If you think of gay porn as the depiction of explicit sexual acts between men, then it seems that pretty much every civilisation has been at it throughout history. The Ancient Greeks had a particular flair for it, but anywhere that they used words and images, archaeologists seem to be able to uncover evidence that there was clearly an audience for some man-on-man action.

In today’s context, we’d probably classify some sexed up images on a vase as homoerotic art. Porn as we now know it began to emerge alongside the development of photography and film.

Gay porn – the early days

The first known porn film has been traced back to 1908 – it shows heterosexual sex. The earliest known gay porn film dates to 1920 – a French film, Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly.

The Surprise of a Knight is believed to have been the first gay porn film made in the US – it was released in 1929.

Censorship laws meant that the production and distribution of gay porn had to be done discretely.

The physique magazines and films of the 1940s and 1950s – which featured naked men in bodybuilding poses – were a camouflage to avoid prosecution under the US obscenity restrictions.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the availability of 16 mm film cameras enabled the production of underground movies that featured men in solo scenes and explicit encounters. These were generally sold and distributed through mail-order.

There was a cross-over between porn and art during this period – Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963), Andy Warhol’s Blow Job (1963) and My Hustler (1965), and Paul Morrissey’s Flesh (1968) are examples of experimental films that were influenced by the gay porn subculture and in themselves influenced what was possible to create with gay porn films – encouraging a stronger focus on production values and narrative.

As the US slowly liberalised its censorship and obscenity laws in the 1970s, gay porn began to flourish and became increasingly commercialised.

Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand – starring Casey Donovan – is recognised as the first gay porn feature film. It had a cinema release in New York City in 1971 and was a commercial success.

Adult cinemas that played gay porn became an intrinsic part of gay life at that time – a hot-bed of cruising and hook-ups.

The era of video

The rise of video – and the widespread adoption of the VCR for home-viewing – in the 1980s transformed the gay porn industry.

The lower cost of production and distribution led to an exponential growth in gay porn.

Films were released directly to VCR for home-consumption, which led to the demise of adult cinemas.

The video era ended with the emergence of the internet. It’s believed that one of the main drivers of the growth of the internet was a demand for porn. As porn became increasingly available on the internet – steadily increasing in quality and available formats – there was no longer any mail-order demand for VCRs.

Most porn studios struggled to adapt to the economics of how to distribute and monetise porn on the internet. Users quickly became accustomed to being able to access porn for free via the internet, becoming increasingly reluctant to pay for porn.

HIV and porn

The emergence of HIV accelerated the demise of public spaces where gay men could have sex. Porn became something that you watched at home, usually alone.

Masturbation was a safe sex strategy.

Condoms became a standard requirement for all porn scenes.

Porn scenes all seemed to follow a fairly standard format, and featured guys that all pretty much looked the same – young, hairless, white, and athletic.

Bad boys of bareback

By the late 90s, porn was starting to explore some of the gay subcultures that had emerged. One of the visible – and controversial – was the fetishisation of sex without condoms, known as bareback sex.

This was before PrEP and before U=U. HIV was still a major health crisis and the virus was being transmitted through sexual contact.

For men who had already acquired the virus, a celebration of bareback sex was a way of reclaiming their power – a sex-positive way of embracing the freedom from fear of ‘catching’ HIV.

In particular, cum was fetishised and celebrated.

Studios such as Treasure Island Media and SX Video quickly built a strong following as bareback sex presented a dramatic alternative to a seemingly sanitised world of condom porn.

U=U and PrEP

In a world where transmission of HIV can be controlled through U=U and PrEP, ‘bareback’ porn – porn without condoms – has now become the standard. It seems fairly clear that there is no longer a market for porn scenes where the performers wear condoms.

Cum play and cum fetishisation remains a feature of a lot of porn, including a celebration of cum-dumps who receive multiple loads of cum in gang-fuck and group sex scenes.

Fan subscription

One of the biggest transformations in gay porn in recent years has been the emergence of fan-subscription platforms such as OnlyFans and JustFor.Fans.

These platforms enable performers to film and distribute their content directly to fans who subscribe to their channel.

This creates opportunities for performers to work autonomously from studios, and creates an alternative distribution system to the main studio operators.

What porn is illegal in the UK?

When it comes to porn, different parts of the UK are covered by different pieces of legislation. For England and Wales, the Obscene Publications Act is the relevant legislation.

