidemic because advocates for behavioral change were drowned out in the public debate by proponents of sexual liberation at all costs. “Right from the beginning voices were raised in well-informed gay circles that proposed the very solutions that might have worked, and those voices were by and large shouted down–not by the mainstream media and government, but by the gay media and gay men ourselves. People demanded absolute proof before they were willing to advise gay men to wear condoms every time, to reduce partners to one monogamous partner at a time, to close commercial sex institutions, and such proof was impossible to provide in that early period.” (p.98)
Rotello says gay activists and AIDS prevention groups have helped block regulation of commercial sex establishments, by unreasonably insisting on absolute proof that these venues facilitate a sexual contact rate that causes epidemics. This is reminiscent of porn defenders’ attitude toward studies that porn shops cause secondary effects. “In that light it is worthwhile to note that ecologists have long argued that refusing to act when there is a preponderance of evidence but a lack of absolute proof can be extremely unwise. Absolute proof of any environmental cause and effect is difficult and often even impossible to obtain. Yet while we hesitate and demand proof, the environment may be irretrievably destroyed.” (p.198) What holds true for the ozone layer also applies to neighborhoods surrounding a porn shop, and to the spread of STDs in a community.
The law recognized this problem of proof forty years ago with respect to environmental issues and food and drug safety. The builder of a new office tower or the manufacturer of a new drug has to prove that it will not have an adverse impact. “But when it comes to issues like the impact of commercial sex businesses on the epidemic, most AIDS organizations still operate on the pre-1962 logic, arguing that it is up to society to prove that a venue is dangerous, not for entrepreneurs to prove it is safe. Based on the evidence, I have no doubt that if owners of commercial sex establishments had to file ‘epidemiological impact statements’ proving that they would not harm gay sexual ecology before they could get or renew their licenses, very few would be allowed to operate.” (p.199)
Rotello’s ecological model suggests a provocative comparison between sexual behavior and other misuses of physical resources. Progressives decry the wastefulness, short-term thinking, and entitlement mentality of corporations and consumers who p
lace personal satisfaction over sustaining our common ecosystem. If it’s reasonable for our economic choices to be tempered by awareness of the interconnectedness of living creatures, why should a different morality (or really, none at all) hold sway in the sexual realm?
When it comes to preserving our natural resources, we tend to prefer a short-term technological fix (like drilling for oil in national parks) to fundamental changes in behavior (like limiting consumption of fossil fuels). Opponents of reform are always ready to give greed an idealistic cover by invoking American ideals of individual liberty. “Indeed, in ecology the general principle of ‘minimum change’ is usually advanced by foes of environmentalism, who frequently argue that ‘cultural norms’ must not be challenged in the fight against things like environmental degradation and overpopulation. We must not challenge the ‘culture’ of logging, they argue, or the ‘tradition’ of open grazing on public lands, or Americans’ ‘love affair’ with the internal combustion engine… In environmental issues, demanding minimum change and placing the primacy of cultural values first often provides an excuse for doing very little–or nothing at all–since cultures and their values and practices are often at the root of ecological crises.” (p.185)
Rotello argues that AIDS prevention groups’ condoms-only focus is exactly the same kind of inadequate quick fix. Myths about the meaning of sexual freedom–which are identical to the myths that porn films reinforce–are taken up uncritically by activists, but the main benefits flow to the sex clubs, bars, bathhouses and circuit party promoters who profit from the scene. Monogamy isn’t good for business.
What are some of these myths? “[S]everal underlying sexual presumptions in the gay male world…work against an ethic of prevention. These are not necessarily gay assumptions so much as male assumptions, ideas shared to some extent by all men in our culture. One is a belief that sex ought to be without consequence and responsibility. Another is a sense of entitlement about sex. Still another is the notion that males, straight or gay, are at the mercy of biological forces beyond their control, forces that impel us to seek as many partners as possible and that overwhelm whatever feeble cultural roadblocks we place in their way. We are, in this conception, the victims of our hormones.” (p.203) That’s the porn worldview in a nutshell.
