November 1999

OPINION by JIM W.

hy does everyone want me to hide my dick? That's mentally and physically unhealthy. Worse, I'm supposed to wear clothes that not only cover it up, but also conceal it so well that you can't even tell from looking at my crotch whether I have a dick or not.

This makes no sense -- no sense at all!

• I'm a man.
• I have a penis.
• It takes up space down there.
• Why do I have to look castrated?

Why pretend it's not there??

Women have it easier. True, society asks women to cover their breasts (even when it makes no sense). But do we force them to

cover them up so effectively that we can't see whether they have them or not?

No!

Is breast-revealing cleavage encouraged in our otherwise sex-hating society?

Yes!!

So why is our society so scared of my dick???

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I'm not going to answer that question in this editorial. Instead, I'm going to explain why this question is important if you want to understand why gay nudists go back to gay nude gatherings again and again, year after year.

The answer is values -- gay naturist values versus straight society's values. Our values are better, and it feels wonderful to spend time with a bunch of other guys who share those values.

And community. A community is a group of people who interact on the basis of a shared set of values. And it feels wonderful to spend time in a unified community.

When it comes to penises, straight society's values are really fucked up.

REALLY fucked up!

Forgive me for stereotyping, but straight people generally believe:

• That a penis is a kinda embarrassing thing.
• If it's soft, its existence should be hidden.
• If it's hard, it's so embarrassing that it must be hidden away and denied.
• Not only must men (and women) be physically clothed -- we must also be mentally clothed: unrevealing of our feelings about anything having to do with what makes penises hard or soft.

That is, our sexual fantasies must be secret and we must think of them as shameful and embarrassing.

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At gay naturist gatherings, there's a different set of values. Generally, gay naturists believe:

• That a penis is a wonderful thing.
• If it's soft, that's OK.
• If it's hard, that's OK too.*
• One of the advantages of being physically unclothed is that it helps us to be mentally unclothed as well.
• That is, our sexual fantasies are no more and no less shameful and embarrassing than are our other thoughts and desires -- and that there is a positive benefit to sharing our fantasies with others.

At recent Gatherings, I've seen several instances of these values in action -- sometimes in surprising ways. I'd like to share two examples with you:

1. The case of the horizontal loincloth.
2. The case of the lunchline stiffies.

1
The case of the horizontal loincloth

Take a look at the following photo of a guy wearing nothing but a leather vest and a rabbit-fur loincloth:

As you can see, the loincloth is horizontal. That is not its normal position. It's sticking out at a perfect 90-degree angle because the guy wearing the loincloth has a raging hard-on.

He had it all night -- all during the party. He got it when he bought the loincloth earlier in the day. He was a little embarrassed by it, because he still believed a bit in society's ideas about hard-ons, and because he probably knew that some hard-core gay nudists think it's wrong to ever cover up a penis for any reason at a naked gathering.

I'll admit that even I was a little bit embarrassed by it. At the same time, I was fascinated. I was also in awe. If I had such a revealing hard-on, would I be willing to display it to everyone, letting them think what they may about why I had it? Not just physically naked, but mentally naked as well?

I'm not sure. I'd like to think so, but even I am not sure.

Plus, he was very cute, and his hard-on made him even more adorable in my eyes -- not only because I find an erection is pleasing to look at but also because he was generous enough to share it with all of us. Of the 800 guys at the Gathering, I doubted that I was anywhere near the top of his list -- yet here he was, letting me see his hard, literally throbbing, dick and his secret fantasy at the same time.

And better yet, he let me photograph it:

And, better even than that, he let guys play with it a little bit -- maybe even make fun of it! The photo above shows a second guy pressing down on the hard-on, and being amused by how it bounced right back up.

* Gay naturists differ about whether it's OK to encourage one's erection in "public" at a gathering. Some say yes, some say no. Most say it's OK if it's accidental, or doesn't last very long.

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I guess you could say he gave us "the gift of stiff"!

What's my point? Simply this:

I'll be going back to that Gathering, again and again, because this handsome fellow has shown that he is not only physically handsome -- he's a beautiful person.

Ugh -- I hate that phrase... But California-isms aside, it's true. He has shared something very intimate with all of us:

• He is honest -- he made no excuses for what his penis was revealing about himself.
• He is generous -- he paid no attention to the fact that I was "getting" more from him than he was "getting" from me (because I'm attracted to him and he's not attracted to me).
• He is not ashamed of himself or of his sexuality.
• And he is brave -- not everyone (even at a Gathering) would have had the courage to reveal their naked fantasies as he was willing to do.

In a very real sense, for the first time in the history of gay meeting places you can tell, just by looking at someone, something important about their soul and their personality! And you can start to form relationships with people on that basis -- not just based on what they look like, or based on the sex you might or might not have with them. (Not that looks and sex are bad or wrong, but... you get my point.)

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2
The case of the lunchline stiffies

Another case in point. I was waiting in the lunch line and chatting with two newly discovered friends. (Newly discovered to me; they had been best friends of each other for some time.)

