Toronto writer Bobby Box has written an op-ed in advocate about the state of bathhouse in the age of hook-up apps. Before doing anything he did a poll on twitter
Do you think, with the popularity of apps like Grindr and the impersonal nature this culture offers, that bathhouses will remain in business 10 – 20 years from now?
An overwhelming 69% voted YES!
“I do think they may have to change up their business model to become more like community hubs and multipurpose spaces. Ironically, much like the bathhouses that we saw in New York in the 1970s,” Dave, one of the men who voted in the poll, shares. “The warehouse parties that we are seeing now are one extension of those sexual spaces.”
Bobby Box writes in his op-ed
While the way gay men socialize and pursue sex has undoubtedly shifted, but it’s evident we’re still deeply nostalgic for the social nature of a bathhouse.
And with sex-positive parties gain serious momentum in metropolitan cities as gay bars continuing to disappear, it should be noted that these new spaces are the very reflection of what the bathhouse has done seemingly forever.
Because they both are places where people can socialize away from their phone, and are one of the only places where we can still connect by disconnecting.
And this fact is something an app cannot and will not ever possess.
To read the op-ed in full go to Can Bathhouses Survive the Age of Grindr?
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