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Glory hole (sexual)
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Encyclopedia
A glory hole (also spelled gloryhole and glory-hole) is a hole in a wall, or other partition, often between public lavatory stalls or adult video arcade
Adult video arcade
Adult video arcades are X-rated movie previewing areas. They arealmost always attached to a sex shop or an adult book store , where magazines,movies, and sexual aids are sold. An arcade consists of typically a dozen...

 booths for people to engage in sexual activity or observe the person in the next cubicle while one or both parties masturbate
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...

. The partition maintains anonymity
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...

. Body parts including fingers, tongue and penis may be used for anonymous oral, vaginal and/or anal intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

. Erotic literature and pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

 films have been devoted to the sexual uses of glory holes.

Method of use

A 'glory hole' is usually a waist high hole drilled, punched or filed in a wall between stalls in a public restroom or adult bookstore peepshow; through this hole one man will insert his penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...

 for sexual contact with another person. Usually it is the centralized location which facilitates impersonal, anonymous sex, rather than the structural feature of the setting itself.

To use a glory hole a man puts his finger through the hole to indicate interest in sexual activity. Offering a condom indicates interest in protected sex. If the other party is also interested, he will accept the offer and put his penis through the hole to be serviced. The most common activity is oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...

, and to a lesser extent anal intercourse, a handjob
Handjob
Handjob is a slang or informal word referring to an act of manual stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner, whether female or male, usually to the point of orgasm and ejaculation. The act is similar to male masturbation, though the latter is performed by a male on himself...

, or vaginal intercourse. Glory holes are today most commonly found in established adult video/bookstore arcades, sex club
Sex club
Sex clubs are either groups that organize sex related activities or an establishment where patrons can engage in sex acts with other patrons. A sex club differs from a brothel in that, while sex club patrons typically pay a fee to enter the club, they have sex with other patrons rather than with...

s, gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouses, also known as gay saunas or steam baths, are commercial bathhouses for men to have sex with other men. In gay slang in some regions these venues are also known colloquially as "the baths" or "the tubs," and should not be confused with public bathing.Not all men who visit gay...

s, and adult theater
Adult theater
An adult movie theater is a movie theater where pornographic films are shown to an adult audience. There are usually continuous showings. The movie posters in front of the theaters normally feature no nudity.- Films and patrons :...

s.

If a glory hole is to be found between two booths in a video booth at an adult bookstore, the person who wishes to perform oral sex will normally be seated in a booth. The seated (and sometimes kneeling) position commonly signals to others that they are there in order to perform oral sex - which allows those who wish to receive oral sex to take the adjoining booth. That second person will normally remain standing.

Motivations

Numerous motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...

s can be ascribed to the use and eroticism of glory holes. For some, the sheer anonymity is itself arousing. For others, it can serve as a way to have intimacy without a prolonged relationship, or to ensure sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 compatibility before further pursuing a relationship. Utilizing a gloryhole is also an easy way to mitigate any perceived physical shortcomings like being overweight or somehow less physically attractive. One social theorist has described the attraction of this form of sexual encounter thus: "The ultimate sexual objectification of gay male sexual encounters is the glory hole in public toilets. As a wall separates the two participants, they have no contact except for a mouth, a penis, and perhaps a hand. Almost total anonymity is maintained as no other attributes are taken into consideration." The glory hole is seen as an iconic erotic oasis in gay subcultures around the world; people's motivations, experiences and attributions of value in its use are varied.

In light of the ongoing AIDS pandemic
AIDS pandemic
The acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic is a widespread disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus .Since AIDS was first recognized in 1981, it has led to the deaths of more than 25 million people, making it one of the most destructive diseases in recorded history.Despite recent...

, many gay men are re-evaluating their sexual and erotic desires and practices. Glory holes allow for a physical barrier, which may be an extension of psychological ones where internalized homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 (a result of many societies' widespread abhorrence of LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 practices and people). For some gay men, a glory hole serves to depersonalize their partner altogether as a disembodied object of sexual desire, either sticking through or on the other side of the hole. These motivations might well be considered characteristically male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...

 motivations, as opposed to specifically gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and/or bisexual men's motives.

