In the most recent iteration of his ever-awesome "Shut Up, Jasun" video diaries, Jasun Mark addresses the issue of gay vs. gay-for-pay pornstars. Which group needs to be reminded to "butch it up" more often? The answer may surprise you.
One of Jasun's readers wrote in response to (what we can only assume to be) up-and-coming pornstar Devon Hunter's recent blog post about Sean Cody and their homophobic attitude toward gay performers. Jasun argues pretty convincingly that it's actually the straight guys working in gay porn who often tend to go a little too femme for the camera. He makes the point that most of their role models for bottoming are, well, women. This makes sense. Sex always involves a certain amount of mimicry. No one really teaches us how to do it, so we take our cues from pornography and our sexual partners. If your main point of reference for porn is straight porn and you've only ever had sex with women then of course you'll bottom like a woman. They're very good at it. Jasun also uses this argument to provide us with an almost sure-fire gayness litmus test that we're sure to make use of in the future, so that scores him a few bonus points.
We do have a few issues with his line of reasoning, though. We obviously agree with the notion that there are a lot of hot, straight jocks out there who just aren't man enough for gay porn. But doesn't this preference for the masculine performance reinforce the inherent misogyny of the gay porn industry? Isn't this the same sort of attitude that gave rise to the current glut of gay-for-pay actors in the first place? We get that the sexual ideal of the butch, masculine man has been a popular one throughout gay history and is a cornerstone image of gay culture. We also understand that porn is all about fulfilling fantasies and that nobody can help but want to jerking off to what they want to jerk off to. But still, somebody out there wants to watch a cute little bottom (or top, for that matter) moan like a little girl. We're sure of it. And What about them? What about their needs, huh? Food for thought.
· Shut Up, Jasun: Porno Gaydar Edition (gaydailyhot.com)