Poppers: How gay culture bottled a formula that has broken down boundari | The Inpennt | The Inpennt

Contents:

• POPPERS, ONCE A FIXTURE AT GAY CLUBS, NOW A ‘PARTY GIRL’ FAVORE
• HOW A VICTORIAN HEART MEDICE BEME A GAY SEX DG
• POPPERS: HOW GAY CULTURE BOTTLED A FORMULA THAT HAS BROKEN DOWN BOUNDARI
• POPPERS, GAY SUBCULTURE, AND QUEER FUTUR

POPPERS, ONCE A FIXTURE AT GAY CLUBS, NOW A ‘PARTY GIRL’ FAVORE

Dpe a 1978 Time Magaze article notg their e among a small subset of “avant-gar heterosexuals, ” the chemil (amyl nre and s var offshoots) is typilly associated wh queer people, pecially gay men. Sce their wispread adoptn gay circl the mid-20th century, poppers have bee a qutsential facet of gay nightlife and sexual pleasure — small bursts of chemil ecstasy that have retaed a murky legaly the US and UK, spe beg (dubly) tied to the HIV/AIDS his book-length exploratn of the substance, Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futur, out now om Repeater Books, Brish wrer Adam Zmh explor the role of poppers mercializg gay inty, spurrg HIV/AIDS fears, and tighteng the straightjacket of hyper-macho gay masculy — an experience Zmh himself has wrtled wh for much of his is a natural f to narrate the dg’s plited legacy. ” More than jt a survey of the past, Zmh’s text aims to employ queer history to help image new spac where all of n feel the sh of eedom and pleasure approximated (momentarily) by dgs like Zmh criqu poppers’ ti to narrow visns of gay masculy, elsewhere the text his attentn turns to their utopic potential, most notably picted Leo Herrera’s 2020 film, The Fathers Project.

An alternate historil drama which the AIDS crisis never happened, Herrera’s work rests poppers as an STI-protectg dg distributed crowd gay clubs. Still, Zmh tak issue wh how even wh Herrera’s reimaged timele, the world is improved solely for hyper-macho gay men. Ught up wh Zmh om his London flat, where we discsed popper’s ntradictory stat as dtrial substance and nsumer product, stgglg wh nostalgic imag of past gay life, and the dg’s abily to aid envisng queer utopia.

HOW A VICTORIAN HEART MEDICE BEME A GAY SEX DG

What led to the strange marketg of poppers, particularly their relatnship to macho gay masculy? Poppers beme a part of gay culture and gay art through posters and advertisg.

Here, I'm g “gay” specifilly as a rtrictive tegory, bee that's what the mographic for this activy was, pecially the ‘70s when we saw those adverts emerge.

POPPERS: HOW GAY CULTURE BOTTLED A FORMULA THAT HAS BROKEN DOWN BOUNDARI

The fact that there was this exprsn of gay feelg and gay experience our culture, and that the materialy of that arts culture, and that all of this was put to the servic of sellg a product, is probably the most patrtic Amerin ’s more, terted me how you uld take the feelg of a growg muny of margalized people, people who found power each other ncentrated plac like San Francis and New York, and then take that experience and modify to sell a product to them. Even wh that tegory of gay men, they were extremely narrow reprentatns — I don't have the body they were showg, I’m two feet smaller than any of those guys, and I don't even have one ab, like any of the guys the film. They’re not micro energy drks — they’re poppers, a choice dg among gay partiers for 101 on PoppersAlkyl nr (as poppers are formally known) relax your md and some key parts of your body.

POPPERS, GAY SUBCULTURE, AND QUEER FUTUR

Why else do you thk gays vented the stuff? You n orr them onle (but be reful about what se you choose) and most porn shops, pecially those that service the gay muny, will have a few bottl for sale on RponsiblyEven though poppers aren’t exactly illegal and n be purchased rather easily, they aren’t risk ee. Popular dance clubs durg paleo-gay era3.

Some gay men say helps wh bottomg5. Poppers have been part of the “gay scene” sce the mid-1960’s.

Given tert the topic, Gay Pop Buzz set out to fd the answers.