Must Be Discreet #1 Life Is very Long

LIFE IS SHORT: HAVE AN AFFAIR! So goes the tagline of The Ashley Madison Agency, ‘the world’s premier discreet dating service’. http://www.ashleymadison.com/app/public/indexuk.p But really, what they mean don’t they, is life is long, so long. A marriage, a monogamous sexual relationship, can seem like it goes on forever and ever into the horizon of time. [...]

Macho Fags

Ah, machismo. It is such a pretty word, for such an ugly thing. Imagine it, spoken softly in a lilting Italian brogue, with a sigh, by a devestatingly beautiful, pensive woman. Look at her sat, frowning on the steps of her villa, surrounded by the most picturesque countryside in the world, pondering the sadness of [...]

Stiletto Rage

Arguing about gender roles is something I love to do. I have realised that I particularly enjoy doing it with dominant men, even when I am within striking distance. Foolish maybe, but I cannot help myself. A typical argument might go along these lines: Him:’I would like to see you in stilettos and a tight [...]

Camera Lucida

I am currently reading  Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida , his collection of photographs and essays that examines the personal impact and semiotics of photography. It was inspired by a photograph of Barthes’ mother as a child, which affected him deeply, looking at it after she died. It is Barthes’ final and most personal work, in which [...]

The Bottom Line

‘There are just rather more straight men than gay men – and I find they make much better bottoms….’ I read this sentence on the ‘bottom half of the internet’, that murky underworld that is filled, not quite in equal measure, with a mixture of incomprehensible gibberish, mundanity and real insight into the human condition. [...]