One of the challenges with the Obscene Publications Act is that it’s pretty vague. Effectively, it makes it an offence to own or distribute content that is ‘obscene’ but it doesn’t define what ‘obscene’ means.

To help try and clarify matters, the Crown Prosecution Service – the body that brings charges and seeks a conviction under the terms of this Act – published some guidelines to describe the sort of content that could lead to a prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act.

The guidelines specified that as well as acts that were in and of themselves illegal – such as bestiality – obscene content was also considered to include acts that were not illegal. It’s not illegal for consenting adults to engage in things such as sadomasochism, bondage, or urinating on each other, but according to the Crown Prosecution Services these could be considered obscene – that means that under the scope of this guidance, owning or distributing content that depicted these activities could be prosecuted as an offence. Penalties could include jail time. In this context, ‘distributing’ could be as simple as sending a video to another person through a private message.

The Crown Prosecution Service has now removed all of the examples that it had previously listed within its guidance. The updated guidance now focuses on what sort of content is unlikely to be considered an offence under the Obscene Publications Act.

Under the terms of this updated guidance, you’re unlikely to be prosecuted for owning or distributing content if it features consenting adults and it’s clear that the people featured are adults and are consenting, where no serious harm is caused, where there is no criminality involved, and if the likely audience is not under 18 years of age.

Who are some of the icons of gay porn?

Jack Wrangler

Jack Wrangler was working as a stripper and a go-go dancer in New York City in the early 1970s before embarking on a porn career with Magnum Studios. The first film that he appeared in was Eyes of a Stranger. Wrangler appeared in nearly 50 films, with some of his most notable including Kansas City Trucking Co., Hot House, Sex Machine, and A Night at the Adonis. Wrangler’s appeal was that he was a good-looking guy, a masculine guy, who loved having sex with other guys. He defied the general stereotypes of gay men in the early 70s, bringing to life the fantasies of guys next door, truckers, mechanics, ordinary guys who get off with other guys. Wrangler died in 2009 as a result of emphysema. He was 62.

Jeff Stryker

Jeff Stryker was working as a stripper when a photographer suggested that he should try porn. In the late 1980s he was Catalina studio’s biggest star, with films such as Powertool, Hard Time, and Stryker Force. Stryker’s appeal was that not only was he handsome, and had a massive cock, but he had that good-boy-gone-bad vibe which was compelling to watch. Stryker was born in 1962 and currently lives in California.

Chad Douglas

Chad Douglas is one of the icons of the vintage porn era. The moustache. The attitude. The cock.

Antonio Biaggi

Antonio is a sexy guy with a big dick.

He first came to our attention in the productions of SX Video, but he’s filmed with numerous studios and has also created his own production line.

There’s nothing hotter than hearing Antonio’s big swinging balls slapping against the ass of the guy he’s fucking. A total turn-on.

Richard Locke

You’ll probably recognise Richard Locke from the vintage porn classic – Kansas City Trucking Co.

Born in 1941 in California, after high school, Locke joined the army. He was stationed in Germany for three years before returning to the US.

Locke’s first porn film was Dreamer for the director Jim West in 1975.

In a December 1992 interview for Manshots, he recalled how he was asked to pick a screen pseudonym for billing, Locke said, “They asked me, ‘What name do you want?, ‘and I said, ‘My name.‘ I’m very proud of my work and everything I do. An artist signs his name to the canvas, and I sign my name.”

Filmography:

• Pool Party
• Take One
• Passing Strangers (1975)
• Forbidden Letters (1976)
• Daddy Dearest (1984)
• Kansas City Trucking Co. (1976)
• El Paso Wrecking Corp. (1977)
• L.A. Tool and Die (1979)
• Gemini (1979)
• The Sins of Johnny X (1975)
• Two Days in a Hot Place (1979)
• Cruisin’ the Castro (1981)
• Sixty Niner
• Best Of The Superstars (1981)
• Heatstroke (1982)

Jeff Palmer

Jeff Palmer was at the forefront of the resurgence of bareback porn. He embodied the persona of a slut who just loves cock and cum.

Some of Jeff’s most memorable scenes were filmed for SX Video – he gave us that fantasy of an eager whore being relentlessly gang-fucked.

Kevin Williams

Kevin Williams was the ultimate blond power-bottom. He was that slutty young guy who looked a bit innocent but was really a whore for cock.

Chad Knight

Chad Knight’s first films were released in 1991 – filmed with Falcon Studios. He embodied the blue eyes and blond hair that epitomised California boys.

