Times Magazine: The Sex Issue

Absolutely nothing you'd want to read in The Times Magazine Sex Issue, predictably.

Why when journalists write about sex is it so joyless, so sexless?

And no bummery, neither!

Though over in The Guardian today a feature, The Magic Number: How many people have you slept with?, does its bit to smash social stereotypes by interviewing a gay man (Paul, 20) who has a sex life that would embarrass a panda ('three partners').

At my age, a lot of gay men are quite sleazy. Straight men are probably the same. People sleep around, and it’s not my scene, so finding a long-term partner can be difficult...  

It’s very easy for gay men to find sex. If I wanted to have sex tonight, I could probably find someone, but I wouldn’t feel the connection. I could go on Grindr, chat someone up and invite them round, but I don’t like the idea of inviting a stranger into my house.

 I miss people actually talking to each other, instead of being online. You see 90s TV programmes where people go up to someone in a bar and say, “Hi, can I get your number?” And I think, that would never, ever happen these days...

He sounds a right barrel of laughs, doesn't he?

It is popular for the media to paint anything gay men do as a sign that they are somehow 'damaged' (once by homosexuality itself, but more usually now from growing up in a homophobic world), but Paul really does seem like a pretty good example of the latter.