Is there such a thing as a pornography recycling center? I just got a new girlfriend and she wants me to get rid of my collection of porno videos (about 30). I also have some hard-core het print magazines I want to get rid of (they remind me of a time when I had neither girlfriend nor VCR). You can’t just toss these things in the garbage, for fear that someone might find them, and none of my friends wants my old porn. How do I get rid of this stuff? I don’t want to be one of those perverts who advertises their “3,000-title porn collection” in the newspaper.
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However, you can get some cash for your trash: many adult bookstores buy used porn. Taboo Video is the only place in Seattle that currently buys it, and according to James, Taboo’s manager, most of the guys who bring in their old porn are in your shoes, PNM. “They just got girlfriends who don’t like them having porn around,” James told me, “so they bring it in. We pay 10 percent of the cover price for a magazine, and we do trade for old movies.”
James thinks a lot of guys are too quick to break up their porn collections. He’s seen guys who sold him their porn collections to pacify a new girlfriend return to Taboo a few months later, rebuilding their collections after breaking up with their girlfriends. “Then the guy doesn’t have porn or a girlfriend,” observed James. “Guys should think before they get rid of their porn. Is she worth it? Will this last? If you’re not getting married, I’d say keep your porn.”
Your lover is a liar, and your lover’s lover–that’s you, chickpea–is apparently an idiot. For a 36-year-old fag, you’re distressingly clue-proof. When a guy avoids your phone calls, refuses to give you his number, doesn’t come to see you, and won’t take time to chat (on-line or real time), he’s trying to tell you something: he doesn’t really want to be your boyfriend. He doesn’t like you that much, he doesn’t care for you, and he doesn’t have the courtesy or cojones to dump you himself. So, by all means, dump your uncut kraut boyfriend, but don’t let’s kid ourselves here: dumping him is a formality. For all practical purposes, he’s already dumped you.
You and your roommate made this mess–you teased this man with a fantasy that comes bundled with every hetero male’s sexual hard drive: two women at once. You encouraged him, filled him with false hopes, and now you’re just going to have to sleep with him. I’m sorry if that’s harsh, but that’s the way it is.
If About to Be Traditionally Wed won’t listen to her gay uncle, perhaps she’ll listen to a fellow hetero woman: I used to be engaged to a man who “experimented” with homosexuality and was “over it.” I’m glad I caught him in bed with another man before I married him and not after. I’m especially happy I didn’t compound my troubles by alienating the friends, gay and straight, who tried to tell me what a mistake I was making.
