‘The Neighbourhood Cums: Ding Dong! Dick's Here!’: SketchySex and the online/offline cultures of group sex between gay men

ABSTRACT

This article explores contemporary sexual practices of group sex between gay men facilitated through the cruising apps and websites Grindr and BarebackRT, and its depiction by the gay porn studio SketchySex. The article discusses themes of community among those partaking in group sex, tracing historical cultural shifts as neoliberal ideologies have developed, as well as focusing on the shifting understandings of public and private spaces. The article argues that gentrification has forced once-public activities into the private home, which brings unique risks for individuals to negotiate, and considers the extent to which digital technologies have helped to facilitate this. This culminates in a critique of the diversity of SketchySex, who seem to be selective in the types of people who can attend their parties; this is read alongside the practices of gay men cruising online, and seeks to identify a community utilizing their public/private, online/offline spaces for more radical sexual ends.

KEYWORDS:

• Gay porn
• Grindr
• SketchySex
• group sex
• community
• risk

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Charlie Sarson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7272-6693

Notes

1 https://www.sketchysex.com/about.html (accessed March 20 2018).

2 https://www.sketchysex.com/beamodel.html (accessed March 20 2018).

3 https://www.str8upgayporn.com/sketchy-sex-bareback-gangbang-porn/ (accessed March 20 2018).

4 https://www.malerevenue.com/external.php (accessed March 20 2018).

5 https://www.xbiz.com/news/172668/malerevenue-launches-sketchysexcom (accessed March 20 2018).

6 https://www.barebackrt.com (accessed March 20 2018).

7 https://www.barebackrt.com/members/default.php (accessed March 20 2018).