Against the presumption of innate, uncontrollable male promiscuity, Rotello observes that in other societies that accepted male homosexuality, such as ancient Greece and samurai Japan, such relationships followed a devoted monogamous template. Culture can triumph over biology. “No glory holes or fisting orgies for [the ancient Greeks], no psychological musings on the ‘meaning of semen exchange’ in homosexual relations. With no apparent evidence of homosexually transmitted epidemics looming before them, the Greeks nonetheless seem to have practiced a form of ‘safer sex’ almost identical to the one that modern gay men need to adopt: moderation within the relationship, and few or no outside partners. To the Greeks, the purpose of this restraint was not moralistic piety but freedom, while the danger of succumbing to pleasure was not dishonor but slavery, slavery to the passions of the body.” (p.225)
Among Rotello’s concluding suggestions for building a sustainable gay culture is to begin treating marriage as a higher-status activity than promiscuity. “[W]e need to encourage a new gay ideal that validates and supports relationships rather than one that validates and honors sexual adventurism, sexual consumerism, and risk taking.” (p.245) As lesbian relationships demonstrate, this need not involve replicating all the flaws of the traditional patriarchal family.
“[O]ne of the main objections of gay and lesbian radicals has been that such legalization [of gay marriage] would inherently undermine a major goal of gay liberation, which is to validate all kinds of relationships and all forms of sexual expression and experimentation, not to mimic an outmoded and oppressive heterosexual norm. Legalization of same-sex marriage, they argue, would create a two-tiered gay society in which married couples would be viewed within gay society as legitimate, while those who were unmarried would be considered social outcasts. This seems wildly exaggerated, since unmarried heterosexuals are not exactly seen as ‘outcasts.’ But the core of the objection–that marriage would provide status to those who married and thus implicitly penalize those who did not–seems essentially correct. Indeed, that’s a key point. In a culture where unrestrained multipartnerism has produced ecological catastrophe, precisely what is needed is a self-sustaining culture in which people feel socially supported within their identities as gay men to settle down with individual partners for significant periods of time.” (p.256)
Porn films reverse the status equation that Rotello sees as necessary for ecological survival. Monogamy is mocked as stifling or impossible. Unprotected sex with alarming rates of partner change is the ideal. Now that women as well as men consider it acceptable, even cool, to enjoy porn, will the widespread acceptance of porn myths produce a heterosexual STD epidemic to rival AIDS? Rotello’s important book challenges us to treat ourselves, our partners and our sexual ecosystem with more respect if we want to survive.
See also:
Washington Post: “Efforts Against AIDS Among Black Americans Criticized” (7/30/08)
In a 55-page report [PDF], the Black AIDS Institute argued that [AIDS] should be viewed as a threat to the entire black population, and not just specific high-risk groups. Unlike in white Americans — and in the citizens of most industrialized nations — HIV in American blacks is increasingly transmitted heterosexually through “networks” where men especially have many sex partners at the same time, the report noted.
…Two percent of adult black Americans are infected, the government estimates, and only four countries outside Africa have a higher HIV prevalence…
The District [of Columbia] has the highest prevalence of HIV infection of any American jurisdiction — 5 percent, or about 1 in every 20 residents. This is nearly as high as the prevalence in Uganda (5.4 percent), which has one of the oldest and most intense epidemics in Africa.
…Two of the striking features of the epidemic in black Americans is the high rate of infection in women and the frequency of heterosexual transmission, both characteristic of Africa…
Herbert, Brooks and Osayande on Misogyny, Money and
Power; Amazing.net’s War on Women and Blacks (explicit)
Pimpin In Da Hood
Da brothers in the hood are
always lookin’ for some fine black bitches. They found Brown sugar and
her cock crazy friends and da party is just gettin’ started!
BBC: WHO warns of global epidemic risk
Since the 1970s, 39 new diseases have developed, and in the last five years alone, the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics including cholera, polio and bird flu.
“It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like Aids, another Ebola, or another Sars, sooner or later,” the report says.
Los Angeles Times: “In California’s Unregulated Porn Film Industry, an Alarming Number of Performers Are Infected With HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. And Nobody Seems to Care.”
