At the corner of Paris’ Saint-Merri street, concrete walls act as some sort of gay moodboard. For years, the street was one of the main entry points of the gay district of Le Marais, separating the straights from the queers. These days, you can find a lot of “Chemsex kills” posters on the walls of Saint-Merri street. Each poster bears the first name of a queer person who recently passed away, along with their age.

From time to time, chemsex pops up, especially in gay discourse. Often after a very publicized death, or as a general expression of dissatisfaction with modern day gay dating. The treatment of chemsex as a news topic is, most of the time, very sensationalist, as the combination of two topics (sex and drugs) which are almost exclusively treated from a sensationalist angle. The response of public authorities leans more towards policing than healthcare, with for example the England’s MET examining crime in the context of chemsex.^[1]

An article two years ago^[2] pointed out that, while the term originates from the gay community, it is far from exclusive to it. There is even an entire field of chemsex studies^[3] which tries to explore chemsex from a sociological and medical point of view, and get past the notion of strict sobriety, or good vs bad drugs, and even harm reduction. In other words, the real topic is not just drug use, but its sociopolitical context.^[4]

I initially gave up on writing this article. Its first version was motivated by my first hand experience with dating apps. I could not finish it before getting into another monogamous relationship, which made me feel like an imposter. After all, so much of the discourse around chemsex is driven by people who are not active users. I am no exception.

Instead, I am going to focus on this article on chemsex as a practice, and replace it in its current socio-political context. I will highlight how late stage capitalism’s big pharma industry and pornographic industry, and performance-pressure are driving up chemsex, and that community care and harm reduction strategies in the gay community need to replace chemsex as a practice within this context.

Chemsex and pharmaco-pornography

The term chemsex (for chemical sex) emerged in the 2000s in discussion about drug use in the context of sex, in particular in the gay community. Increased social acceptance of homosexuality and the emergence of dating apps have facilitated finding new sexual partners, and in particular have made it much easier to find a match in terms of sexual expectations. Popular drugs for chemsex, such as GHB, GBL or 3mmc, are now easily available through secure messaging apps. On top of that, medications such as Viagra and Cyalis, which help curb drug-related erectile dysfunction, are easily available through the same channels, or via doctor’s prescription^[5].

At the same time, access to PReP, medications which prevent HIV infection with a high success rate, has never been easier. In spite of increasing risks of antibiotic resistance, doxycycline is now prescribed as a post-exposure antibiotic (DoxyPEP) to men who have sex with men, in an attempt to prevent bacterial sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis^[6] . For many, PReP and DoxyPEP contribute to a feeling of safety and make them more comfortable in their sexuality^[7].

In Testo-junkie, Paul Preciado argues that in late capitalism, the pharmaceutical industry and the pornography industry colluded to usher what he calls “pharmacopornographic era”. The idea has its merits: the pornography industry relies heavily on Viagra and Cyalis, as much as porn and its unrealistic standards drive up the sales of Viagra and Cyalis.

Through careful editing and camera angles, gay porn transcends biological realities, but also distorts views on what one finds pleasurable. The result is that gay porn is not really about the pursuit of enjoyment, but about pure athletic performances between trained professionals^[8]. In the process, gay porn has shaped how gay men perceive themselves since the 1960s^[9] , with a strong impact on their sexual expression^[10] , and their perception of themselves^[11]. Bringing those observations back to chemsex: unrealistic sexual expectations and aesthetics are a potential driving factor to numb and alter one’s sexual experience.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the dynamics that I highlight here in many ways. With drug use confined for a while to the safety of the home, chemsex has been on the rise.^[12] Porn consumption also increased during that period,^[13] as did the reach of dating apps.^[14]

Taking into account all of that, it is in a particularly complicated social context that chemsex has been on the rise. Maybe too complex to be tackled all at once through community care and harm reduction. I would like to suggest a more simple angle which focuses on the greater picture: community care when it comes to chemsex requires to re-evaluate how gay identities have been shaped by capitalism.

