Ethography of Gay Mating Rituals
I took advantage of a recent weekend trip to New York City to conduct this ethogram. I wished to study behavioral interactions among men who are sexually attracted to other men: for this purpose I had a guide, whom I will call (at his request) by the pseudonym "Sebastian Melmoth," who volunteered to take me to a bar/club where he said that such behavioral interactions would be most easily studied. The bar/club is called "The Cock" -- there is no actual name painted on the front of the establishment, merely a window with a glowing red neon rooster advertising the pun in the name. The outside of the building is drab and industrial-looking. Two very large bouncers guard the metal doors to take a $10 "cover charge" from anyone entering. Once inside, "Sebastian" explained to me the layout. The space is a large open loft-like space, approximately three times deeper than it is wide. However, looking down the depth while standing at the entrance, one can see that, about halfway down, the room narrows substantially to accommodate a DJ booth and a raised platform where young men are paid by the establishment to act as "go-go boys," dancing up on the dais, directly in front of the DJ, while wearing Speedos or jockstrap or less. What "Sebastian"...
One can see the bead curtains leading to the "back room" but one cannot see into the darkness beyond them. But the large central portion of the space is essentially a giant dancefloor, with paid go-go-dancers on the raised platforms in front of the DJ booth. On a weekend night, the place is empty before eleven or midnight, then quickly becomes packed: it is impossible to move through the space without brushing against someone, there are so many people crammed onto the…