The Adult Industry Medical HealthCare Foundation (AIM), an industry- backed clinic in Sherman Oaks, administered voluntary tests to a group consisting primarily of adult film workers. Of 483 people tested between October 2001 and March 2002, about 40% had at least one disease. Nearly 17% tested positive for chlamydia, 13% for gonorrhea and 10% for hepatitis B and C, according to Sharon Mitchell, a former adult actress who founded AIM…
For chlamydia, 101,871 cases were reported for the year [in California as a whole], or about three-tenths of 1%–a rate health officials consider epidemic. The chlamydia rates in the porn world are about 57 times higher than those epidemic proportions…
Condom Use Below 20% in American Porn Movies
“In any sexual interaction where condoms are used, consumers tend to drift from that,” said Graham Travis, head of production at Elegant Angel Video, a production company that turns out as many as eight new releases a month. “What the consumers want to see is performers without condoms, something that’s as real and intimate as possible…”
Sharon Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who earned a Ph.D. in human sexuality before co-founding the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, said on Monday that condom use in the industry had gone up after the H.I.V. outbreak to 23 percent from 17 percent and that it was now back to about 17.5 percent.
Types of Porn and Their Occupational Safety Risks (explicit)
The list of STDS on the AIM handout includes: “HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphillis, Hepatitis, A,B,C, Herpes, Genital Warts, Molluscum Contagiosum, Crabs, Trichomonis, Bacterial Vaginosis, Rectal Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, Gonorrhea of the throat.”
The handout calls special attention to these “RISKY SEX ACTS”:
Double penetration–one in vagina, one in ass…
CREAM PIE–Internal ejaculation either in vagina or ass. HIGH RISK FOR HIV****…
Felching–Ass to mouth…
Snowballing–passing sperm and spit from one person’s mouth over and over
The handout continues with some special cases, which are at “slightly different risk” than the “risky sex acts”:
BUKKAKE–multiple males ejaculating on a female’s face–AT RISK FOR CHLAMYDIA OR GONORRHEA OF THE EYE, HERPES OF THE EYE OR NOSE, OR HIV AS THE EYE IS A DIRECT CONDUCT INTO THE BLOODSTREAM…
Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution, Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs
In 2004, researchers…reported in Social Science Quarterly that “Individuals who have had an extramarital affair are 3.18 times more likely to have used Internet pornography than individuals who did not have affairs.”
Video Presentation: A Content Analysis of 50 of Today’s Top Selling Porn Films (explicit language)
Ana Bridges: “…we were able to code the sex acts and also compare them to the study that had been done in 1994. It was a very large national survey of actual adult sex practices. And so we were able to say, ‘Well, how well is pornography, popular pornography, portraying the reality of sex as it is actually being practiced and desired? …[F]emale to male oral sex was grossly overrepresented in pornography compared to…this national survey. Same with anal penetration… I think 1 to 2% of people said ‘Yeah, that’s great, I want to do it,’ but in 56% of scenes we’re seeing anal penetration being shown. Female to female oral was shown in 23% of scenes, and less than 1% of women said that this was something they found very appealing or did…
Bridges: “We also coded for, what…we’re calling loosely in this talk, ‘extreme acts’ (of sex acts). The only sexual sequence that we coded, which is…when one thing follows another, was something called ATM…’ass-to-mouth’. This literally involves anal penetration followed by oral sex…she is literally eating her own shit. That occurred in 41% of the scenes that we coded…”
What Capital Video Sells: Movies that promote infidelity, despair, call women “sluts” and “whores” (explicit language)
Deviant Housewives
In this world nothing lasts forever and it looks like Kelly Erikson’s husband Van needs some space. Kelly decides to invite all her friends going thru the same problems to stay and support each other. But all of Kelly’s friends have an empty void in their lives they need filled and it’s from a younger man!Housewives Unleashed #16
These fine ladies have been locked away in their houses for far too long. With their husbands away on business our housewives need crave and demand satisfaction. The action gets hot and horny the moment their desires are finally unleased..!Private Man #07 Desperate Househusbands
The married residents of Pussy Willow Lane have switched roles the wives are high powered working executives and the husbands stay at home and fuck each other! Welcome to the world of the Desperate Househusbands!Darkside
David and Jennifer have a marriage on the rocks. In desperation they seek out a marriage counselor who proposes a revolutionary new method of therapy. David and Jennifer have free reign to cheat on each other for the next 24 hours. Their sexual inhibitions are set free and their fantasies fulfilled as they visit The Dark Side.