He official retired from the industry in 1999, having filmed an estimated 75 films during his porn career. Since then, he has filmed a handful of scenes.

Chad was mostly filmed getting fucked.

Is watching porn turning us into toxic men?

The chief censor in New Zealand has been studying the nation’s porn habits and has found that a third of all pornography being watched depicts non-consensual sexual activity.

It’s the country’s first report into sexual viewing habits and it paints a concerning picture about the type of porn being watched. The study was completed by reviewing the 200 most popular clips on Pornhub over a 12 month period. Pornhub is one of the world’s biggest porn platforms.

According to David Shanks, the censor who has completed the report, the primary concern is that accessing porn via the internet has become the first and primary tool through which young people learn about sex. While older people generally have the experience to separate the fantasy of porn from the reality of sex, younger people are more likely to apply what they see in porn in their own sex lives.

This is particularly concerning when it comes to non-consensual activity.

“For young people, or people inclined to coercion, the repeated theme of ‘no’ becoming ‘yes’ could very easily be problematic…” explained David Shanks. “Often the videos with this content would start with a reluctant partner who starts out saying ‘no’ to sex but whose initial resistance is overcome through insistence and subtle pressure.”

The New Zealand study also found that 10% of the clips depicted scenes featuring physical aggression, and 9% contained the use of derogatory language.

The censor also described as “highly problematic” the fact that nearly half of the clips featured activity between step families, often involving depictions of a power imbalance and non-consensual activity.

Affectionate acts between partners was present in only about a quarter of the clips studied.

“It is clear from this latest work that porn provides a very poor model for young people who are developing their understanding of consent and of what a healthy sexual relationship looks like…” said the censor. “They need a real counterpoint to the fictional and confusing stories that porn offers.”

How much porn do queer men watch?

To get an understanding of the porn-watching habits of queer men, we spoke with 341 guys from around the world.

We then checked our findings with a panel of experts - consisting of porn actors, porn directors, a health professional, and a relationship counsellor.

Here are the results.

How often do you watch porn?

Over 80% of gay men watch porn at least once a week, and 39% of gay men watch porn every day.

“I watch porn every day  –  I check out clips that show up on my Twitter feed. The convenience and ready access we have to porn these days has played a big role in the rise in everyday porn consumption.”  –  Christian Mitchell, porn actor.

Pretty much all gay men watch porn sometimes. We only found 2% of respondents who reported that they never watched porn.

“I only watch it when I can’t be bothered to find a guy from a hook-up app.”  –  Yoshi Kawasaki, porn actor.

We did a follow-up focus group with 28 gay men to ask them about when they watch porn, how long they usually watch porn for. The average across that group was 27 minutes each session, with 39% of respondents reporting that they generally watch about 30 minutes at a time.

It’s not an exact science, but the picture that’s emerging is that most gay men are watching at least one hour of porn each week, and for many guys it’s a lot more.

“There are a number of ways that you can argue that porn can give people a distorted image of what sex is like, but it would be naive to think that it’s porn’s role to educate. The ease of accessing porn makes it all the more vital that LGBTQ-inclusive sex and relationships education is taught in schools, to counter some of the myths and misinformation that porn fantasy might support.”  -  Matthew Hodson, Aidsmap.

How do you usually watch porn?

In terms of what device guys usually watch porn on, it’s fairly evenly split between watching on a laptop (50%) or watching on a phone (44%)  -  4% of guys watch their porn in some other way, and 2% of guys reported that they don’t watch porn.

This technology and device question will be an interesting one to track over time, as with the increasing shift to mobile it’s likely that mobile will soon become most people’s go-to option when it comes to porn.

“I take my iPad with me to the gym and watch porn while I’m on the treadmill. It’s excellent inspiration. The guys using the equipment around me seem to like it too.”  –  Christian Mitchell, porn actor

Who do you watch porn with?

• 82% of gay men generally watch porn by themselves.
• 15% of gay men watch porn sometimes by themselves and sometimes with someone else.
• 3% of gay men generally watch porn with someone else.

“Use of pornography does get discussed by gay couples coming for counselling. Pornography is like all other issues couples bring to counselling  -  it’s not whether the use of pornography is right or wrong, but whether the couple are able to navigate and find a solution if they have different opinions and desires.”  –  Nicholas Rose, relationship counsellor

What makes good porn?

