Cruising, Etc. (was Cars and Factory Work)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Louis Proyect wrote:
>I personally am convinced that one of the greatest social ills in America
>is loneliness. You can look at a glossy magazine like New York and see
>hundreds of personal ads. Highly successful yuppies can not make
>connections with the opposite or same-sex. This is related to the
>atomization of the modern urban milieu. Even in the case of people who are
>in long-term relationships, the loneliness can exist, or even be greater.

In this respect, I think that cultural knowledge and social practice of
urban gay men--cruising, bathhouses, balls, etc.--may offer a hint of what
an alternative future might look like. Though in one sense, cruising, etc.
may be interpreted as a sign of urban atomization (with their emphasis on
encounters rather than relationships), the ways in which gay men inhabit
urban public spaces and use them for their own purposes have always given
me hope for a future where the erotic doesn't have to be relegated to +
hidden in bedrooms or itemized + compartmentalized into personal ads.

Another reason why many suburbanites fear cities may be that they dislike
the idea of sexuality _out and about_ in the public sphere.

Yoshie