So Obvious... It Took a While
Quick follow-up on my post about the lack of erotic representations of men in pro(gressive) porn sites.
It all started out when Laura Woodhouse of The F-Word Blog asked "why are there next to no 'sexy' images of men on sex positive sites, or sites focusing on porn for women etc?"
It seems to have been one of those great Rorschach questions where your take on what she could have meant depends on your own perspective and perhaps on your assumptions about feminist bloggers. Based on her responses to other people's comments she seems to have mostly just meant she thinks women would enjoy more naked men.
And yet when I checked out one of my favorite Porn for Women websites there were roughly three images of women for each image of a man, with only one man really visible and he was only there from the waist up.
There are plenty of good reasons why images of women would show up on pro(gressive) porn websites, including (as Belledame points out) the fact that many women porn consumers are bisexual or lesbians. But you'd think they'd be balanced by interest in images of men from straight women and bi and gay men. And yet, not so much.
Anyway, while mulling a discussion hosted by Caroline of Un-cool one obvious answer occurred to me. (Though technically it couldn't be obvious if it took so long for me to remember it.)
For myriad reasons straight women don’t much mind images of other women. But for one primary reason straight men *really* shy away from anything with dedicated images of other men. And so while you'll find a lot of images of gay men for gay men and a fair number of bi and straight women, maybe it's just that site that's interested in straight men visitors might just wind up needing that tipping-point-avoiding 3-1 ratio?
Anyway, I'm surprised it didn't soak in sooner because the effect really shows up when I post photos here. But speaking of which, and since CassandraSays is (enthusiastically) still celebrating Female Desire Week, after the "continue reading" jump I've pasted three of the photos Flickr has deemed "most popular" from my photostream.
Oh dear lord. That shower picture is just wonderful.
But for one primary reason straight men *really* shy away from anything with dedicated images of other men.
True. I was surprised at the reaction of one man to whom I showed one of your HNT posts. I tried to explain the reason why HNT got started, i.e., as a reaction to the stylized images of "normal" men and women in film and photography. Now this particular man is heterosexual, has been a consumer of porn and a participant at swingers clubs. Despite his past experience, I could tell he really did not enjoy seeing a photo of a nude man on the computer screen. All he could say in response to your semi-nude HNT photo was, "I can't believe he would post nude photos of himself unless he got off on doing that."
(No offense intended here, fl. It wasn't as though he disliked your physique. He just did not want to view a nude male body.)
To summarize, I think the homophobia is so ingrained that men are repelled by the image of a nude man if the image is in any setting other than a conventional art form, such as painting or sculpture or, as the necessary appendage in a pron flick. Following this line of thought, if a man does post nude photos of himself it is because he derives so much pleasure from the (perverse?) act, that he is willing to risk the disdain of other men.
Recaptcha: Safety out
Hmm, well, If I remember right, homosexuality as a specific preference rather than a general perversion (i.e. someone who would have sex with anything that moves) wasn't really recognized until the 1910s or 1920s. Homophobia in the modern sense probably didn't become common until the 1940s or 1950s. During the 1960s most public institutions started going mixed-gendered or co-ed, which spelled the end of casual male nudity in formerly segregated environments. I think gay porn, as well as "gay culture", leathermen, etc. started taking off in the 1970s. The idea of sexualizing men for women instead of other men? 1990s, probably.
Considering all that, even if I remember some things wrong or am a bit off in some ways, I'm wondering if this is actually a fairly recent phenomenon in the historic sense - basically an cumulation of reactive attitudes brought on by 20th century social changes. Anyway, it'll probably disappear once straight men get used to seeing their gender sexualized the way women have been for generations.
[Good points, Nightfall. I remember there was a character in the original novel M.A.S.H. that the movie and tv show were based on, who was supposed to have such a large cock that all the other men at the base wanted to shower when he did so they could see it. And there wasn't anything either homophobic nor homophilic about it, nor any sense that wanting a look was anything out of the ordinary. Also, it seems like the modern definition of "masculinity" came about the same time you say homophobia emerged and... considering the ambiguous (Tennessee Williams) and depressive (Hemingway) and alcoholic (Hammet) and conflicted (Henry Miller) writers of *fiction* who actually drafted the modern notion of manliness then yeah, it's not surprising that everyone should feel so unsure about their ability to adhere to it. (Hmmm...) Thanks! --fl]