It’s 2014 and straight men are finally ready to admit that they enjoy anal stimulation — both “giving” and “receiving,” that is.

A thoroughly researched essay titled “The Booty-Eating Renaissance” appeared on Gawker yesterday morning like a final notice to straight dudes everywhere: the days of wincing at “anilingus” are over, and it’s time they realized that “gay men don’t have a monopoly on anuses.”

The hetero male’s crusade to take back anilingus (a term that, FYI, is very different from “rim job”) began months ago in GQ and NY magazine — we even explored the phenomenon back in July — but reporter Tyrone Palmer’s piece for Gawker goes a step further. He’s pretty much already accepted that anilingus is the current trend, and wants to figure out why some straight guys still aren’t ready to say it.

Why does “booty eating” make implications about my sexuality?, he wonders aloud.

He traces the current rise of “booty eating” through super-masculine hip-hop culture up to Fly Young Red, the gay Houston rapper who wanted to normalize gay culture and empower feminine men with his debut hit single “Throw That Boy Pussy”. We guess it worked?

Palmer says:

Trick Daddy, Alkaline, Brian Pumper, Drake (allegedly), and countless gay men (such as rapper Fly Young Red, whose viral hit “Throw That Boy Pussy” included the line “Hold it open, I’ma eat it like a Pac-Man”) publicly extoll the pleasures of receiving anilingus for one reason—it feels good. There are physiological reasons for this—primarily the large amount of nerves endings around the anus. Certainly, there are a number of straight men who privately enjoy receiving anilingus. If sex is about a loss of control and giving into pleasure, why is admitting that you enjoy a highly pleasurable act so rife with implications about your sexuality? The public expression of masculinity is one without much space for vulnerability; and, let’s face it, bending over in front of someone’s face is a fairly vulnerable position to be in.

We’re sure the origins of “booty eating” are debatable, but there’s one point here that definitely is not. “Booty eating” is now officially a thing among heterosexuals.

Photo: Andrew Christian