As a wall separates the two participants, they have no contact except for a mouth, a penis, and perhaps a hand. Numerous motivations can be ascribed to the use and eroticism of glory holes. Glory holes are sometimes the topic of erotic literature, and pornographic films have been devoted to the uses of glory holes.
In more recent years, public glory holes have faded in popularity in many countries, though some gay websites offer directories of the remaining glory holes. However, they are not exclusively favoured by gay people, and have become more commonly acknowledged as a fetish for straight and bisexual couples. The partition maintains anonymity and a sense of reassurance that the people involved would not be identified and possibly arrested. Glory holes are especially associated with gay male culture, and anal or oral sex, and come from a history of persecution. A glory hole (also spelled gloryhole and glory-hole) is a hole in a wall or partition, often between public lavatory cubicles or adult video arcade booths and lounges, for people to engage in sexual activity or observe the person in the next cubicle while one or both parties masturbate, tea-bag or fellate.
