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In popular culture

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Glory hole

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Glory hole (disambiguation).

A glory hole in a restroom stall

A glory hole (also spelled gloryhole and glory-hole) is a hole in a wall or partition, often between public
lavatory cubicles or sex video arcade booths and lounges, for people to engage in sexual activity or to
observe the person on the opposite side.

Glory holes are especially associated with gay male culture and anal or oral sex.[1][2][3] They are not
exclusively favoured by gay people, and have become more commonly acknowledged as a fetish for
heterosexual and bisexual individuals.[4]

In more recent years, public glory holes have faded in popularity in many countries,[5] though some gay
websites offer directories of remaining ones. Glory holes are sometimes a topic of erotic literature,
and pornographic films have been devoted to their use.[2]

Motivations

[edit]

Numerous motivations can be ascribed to the use and eroticism of glory holes. As a wall separates the
two participants, they have no contact except for a penis and a mouth, hand, anus, or vagina. Almost
total anonymity is maintained, as no other attributes are taken into consideration.[6] The glory hole is
seen as an erotic oasis in gay subcultures around the world; people's motives, experiences and
attributions of value in its use are varied.[7][8]

In light of the ongoing HIV pandemic, many gay men reevaluated their sexual and erotic desires and
practices.[9] Queer theorist Tim Dean has suggested that glory holes allow for a physical barrier, which
may be an extension of psychological barriers, in which there is internalized homophobia (a result of
many societies' reluctance to discuss LGBT practices and people).[9] For some gay men, a glory hole
depersonalizes their partner altogether as a disembodied object of sexual desire.[9]

History

[edit]

A Man Exposing Himself Through a Hole in the Fence, 1600–1635,

by tr:Nev'îzâde Atâyî

The first documented instance of a glory hole was in a 1707 court case known as the "Tryals of Thomas
Vaughan and Thomas Davis" in London, which involved the extortion of a man known in the documents
only as Mr Guillam.[10][3] At the time, gay sex in public places could lead to arrests by members of
the Society for the Reformation of Manners. Often the authorities would wait outside the Lincoln's Inn
bog house in London as one place to catch people.

The courts heard that a man (Mr Guillam) had visited a lavatory stall to relieve himself, when another
male put his penis through a hole in the wall ("a Boy in the adjoyning Vault put his Privy-member
through a Hole").[11] Mr Guillam, surprised by the action, fled the lavatory, only to be followed by the
male who cried out that he would have had sex with him. Mr Guillam was then confronted by Mr
Vaughan who, knowing Mr Guillam's innocence, threatened to turn him in to the police and reveal him
to his wife if he did not pay him a sum of money.

During the mid-1900s, police often used bathroom glory holes as an entrapment method for gay men,
often recording the incidents as evidence to prosecute.[4] Such incidents were recorded in California and
Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s, with archival police footage of "tearooms" appearing on pornography
websites such as Pornhub.

According to the Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang, "glory hole" first appeared in print in
1949, when an anonymously published glossary, Swasarnt Nerf's Gay Girl's Guide, defined it as "[a]
phallic size hole in partition between toilet booths. Sometimes used also for a mere peep-hole." [3]
Another reference to glory holes appeared in Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, a
controversial book published by sociologist Laud Humphreys in 1970, where he suggests the "tearoom",
or bathroom stall, as a prime space for men to congregate for sexual fulfilment. It also appeared later in
the 1977 book The Joy of Gay Sex.[12]

Public glory holes started to fade in popularity as the decriminalization of homosexuality was introduced
in many countries, and concerns over HIV/AIDS changed gay culture. A 2001 study in the Journal of
Homosexuality found that public glory holes remained popular among many gay men "simply because
they find [them] exciting and/or convenient."[3]

Despite the fading prominence of glory holes in public, some gay bath houses and sex clubs maintain the
presence of glory holes in their establishments, and some people have acknowledged installing private
glory-hole walls in their own homes.[4] Bathroom sex remains a fetish for a subset of gay men in
particular, who engage in similarly anonymous acts below a bathroom stall separator rather than
through a hole.

