Friday, August 3. 2007I WATCH BAREBACK PORN [Photo by Declan McCullagh.] I do. I admit it. I'm completely and totally embarassed about it, but I watch it. And I'm not talking about the "pre-condom classics" or the "little - twink - boys - who - look - like - they've - never - done - it - anyway" unprotected sex on video - I'm talking the raunchy, total sex pig, you know the stars are HIV+ because they've publicly shared that information, how many acts of dangerous sexual behavior can you pack on one DVD, totally bareback, bareback porn.I used to allow myself the excuse that I never actually purchased the porn new: I either rented it or bought it used. That way I wasn't really supporting the studios producing the films, right? About a month ago, though, I went out to the store and bought a copy since it featured a long-time fantasy of mine. Interestingly enough, it was a fantasy that could have been performed in a non-bareback porn, but it hasn't. Not in the totally "real" way that it was on this particular DVD.
But you know what else I watch? Amateur porn - shaky camera, badly lit, off-camera creepy pornographer voice saying, "That's the way... now fuck him" or "Now you suck his cock and play with his balls," totally amateur, amateur porn. And interestingly enough, even when the guys aren't that cute or aren't my type or are playing out fantasies that aren't of any particular interest to me, I like the completely safe, condomed amateur stuff as much as I like the bareback stuff. What's more, I like both these subgenres of porn way more than most big studio product, despite its slick, shininess. I mean slick, shiny newness, of course, not post-masturbatory cum splatter slick, shininess. Okay - maybe I mean both. It's not the condoms that turn me off. And I like muscles as much as the next guy. It's that they're not really having sex. The so-called professionals may be good at filming porn, but they just can't seem to get sex right. Sure they're putting cocks in holes and moaning and grinding and they look like they're having sex, but it's just not sex. All of the weird sloppiness and the strange noises and the weird faces and awkward vocalizations; all of the not knowing if someone is moaning in pleasure or crying in pain and the not always seeing what you're doing and the missing the hole or whatever other target there is to hit; all of the desire and uncertainty is missing. Look, I do feel a hard to locate guilt watching bareback porn, but I think there's something there that goes beyond unsafe sexual activity that's making it hot. It's that everyone actually really wants to have sex, and the people filming it want to film sex and the people watching want to watch people having sex being filmed by people who want to film sex. So come on folks: get it together! Film some hot sex. Not porn with all the posing and trimming and horrible pretending to want or to feel or to desire. Find a bunch of guys who want to fuck each other and let them fuck. And I promise to be first in line for totally safe, totally guilt-free hotness. Trackbacks
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Yaeh man...I'm right with ya. For me, it's the fukkin RISK and watchin it...that turns me on. The feelin that a cute twink boy gettin jis ass plowed might be gettin knocked up as well.
HOT!
#1
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2007-08-06 01:02
Hey Hardskinlad - that's exactly the part that I find uncomfortable, though. I wish that there was more of an association of hot, unapologetic sex that didn't necessarily entail the lives of its performers being put at risk.
Um, as yr bf I feel this might be the wrong forum, but here goes:
I think yr wrong about the authenticity of actors' sex drives in BB porn. I know what you mean, but I've seen plenty of BB porn (of the ones you own) and half the time they feel as staged and fake to me as the studio stuff. Lots of times I wonder, "are these guys just doing it for the money?" How much money is involved, anyway? Anyhow, I think your observations about authenticity have more to do with the amateur filming techniques of BB porn (which you allude to) and with yr own preferences (and taboos) than with the fact that the sex is condomless. Here's a question: If the bareback sex was all being done by boyfriends, would it make it change how we feel about bareback porn? Who can really say for sure that a large percentage of those performers AREN'T boyfriends? Or maybe there's a bunch of STD testing done before the shoots (unlikely, but what if?). My point is, it's filmed, staged, cast--they're putting on a show....a show that you happen to enjoy.
You're probably right about my eroticization of the "authenticity" of technique, whether the actual situation is authentic or not. Of course, I realize they're all getting paid and they're on a set, but there are so many opportunities for fumbles, for missed cumshots, for faces and sounds that you just can't edit out because you don't have the $$$ or the film know-how or whatever the hell else to do it that despite the ability to really be real, there will always be real moments in there.
With the big studio porn movies, though, nothing seems accidental or unintended, and so the fiction takes over. I guess I don't watch porn just to get off, but because I want to suspend disbelief. It's the fantasy that's hot - and while the many aspects of fantasy make good fiction, the big porn studios prove that not all aspects of fiction make good fantasy.
Yes, but what's the "long-time fantasy" you wanted to see?
Oh, Shaun...
A guy can't give away all his secrets. I just told the world that I watch dirty, dirty porn; isn't that enough? 
Oh, OK. I just thought that since you'd been so honest you might be a little more specific. On the general topic, I think the pertinent point is that the usual mainstream porn is stylised, locked in its own conventions (of look, action, etc), so that's why we now find it dull. Bareback is often more "authentic"-seeming in that it has dumped those conventions, or is just outside them (whether intentionally or unintentionally). Of course "authentic" is performed (is performative) as much as something clearly "artificial", as your boyfriend points out ... And then the issue of who's "really" HIV+ etc disturbs the fantasy (or the "reality effect").
Shaun
All right, all right. JESUS. What a needler you are (rackin', frackin', goddamn journalists...).
Priest-fucking. I am a wannabe priest-fucker. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school for 7 years. Two of those were in a school where the young, vibrant, mustachioed Fr. Peter was the new man in the rectory. His newness meant that he had to give the Wednesday morning mass to the school (as we all drifted off to sleep in our pews), take the student confessions, and just deal with us in general while the senior priests got blind in the rectory. As with many Catholic school queer kids, this was the first non-filial intimate relationship I had with a grown man, hence, major fantasy territory. Apparently, I went to the few Catholic schools where none of the priests were touching any of the kids, because I was ripe for the picking and to this day remain on the vine. And I was a damn cute kid. I think you're absolutely right about the porn, although I'd add to yours and Alex's points that mainstream porn producers also seem to think porn by nature will lack intimacy. Anyone whose taped themselves knows that film isn't empty of intimacy, and anyone whose given/taken a mercy or good-bye fuck knows that intimacy can be convincingly acted. Bareback porn now - as part of its aesthetic - seems to have incorporated "authenticity" and "intimacy" (both in quotes, of course) in a way that mainstream porn seems to have abandoned. Whether or not the aesthetic is artificial or not seems irrelevant in a world where they have little competition in the "authentic, intimate" market.
Why, thank ya. Nice to know. I always find people's fantasies interesting and genuinely instructive. Something to do, perhaps, with "intimacy"? It's so weird how fantasies evolve in our heads, and it's so hard to work out what they mean (what they say about us) ... but yours is beautifully explained.
Shaun |
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About Big Queer |
I know that I shouldn't. I know that many think it to be wrong. Personally, I don't think bareback skin flicks cause people to have unsafe sex, just like I don't think that violent movies make people more violent. I do think, however, that the American penchant for violent movies - like the gay eroticism of unsafe sexual practices - is a symptom of something that's already wrong. It's the effect rather than the cause.
