Another form of pop culture in which we can investigate for political representations is adult entertainment venues. More specifically focusing on the gay bathhouses in the 1970’s as well as porn theatres. Gay bathhouses also known as “gay saunas” or “steam baths” were places for men to go to have sex with other men. These places emerged during a time of sexual freedom for gay men. They allowed gay men to go to a public place to engage in activities that were otherwise deemed immoral. They were sites where homosexual men could feel safe about being gay and offered a much safer alternative to sex in other public places. "They were a symbol of gay liberation," said Laurie McBride, former president of a gay business association. "Many of them were really, really gorgeous--not sleazy back rooms” (Debare). Along with the bathhouses, porn…show more content… At this time particular theories of violence and gender oppression entered academic and political conversations (209). As the first U.S. city to pass an anti-pornography civil rights ordinance, Minneapolis is was and is central to the feminist debates about the production, consumption, and regulation of pornography (209). The anti-pornography feminist movement was organized around two ideas: “1) pornography is degrading to women and, 2) that it was complicit in—and possibly a direct cause of male violence against women, both in it’s production (where labor practices were notoriously exploitive to women in the industry), and in it’s consumption (where activists argued, pornographic images eroticized and reinforced patriarchal violence)” (209). Massive drives against gay and lesbian bars swept most large American cities as the bars developed into the major gay institution in the United States. These national anti-homosexual campaigns created a growing population of gay refugees moving from city to city looking for safe places to