This was a free text response, but we manually coded responses to do some analysis on what guys were telling us.

49% of guys want their porn to feel real, authentic  –  they want the actors to be into the sex, and to have a connection with each other.

“Fucking for porn is completely different from fucking in your private life. That’s why on camera, I try to give actions that are as genuine as possible. The audience can definitely tell if the actors are really having fun or just acting.”  -  Yoshi Kawasaki, porn actor

• 22% of guys want some sort of narrative or context to the sex that they’re watching.
• 19% of guys want their porn to feature a specific type of guy  –  whether that’s bearish guys, muscle guys, big cocks, or something else.
• 17% of guys want their porn to have high production values  -  they want good lighting, clear sound, interesting camera angles.
• 10% of guys specifically prefer amateur porn over professionally produced porn.

“Everyone’s a porn star these days, and it feeds into that insatiable need for more.”  -  Rogan Richards, porn actor and director.

• 8% of guys want their porn to be free of condoms, for them it needs to be bareback in order to be considered good porn.
• 7% of guys want their porn to have intensity  –  they want the sex to be rough, verbal, and very physical.

“I enjoy porn. It’s good at what it does. It arouses you and it’s fun to watch while jerking off. It has a real value. But we’re looking to use the tool of gay erotica in a different way  -  not just to get you off, but to get you in touch with pleasure, connection, intimacy, and so much more.”  –  Davey Wavey, Himeros.TV

• 4% of guys are looking for porn that features some sort of kink.
• 3% of guys enjoy it most when cum-shots are featured.
• 2% of guys think porn is at its best when it features group action.

“I like to keep tabs on what my followers are into and what they find especially hot. I’ll make a mental note of it, so if the opportunity arises, I can work it into what I’m doing on camera.”  –  Christian Mitchell, porn actor

“People respond to the rawness and honesty of my films, or they just respond to how I look and fuck. When I film porn, I try to have as much fun and turn myself on as much as possible, knowing that the end result will have the same effect on my audience.”  –  Rogan Richards, porn actor and director

What are your fantasies?

This was a free text response, but we manually coded responses to do some analysis on what guys were telling us.

• 25% of guys are looking for scenarios that reflect everyday, realistic encounters. Meeting up through a hook-up app, or boyfriends having sex. They want something that’s believable.
• 11% of guys are looking for inter-generational scenarios between older guys and younger guys. 5% of guys would like these inter-generational scenarios to include incest-themed stories such as father/son.
• 9% of guys are looking for scenarios that involve threesomes, group sex or a gang-fuck.
• 6% of guys are looking for scenarios that involve sports or gym encounters.
• 6% of guys are looking for scenarios that are specific to a workplace  –  such as an office, a hospital, or a warehouse.
• 4% of guys are looking for scenarios that involve curious straight guys, students, cruising, uniforms, or outdoor sex.
• 3% of guys are looking for scenarios that involve dystopian, fantasy, or super-heroes, cuckold, massage, hostage, hitchhiker, kink, historical, or home-invasion.

“The one constant I see is that viewers get tired of seeing the same formula after a while, and then they want something new and different.”  –  Kristen Bjorn, porn director

How could porn be better?

This was a free text response, but we manually coded responses to do some analysis on what guys were telling us.

• 21% of guys want their sex to be more realistic. A lot of guys find porn that’s ‘over-produced’ to be a bit of a turn-off.
• 17% of guys highlighted bad acting, or bad dialogue as things that could be improved.
• 4% of guys highlighted that they don’t want music in their porn.

Guys talked about wanting to see the faces of the men having sex, not just wanting penetration close-ups, wanting to see guys undress, and for there to be some foreplay.

But there’s also a lot of guys who just want the actors to get down to it  -  8% of guys highlighted that they wanted their porn to have less build-up and more action.

“Technology has made it easy for guys to film their sexual encounters and post clips online. However, the quality is all over the place  -  it’s just not well done, faceless, and downright boring.”  –  Christian Mitchell, porn actor.

13% of guys want more diversity in their porn. They want to see lots of different guys  –  not just muscle guys, but guys of all shapes, ages, and ethnicity. 10% of guys are specifically looking for porn that features guys with more realistic or everyday bodies, not physiques that they feel are unattainable.

“A subscriber posted a comment in our forum complaining that our models were too versatile. He said he wanted to see more tops who never bottom, because when they do, it ruins the fantasy for him. Another said that he wanted to see more solo scenes. It can be difficult to please everyone.”  –  Kristen Bjorn, porn director.

