Editing Disco (section)

===Eroticism and sexual liberation===
According to [[Peter Braunstein]], the "massive quantities of [[drug]]s ingested in discothèques produced the next [[cultural phenomenon]] of the disco era: rampant [[promiscuity]] and [[public sex]]. While the dance floor was the central arena of [[seduction]], actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit [[stairwell]]s, and so on. In other cases the disco became a kind of 'main course' in a hedonist's menu for a night out."<ref name=r1/> At [[The Saint (club)|The Saint]] nightclub, a high percentage of the [[gay male]] dancers and patrons would have sex in the club; they typically had [[Safe sex|unprotected sex]], because in 1980, [[HIV-AIDS]] had not yet been identified.<ref name="Tim Lawrence 2011">Tim Lawrence. "The Forging of a White Gay Aesthetic at the Saint, 1980–84". In: Dancecult, 3, 1, 2011, pp. 1–24. Online version: {{cite web|url=http://www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2013/7/2/the-forging-of-a-white-gay-aesthetic-at-the-saint-1980-84-dancecult|title=The Forging of a White Gay Aesthetic at the Saint, 1980–84|website=Timlawrence.info|date=July 2, 2013 |access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031074802/http://www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2013/7/2/the-forging-of-a-white-gay-aesthetic-at-the-saint-1980-84-dancecult|archive-date=October 31, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> At The Saint, "dancers would elope to an unpoliced upstairs balcony to engage in sex."<ref name="Tim Lawrence 2011"/> The promiscuity and public sex at discos was part of a broader trend towards exploring a freer sexual expression in the 1970s, an era that is also associated with "[[Swinging (sexual practice)|swingers clubs]], [[hot tub]]s, [and] [[Group sex#Key party|key parties]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://flashbak.com/the-decade-of-decadence-a-quick-look-at-the-sexual-revolution-29469/|title=The Decade of Decadence: A Quick Look at The Sexual Revolution – Flashbak|date=March 2, 2015|website=Flashbak.com|access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028094117/https://flashbak.com/the-decade-of-decadence-a-quick-look-at-the-sexual-revolution-29469/|archive-date=October 28, 2017|url-status=live}}.</ref>

In his paper, "In Defense of Disco" (1979), [[Richard Dyer]] claims [[eroticism]] as one of the three main characteristics of disco.<ref name="Dyer">Richard Dyer: "In Defense of Disco." In: Gay Left, 8, Summer 1979, pp. 20-23. Reprinted in: Mark J. Butler (ed): Electronica, Dance and Club Music. New York/London: Routledge 2017, pp. 121-127.</ref> As opposed to [[rock music]] which has a very [[Phallocentrism|phallic centered]] eroticism focusing on the sexual pleasure of men over other persons, Dyer describes disco as featuring a non-phallic full body eroticism.<ref name="Dyer"/> Through a range of percussion instruments, a willingness to play with rhythm, and the endless repeating of phrases without cutting the listener off, disco achieved this full-body eroticism by restoring eroticism to the whole body for both sexes.<ref name="Dyer"/> This allowed for the potential expression of sexualities not defined by the cock/penis, and the erotic pleasure of bodies that are not defined by a relationship to a penis.<ref name="Dyer"/> The sexual liberation expressed through the rhythm of disco is further represented in the club spaces that disco grew within.

