Why Retro-ism?
There's a line from a broadway song that goes, "Everything old is new again". And
who knows that better than those of us who bareback? Bareback fucking is not a new thing.
It's really the normal way people fuck. Has been for a hundred centuries. But over the last
two decades of the twentieth century, in the wake following the onslaught of AIDS, people
forgot. Well, actually they didn't forget. They chose to pretend that sex without
condoms was unnatural and irresponsible.
But that wasn't the truth. No... natural unbarriered sex is true sex. No species which uses
intercourse as a means to reproduce could survive without unprotected sex. It has to
exist, or quite plainly we wouldn't.
So, leave it to that group of people who feels the desperate need to re-identify everything
in our world right now by coining new phrases and mandating that these new idioms replace
the old. Natural sex is now "unsafe"; to do it without protection is now
"barebacking", and old porno movies made prior to AIDS are now marketed as
"Pre-condom" videos.
What the politically correct generation has accomplished by this redefinition process
is to cast new and less-favorable connotations onto the oldest form of pleasure known
to man. It helps protect them from their own natural desires. Perhaps we should coin
a phrase of our own to describe these neo-nincompoops... something like "Socially challenged", or "Mental Napoleons", for indeed they are
like society's little dictators. Spin doctors, all of them.
And because of these mental Napoleons, we who practice "old skool" sex are now
perceived as renegades or fools or devil-spawn for upholding a practice as ancient as
Adam and Steve. Everything old is new again. And in the jaundiced eyes of modern society,
our behavior seems radical because they've chosen to un-remember how biologically normal
it is.
Now, for those who haven't been paying attention to the world around them, something else
is starting to get its second-time around... the styles of the mid-fifties to mid-sixties
(or as our politically-correct friends have now dubbed that period, "Mid-Century
Modern"). Mid-century modernism is reappearing in everything from kitchen appliances
to toilet-bowl brushes; clothing and decorating colors to television and magazine advertising.
Take a walk through the hallowed halls of an IKEA store or watch an Austin Powers marathon
to see what I mean.
The mid-century style is more than just retro. It represents a unique period in our culture... a period
of post-war prosperity, the first baby boom, the atom bomb, the space race, the jet age,
massive social, economical, and population growth...
and all the exuberance and optimism that went along with those times. (See,
when optimism is high, people fuck more!) These were the
JFK years and the cold war years. But even the cold war didn't take the personal
and social toll on modern culture the way the 80's did. Sure, we all feared to some degree
the unseen enemy of communism, but it didn't stop us from fucking, did it? In many ways, the
years between 1950 and 1970 may have been this country's most exciting years.
Being a swinging bachelor in that period was nothing less than an art form. Swank surroundings,
cool music, shiny new gizmos and a well-stocked bar were the hallmarks of the American single male on the
make. Looking now into the new lounge culture, it appears as though the underlying goal of swank living is pretty
much the same today as it was back then... to get laid. And often. But there was a finesse to getting
laid that has all but ceased to exist ~ that desire (and the accompanying social expectation) that a man be suave. Perhaps
this void is part of the reason for the resurgence of the lounge culture thirty years
after its demise.
At any rate, it seems rather appropriate to the bareback set to reinvestigate this style.
For starters, most of us are gay men. Style is a component of our DNA. We gravitate toward
something of style based entirely on its swank quotient, like a magnet to steel.
As gay men who bareback, we also know the forgotten pleasures of no-barrier sex, and
feel comfortable carrying on this natural tradition.
So many other gay sex websites are mired in somber black colors. I wanted this site to
reflect
changing times instead of getting stuck in the bathhouse-black stereotype. I felt it was
time to reinvent everything about it, make it joyful and visually exciting. I wanted it
to represent the exuberance we feel when we liberate ourselves from the 80's mindset by
choosing to refuse condoms. And I wanted, above all, for the site to be visually
enjoyable on every page.
Our gay culture has long been immersed in blackness... it's the color of choice for gay bar owners from coast to coast, and
for bookstore, video arcade, bath house and sex club owners alike. We step out of our
brightly colored daylight world and enter into darkly-painted pits in order to lose ourselves
as we meet one another.
And we surf through the web only to find page after page colored in black. It seems a little
depressing for a community so strongly associated with the word "gay". There was
a time when that word meant "colorful", "exuberant" and
"light-hearted".
So I'm declaring a new independence ~ freedom from depressing dark, murky webpages!
Gone is the black everywhere. Bring out the COLOR! Come on in and let your eyes relax
for a change. We're not going to bury ourselves in darkness and shadows anymore.
We're shootin' for Frisky 'n Fabulous in 2002.
And why not? I think
most men who come here for excitement agree that we don't bareback because we want to die.
It's because we thoroughly enjoy living, and LIVING IT UP! Getting the most out of it.
After all, if you're not doing the things that allow you to bring more enjoyment
into this life, then you're settling. There's a difference.
So let's start all this living with a new pallette of the many colors of the rainbow.
And while we're enjoying our colorful new selves, let's also help each other find that manly swank
quality hiding within us all... even if just for the momentary fun of it. You're here
now. Let go, relax, and enjoy your visits.
Welcome to the new
Jack
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