Is there really such a thing as "gay for pay?" Are there really straight hustlers, porn stars and so on?
No. I can't imagine any genuinely and totally heterosexual man who would have the slightest interest -- no matter how much he was paid -- in having sex with men either as a prostitute or for gay porn films.
These men are not straight. They are conflicted, guilt-wracked guys who have sex with other men because they are attracted to other men. Being paid for sex enables them to claim -- to themselves and others -- that they are really heterosexual. It is just a case of internalized homophobia, a "macho" hang up. They have sex with men because they want to. That is not being "straight."
Some hustlers think that gay men get some sort of kick out of being with a "straight" guy, so they try to play into the fantasy. There are even hustlers who bring their "girlfriends" into the hustler bar, these tough, generally unattractive, clueless gals who seem to think they have straight boyfriends. Duh!
No well-adjusted gay men wants or needs to have sex with a heterosexual man, as there are gay men to suit every taste.
There are porn movies, magazines and sites which cry out that they feature "straight" guys in gay sex scenes. These sites etc. pander to that old pre-Stonewall notion that somehow straight men are more desirable -- sexier or more masculine -- than gay men. It's a tired, dated notion that should have been set aside a long, long time ago. The producers of these sites are only exploiting the internalized homophobia of some homosexual males. I find them entirely homophobic, and wish they would all go out of business. [If that bothers some people, tough shit. And I'll have even more to say on this in a future post.]
I will always remember what porn star and producer Michael Lucas replied when he was asked if two of his "stars" in gay films were really heterosexual. I paraphrase, but he answered that the men lived straight lives [with wives and children] but that "whether they are in gay porn or straight porn they are equally enthusiastic." If you want to call guys like this bisexual, be my guest, but they are not straight.
It's a sad truth that even today there are men who live lives of complete denial, telling themselves and others [including the clueless girlfriends, who only exist to bolster their fragile male egos] that they are "straight" even while indulging in sex with men on a regular basis.
2 comments:
Thank you for that. I for one am totally bewildered by the whole gay for pay phenomenon and devoutly wish it would just go away. So I wonder if you think it will someday. Will we get to a point where gay men are seen as totally desirable and sexy in themselves? Currently gay for pay predominates the whole gay porn market, and some gay porn actors are even claiming that the majority of men who do gay porn are straight. Very very disheartening.
I'm glad that somebody else sees this the way I do. The gay for pay market taps into the self-loathing and inferiority complex that, sadly, some gay men are still enmeshed in. And it is disheartening how many people who should know better seem to buy into this whole "straight men having sex with men" nonsense. It seems to make a mockery of decades of gay liberation. Will it go away someday? Hopefully, but probably not in my lifetime. As long as the porn industry can make money off "straight guy gay porn" they'll supply it. The only thing we can do is acknowledge that there are more Out and Proud gay men than before, and not everyone indulges in these pre-Stonewall attitudes.
There's more to say on this and I will in the future. In the meantime, thank you very much for your comment. And I may borrow your line "will we get to a point where gay men are seen as totally desirable and sexy in themselves." Beautiful!
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