In 2018, the Western Australian Museum added a "historic glory hole" to its collection. It had been
situated in the toilet stall of the Albany Highway-side of the Gosnells train station, but was removed and
saved in 1997 before the toilet was demolished.[13][14]

The Leather Archives & Museum was loaned a glory hole from Man’s Country in Chicago in June 2019.[15]

A 2020 BuzzFeed article collected anecdotes from gay, straight and bisexual readers recounting their
experiences with glory holes at swinger parties.[4]

Legal and health concerns

[edit]

A blocked glory hole in Chengdu

Public sex of any kind is illegal in many parts of the world, and police undercover operations continue to
be used to enforce such laws.[16] Adverse personal consequences to participants in glory hole activity
have included police surveillance and public humiliation in the press, often with marital and employment
consequences, and imprisonment following a criminal conviction. Gay bashing, mugging and bodily
injury are further potential risks. For reasons of personal safety, as well as etiquette, men typically wait
for a signal from the receptive partner before inserting their genitals through a glory hole.[citation needed]

Potential health advantage

[edit]

In June 2020, a New York Health Department COVID-19 advisory suggested sex through "physical
barriers, like walls", but did not specifically reference glory holes, as part of broader measures on dating
and sex during the pandemic.[17]

About a month later, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control went a step further with its COVID-
19 precautionary recommendations by suggesting using "barriers, like walls (e.g., glory holes), that allow
for sexual contact but prevent close face-to-face contact" as one way to lower the risk of exposure to the
virus.[18]

In popular culture

[edit]

Glory holes are a recurring theme in pornography. Straight porn often features scenarios involving them;
in some instances, it involves kink mistresses, who see it as a form of women's sexual agency and
mastery.[4]

The early 20th-century pornographic cartoon Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure depicts the use of an
improvised glory hole for zoophilic purposes.

Jackass Number Two features a stunt where cast member Chris Pontius dresses his penis in a mouse
costume and inserts it into a glory hole that feeds into a snake's cage.

In The Illuminatus! Trilogy a glory hole, in the form of a giant golden apple with an opening in it, is used
as part of the Discordian initiation ritual, causing the main character to wonder who or what is on the
other side.

American glam metal band Steel Panther's album All You Can Eat features a song entitled "Gloryhole",
about the narrator's frequent visits to a local gloryhole.

In the "Mac and Charlie Die (Part 1)" episode of the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the gang
discovers a glory hole has been added to the men's bathroom in their bar.

In 2024, comedy duo Rhett and Link gamified the glory hole for their annual Good Mythical
Evening livestream. The game included a "Gory Hole" as the event was Halloween themed. The
participant was instructed to guess what inanimate object was poking out of the hole while blindfolded
and unable to use their hands.

The Lonely Island returned to form with SNL Digital Short “Sushi Glory Hole” on the October 6, 2024
episode of Saturday Night Live.

See also
[edit]

 Cottaging – term referring to anonymous male–male sex in a public lavatory

 Gay bathhouse

 Gay beat

 Gay cruising in England and Wales

 Polari

 Troll (gay slang)

References

[edit]

1. ^ Murphy, Timothy F. (1994). Gay Ethics: Controversies in Outing, Civil Rights, and Sexual
Science. Haworth Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-56023-056-4. Retrieved 31 December 2007.

2. ^ Jump up to:a b Burger, John Robert (1995). One-Handed Histories: The Eroto-Politics of
Gay Male Video. Haworth Press. ISBN 1-56024-860-2. Retrieved 31 December 2007.

3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Murphy, Rhodes (29 July 2019). "Who Do We Have to Thank for
"Glory Holes"—Glass Blowers or Gays?". Slate. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e "We Asked People Why They Use Glory Holes. Boy, Did They
Answer". BuzzFeed News. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

5. ^ DiMauro, Anthony (1 September 2020). "A Forgotten Sex Act's Unlikely Renaissance in
the Pandemic". Slate. Archived from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 16
July 2022.

6. ^ Blachford, Gregg (2002). "Male dominance and the gay world". In Plummer, Kenneth
(ed.). Sexualities: Difference and the diversity of sexualities. Taylor & Francis.
p. 301. ISBN 978-0-415-21275-5.

