Sex In The Cities, by David Brooks

New York Times

"Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago and several other academics have recently published a research project called 'The Sexual Organization of the City.' They've found that people construct highly evolved sexual marketplaces, venues where they go to find sex partners. These marketplaces, at least in cities, are incredibly localized; people are not inclined to cross ethnic, racial, sociological or geographical boundaries when looking for a bed mate. Each of these discrete marketplaces has its own rules, and the sex practices in one neighborhood may look nothing like those in the next.

The authors of the study culled data from thousands of interviews in several Chicago neighborhoods and compared behavior across the communities."

I found this statistic the most shocking:

"Shoreland [Laumann gave Chicago's regions silly names] is an affluent white neighborhood on the near northwest side. There is a large gay and lesbian population, and sex is more likely to be impersonal. About 43 percent of the gay men in Shoreland have had more than 60 partners."

There is absolutely no reason that this should make me feel inadequate, but it does anyway. I guess it's the realization I would make an awful gay man. But you know what? I'm ok with that.

But for you gay guys out there: are you sure you want to get married?