Capitalism and gay identity

Psychological care for gay men often focuses on relaxing the same pressure points. Entering the adult phase as a gay man comes with a lot of shame compensation behaviours. And often, adult gay men get stuck at that stage. They seek the clubs, the drugs, and sex as an escape.^[15]

It does not help that gay sex is attached to so much stigma, as gay relationships have been penalised and/or had no legal ground (marriage) until recent times. The post-gay depenalisation and post-gay marriage legalisation still has to be invented, far from the calls to conform to the existing norms (homonormativity), including the repression of sexual urges.^[16]

Queer theorist Leo Bersani proclaimed that “gays melt into the very culture they like to think of themselves as undermining”. A lot of authors have followed that line of reasoning: gay men reproduce the capitalist patriarchal mindset they were raised in, unable to address their latent misogyny and their toxic views on masculinity. While those arguments have some merits, they are not really actionable in the context of community care.

In his book Eros and Alienation (2025), Alan Sears argues that the organisation of labor under capitalism constrains our conceptions of intimacy, and limits our agency in shaping our sexuality and social relationships. Sears also argues that capitalism led to the development of a dominant regime of sexualities: you are either straight, gay or bi; those roles relate to the organization of work under capitalism.^[17]

Following a similar line of reasoning, queer Marxists have long tried to explore the intersection between capitalism and sexuality. John D’Emilio argued in his essay “Capitalism and Gay Identity” (1983) that late 19th industrial capitalism, with its focus on wage labor, shaped the development of gay communities by allowing workers to live independently from a family unit. Stephen Valocchi pursued this reasoning further,^[18] by arguing that gay identities evolve with capitalism, and that “neoliberal capitalism created a domesticated and consumerist gay identity”. Which leads to wonder: what has gay identity become then under late stage capitalism?

Discussions about chemsex as a practice have a tendency to focus on its relation to nightlife. Nightlife is such a cornerstone of gay dating culture and recreational drug use that the connection is easy to make. I will instead make the connection with performance pressure, in which drugs act as a coping mechanism, a performance enhancer and a cure for loneliness. After all, the relationship between performance pressure and drug use is well established in other contexts.

In spite of their tendency to criminalize drug use, there are multiple studies about politicians’ drug using habits.^[19] Drug use alleviates the downsides of work-related stress, performance pressure, while allowing you to perform for longer hours without getting tired. A recent paper asks whether performance pay increases alcohol and drug use.^[20]

Overall, drug use alters reality, enhances life experiences and reduces inhibitions, allowing people to get more in touch with their core desires.^[21] Next, I will give an example of the way capitalism shapes gay identities (and chemsex as a practice), by looking at the particular case of the gay dating app industry.

Digital gay dating spaces fuel performance pressure

Gay dating apps are omnipresent these days, and dictate how their users relate to each other, more than they facilitate first contacts, leading to the normalization of antisocial behaviour and a culture of objectification. Match Group, the $8.5billion corporation behind the most popular dating apps, is currently facing a class-action lawsuit in the US, for alleged violations of consumer rights. While dating apps would initially compete to claim a stellar success rate in matching individuals, their concentration within the Match Group and their hold on modern day dating life leaves little to no incentive to actually foster genuine connections.^[22]

A recent study found out that half of the respondents had an overall negative experience with dating apps.^[23][24] It is not that hard to understand that people are increasingly frustrated with dating apps that are meant to keep them wanting, instead of satisfying their needs: that is their core business model, and it is a lucrative one – for instance, the dating app Grindr registered for the third quarter of 2024 a $89.32M of revenues^[25] and the Match Group (behind most dating apps), registered $3.485B in revenue for 2024.

The frustration that users experience is baked in the product development strategy adopted by the tech industry. The AARRR Pirate Metrics framework, popularized by marketer Ryan Holiday and VC Paul Graham, is a simple growth model tracking five user behaviors: Acquisition (how users find you), Activation (do they engage?), Retention (do they stay?), Referral (do they spread the word?), and Revenue (will they pay?). Created by investor Dave McClure, the AARRR model aimed to shift the focus away from vanity metrics like social media likes. Ironically, in today’s tech landscape, retention is often manipulated—like on dating apps—to keep users hooked longer, driving revenue at the cost of meaningful engagement.^[26][27]

Digital gay dating spaces take those development strategies to the extreme. Unrealistic expectations and societal pressures, along with a quite unique association to the party scene have led to a consumption-driven gay dating playfield, where achieving peak performance is more important than establishing genuine connections. In their focus on short-term hookups, gay dating apps have minimized social interaction to the point where there is no accountability, leading to the normalization of antisocial behaviour and a dating culture which encourages objectification.^[28]

And coming back to the topic of porn, dating apps very much tap into gay porn fantasies to solidify their hold on the market. Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, dating apps capitalize on the promise of establishing sexual and emotional connections that they are by design unable to provide. Moreover, the user interface of most gay dating apps tend to heavily rely on a search engine which focuses on body types, preferred positions, and sometimes porn categories.^[29] This contributes to a consumerist mentality, and puts constraints on how the user expresses their desire. These days, some apps even allow users to leave reviews. Overall, user interfaces dictate the way gay men interact with each other, rather than fostering social connections.

