The Encyclopedia Of Smut: G Is For Glory Holes

March 29, 2012
OTTIMO-MASSIMO

What's that hole in the wall? Oh, it's a million things: you can put things on it, up to it, through it, and around it, just as long as you know the rules for using it. Yes, the glory hole is a miraculous and elegant invention, and today, we're going to learn all about it.

What Is A Glory Hole?
Good question! The broadest definition of a glory hole is any hip-high opening in a wall through which genitals are offered to be stimulated by a person on the other side. Usually, this involves a dick being stuck through the hole in order to receive a blowjob, but depending on the size, shape, and height of the hole, you can do a number of sexual configurations. What really makes a glory hole is that it always involves extremely limited contact between two (often anonymous) partners.

[Above: Gianna Michaels in "Gloryhole Confessions 2"]

History
We've actually had a hell of a time trying to track down the trail of glory holes on Earth. We tried to see if there were some ancient versions of them, and one of our friends suggested that the ancient Egyptians had a few, but nope! Our initial assumption is correct: glory holes are rooted in modern homosexual male culture. And it's easy to see why, too, considering the the tortured past (and present) of gay discrimination. Glory holes--like the Tea Rooms, bath houses, adult bookstores, secret parking lots, and gay cruising spots before them--provide men with an easy, discreet, and anonymous way to hook up with others.

The closest relative of the glory hole is the buddy booth: a closet-sized stall in the back of an adult bookstore where a single wall, glass partition with dual curtains, or any apparatus blocking access to your neighbor separates two booths. Some of these allowed you to see the person in the other booth, and some even had arm-sized holes through which you could feel each other.

We're not exactly sure if buddy booths came before glory holes, but we suspect it's the other way around. The near-ubiquity of the bathroom stall glory hole as an image of sketchy sexual encounters suggests that men's bath houses had these features long before the bookstores did.

[Above: a scene from "The Blowhole 4," better known as "Das Blasloch 4"]

Girls and Glory Holes
So when did hetero folk get a hold of this glory hole business? We wish we knew! Allegedly straight people get involved with anonymous gay sex all the time, and so it's easy to imagine the idea spreading around. However, heterosexual hook-up culture is structured differently than the homosexual--it lacks the subtle signals of cruising, the secrecy, and, to a large extent, the shame and fear that comes with discrimination and oppression--so glory holes haven't exactly caught on in the heterosexual world outside of pornography. (Of course, feel free to prove us wrong!)

Glory holes can really be appealing to anyone. Wikipedia (which just gets sexier by the day) notes a bunch of reasons you'd be down with the GH:

For some, the sheer anonymity is itself arousing. For others, it can serve as a way to have intimacy without a prolonged relationship, or to ensure sexual compatibility before further pursuing a relationship. Utilizing a glory hole is also an easy way to mitigate any perceived physical shortcomings like being overweight or somehow less physically attractive. One social theorist has described the attraction of this form of sexual encounter thus: "The ultimate sexual objectification of gay male sexual encounters is the glory hole in public toilets. As a wall separates the two participants, they have no contact except for a mouth, a penis, and perhaps a hand. Almost total anonymity is maintained as no other attributes are taken into consideration."

As with many other elements of human sexuality, glory holes offer a unique mechanism of control. You give a very small part of yourself for a brief time; there can be a lot of power in that.

[Above: Arial Rose has no idea that the mall dressing room would have a glory hole. Lucky her! The scene is from "Big Dick Gloryholes 7"]

Recommended Viewing
· "Barely Legal Glory Holes" - If you like the look of young women wandering into bathroom stalls, then you'll love Hustler's modification of their Barely Legal line. The holes in those bathrooms are unusually huge though, so if you like realism, this might not be your thing.
· "Interracial Glory Hole Initiations" - We see this site around the internet all the time, and we've even reviewed a couple of their movies in the past. It's a very solid series put out by the very unfortunately named Dog Fart studios.
· That one scene with Alexis Ford in "Home Improvement XXX: A Parody" - You know how Wilson does nothing but hang out with his nose against Tim's fence? We always wonder what his sex life is like. Fortunately, Alexis Ford answers that question by sucking Wilson's cock through a hole in the fence. This is the ultimate glory hole scene.