I'm working on a story about two older friends where one has a gay awakening after they are skunked and share a tomato juice bath. I can imagine some humor in the scenario, but I don't want to shame my protagonist. Do you have advice on portraying this sensitive moment with a mix of levity and respectfulness?
They'll get as much as they can, but it won't provide full coverage or be enough to deal with the odor.
You'd have a hard difficult time convincing me, as a reader, that two straight guys would climb naked into a tub together, skunk or not. Not sure how a 'gay awakening' would work ("Hello! What's this then?"), but there are plenty of pornographic story websites with categories that describe first-time gay situations (or so I'm told). Real porn stories, not the girly gay 'erotica' on Amazon.
What is suppose to be the overall tone of the story, because based on what you've shared so far, I would say "no it can't be done." You skunked your characters and then during a naked tomato juice bath one starts feeling gay... on its face that sounds more like a scene from a wacky teen comedy than say a sensitive story about a man discovering he's gay. Because... not to nitpick, but most bathtubs are not designed for two people, the only times two people would bath together is when they are small children OR when they're already intimate. So the idea of two grown men getting into the bathtub naked sounds like a contrivance... which is fine in a comedy (well to a degree) but if you're trying to be even somewhat serious, you might need a more believable moment for the gay awakening. Since I don't believe in suggesting total re-writes of other peoples ideas, to make this scene work I would suggest, maybe just don't have them literally in bath together, I personally can't get pass how silly that would look, and I suspect many readers would feel the same. Maybe they are taking turns using with the tomato juice bath, and while one is in the tub the other is in the bathroom with a towel on waiting. I would say make the NOT gay guy go first, since he's straight and thinks the other guy is straight he can have a more carefree view, he takes his towel off as he gets into the bath and the gay friend sees all of it. Maybe the straight guy tries to have a conversation, just shooting the breeze, meanwhile the gay guy is watching him bath and having new feelings. There is still a bit of contrivance of "Why are they even in the bathroom" together, BUT i think people could make that leap "because story" easier than the in the bathtub together concept. Just my dumb amateur writer's opinion, feel free to ignore it.
Just out of curiosity, I checked: the average bathtub holds around 60 gallons of liquid. Even with two bodies to displace water, that's a lot of potential Bloody Marys going down the drain. I live in the land where people and dogs gets skunk-sprayed on an appallingly regular basis. The idea of anyone getting turned on while awash in skunk smell and tomato juice... just thinking about the combination makes me feel queasy. I'd never make it to the sensitive, gently humorous sexual awakening part of the story. But you're kidding, right?
Well, y'all know I can't pass this one up: Bulk format tomato juice is a 12/46oz case for $24.18 wholesale. That's a little over 4 cents an ounce. Catriona says 60 gallons for a tub so you'd need at least, what, 40 gallons to fill it enough to submerge two adults as much as possible? 40 gallons is 5120 ounces, or $220.16 worth of tomato juice. For which, you would need a little over 9 cases of bulk format cans. That's doable.
Probably better to just rub it on themselves rather than fill a tub. They might do it in the tub for easier cleanup though. You might be able to get away with just a few dozen cans. And they can use the cheap stuff, it doesn't need to taste good.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's a myth that tomato juice has any action against skunk musk. The tomato juice does not break down the oily thiols. You need a mixture of baking soda and dish detergent for that, like washing down in dish detergent in a baking soda bath. Surely in this age of Google, these two men would start with a little bit of research?
Ah that sort of skunk, I was thinking it was some sort of drug thing. After smoking a bunch of skunk weed they decided to bathe in tomato juice while whacked off their chunks eta that aside who has enough tomato juice on hand to fill a bath anyway?
