Sex Life of the American Male

I like your optimism about race and sexuality.
But don't you worry that the porn industry is playing on stereotypes when it promotes particular performers... and thus, influencing our social roles/norms?
Diesel Washington (black) is an aggressive top. Johnny Angel (asian) is a passive bottom.
I'll share your optimism when a Johnny Angel-type performer tops a Diesel Washington-type performer... and gets heavily promoted/marketed.

And from another perspective:

Porn is a business. The people who make porn go with what sells to the people who buy it. The primary consumer of straight porn is white men, so they make a product that that consumer wants to see. The primary consumer of gay porn is - surprise - white men. The reason the stereotypes that the previous post mentions exist in gay porn is because of that primary consumer mentality. White guys want to believe that black men are aggressive tops and Asians are submissive bottoms, and far be it from people who are trying to make money from erotic imagery to challenge any of those notions. In fact, it's exactly these stereotypical notions about "otherness" that caused these niche markets in pornography (straight and gay) to exist.

Really, the only erotic producer who's tried at all to challenge the status quo mindset within the adult industry has been Candida Royalle's Femme Productions, and that's because she's specifically navigated away from making films chock-full of what men expect in porn.

As it is, I feel quite strongly that the current "broadening" of what's considered "hot" in gay porn is primarily superficial, though, that's not really much of a surprise given that porn is principally about carnal objectification. When we watch porn, we look at bodies. We're not terribly interested in what these people are like beyond the sexual context in which they're presented, which makes is really easy to build the marketing niches within the porn industry.

Call me cynical, but I don't believe that the successes of performers like Wilde, Washington, or Johnny Angel (or even FTM star Buck Angel, for that matter) is necessarily indicative of a breakdown in the stratified nature or democratization of gay porn, or porn in general. What I think the emergence of niches within the industry shows is that more white men -- and let's remember, the porn market is driven by white men, who buy more porn than any other consumer demographic -- are now buying product that allows them to indulge crudely stereotypical fantasies in private that they wouldn't admit to publicly because more of that product exists now, rather than some insistence on a broader representation of what's real in the world. I mean, come on, how many American prisons outside of Pornworld could one enter and not see more than three persons of color, hot or not? In that light, casting upmarket porn (as distinct from the more niche titles that are cheaper to produce) is more similar to producing a reality show like Real World, requiring only one from each "other" column.

But yeah, porn is definitely different from reality. It's supposed to be; it's fantasy.

I think the real phenomena is being missed here as people concentrate on minor points. Interracial sexual interests may be changing, I wouldn't dispute that as I don't have data showing whether this is true or false. But markets are shifting.

Techonlogy has made the delivery of porn cheaper. Previously the cost of delivering porn was quite high, especially when you take state intervention, to prevent its delivery, into account. That meant producers of erotica had to appeal to the largest group most likely to pay the price necesssary to sustain the industry --- which meant white males. As delivery costs were lowered through the internet and through more deregulation of the porn industry (less censorship) then the costs of producing porn dropped as well so that smaller markets could be explored as well.

Porn, like all production, is consumer driven. Producers will produce will make a profit. But previous technological costs and delivery costs meant it was limited to more lucrative markets. In a sense it is like the calculator which, when first produced, was an expensive toy for rich people but which, as technology changed and became cheaper, became more widespread. Change the technology and lower delivery costs through deregulation (less censorship) and you would expect diversification in porn just like you get in any other area of production.

I think the real phenomena is being missed here as people concentrate on minor points. Interracial sexual interests may be changing, I wouldn't dispute that as I don't have data showing whether this is true or false. But markets are shifting.

Techonlogy has made the delivery of porn cheaper. Previously the cost of delivering porn was quite high, especially when you take state intervention, to prevent its delivery, into account. That meant producers of erotica had to appeal to the largest group most likely to pay the price necesssary to sustain the industry --- which meant white males. As delivery costs were lowered through the internet and through more deregulation of the porn industry (less censorship) then the costs of producing porn dropped as well so that smaller markets could be explored as well.

Porn, like all production, is consumer driven. Producers will produce will make a profit. But previous technological costs and delivery costs meant it was limited to more lucrative markets. In a sense it is like the calculator which, when first produced, was an expensive toy for rich people but which, as technology changed and became cheaper, became more widespread. Change the technology and lower delivery costs through deregulation (less censorship) and you would expect diversification in porn just like you get in any other area of production.

I'm a white gay male (24) and I can say that 90% of the time I'm only attracted to white guys - but part of that is likely because 90% of the time, I'm only exposed to white guys.

There are always exceptions, though - look at the new line of Old Spice Bodywash commercials. I think advertisers are starting to catch on that it's possible to put forward different races as being beautiful.

Also I remember reading studies showing that women tend to be less tolerant of other races than men are (in terms of who they're attracted to). Could it be possible the same effect occurs in gay men? Maybe some of it is just biological.

I'm an active gay man and I'm rarely turned on by the pornography business. I've always found the actors and acting bland and dumb. I don't think you can take what mainstream gay porn shows (or mainstream straight porn) and say it represents the values of gay (or straight) people at large.

I view most porn flicks the way I view most Hollywood flicks: The characters and situations are contrived, the actions and reactions limited. There's little variety, and nothing represents what I experience in my own life. (And I have an active sex life.) Everything in porn is based on surface looks and simplistic demeanors. In most cases you have to look like you spent all day in the gym working on your pecs.

I think the people who go about creating porn have limited intelligence and are probably overtly and covertly racist. Maybe many consumers of gay porn are limited and racist, too. But this doesn't represent my world and all the people I know in it.

Michael, I'm honored to have had the opportunity to share my views with you on the subject. You are very easy to communicate with!

Towleroad and the Gay Porn Times have picked up the piece and it's my hope that others will pick up on it, too, in the days and weeks ahead. It's that important.

Please, keep in touch.

Victor

Interesting Psychology Today has no problem discussing Porn and racial attitudes in the gay community with Victor Hoff and including a link yet The Advocate WOULD have a problem!

Which just validates what everyone knows about the sexual and racial BALKANIZATION in the Gay Community!

Lets not mention the Anti-Sexual hysteria in the Gay Activist community!