Slate's Bizbox
human nature: Science, technology, and life.

Bareback MountainGays, horses, bimbos, and bestiality.

By William Saletan
Posted Friday, May 4, 2007, at 11:58 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

The parties were "a potluck supper kind of thing," says the Happy Horseman. "It was pretty much a classless society of our own little small world. No one had any kind of different statuses. … There was no alphas and omegas and betas." The men would drink, smoke, chat, and watch movies. Then, says H, one of them might suggest, "Hey, let's go out to the barn and pester the animals." In the re-enactment, the men leave the house and head out into the darkness.

It's just like a gay orgy, except that it's the opposite. The guys aren't there to have sex with one another. They're there to have conversation with one another, followed by sex with beasts whose cousins the men regard as barbecue meat. The classlessness of the society in the house conceals its abuse of the society in the barn. Later, the men return from the barn, bonded together in silent triumph. This isn't a gay party. It's a frat party.

If you're worried about where this mentality comes from, don't look at Brokeback Mountain. Look at Limbaugh. Like the zoophiles, he exalts stupid sex objects. "How many of you women in the audience, in the deepest, dark secrets of your dreams and desires, would be flattered to be hired as eye candy?" he asked his listeners a year ago. "I'm not talking about being chased around the desk," he added. "But probably some women wouldn't be bothered by that, either."

Like the zoophiles, Limbaugh loves a frat party. Long before the Duke rape case unraveled, he called the alleged victims "hos." When the Abu Ghraib scandal erupted, he joked, "Have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes!" What had happened in the prison, he shrugged, was "no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it," just "because they had a good time."

To Limbaugh, women are just like animals. Don't take my word for it. Take his. Five months ago, he compared his cat to a girlfriend: "She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat's taught me more about women than anything my whole life."

That's the kind of frat-boy thinking that ends with a bunch of drunken idiots in a barn. The next time you hear that biblical injunction against lying down with mankind, remember that the alternatives could be worse.

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.
Still from Zoo courtesy ThinkFilm. All rights reserved.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Let the Oil Deals Flow
Raad Alkadiri | Congress should not interfere in the oil industry's contract negotiations with the Iraqi government.