What about “offline spaces” then? Gay dating has evolved in the West along with the increased acceptance of homosexuality. Cruising has become something of a lost art.^[30] Gay communal spaces are themselves on the way out. Metropolitan gayborhoods like Los Angeles’ West Hollywood and Paris’ Le Marais are rapidly becoming tourist traps. Venues which cater to gay men (let alone queer people) are rapidly disappearing, and the ones who maintain themselves (the so-called circuit gay parties) are not a one-size-fits-all. Increasingly, gay nightlife is priced out of big cities.

All in all, gay flirting has been taken out of public spaces, and confined onto applications on which there are not many opportunities to compare notes. Everybody feels pressure to perform. The gay dating scene feels highly competitive. Everyone is replaceable in a playfield which focuses so much on consumption. And while the sexual offer is there and easily available, it rarely satisfies sexual and emotional needs. Maintaining sexual promiscuity becomes all too consuming and shifts the focus from social interactions to hyper sexual ones.

Outro: chemsex and harm reduction

When tackling chemsex as an issue, there is a tendency to shame first. It is hard in gay public discourse to draw the line between internalised homophobia and genuinely valid discourse. Gay respectability politics feels ubiquitous. From the yearly calls to ban kinks at pride to the idea that hypersexuality makes gay men look bad, so much of gay public discourse is dominated by the (perceived) concerns of straight people. I put forward here another perspective: the logic of capitalism shapes interpersonal relationships, making them more transactional; this leads to more competitiveness and performance pressure, and chemsex as a coping mechanism.

Dating apps, a gay nightlife priced out of the cities, the pornographic industry and the pharmaceutical industry are some of the factors driving up chemsex, making it a complex sociopolitical challenge to tackle. At its core, the discussion needs to be brought back to the way we relate to each other. When it comes to chemsex, we need to start asking: how has chemsex impacted your social life? Are you satisfied with your sex life? What is it that you enjoy about sex on drugs and what do you feel prevents you from doing it sober? Harm reduction with chemsex is about entering a dialogue with the people who practice it, as a form of community healthcare.

Chemsex harm reduction starts with acknowledging that it is neither about drug use or addiction, but about the underlying reasons. Working longer hours or multiple jobs just to maintain basic living standards has become the norm since the 1980s. This alienation affects interpersonal relationships, and in particular sexual and romantic relationships.^[31]

Harm reduction starts by recognizing that it is not drug use that is problematic, but the relation between sex and drug use and the role that drug use plays in establishing emotional connections with sexual partners. Hence the need to ask why there is a need to connect in a transactional way.

Chemsex as a practice is a social construct of capitalism. Gay dating apps have reshaped gay dating life, and drug use has increased as a coping mechanism – whether it is to cope with what is now a harshly competitive playfield, or to offset the ups and downs of sexual interactions which can feel emotionally empty. And when an addiction takes place, it is more often behavioural than physical.

1. Chemsex harm reduction and treatment funding london.gov.uk ↑

2. Michel Lhooq, We need to talk about chemsex - UnHerd ↑

3. Critical chemsex studies: Interrogating cultures of sexualized drug use beyond the risk paradigm - Kristian Møller, Jamie Hakim, 2023

   Kane Race, Pleasure Consuming Medicine ↑

4. Carl Hart, Drug use for grown ups, Penguin Press

   It is worth mentioning that the notion of problematic drug use is very loaded, and that the notions of dependency and addiction are themselves very misleading and encompass a wide range of circumstances (see Percentages of problem drug use and their implications for policy making: A review of the literature - Anne Katrin Schlag, 2020) ↑

5. Edouard TUAILLON, "Chemsex: the dangerous alliance between sex and amphetamines” ↑

6. Doxy PEP for Bacterial STI Prevention cdc.gov ↑

7. Taking PrEP has a profound impact on gay men’s sexual health and wellbeing | aidsmap ↑

8. Kate Dawson,Saoirse Nic Gabhainn,Pádraig MacNeela, Toward a Model of Porn Literacy: Core Concepts, Rationales, and Approaches The Journal of Sex Research, 57(1), 1-15 ↑