Legal and health concerns

Public sex of any kind is illegal in many parts of the world; and police undercover operations continue to be used in order to enforce such laws. Adverse personal consequences to participants in glory hole activity have included police surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

, public humiliation in the press, and criminal convictions. Gay bashing
Gay bashing
Gay bashing and gay bullying is verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender . Such abuse is used also to bully heterosexual persons and persons of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation.A "bashing" may be a specific incident, and one...

, mugging
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....

, and bodily injury are further potential risks. For reasons of personal safety, as well as etiquette
Etiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...

, men typically wait for a signal from the receptive partner to come through the hole before inserting any part of their genitals through a glory hole.

In addition to safety and legal risks, there is a heightened risk of sexually transmitted diseases associated with having sex with infected partners. This risk can be reduced through the use of condoms, although their use in glory hole activity is not common.

In popular culture

In John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

's 1994 dark comedy film Serial Mom
Serial Mom
Serial Mom is a 1994 American dark satire written and directed by John Waters, starring Kathleen Turner as the title character, Sam Waterston as her husband, and Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard as her children. Despite statements to the contrary in the movie, the story is completely fictional...

, a glory hole is used as a plot device
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....

 when an eyewitness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...

 sees the title character through the hole hiding in the neighboring stall prior to a murder at the nearby urinals. An earlier film by Waters, Desperate Living
Desperate Living
Desperate Living is a 1977 American crime comedy fantasy horror film directed, produced, written, and photographed by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Liz Renay, Jean Hill, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Mary Vivian Pearce.-Plot:...

 (1977), contained a scene in a women's lavatory depicting a chest-high double glory hole—for breasts.

The opening stunt in Jackass Number Two features a man inserting his penis into a glory hole that opens up into the cage of a hungry snake, which proceeded to violently bite his penis.

In the 2000 comedy Scary Movie
Scary Movie
Scary Movie is a 2000 comedy-parody film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, as part of Warner Bros. Entertainment. It is an American dark comedy which heavily parodies the horror, slasher, and mystery genres...

, which spoofs popular horror films, Shawn Wayans' character Ray, who had shown stereotypical signs of being gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 or closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...

 throughout the movie, goes to the bathroom in a theater. Upon seeing a glory hole and hearing sexual noises, he proceeds to listen with his ear pressed to the hole and is suddenly impaled through his head by a penis.

In the 2002 film The Sweetest Thing
The Sweetest Thing
The Sweetest Thing is a 2002 American film farce directed by Roger Kumble and written by Nancy Pimental, who based the characters on herself and friend Kate Walsh...

, Cameron Diaz gets injured in the eye when she unknowingly peers through a glory hole in a men's restroom.

In the fifth season (6th episode) of the television crime drama The Shield
The Shield
The Shield is an American television drama series starring Michael Chiklis which premiered on March 12, 2002 on FX in the United States and concluded on November 25, 2008 after seven seasons...

, a married man patronizing a glory hole in a public restroom was assaulted with a rat trap. Four episodes later, a second attack that resulted in a severed member had a quick shot of the bloody glory hole.

In the 2008 teen sex comedy Sex Drive
Sex Drive (film)
Sex Drive is a 2008 sex comedy film about a high school graduate who goes on a cross-country road trip to hook up with a girl he met online. It is based on the novel All the Way, by Andy Behrens. The film was directed by Sean Anders, and stars Josh Zuckerman, Clark Duke, Amanda Crew, and Katrina...

, the protagonist Ian (Josh Zuckerman
Josh Zuckerman
Josh Zuckerman may refer to:*Josh Zuckerman , American singer/songwriter*Josh Zuckerman , American actor...

) uses a roadside reststop and while in the stall a "men's room predator" (Allen Zwolle) who is trolling for sex sticks his erect penis through a glory hole. Meanwhile Ian is preoccupied texting and making appreciative noises about the conversation, which are comically misinterpreted as affirming his desire to have a sexual experience with the other man; he mistakenly also grabs the man's penis, which was obscured by toilet paper.

On May 23, 2008 the popular Youtube comedian Alex Day discussed the absurd idea of glory holes in his videos.

Further reading


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
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