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Witty, Witty Dick Hard: The Formula That Explains Gay Culture
Let’s break down gay, rhetorical hedonism
I am going to do something a little extreme and reveal how the sausage is made for gay men.
In fact, I have already started. At the risk of being obvious, the statement above is a charged double entendre. It is both explaining that I am going to be deconstructing the culture of gay men for an article, but also alluding to sex.
This is the building block for gay American culture (it might be for much more, but my experience is limited to that). If you have hung around a lot of gay men (see I'm still doing it), you will instantly recognize this bit. Two or more gay men will dance around the sexual tension they have for each other (i.e., “you could say I have stiff competition”). They will then drop the facade and talk about sex directly (“I took three loads last night”), only to go back to the realm of subtext just as quickly (“I’ll load up on some appetizers”).
My name for this almost tortuous rhetorical edging is “witty, witty dick hard” and it is more than merely gay men’s propensity for puns and promiscuity. It, in some ways, is what we mean when we talk about gay culture — both its artistic heights as well as its many, many shades of grey.