9. John Paul Stadler, Pornographesis: Sex, Media and Gay Culture ↑

10. Jay Poole & Ryan Milligan, Nettersexuality: The Impact of Internet Pornography on Gay Male Sexual Expression and Identity | Sexuality & Culture ↑

11. Bahiyah Dato Hj. Abdul Hamid, A Linguistic Study Of Image And Language Of Self-Presentation Of Men On Grindr, A Gay Networking App ↑

12. Thibaut Jedrzejewski, L'urgence du chemsex chez les hommes gays en temps de Covid | Slate.fr ↑

13. Way Kwok-Wai Lau, Lionel Ho-Man Ngan, Randolph Chun-Ho Chan, William Ka-Kei Wu, Benson Wui-Man Lau, Impact of COVID-19 on pornography use: Evidence from big data analyses - PMC ↑

14. Abigail Trozenski, The Changing Spaces of Dating Apps since COVID-19 | | Vanderbilt University ↑

15. Downs, A. (2005). The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World. ↑

16. While the legalization of gay marriage and the depenalisation of homosexuality benefited overall the queer community (see Legalizing Marriage for Same-Sex Couples Benefited LGBT Individuals and Their Children: Twenty Years of Evidence | RAND ), gay men still experience enormous pressure to conform to society’s standards, repress sexual urges, and fit into traditional relationship structures (Sharif Mowlabocus, Interrogating Homonormativity: Gay Men, Identity and Everyday Life | SpringerLink; Ashley A. Walsdorf, How partnered gay men do relationships: Negotiating the tensions between hetero- and homonormativity) ↑

17. Alan Sears, Eros and Alienation ↑

18. Stephen Valocchi, Capitalisms and Gay Identities: Towards a Capitalist Theory of Social Movements ↑

19. Liviu Alexandrescu, The normalisation of illicit drug use admissions among British politicians: a narrative perspective. ↑

20. Benjamin Artz, Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood, Does performance pay increase alcohol and drug use? | Journal of Population Economics ↑

21. Alicja Lojszczyk, Rhonda Wilson, Jessica Wood, Alison Hutton, Motivational characteristics of recreational drug use among emerging adults in social settings: an integrative literature review ↑

22. Amos Barshad, Dating App Giant Match Group Is Being Sued for Conning Users ↑

23. Key findings about online dating in the U.S. | Pew Research Center ↑

24. Overall, dating apps are associated with sexual dissatisfaction. Various studies have highlighted dating apps’ emphasis on shallow appearances (see Toma, C. L., & Hancock, J. T. Looks and Lies: The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Self-Presentation and Deception. Communication Research), or their competitive nature and their tendency to create a consumerist mentality (see Heino, R. D., Ellison, N. B., & Gibbs, J. L. Relationshopping: Investigating the Market Metaphor in Online Dating. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships). Dating apps also create a paradox of choice (too many options make it harder to pick one partner); their focus on emotionally lackluster casual sex leaves many with self-esteem and body image issues. (see Tran, A., & Monge, P. The Effects of Online Dating on Self-Esteem and Mental Health) ↑

25. Grindr Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2024 Revenue Growth of 27%, Raises Revenue Guidance (Official Grindr report for investors). ↑

26. Eva Illouz, Dan M. Kotliar, Capitalist Subjectivity, Tinder, and the Emotionalization of the Web | ↑

27. Dating Apps: The Uncertainty of Marketised Love - Carolina Bandinelli, Alessandro Gandini, 2022 ↑

28. Meet markets: Grindr and the politics of objectifying others - Greg Goldberg, 2020 ↑

29. Bernard Martins Paz, Image, body, and language in the usage of Grindr ↑

30. Park of Prospects | Eric Dean Wilson ↑

31. “Sexuality in capitalist societies is organized around this paradoxical double freedom, in which control over one’s own body is always combined with forms of compulsion. We have to be dispossessed of our control over our bodies in order to comply with the requirements of exploitation through selling our capacities to work for less than the value of what we produce. This dispossession has two key dimensions. First, it requires that the key productive resources be taken from our control. Marx saw this as a violent process of expropriation that created the working class, who were stripped of control over any productive resources aside from their own bodies:”

    Excerpt From Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression, Edited by Tithi Bhattacharya ↑