Men bath house
The American Man: A Sunday Morning at the Bath House
Sunday mornings are for men only at the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village, and I’m pretty sure that you know what that means. So I’m nervous in my red swim trunks on this boiling August morning because I’m used to passing but, unlike the eyes-averse gym locker rooms I’ve grown accustomed to, I’m also relatively certain that for most dudes who go to a guys-only bathhouse on a Sunday morning, dicks are kind of the whole point.
I’m here because, for me, a vertical, bearded, tattooed trans man with a different sort of anatomy, a bathhouse feels thrilling, risky even. Everything about me is self-made, hard-won: this hairy stomach, these chest muscles, this carefully trimmed beard—all of it a mosaic that makes my reflection strange but not dissonant, all of it my ticket into this grimy, foul-smelling, sexed-up space.
It’s one thing to exposure my body with needles and scalpels and the threat of cancer. It’s quite another to be exposed to a mob of dudes in a dank, dungeon-like basement of steam rooms and a sad-looking po
The Freddie Guide to: Bathhouses
What is a bathhouse?
Bathhouses – also known as baths, saunas, or queer saunas – are spaces where lgbtq+ men* meet to socialise, relax and have sex. They are legal, licensed sex venues, as opposed to regular saunas or steam rooms where people cruise.
The number of gay bathhouses in North America peaked in the s. Most of them closed in the s, as local governments made general health rules to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic. These rules were often rooted in homophobia.
Today, there are still bathhouses in most major cities across the world. You can find them through Google or on cruising sites fond of Squirt and Sniffies.
* Historically, bathhouses only admitted cisgender men. They are generally becoming more inclusive. Many have more relaxed door policies or dedicated times and events that are safer spaces for trans and non-binary people. If this applies to you, it’s top to check online or ring ahead before visiting a venue for the first time.
When you arrive
When you reach at a bathhouse, you’ll get to a front desk with an attendant. Thi
My Very Last Night in a Gay Bathhouse
THE LAST TIME I went to the gay baths, some years ago, I stepped in poop. Actually, more like a pile of poop, because it crept up between my toes for a horrific second before I realized what my bare feet had stumbled across.
I made the grim discovery while standing in the private room of another customer there, making small talk. While I had hopes of more meaningful communication, my plan was cut brief when I stepped forward and directly into the offending dung heap.
Lurching help and out of the room, I limped posthaste in the direction of the wet area, walking on my heel, grimy toes splayed upwards. As I negotiated the crusty terrain of the carpeted hallways, there occurred to me many questions.
Whose poop was that? How did it get there? Should I go back and tell the guy I stepped in it? Did he know there was poop in his room? Was it his poop? Did he want me to step in it? Was it a poop trap?
The episode spoiled whatever momentum my evening may have had. Later, sitting in the lounge area &#; same men, identical towels, but with smoking an
I'm a bath house virgin. I've been near many, stayed next door to one before in Montreal as well as Chicago, but never took the steps to go into one. I've chatted with friends before about their visitations to bath houses, but the conversations did not get too colorful, maybe because I was not too interested and maybe because I didn't want to know about all the penetrating details.
Gareth Johnson has recently done some leg work for us that want to recognize more about bath houses, but are too bashful right now to proceed into one. Here is his chat with Twitter user and gay bathhouse enthusiast MännerSpa to talk about saunas, men, and sex.
When did you first call on a bathhouse?
I was in my early 20s — it was Steamworks in Chicago. Around the same time I also visited the celebrated Man’s Country in Chicago, it’s since closed. I see those visits as being my initiation into the world of the gay bathhouse— one unused school, one old school.
Did it live up to your expectations?
Although I consideration I knew what I was venturing in