How Bathroom Sex Became the New One-Night Stand

When's the last time you waited more than two minutes to find out something you wanted to know? You don't—you Google it from your BlackBerry. You don't check the listings and patiently stand by until King Kong is shown at its scheduled time—you summon it from On Demand. Perhaps that's why, then, you can't be bothered with drinks and ADD-exacerbating conversation in an effort to get into someone's pants anymore.

Take Vince (not his real name), an actor who, during a recent dinner in Beverly Hills, repaired to the lavatory with his female companion. "We told the waitress we weren't dining and ditching," he says. "We hammered one out in about five minutes." Four hours of taxing seduction rituals saved.

Sex in public places, as any member of the mile-high club knows, isn't exactly a new phenomenon. But it does seem to be evolving from a novelty into a common practice—one that makes the one-night stand seem quaint. Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti admitted in a magazine interview that he and Drew Barrymore were busted having sex in the bathroom at the opera. Director Kevin Smith said in a recent talk at the University of Pennsylvania that actor Jay Mewes (of Jay and Silent Bob fame) christened a lavatory with Nicole Richie—a claim the Simple Life star denies.

Derek, who asked that his name be changed, is an aspiring New York media executive in his early 40s on the verge of proposing to his girlfriend. He considers restaurant-bathroom trysts the contemporary equivalent of illicit liaisons: "I'm almost married, so bathrooms are like a Motel 6 for me."

Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland: The Inner World of Men, 18–26, says the proliferation of on-demand sex shows that straight men and women are co-opting what has long been perceived as a gay M.O. "In the homosexual-male culture," Kimmel says, "there's the idea that you can go to a bar and have sex, zip up, and have a beer. Now women are having sex like men—sex for sex's sake. It's as easy for straight guys to have sex whenever they want as it is for gay men."

A New York real-estate broker in her 30s we'll call Ally provides anecdotal support for Kimmel's theory. And her taste in bathrooms highlights another aspect of the new breed of stall sex: wealth. Ally isn't sullying the restrooms at dive bars. She's doing it at some of the poshest restaurants in Manhattan: "The bathrooms at Next Door Nobu are the best," she says. "You can lean over the sink and watch yourself in the mirror while you're doing it."

At some velvet-rope clubs, stall sex is a privilege enjoyed by not only the rich but those with preferred-customer status. At the Plumm, New York entrepreneur Noel Ashman's newest spot, one exclusive chamber appears to have been designed in part to shield stall fornicators. "We have a VIP bathroom through the kitchen for members," Ashman says. A special key provides entrée. Asked whether he supposes sex takes place there, Ashman says, unconcerned, "I would say it does."

Amy Sacco, proprietor of celebrity clubhouse Bungalow 8, is equally unfazed by the practice, though she notes a potential hazard. "It doesn't surprise me that people are having sex in the bathrooms—mine are beautiful," she says. "But hopefully they're quick—I hate when the line gets long."

7 Public Bathrooms Prime for a Quickie

SAN FRANCISCO
Frisson The out-of-the-way, coed bathroom adjoining the downstairs lounge at this supper club offers safe harbor for patrons soused on Moroccan daiquiris. 244 Jackson Street, 415-956-3004