5% of guys highlighted that they want to see less bareback sex, more condoms, and more of an awareness of health issues. In contrast, 2% of guys highlighted that they want to see less condoms, and more of a celebration of bareback sex.

2% of guys also talked about the cost of porn. For these guys, the porn that they want to access is too expensive  –  they want it at a lower cost or for free.

“Porn is fantasy sex. It’s not surprising that many people don’t want to grapple with the realities of sexual health in their fantasies.”  –  Matthew Hodson, Aidsmap

Suggest a porn scenario that you want to see

We got some fantastic suggestions in response to this question, with a lot of guys keen to see their fantasies reflected in the porn that they watch. Here are some of our favourites:

• Man walks in on his son’s friend smelling his used briefs. Tells him to get on his knees, or he’ll call the cops. The boy obliges, and gets down onto the floor with the briefs in hand. The man unzips his pants and points to his fat bulge in his tight white briefs. The boy starts vigorously forcing his face into the man’s crotch. He takes the man’s dick out through the fly and starts worshipping his cock until the man busts in the boy’s mouth, then pulls out to finish on his face.
• Two ‘down low’ guys meet in line at the store, sense each other, then discover they live in the same apartment building. They get together to watch a football game, and the guest finds a gay porno mag in the host’s bathroom.
• Journalist tries to get a story from a government minister, but he’s captured by security because he knows too much. They’re in a war situation, and the journalist is put under house arrest. The journalist is sexually abused and used by all the security guards and rebel fighters. The government minister is captured along with the journalist, but is detained in the revolutionary guards’ prison, where the prison guards fuck the minister to get information. The torture is extreme anal penetration by monster cocks, but the journalist gently fucks the minister back to health.
• A curious twink, fresh out the closet, running away from home. Along the way, he meets a colourful array of fit guys of every body type. It’d be a sexy coming-of-age story, with jizz.
• Two young gas station attendants, one gives the other a ride home at the end of the day. The driver invites the other guy in to cool off, smoke pot, and eventually go skinny dipping in the backyard pool. The kid’s dad comes home, teases them, then joins in.
• High school team on a bus, they’ve just won the state championship. Bus breaks down on the way to the whorehouse for celebration. All the guys are horny and have to take care of each other’s athletic bodies.
• A black tie formal event where the guests get blowjobs as part of the event, while they stay formally suited. I love formal wear and I hate it when the porn-stars get naked.
• Guys from today go back in time to the golden age of porn, and recreate some of the hottest scenes in gay porn history.
• Gay Wipeout. Like regular Wipeout, but with naked dudes having to complete obstacles without succumbing to the assorted temptations around them. If you cum before the finish line you’re out.
• Starts with a lad stumbling in on his Dad making out with the lad’s boyfriend. Lad watches, gets aroused by his Dad fucking the lad’s own boyfriend. Boyfriend sees him, Dad turns around, and then son joins in.
• A teen is home alone while his parents are abroad. He invites friends over. A group of older burglars break in, and force the guys to have sex.

“Bareback porn now seems mainstream. I’m hoping that kink and fetish porn  –  watersports, fisting, BDSM  –  will become more popular.”  –  Yoshi Kawasaki, porn actor

“We’re looking forward to making the world a more orgasmic place, one gay man at a time.” - Davey Wavey, Himeros.TV

What does all of this tell us?

Porn is part of the everyday life of gay men. It’s something that they’re comfortable talking about, it’s not something they’re embarrassed about. The survey results were anonymous, but we had a lot of interaction with guys during the survey process  –  guys who were keen to take part, wanting to let us know that they’d completed the questions, looking forward to seeing the results and being able to compare their experiences.

What’s interesting is that porn is something that gay men have a definite opinion about, they have an emotional investment in it, they want it to be better, and they can articulate what they want their porn to be.

However, these results only give us part of the picture. We don’t have a clear view of how much gay guys are prepared to pay for the porn that they want to watch. In a rapidly evolving distribution landscape for gay porn, that’s something that would be interesting to understand.

It looks like we’re going to need to ask a lot more questions, and it looks like we’re going to need to watch a lot more gay porn.

What is CMNM?

CMNM stands for Clothed Man Naked Man – it’s a fantasy that explores the power dynamic between someone who is clothed and someone who is naked.

Are you into it?

Comments