Indulgence, restraint, and the engagement of pleasure: inciting reflection using Nietzsche's ascetic ideal

As part of an interview-based study of gay circuit parties in Montreal, Canada, which involved 17 gay and bisexual men, it was noted that participants were preoccupied with the topics of indulgence and restraint, particularly in relation to their perceptions of social norms regarding acceptable sexual behaviors. Theoretically, these findings were examined from a post-structuralist perspective using Nietzsche's conceptualization of the ascetic ideal. The outcome of this analysis is an alternative conceptualization about the intersections between indulgence, pain, guilt, pleasure, and sexually transmitted infection.