Hot Instructional Book of the Month!

Filed Under Books & Mags, Gossip, Sex | September 11th, 2007 

Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (Observations) by Laud HumphreysI read an excellent article today at Slate by Christopher Hitchens titled: “So Many Men’s Rooms, So Little Time – Why men like Larry Craig continue to court danger in public places“.

In the article, Craig mentions a book written in the 70’s about public restroom sex or Tearooms. Unfortunately there wasn’t a link for said book, so I decided to see if it was still in print. It is.

Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (Observations) by Laud Humphreys explores the behavior of men whose closet homosexuality was kept from their families and neighbors. By combining participant observation with structured as well as informal interviews, Tearoom Trade still furnishes a controversial example of recent social science methods.

Or in Hitchens’ words: “Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places a doctoral thesis which was published in 1970, detailed exactly the pattern—of foot-tapping in code, hand-gestures, and other tactics”.

On an interesting related note, the book also details what types of men tend to participate in this activity.