In [[Peter Shapiro (journalist)|Peter Shapiro]]'s ''[[Modulations: A History of Electronic Music]]: Throbbing Words on Sound'', he discusses eroticism through the technology disco utilizes to create its audacious sound.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Peter |title=Modulations : a history of electronic music : throbbing words on sound |year=2000 |publisher=Caipirinha Productions |isbn=1-891024-06-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/modulationshisto00shap/page/40 40]–49 |url=https://archive.org/details/modulationshisto00shap|url-access=registration }}</ref> The music, Shapiro states, is adjunct to "the pleasure-is-politics ethos of post-[[Stonewall riots|Stonewall]] culture." He explains how "mechano-eroticism", which links the technology used to create the unique mechanical sound of disco to eroticism, set the genre in a new dimension of reality living outside of naturalism and heterosexuality. Randy Jones and Mark Jacobsen echo this sentiment in BBC Radio's "The Politics of Dancing: How Disco Changed the World," describing the loose, hip-focused dance style as "a new kind of communion" that celebrates the sparks of liberation brought on the Stonewall riots.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0124284 | title=The Politics of Dancing: How Disco Changed the World - BBC Sounds | access-date=December 15, 2023 | archive-date=May 22, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522075951/https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0124284 | url-status=live }}</ref> As New York state had laws against homosexual behavior in public, including dancing with a member of the same sex, the eroticism of disco served as resistance and an expression of sexual freedom.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots | title=1969 Stonewall Riots - Origins, Timeline & Leaders | date=June 23, 2023 | access-date=December 15, 2023 | archive-date=June 26, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626084016/https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/the-stonewall-riots | url-status=live }}</ref>

He uses Donna Summer's singles "[[Love to Love You Baby (song)|Love to Love You Baby]]" (1975) and "[[I Feel Love]]" (1977) as examples of the ever-present relationship between the synthesized bass lines and backgrounds to the simulated sounds of orgasms. Summer's voice echoes in the tracks, and likens them to the drug-fervent, sexually liberated fans of disco who sought to free themselves through disco's "aesthetic of machine sex."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Peter |title=Modulations : a history of electronic music : throbbing words on sound |date=2000 |publisher=Caipirinha Productions |isbn=1-891024-06-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/modulationshisto00shap/page/44 44] |url=https://archive.org/details/modulationshisto00shap|url-access=registration }}</ref> Shapiro sees this as an influence that creates sub-genres like [[hi-NRG]] and [[Dub music|dub]]-disco, which allowed for eroticism and technology to be further explored through intense synth bass lines and alternative rhythmic techniques that tap into the entire body rather than the obvious erotic parts of the body.

The New York nightclub The Sanctuary under resident DJ [[Francis Grasso]] is a prime example of this sexual liberty. In their history of the disc jockey and club culture, [[Bill Brewster (DJ)|Bill Brewster]] and Frank Broughton describe the Sanctuary as "poured full of newly liberated gay men, then shaken (and stirred) by a weighty concoction of dance music and pharmacoia of pills and potions, the result is a festivaly of carnality."{{sfn|Brewster|Broughton|2000|p=134}} The Sanctuary was the "first totally uninhibited gay discotheque in America" and while sex was not allowed on the dancefloor, the dark corners, bathrooms. and hallways of the adjacent buildings were all utilized for orgy-like sexual engagements.{{sfn|Brewster|Broughton|2000|p=134}}

By describing the music, drugs, and liberated mentality as a trifecta coming together to create the festival of carnality, Brewster and Broughton are inciting all three as stimuli for the dancing, sex, and other embodied movements that contributed to the corporeal vibrations within the Sanctuary. It supports the argument that disco music took a role in facilitating this sexual liberation that was experienced in the discotheques. The recent legalization of abortion and the introduction of antibiotics and [[Birth control pill|the pill]] facilitated a culture shift around sex from one of procreation to pleasure and enjoyment. Thus was fostered a very sex-positive framework around discotheques.{{sfn|Brewster|Broughton|2000|p=127}}

Further, in addition to gay sex being illegal in New York state, until 1973 the [[American Psychiatric Association]] classified homosexuality as an illness.{{sfn|Brewster|Broughton|2000|p=134}} This law and classification coupled together can be understood to have heavily dissuaded the expression of queerness in public, as such the liberatory dynamics of discotheques can be seen as having provided space for self-realization for queer persons. David Mancuso's club/house party, [[The Loft (New York City)|The Loft]], was described as having a "[[pansexual]] attitude [that] was revolutionary in a country where up until recently it had been illegal for two men to dance together unless there was a woman present; where women were legally obliged to wear at least one recognizable item of female clothing in public; and where men visiting gay bars usually carried bail money with them."{{sfn|Brewster|Broughton|2000|p=148}}