No Protection
Why is it that in gay porn when a man is an agressive bottom all of a sudden it becomes this weird rape/power struggle scenario?
I don't understand it at all.
I have been catching up on my porn (because I had fallen behind in it and I am trying to have a sexual revolution so I have been watching a lot of it - and I don't think I like it) and I am a bit shocked by what it says about the culture of gay men. I had a prof who created a cataloguing system for pornography and I became intersted in viewing some of it.
In many of the films that I have seen I can not believe what I see. We have these aggressive bottoms, men who want to be penetrated during anal sex, I think that is amazing. I don't know where the negative image of having anal sex came from, but it seems to me that those who do enjoy being penetrated are perceived as being somewhat less of a man.
When in my opinion they should be seen as more man.
But I have noticed these theme of these men who do enjoy being penetrated being put into rape and domination scenarios that have nothing to do with the plot of the film (yes that is right I said plot, but perhaps in all fairness I should say "Theme"). These men who enjoy being fucked are then taken out and fucked by a whole lot of guys, or guys who humiliate them for enjoying taking it up the ass.
WHY?
Why do we have this weird power struggle that is meant to demean the individual who is being penetrated and to create this image of them always wanting it and always being ready for it. Even if they have been tied to a tree all night with a butt plug inserted they are still ready, willing and able and have no qualms about being abused in this sense. What the fuck?
I don't get it. Is this not akin to women being raped and the entire "asking for it" motif. That the woman had put herself into the position or situation that then forced someone to take sexual advantage of her. So these men who like to be penetrated are being created in this same vein. They are being made as vessels waiting to be filled. They are not feeling creatures who have an opinion about who fucks them, it is all about them just being receptacles for someone elses cock and for that someone else to take their sexual frustrations and anger out on them.
I don't like this at all.
I could understand it if it was an S & M themed film or if the film was trying to make some sort of statement about domination and submission. But for the most part that is not what is going on here, it seems that these vignettes are being placed in so called "normal" porn. I don't think that this is creating a fair image of what gay men are like.
I know that many of you are telling me to get over it and to just accept the fact that it is only porn, that it is just fantasy material. Well, yes I recognize that but I also think that it creates cultural resonance. Once something like this is made and put out there people view it and it allows for something to happen. It can create this image of submissive bottoms who are willing to do anything and that they want it and can not get enough of it and don't care who it is that fucks them. I think that this image is negative and I don't like it.
I think this takes the power away from the man who is enjoying being fucked. It is that same weird logic as when two young men start sucking each others cocks and they get to the point where they want to try fucking, and so one submits with the idea that the other person will reciprocate. But how often does it happen that the other does not want to and humilates the other person with that "you enjoyed it, you're a faggot!"
So what do I want to see change in all of this? I don't know. I just want the act of sex to be portrayed equally and fairly, should it not be as pleasurable for the top as well as the bottom? And why does the top have to humilate the bottom? What does that say about gay men as a cultural group?
I have no answer to this and I understand that many of you won't agree with me on this butI think that the power should be equally distributed.(That is unless someone has requested to be dominated and then I say tie them up and get the paddle ready)
3 Comments:
I agree with you completely and it is such a stipid power struggle. Argh! Drives me crazy.
I think it also reflects society's ongoing and historical hatred of women. Remember in the seventies and eighties how ALL portrayals of gay men were of the effeminate 'fag' - again, woman-like, not a 'real' man. So of course who ever is getting penetrated is more woman-like, and thus, not manly. No one, I think you are dead on when you compare the bottom scenes to being like a woman being told she asked to be raped. Same crap.
Why is it that I can't comment here for WEEKS???
I thoroughly agree with this. I've never seen the logic of deriding the bottom (sorry for the inuendo there).
It reminds me of how 'cocksucker' is used as an insult, but every man I know (gay or straight) values them.
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