Yeah, right.

Although the majority of gay men are quick to protest the mainstream stereotypes of gay men, they are often slow in challenging the projected stereotypes gay male culture imposes upon its own society. Raymond M. Berger, author of the book Gay and Gray, writes "Preoccupation with potential discrimination by outsiders often obscures actual discrimination within a minority group's own ranks."

The majority of these stereotypes have been created and perpetuated by mainstream society and nearly always are attacked by gay men for projecting an atypical image of a gay man's appearance, occupation or lifestyle. Although some gay men expend inordinate amounts of time and energy in attempting to dispel mainstream society's stereotypes of gay men, these same men fail to acknowledge their part in perpetuating the very same stereotypes within their own culture. The difference is that when heterosexuals stereotype gays it is called homophobia, but when gay men stereotype gay men, it is often met with laughter and joking among not only gay men, but also among heterosexual society as a whole.

Gay men are attracted to men who are beautiful in much the same way as straight men are attracted to beautiful women, and women and gay men have much in common in their efforts to dispel popular myths of beauty and physical perfection. Within the boundaries of their respective battlefields, women and gay men share the distinction of being sex objects, exploited to the extent that if they fail to meet the accepted criteria of being beautiful they are worth nothing more than a passing, pitiful glance or a ridicule-filled laugh. I know it, I've regretfully done it myself and have seen it done countless times. Whereas the exploitation of women as sex objects and the subsequent ideals of beauty come from the opposite sex, it is other gay men who create an arena for the objectification of gay men and a definition of gay male beauty.

Beauty in gay male culture, as it is espoused and portrayed by those who make up that culture, is not so much a stereotype as it is an archetype. The male form, as long as it boasts a beautiful face and a muscular body, is the May pole around which gay men celebrate and worship their sexuality. Growing old in gay culture has long been equated with growing ugly. Although the belief or myth that a man in straight culture becomes better looking as he grows older (take for example Richard Gere's naming as "The Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine last year), the same belief does not exist in gay male culture. Older gay men are often ostracized from the gay community and are sometimes unwelcome, or not fully represented, in social, professional and political activities that make up the day-to-day existence of younger gay men. For instance, older gay men infrequently visit gay bars, popular among young gay men, because older gay men are oftentimes viewed as an intrusion.

Likewise, black men and men of other racial and ethnic minorities are grossly underrepresented in cultural definitions and descriptions of gay male beauty. The white male is by far the prevailing example of the ideal gay male sex partner. This skirting of the line of racism, disguised in terms of personal taste, is surprising because gay male culture is a community that prides itself on diversity and claims to set an example for the rest of the world in racial and sexual tolerance. For such claims, the gay community is incredibly lax in promoting the existence of men of color in its media and other tools of communication.

Beauty, like ugliness, is natural, as long as it remains an individual's interpretation of what is natural. Beauty ceases to be natural when its definition is dependent upon, and then glorified by, a group of society as a whole. Attractiveness is desired and desirable; unattractiveness is rejected and repulsive. When beauty becomes paramount in a culture or society, it becomes a tool for discrimination and a reason for segregation.

It is no wonder, then, that a popular predominantly gay New York gym would use "No Pecs, No Sex" as its advertising slogan.

Many attractive gay men discriminate against unattractive gay men, and some members of the gay community promote attractiveness as an enviable asset in much the same way the KKK promotes white supremacy or most heterosexuals promote their superiority over homosexuals. Although such comparisons may be dramatic or far-reaching, they are nonetheless accurate; if they were not, the popular and dominant aspects of gay male culture would not rely so heavily on accepted images of gay male beauty to promote and sell their services or products. Propaganda is propaganda.