Straight?: True Stories of Unlikely Sexual Encounters Between Men
Beneath its jovial, insouciant, sexy attitude, Jack Hart'sStraight, a collection of frisky first-person tales in which straight-identified men end up having sex with other men, embodies a curious political and cultural collision. One of the mandates of the gay liberation movement, which emerged after the Stonewall riots of June, 1969, was that every gay person had the responsibility to "come out" and be openly gay. Yet postmodern theory informs us that the very categories of "gay" and "straight" may be, well, easily constructed identities that conceal far more complicated realities. On the surface,Straightconforms to the erotic "letters" genre pioneered by magazines likeFirst Handand brought into book form by Hart's ownMy First TimeandMy Biggest O, but reading through the book you are struck, again and again, by the naturalness and innocence of the situations. While an initial glance at the anthology may remind you of the old joke, "Q: What is the difference between a gay man and a straight man? A: A six-pack," few of the stories involve deception to get the "heterosexual" participants interested in sexual activity. For the most part, sex play here is eagerly sought after and thoroughly enjoyed.Straightdelivers on its softcore fantasy promise, but the underlying theme--that the words we use to classify ourselves are, at best, inexact and often misleading--is quite serious.--Michael Bronski