7. ^ Bapst, Don (June 2001). "Glory Holes and the Men who use Them". Journal of
Homosexuality. 41 (1): 89–
102. doi:10.1300/J082v41n01_02. PMID 11453517. S2CID 43917317.

8. ^ Tewksbury, Richard (2004). "The Intellectual Legacy of Laud Humphreys: His Impact on
Research and Thinking about Men's Public Sexual Encounters". International Journal of
Sociology and Social Policy. 24 (3/4/5): 47. doi:10.1108/01443330410790867.

9. ^ Jump up to:a b c Dean, Tim (2000). Beyond Sexuality. University of Chicago

Press. ISBN 0-226-13934-4. Retrieved 31 December 2007. gloryhole.

10. ^ "A History of Homoerotica". rictornorton.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

11. ^ "Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: Trials of Thomas Vaughan and Thomas

Davis, 1707". rictornorton.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
 12. ^ "A Probing History of Glory Holes". MEL Magazine. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 27
July 2020.

13. ^ "Loo door 'too tacky to display'". PerthNow. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 27
July 2020.

14. ^ Herald, Your (7 December 2018). "WA's glorious history". Perth Voice Interactive.
Retrieved 27 July 2020.

15. ^ Rhodes, Adam M. (29 October 2020). "Gay bathhouses were barely surviving. And
then came COVID-19". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2 December 2023.

16. ^ Jaffe, Harold (2005). Terror-Dot-Gov. Raw Dog Screaming Press. p. 28. ISBN 1-933293-
09-8. Retrieved 31 December 2007.

17. ^ Parker-Pope, Tara (11 June 2020). "Masks, No Kissing and 'a Little Kinky': Dating and
Sex in a Pandemic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

18. ^ "Try 'glory holes' for safer sex during coronavirus, B.C. CDC says". Global News.
Retrieved 27 July 2020.

Further reading

[edit]

 "The Little Black Book: This one can keep you out of trouble" (Lambda Legal Defense and
Education Fund

 "Gloryholes" essay at rotten.com

 An article that gives legal advice on cruising for sex.

 Holeyfield, Glorenthal (2019). The Private Gloryhole Revolution (3rd ed.). Europe:
GloryholeBook.com. p. 69. ASIN B07W9KRWQB. Archived from the original on 13 December
2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.

 Green, Jonathon (2006). Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2nd ed.). London: Sterling
Publishing. ISBN 0-304-36636-6. Retrieved 21 September 2007.

 Gage, Simon; et al. (2002). Queer. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-377-0.

 Zeeland, Steven (1995). Sailors and Sexual Identity: Crossing the Line Between "Straight" and
"Gay". Haworth Press. ISBN 1-56024-850-5. Retrieved 22 September 2007. (Includes several
glory hole encounters by Navy members)

 Humphreys, Laud (1970). Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. Vol. 54 (Enlarged
Edition (1975) ed.). Aldine Transaction. pp. 1–138. ISBN 978-0-202-30283-6. PMID 4466485.
Retrieved 22 September 2007. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

 Bapst, Don (2001). "Glory Holes and the Men Who Use Them". Journal of Homosexuality. 41 (1):
89–102. doi:10.1300/J082v41n01_02. PMID 11453517. S2CID 43917317. Retrieved 22
 September 2007. This paper gives a brief description of the "glory hole" and its popularity in
certain areas of public homosexual activity... (quote from the abstract)

 Holmes, Dave; O'Byrne, Patrick; Murray, Stuart J. (2010). "Faceless Sex: Glory Holes and Sexual
Assemblages". Nursing Philosophy. 11 (4): 250–259. doi:10.1111/j.1466-
769X.2010.00452.x. PMID 20840136.

External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glory holes.

 A Sex Stop on the Way Home by Corey Kilgannon, New York Times, September 21, 2005

 The Little Black Book: This one can keep you out of trouble Archived 21 June 2007 at
the Wayback Machine, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund; archived copy, pdf
format, archived here. An article regarding legal issues of sex in public restrooms.

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