NoPornNorthampton Reaches Out to Springfield Neighborhood with Advice on Adult Enterprises
Comments on Squirt.org shed additional light on the environment inside the Amazing.net store. Squirt is a website that helps members cruise for casual sex. Of all the Squirt listings for Springfield, the Amazing.net store currently has the most comments…
Here is Squirt’s official description for the Amazing.net store:
Most booths in arcade have glory holes, many times you can share a booth, have recieved some of the best blow jobs in my life here. Always some action going on. It’s got 20 booths, 3 large glory holes, several peep holes
Squirt member comments suggest Amazing.net’s Springfield store cycles between being (profitably) permissive, then restricting activities to avoid being shut down by the city. Similar cycles are hinted at in the comments about Amazing.net’s Kittery, Maine store (explicit). Lasting changes appear to have taken hold only when Kittery passed health regulations and removed the doors from the viewing booths. Here are some of the recent comments on the Springfield store:
finghorny, 6/2/06: glory holes closed up again somone bring some tools and reopen them
pornman, 8/3/06: stopped by tonight to see whats up, the holes have been reopened !!!!!!!!! had a nice time.
justme03, 11/30/06: was there wed day 1:30ish busy but holes are closed and very bright now all the light in the hall or on. dont they know theres more money going in the machines with lights off and holes in the walls
a1buttmuncher, 12/5/06: They have been cited by the city and had to close up the holes and they are keep a close eye on the back. The lights are up and if they see you opening doors they will throw you out. They are very serious I witnessed the manager throwing out a guy I saw there all the time. Be careful and discreet or you will not place to play during the cold winter months. I agree that it is not really worth the time with the bright lights and no holes but they will be back eventually. Be Patient!
Many Porn Shops with Viewing Booths Likely Fall Short of OSHA Standards
In 2006, compliance appears to have been an issue at Capital Video’s porn shop in Kittery, Maine. This porn shop contains 16 viewing booths. We recall last year’s testimony from Kittery’s police chief (emphasis added):
On January 30, two detectives went inside dressed in plain clothes and equipped with the ultraviolet light, as well as collection material. They entered booths, closed the doors, turned on the ultraviolet light and observed what appeared to be tremendous amounts of body fluids on all three walls and on the floor. The next night, the detectives followed the same procedure. Samples were sent to the Main Street Lab and on February 13, 2006, he received the results confirming that all swabbings taken in the four booths contained semen. The Chief said their informant told them that on numerous occasions he had tried to clean but had not been given any information on how to wash the areas properly. Police Chief Strong said he believed the collection of material they made, along with the lab results, showed beyond a reasonable doubt that there were body fluids being exchanged or deposited that other people were exposed to and asked Council if they had any questions.
US Court of Appeals Upholds Minneapolis Regulation of Porn Viewing Booths
The affidavits and testimony of Minneapolis law enforcement officers, health care experts, and appellant Campbell, clearly establish that booths in adult bookstores are used for fellatio and anal intercourse, both deemed high risk sexual activity by the ordinance. Officer Severson testified to seeing hundreds of instances of sodomy, indecent exposure, and prostitution in the booths of adult bookstores over the past six years. (Motion Hearing on Preliminary Injunction Tr. 156-57). Officer Ronald Christianson, also a member of the Minneapolis Police Department, in an affidavit submitted to the council, stated that the booths in the adult bookstores in his precinct were unsanitary and provided opportunities for indecent exposure, oral sex, and anal sex. (Jt.App. at A.122-24)…
Although we recognize that this ordinance cannot by itself prevent the spread of the AIDS virus in Minneapolis, we believe that it will serve to reduce high risk conduct leading to the spread of AIDS. Further, we believe that this is a situation where a “city must be allowed a reasonable opportunity to experiment with solutions to admittedly serious problems.”
Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values; Women’s Desire to Have Daughters Plummets
Pornographic scripts dwell on sexual engagements of parties who have just met, who are in no way attached or committed to one another, and who will part shortly, never to meet again. Not by accident, the parties involved accept no curtailing rules for their social and sexual conduct, enjoy sexual stimulation for what it is, and do so at no social or emotional expense. Sexual gratification in pornography is not a function of emotional attachment, of kindness, of caring, and especially not of continuance of the relationship, as such continuance would translate into responsibilities, curtailments, and costs. Irrespective of the merits or demerits of the projection that much gratification is accessible from sexual activities involving unattached others, the projection is diametrically opposed to the values that promote enduring social aggregations, especially those that are to serve reproduction. Enduring intimate relationships curtail personal freedoms to some degree. Relationships that provide economic and emotional security are based on responsibility, if not on sacrifice. And where, in such a relationship, sexuality is vital and valued, partners tend to lay claim to exclusive sexual access. Finally, the decision to have a child or children, whether by a married couple or by persons otherwise aggregated, is probably the greatest responsibility that human beings accept. It amounts to restricted freedom, servitude, and to enormous expenditures for a good portion of adult life. If sexuality is considered part and parcel of such enduring relationships, there can be no question that it comes at a forbidding price. In terms of sheer recreational sexual joy, then, these relationships compare poorly with the short-lived ones that are continually exhibited in pornography–those that invariably show that great pleasures can be had at next to no cost. Prolonged consumption of entertainment with clear messages of this kind thus must be expected to impact profoundly the perception and evaluation of sexuality and its social institutions and arrangements.
Strong perceptual and attitudinal changes were indeed observed…
Whether or not pornography is causative of real abuse practices, it is fully and profoundly supportive of them… Pornography “de-sensitizes” men to the real and gross violation of a human being involved…
What is key to the issue is that permission, societal permission, is at the core of real paternal child molestation; and at the core of most marital and stranger rape…
Bridgeport, Connecticut, attorney Cecilia Rosenberg is a member of the Masters Panel for Family Court, and has a degree in psychiatric social work. She says there’s so much child molestation, “there’s enough of it to be routine. It is something fathers feel they have a right to do. The underlying assumption is that females and children are available to them. If they don’t use them sexually, it’s an act of forbearance…”
Many incest victims have difficulty establishing a satisfactory sexual relationship with a peer. Many of the male incest victims, out of loneliness, turn to masturbation. For many of these, pornography appears to fill the need for masturbation fantasies. The industry also grinds up immature incest victims of both sexes and stuffs them into the sausage skins of pornographic films…
We observe that pornographers appear to have a financial interest in perpetuating molestation and breaking up marital relationships. This creates more customers for porn. The underlying philosophy is despair that one’s sexual needs can be met through a healthy, balanced, faithful relationship between two real people.
D.A. Clarke: Women Adopting Men’s Bad Habits Is Not the Answer
To accept that the costs borne by strangers in far-off lands make our way of life unaffordable implies that we learn to respect those people and that we become ashamed of living at their expense; to accept that we are responsible for the damage that we do to our soil, water, and air means that we learn to clean up after ourselves; to accept that resources are precious and should not be wasted is to learn that the world is not a consumable, an expendable – and neither are its people. To accept that our way of life is costing too much means accepting less: giving up excess, resolving to live within our means. Shoving off the costs of your behaviour onto others, expecting someone else to clean up your mess, blowing away the household economy with irresponsible spending, treating other people as objects to be used and discarded: are these not some of the traits for which feminists have persistently criticised and confronted men, the habits of privilege and arrogance?
Grabbing all you can while you can get it is an expensive way to live. It may turn out to be an expensive way to die. A generation which took this lesson to heart would be less likely to use up, despise, abuse and discard women and children as sexual toys…