Sorry moment of brutal honesty but I want to point out, the majority of the post, sort of highlight the problem with the premise. Most of the post are about the logistics and effectiveness of bathing with tomato juice, when that wasn't the question, it was the set up. This isn't to suggest people are off topic or missing the point, but rather, even when expressly told the concept is "sensitive gay awakening" the reader's mind is preoccupied with the tomato bath. I tried to provide a way to make the skunk, the tomato bath and gay awakening work, but this topic makes me think it can't, at least not all at once, it's too distracting. At most, you could do a throw away "ooo" with the gay guy seeing his friend in the buff for the first time kind of thing. But you can't dwell on it or make it the moment of awakening proper. If you want to have a sensitive moment where he thinks about his feeling and comes to terms with him, you'll need another scene for that.
yeah - you'd go one at a time surely. Even if one guy is gay and one is straight - hey lets get in this bath of juice together isn't going to happen The only time i can think of where straight guys bathe together is sports or military guys showering in communal showers where anyone with a gay awakening would want to keep it very quiet, or the sort group in the hottub while drinking type thing.
Quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 cup baking soda, 1 tablespoon Dawn dishwashing liquid. (Ask me how many batches I've made up over forty+ years.) Don't make it ahead of time and store it. It will explode. Myth Busters determined that tomato juice worked "fairly well" which to my way of thinking is "not at all." If I can smell skunk, it doesn't work.
Man, I love WF, as exemplified by this thread. I can only imagine the kinds of responses likely in other places on the world wide web. I too thought skunked referred to something else, maybe one of those rituals beloved by fraternities. Did not know that ketchup was considered an antidote. All I can say about that is the smell of skunk would need to be pretty bad before I'd try dousing myself in ketchup. It's great that so many members here lend expertise in how OP can bring credibility to the scenario where two older male friends share a ketchup bath only for one to awake to his hitherto latent sexual orientation. I'm not sure it would be possible to write this scene without affectionate humour. While the members of WF are on stand-by for delivery of industrial loads of tomato sauce, I would suggest to the OP to be clear on who exactly is experiencing the awakening. I'm not sure I've known any gay men who weren't always aware of their sexual preference, however much some of them resisted acknowledging it, so the notion of your protagonist arriving at this moment of self-awareness seems dubious to me. It's entirely feasible that it comes as news to his friend though, and that could be enough to distract from the bathful of condiment that might otherwise overtake the scene.
On a serious note - I have an issue with the premise of a "gay awakening". The OP makes it sound like the character has a tomato bath and boom, realises he's gay. In reality, I doubt it works like that. Most people in that situation will have been questioning their sexuality for a long time, and will have been dealing with feelings that they may not want to acknowledge. It's more a case of a situation giving them the courage to finally come out, or being able to deal with their feelings rather than an "awakening" as such. Sorry if this is a post that should be in the debate room. I'm not trying to trigger anyone.
Also without wanting to be graphic a guy can get a stiffy in an inappropriate circumstance without it being because hes gay - if he gets a semi in a bath full of tomato sauce with his mate, if he's had no prior inkling that he might be gay he's more likely to think its down to the weird sensation of rubbing ketchup on his cojones (some places you can probably pay good money for that)
I think what @Naomasa298 said can't be understated. Many of us, myself included (possibly especially) got a so caught up in the silliness of the scene, we kind of overlooked the minefield of possible offensiveness of the set up. I am a hetero male, and as the saying goes, I don't know when I "became" hetero. There was no "hetero awakening" just as soon as I started having romantic/sexual feeling for people they have always been for females. I didn't need to see a girl naked to go "YOW-ZA! ME LIKE-Y GIRLS NOW!!!!" Or maybe I did, maybe there was a moment in my childhood where I was exposed to something that made me hetero, and with a different roll of the dice I'd be gay. But it's not something my conscious mind is aware of... so why would I assume it would be for gay people? My opinion (again I'm a hetero male, so I'm willing to be told I'm wrong) is someone could be gay their whole life, but the "gay awakening" is when they come to terms with it, and admit to themselves that they're gay (even if they are still in the closet publicly). Point is, I think a gay awakening/acceptance scene COULD work, but it has to be done very carefully, very respectfully, and very sensitively. ESPECIALLY if it is written by a heterosexual, and written for a comedy. I would rethink how important this scene is to the story, I think it could be done right, but it might ruin the flow.
