THE
LONDON OBSERVER
NEW YORK NEW HEDONIST
After the Twin Towers attacks, a frightened city indulged in 'terror sex' for comfort. Ten months on, the middle classes can't get enough of erotic parties - and it's no longer just a reaction to fear.
Tanya Corrin and Anna Moore in Manhattan
Sunday July 21, 2002
The Observer
After 11 September, everyday rules were suspended, feelings changed and priorities shifted dramatically. 'There were greater concerns about security, and anthrax. The police and the administration had other things to do than clamp down on strip clubs,' says Turner.
In January, Michael Bloomberg, more liberal and a bachelor, replaced Giuliani as mayor. Within weeks, Prada-clad patrons were dancing on the tables at Bungalow 8, a plush lounge in Chelsea, and the strippers at Babydoll Lounge in TriBeCa began peeling off their itsy-bitsy bikini tops after years of extended tease. Both topless dancing in adult nightclubs and dancing fully clothed in clubs, such as Bungalow 8, that don't have a cabaret licence, are technically illegal; however, the new administration was turning a blind eye.
The Imperial Orgy is proof of this loosening up. Held on a Wednesday evening in a multi-level nightclub called Webster Hall, the event attracts a combination of New York's fetish scene, young professionals and party people.
One of the evening's early attractions is a sex toy shopping buffet, where women in tight latex ballgowns buy Pocket Rocket vibrators and fill their bags with free condoms. At a booth nearby, the Eulenspiegel Society, New York's oldest BDSM club, provides free how-to brochures and offers a sign-up sheet for an introductory class called 'BDSM light'.
Waiting in line for the 'spanking room' are Melanie and Chris, dressed head-to-toe in black and matching masks. Melanie is the director of a well-known SoHo art gallery and Chris is an artist. Who's spanking whom? 'I'm spanking Chris, of course!' she says. Melanie blushes and beams while Chris smiles and giggles.
By 2am the 'lapdance room' has become a more popular option. Inside the low-lit pillow-strewn side wing off the main dance floor on the fifth level, women wearing little more than lingerie and masks straddle their partners and sometimes complete strangers (both male and female), delivering passionate full-frontal, body-heaving, pelvic-grinding performances.
A man with slicked-back hair, dress trousers, white button-down shirt and no tie caresses his girlfriend, who wears a purple feather mask, through the outside of her white La Perla bodysuit. A camera flashes and she touches her mask to ensure it is providing proper coverage. Eventually she moans and sinks deeper into the pillows and the crowd moves on.
I assume she is a paid performer but later learn she is a human resources manager for a financial services firm. Her partner is a research analyst.
According to Turner, diminishing fear of sexually transmitted disease is another reason for events such as the Imperial Orgy. 'Hedonism really took off in an organised fashion when Plato's Retreat opened its doors in 1975,' he says. 'Then the scene died down in the Eighties or Nineties, largely due to Aids. Rightly or wrongly, the sense of panic and dread around Aids has subsided tangibly in New York, especially with the development of drugs that have made it seem treatable.'
Amy Sohn agrees. 'There is a general, almost unspoken feeling that after all the paranoia, it is hard for a straight man who doesn't inject drugs to contract Aids, which makes women feel less at risk too. Many of my friends use condoms intermittently at best.'
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