Fridae

Anyone who's watched gay porn in the last decade knows the drill: Two gorgeous guys (well, usually two) appear on screen, kissing hungrily, groping eagerly. The clothes come off. The foreplay unfolds. There's almost always an expertly performed blowjob, a little bit of rimming, and then, finally, The Big Moment arrives. One of the guys takes his large, erect and unprotected penis and mounts his willing partner.

New camera angle. An extreme close-up shot of the bottom being penetrated. The music crescendos. Perhaps a bit of sex-talk is overheard. And what's that? A condom has magically appeared on the top guy's penis. A little jarring to the novice porn watcher, perhaps, but, hey, that's how these scenes work. It's a rare video indeed that incorporates into a sex scene the act of slipping on a rubber, but it's even more unusual to find a scene containing bareback or raw anal sex, in other words, anal penetration without that condom.

Barebacking As Fetish
Yet barebacking in gay porn today isn't as uncommon as it was throughout the latter half of the 1990s. According to Butch Harris, publisher of ManNet.com, a site dedicated to gay adult films, there were some 500 new gay porn productions released by major, established studios in 2000; none of those contained barebacking scenes. Close to 500 more productions, however, were released by smaller upstart or amateur production companies, Harris adds, and around 40 to 50 showed anal sex without a condom.

"We did have barebacking in one of our movies, but it was a scene between two partners and that was stated explicitly. Although they were not monogamous, they 'play safe' with other partners and only have unsafe sex with each other," said Aaron Lawrence, escort, porn star, and amateur adult filmmaker. The two lovers were very hot during the filming, said Lawrence, and before penetration they stopped and asked him whether they should use a condom or not. He advised them to do what they normally do together.

Lawrence says along with some requests for barebacking in his videos -- something he never does -- he also hears from those who are avidly opposed to barebacking. "I get a lot of letters from men who say they will never watch my videos again if there's barebacking in them."

While barebacking would have been unheard of in the late 1990s, "times they are a changin", Harris says. "A sub-market has come to the fore, and that's just going to be part of the landscape," he says. "Barebacking has become a fetish, just like fisting or watersports. Like all fetish tapes, there's always that group that wants what they want, and someone says, 'Let me exploit this niche.' Generally, folks who produce fetish videos are fetishists themselves."

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Harris argues that the emergence of barebacking tapes in the last two years hasn't created much of an outrage among his readers or in the porn industry itself. "I wouldn't say this trend is being challenged at all. There's no sense in that, because none of the major studios are about to change what they're doing [requiring models to wear condoms for anal penetration]."

But not everyone agrees with Harris. Former porn star Will Clark, who starred in adult films through much of the late '90s and now spends his time organising AIDS fund raisers within the porn industry for a group called Aid for AIDS, argues that barebacking films of any kind are irresponsible, and that it may only be a matter of time before major studios get in on the act. "Barebacking may seem hot," says Clark, "but it's socially irresponsible for us to produce these videos as an industry. And it's poor business practice to provide entertainment that endangers models and encourages behaviour that could increase infection for a virus that has no cure."

A return to barebacking in mainstream gay porn would represent a major shift from current industry practices, says Harris. Indeed, by 1989, gay porn producers responding to the budding AIDS epidemic required condoms for fucking scenes in more than half of their videos, says Harris. By the early '90s, all gay studios had adopted safer sex practices for all their videos, preceding a similar shift in the heterosexual porn business by almost 10 years. Only in the last two years, says Harris, has there been a movement by upstart companies such as DickWadd.com and Treasure Island Media to mass-produce barebacking tapes.

Clark, however, says he's seen disturbing evidence that points to an eagerness among mainstream producers to toss aside condoms in favour of profits. He points to a controversy that erupted at the 2000 Gay VN Awards, the Academy Awards of gay adult films sponsored by Adult Video News, the industry's leading trade publication. Among the Gay VN nominees for 2000 was Tribal Pulse Studios' South Beach Heat, a video featuring a barebacking scene between a real-life couple.

"There was a big backlash, mainly from a few activists," says Harris. Clark, however, charges that his private complaint about the nomination of South Beach Heat to the Gay VN organisers was made public and that he was accused of lashing out because he had not received a nomination himself. "People don't think I could be so passionate about a public health issue, something that affects friends and colleagues; they think it's about something as petty as me not getting a nomination. To anyone outside the porn industry, that's ludicrous. I've produced and hosted 20 or 25 AIDS fundraising events, and been the featured star at 20 or so others."

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More disturbing than the hit to his reputation, contends Clark, was the lack of outrage over South Beach Heat's nomination among the majority of his colleagues. "There was so little outcry against it. People wish they could make these videos, and the first chance they get, they will. Porn is a business," Clark continues. "Once mainstream gay porn companies decide that barebacking videos are going to make more money than those with condoms, all gay porn will be condomless. I think it's coming in a couple of years." The only thing that might stop the barebacking tide, he contends, is public pressure or perhaps the chilling effect of a new Republican administration in the White House.

Beyond the money-making aspects of the barebacking debate, however, are questions of censorship, art and the influence of the media on public behaviour.

"I saw one of these videos once," Clark admits, "and it was really hot. I'm not going to lie. But my issue is not about barebacking in private; it's about promoting it as an industry. And you can't say that if I see my favourite star barebacking in a video -- happily, willingly, gleefully -- that it won't have an effect, that it won't lead me to feel the crisis is over."

Harris has a different take. "There's always been this idea that porn videos lead to unsafe sex, but I don't particularly agree with that theory," he says. "Most people buy porn and consume it as a fantasy, not as an instruction. There's the same argument with rock music: Was it Judas Priest that made that kid kill himself? In reality, he had that propensity already. The same thing happens with sexuality. And when you have people reacting to entertainment or an art form, how do you put restraints on that?"

Harris also envisions a day when through digital technology, porn videos will either be created completely on a computer -- with no live models involved -- or will be altered digitally after filming to remove the appearance of condoms from the video and make it look like the actors are barebacking. "Is that bad? Once we have that technology, is it wrong to show it? I don't think so," says Harris. "Then it's just a fantasy."

But there is a difference between blaming porn for all barebacking and recognising a cyclical connection between fantasy and reality. "When some people see really hot sex in porn," says Stephen Goldstone, MD, medical director of GayHealth.com, "it may only be a fantasy, but others will try to emulate it."

Do you think that by watching videos that demonstrate unsafe sex practices such as barebacking will influence viewers in their real life or would viewers be discerning enough to recognise that it is a fantasy and not be influenced? Click on the forum links below to comment.