3 . Cruising men in public toilet observed by the police . Still from Great Freedom ( 2021 )
3 of the history of involuntarily stolen , public sex culture , assembling a broad repertoire of elements and situations that reference persecution and emancipation .
With the first structural manifestation of darkrooms as “ blackrooms ” within the American gay biker scene of the 1950s , numerous future constants of these sex rooms were established . The black paint , their raw aesthetics and the darkness can be directly traced back to their predecessors . The gay biker gangs represented an antithesis to the thencommon stereotype of the effeminate homosexual . A new gay ideal of masculinity was brought into being : you no longer dressed up as a woman just because you wanted to get fucked . You posed as a tough guy in black leather and faced society with a humming machine under your ass . A wild reputation preceded the bikers and the new style was both a rejection of “ weakness ” and an affront to homophobes .
The associated masculine self-image of homosexuals coincided with a time of extreme prudishness . Post-war American society was less committed to individual self-determination than to the goal of a homogeneous , morally and ethically superior society . The American Dream had precise ideas for everyone , and queers didn ’ t fit in .
The development and dissemination of the first “ blackrooms ” took place at a time when homosexuality in America was not only stigmatized but also a crime . The meticulous methodology of this obscure persecution ( spying , surveillance and decoy tactics ) thereby fulfils the definition of perversion far more than the scenarios observed . The same applies to Europe . In Germany , the police would hide behind mirrors with their cameras rolling . Filming the cruising men and arresting them . Directly from the toilet to jail . From one shithole to the other . The question remains : Who ’ s the pervert here ?
We all spend the first nine months of our existence in darkness . The last sense to form is sight . Modern cities are brightly lit at night . To take people out of anonymity and facelessness as well as to tame the potential for aggression . The fear of darkness is one of man ’ s most common phobias . On the other hand , scientists already presented studies in the 1970s that indicate the opposite : Mary and Kenneth Gergen took eight strangers and shut them inside a darkroom for an hour . What happened next ? Infrared-cameras would show : People were constantly moving around , but the conversation diminished after the first 30 minutes , paving the way for other forms of interaction : about 90 per cent of the participants touched each other intentionally , with half of the participants hugging each other in the dark . This study was conducted in 1973 . What would be observed in such an experiment today ?
The bedroom is one of the few places where the absence of light is considered positive . Apart from the cinema , our society knows no such dark meeting places . At the cinema , all attention is focused on the screen , whereas in the darkroom it ’ s focused on the people present .
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