The topic of fantasies came up, and someone asked each of us to say what our number one fantasy was -- practical or impractical, legal or illegal, something we might fulfill or something totally unrealistic.

T. said that his number one fantasy was to be naked and thus powerless in a roomful of clothed people.

N. said that his number one fantasy would be to know that hundreds of horny guys were watching him and his lover have sex, via the Internet.

And I said that my number one fantasy would be to take my boyfriend down to San Diego's Horton Plaza (a trendy shopping

center downtown), lay him out on a platform normally used for some performance or musical group, strip him naked, and -- as a crowd gathered -- to fuck him deeply and mercilessly and over and over and over, with such force and such skill that he would cum all over his belly -- and then that the audience members, who will have been watching in rapt attention, would all stand up and cheer as soon as they realized that I'd had an orgasm inside.

Of course, I mentioned that I never expected to actually perform that fantasy, since I didn't want to get arrested! But as a mental exercise, it was a big turn-on to me.

At that point, I noticed that right behind us in line were two guys I had already met -- S., an incredible cutie-pie with a really, really nice personality, and D., his partner of the moment. I wasn't totally sure that they were "an item," as we say, but they met at the Gathering and spent a lot of time together in the first couple of days. So rightly or wrongly, I leapt to the conclusion that they had fucked anyway. At least once.

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Then the conversation turned to S. He was looking his addictively boyish self, with rosy cheeks and a boyish smile. And I suddenly realized that it might be significant that he had politely folded his hands in front of his crotch.

A wonderful thought flashed through my mind. I reached over and gently pulled his hands away.

I was right! Another wonderful stiffy!!

Suddenly I felt a wonderful glow. Here I had taken a chance and revealed my fantasy to four guys who might or might not have approved. Hey, it's a bit edgy -- public stuff, hard fucking, one guy definitely on top and one definitely on the bottom, not a universally approved pair of roles in today's gay community -- right? Not only had T. and N. welcomed it, but S. and D. revealed so very wonderfully that this sort of thing was a big turn-on for them, too. And by comparing myself with D., I helped myself understand S.'s attitudes toward me. Yes, he liked older guys, hairier guys, but I was a bit too heavy for him and/or didn't have quite the right

attitude. (Hey, it happens! S. has a right to his preferences, of course.)

The previous year I had been puzzled about what S. was into -- because even though he was a dazzling combination of cute and nice, I rarely saw him showing an erotic interest in anyone. Even though I got the impression that there was something about me which he liked, I didn't think I was enough of his type to be hoping for a relationship with him. (I don't know why, but I suspected that I was too heavy for him.)

Well, what did D. look like? He was a bit younger than me, but still older than S. He was thinner than me, but still much more of a rounded bear or daddy type than S. was. He had a sinister mustache and a day or two of unshaved face. And he looked and acted like a top.

There in the lunch line, right after revealing my fantasy, I looked down and noticed that D. had a wonderfully stiff penis. I assumed (correctly, as it turned out) that it was my story that got him that way. The gift of stiff -- what a nice gift to share!

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In Conclusion

Hmmmm... what is this, an editorial or a porno story? A little of both, I guess. And what's wrong with that?

Nothing! That's one of my values. If it's also one of yours, then hurrah -- I'll see you at the next Gathering, OK?

And if it's not one of yours, I hope you will respect this value of mine, just as I will do my best to respect yours. If we both are in the same place at the same time, I hope that we'll be able to compromise and find some common ground to have a Gathering upon.

But this is the reason for our (very strict) ethics policy here on Penis-Central.com. If I get a hardon while interviewing someone, I'm going to show it to you!

Likewise, if someone is playing with his dick while I'm interviewing him, I'm going to show it to you! As a Penis Central customer, you have the right to expect the gift of stiff -- because it's so easy to share.

In the meantime, since you've been such a nice guy to read this entire editorial, I'm going to give you a reward. Normally, you have to be a Penis Central member in order to view the two photos of the hard-on lurking beneath the loincloth. That's still true, if you try to click on the photos themselves, way up there at the top of this page. But because you're the type of person who reads -- not just the type who clicks on pix looking for dix or chix -- then you'll read the instructions in fine print below and follow them carefully. You'll get a free peek at what others normally have to pay to see.

Thanks for listening!

The first is indirectly accessible through the small "details" link at the end of this paragraph. Click on it and you'll get an error message (404 Not Found) -- because your browser will try to go to the location specified in its Location box, which location does not exist. That incorrect location will look something like this: "http://www.phdtop.com/generalpix/gnith9990loinaction320.jpg" (not exactly, but almost). Just change the word "generalpix" to "genderalpix" by adding the letter "d" in exactly the right place. Then press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard, and -- voilà! -- it should appear in the window. Here are the details and notes.

The second is accessible through the "notes" link at the end of the last paragraph. Click, read the error message, then add the "d" to the Location box just as above. Press Return or Enter, and... voilà encore! By the way, please don't tell your friends about this trick. You may tell them about this editorial, but let them discover this footnote all for themselves, OK?

Happy surfing -- and again, thanks for listening... And if you really want to make me happy, sign up as a subscriber for a few months. Thanks!