Attitude: Are You A Sex Addict?

There's a full page article in The Observer today about gay men and mental health.
Well, sort of.
Straight outta the media's hall of mirrors it's actually an article about the new issue of Attitude magazine which is about gay men and mental health.
It's 'The Issues Issue'.
Attitude's editor Matthew Todd is quoted as saying it's "a big taboo".
Well, mental health certainly is, but the media absolutely adore this kind of "Being gay is rubbish" story - as The Observer piece shows.
Todd says; "There is this cliché that we are all having a great time partying, but actually we know, and the research is now showing, there are a hell of a lot of unhappy gay people; far higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide than among straight men; far higher rates of self-destructive behaviour; substance abuse and sex addiction; and high levels of issues around intimacy and forming relationships."
All true. Fagburn is with Todd all the way on that - except the bit about "sex addiction"; which I think is a highly spurious concept and a media construct.
But anyway, Matthew Todd gives good quote, and Fagburn prefers seeing him being quoted in the straight press to the drivel machines they usually unearth.
"The gay scene is incredibly sexualised," Todd adds. "Kids come out into this sexualised world where there is lots of booze and lots of drugs, there's nothing that's just healthy, gentle and relaxed. It's empowering to have lots of sex, but only if that's what you actually want, if it's you making the choice."
Fair point. Though in an erotophobic culture like ours it's as often the case to find that sex - and especially gay sex - is problematised and demonised, just as it is celebrated.
"Repressive desublimation" they used to call it - though I've never been completely sure what it means.
And Fagburn suspects that a sense of unease about gay sex is arguably a surer sign that a gay man has "issues" than if he's having lots of sex.
Last month The Observer ran a major feature about gay men and sex, and that new-fangled gay cruising app, Grindr.
Matthew Todd was quoted in that too, striking the only note of dischord; "The commercial gay world – which Grindr is part of – is a very adult, very sexual world. And I worry when I see these young kids coming out on to the gay scene, and everything is about sex. There's no real concept of relationships."
You can say that again. Oh hang on, you have.
The last word here goes to TheChris who posted the following after today's Observer article.
"I thought this was a spoof at first. Attitude is one of the very worst contributors to the sexualised gay culture that Matthew Todd says he's recovering from. "The gay scene is incredibly sexualised", he says - and he should know. How many sex issues has Attitude published? How many youth issues? How many celebrities have they paid to pose naked, perfectly groomed and photoshopped?"
See if you can guess what they've put on the cover of "The Issues Issue" of Attitude?