Feeling Tired? Rundown? Listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? Maybe you need to be around naked people.
Researchers at the University of Tampere and Aalto University—both in Finland—have found that viewing a nude body gets the brain working more efficiently. In a 2011 study, scientists found it takes less than 0.2 seconds for the brain to process pictures of nude or scantily clad human bodies. (I’ll bet they had no difficulty recruiting college students for that study.) In fact, the less clothing the models in the pictures were wearing, the faster their brains worked and the more they were aroused in the rest of their bodies as well (no surprises there).
So there is little doubt that many gay men and women will have faster-firing neurons during Palm Springs Pride—and specifically in and around the Warm Sands area, where the majority of gay clothing-optional resorts call home.
Now, I know that Palm Springs is not just a place to vacay nakay. It has long been a place where gay boys and girls go to unwind and be with our fellow homos. With a year-round population that is an estimated 40 percent gay, the frenzied parties of Dinah Shore and White Party weekends, the creativity of the LGBT Cinema Diverse Film Festival and being one of the top 10 cities in the country with the highest concentration of same-sex couples, it is truly our place.
In his book A City Comes Out: How Celebrities Made Palm Springs a Gay and Lesbian Paradise, David Wallace talks about the influx of gay Hollywood power brokers. Early Hollywood stars/hunks such as William Haines and Rock Hudson with his lover George Nader would go there to let loose without the fear of being outed. But, as Wallace writes, “It was the sexual freedom that was the most popular draw of Palm Springs,” and perhaps still is.
People take more sexual risks when they’re on vacation—whether straight or gay. A British study published in 1999 in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine showed an increase of visits to sexual health clinics following holiday periods. But the gay men tend to come out on top (so to speak) when it comes to having more new partners and more unprotected sex when compared to their hetero counterparts.
And it seems that the farther you go from home, the naughtier you’re gonna be. A 2001 study published in Clinical Infectious Disease showed that as many as 50 percent of travelers engage in casual sexual experiences while traveling. And, that was before hook-up apps!
But who exactly are the men frequenting these forbidden playgrounds? Are they filthy sex perverts or frustrated desperados? Neither appears to be true. And besides, Palm Springs is firmly on U.S. soil, so people aren’t as adventurous.
In a 2009 study published in the Journal of Homosexuality that specifically looked at men who vacation at gay resorts, of all the men who visited these resorts, only 24 percent even had sex with someone other than their partner (if they had one). A surprising three-quarters of the men were looky-loos! It was that 24 percent who tended to get busy.
In general, men who frequent these resorts tend to be more sexually active, and—if they go to the resort with the purpose of meeting other sex partners—hey tend to engage in riskier behavior than men who travel with a partner or without the intent of meeting a new boy toy.
It seems there is a lethal combination of sun, substances and sexual arousal that leads people to do things they wouldn’t do on their home turf. And there may be no place in the world that has a higher concentration of all three more than the clothing-optional resorts of Palm Springs. And the guests of these resorts are no slouches.
Gay-cationers who visit such resorts tend to be in relationships and have higher incomes. In that same 2009 study, it was reported that 33 percent made over $61K, and 54 percent were in relationships. And since you are probably wondering—only about one-quarter of those relationships allowed outside partners.
Most men frequent gay resorts not for the sex but for the camaraderie and ability to temporarily live in a world that is exclusively gay. And being naked may facilitate those connections. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology back when you were allowed to do studies like this (1977), it was found that people who participated in a social nudity experience (versus a simple outing or nothing at all) disclosed more to each other than those in the other groups did. They also liked themselves better and even described the ‘body-disclosing’ day as a peak experience.
So, maybe the conclusion is this: If you want to make your brain work better, you should be around naked people. But if you want to make your social life better, you might want to shed some clothing yourself. And perhaps there is no better place to do it than Palm Springs.