Gay men forgotten in the anti-porn debate

Over the past decade there has been a revival of debate surrounding the ethics of porn; during the 1970's through to the 1980's there was strong opposition to pornography from both the left and right of politics.

Opposition on the right was from a conservative perspective focused around religious and traditional values, left opposition was focused around human rights issues, the oppression and coercion of those within the industry as well as occupational health and safety standards and lack of regulation.

By the nineties through to naughties the argument disintegrated into the porn lobby championing access to pornography as a civil rights issue, anyone arguing for restricting access or oversight of the industry, was portrayed as a religious zealot or an authoritarian nanny state fascist.

In the revival of the pornography debate a whole section of the community has been forgotten, in an attempt to blame men for the problems of pornography, the issue of men as victims of pornography has been looked over.

The issue for men is broad and complex, it starts from something as basic as addiction to pornography and extends to the effects this can have on a man's relationships and sexual interactions.

The focus on men dominating and dehumanising women has meant that the problem of men controlling and dominating men has been forgotten. This is done through many means including emasculating and feminising homosexual males as well as exploiting men facing financial hardship.

The failure for the heterosexual and feminist communities to discuss the problems of gay pornography has been one of seeing the gay community as separate and not recognising that the fight against exploitation must include homosexuals as part of a broader battle for civil rights and an egalitarian society.

By large the Gay community has also failed to address the problems of gay pornography, there has been an adoption of the self-gratification excuses put forward by the pro-porn lobby who have sold the argument that the right to buy, sell and demand sex is a human right.

In raising this issue there must be a open debate about the role of gay pornography; the issue of liberation goes beyond men and women, it goes to the problem of shadowy industries and power and control.

Gay pornography is not about intimacy between two males, in many cases it demonstrates homosexual males being made subordinate to heterosexual males.

Looking at homosexual pornography from a sociological view, one need only look at some of the mainstream gay pornography which is readily accessible through the Internet.

Much mainstream gay porn includes 'twinks' often portrayed as more stereotypically gay, teenaged or teen looking males who are taken advantage of by 'daddies' or 'muscle men'.

The symbolism of the heterosexual male is clear in the use of 'daddies' and 'muscle men', this is the use of masculine males in the form of alpha males who take advantage of young teenaged looking homosexual males.

By placing the twink in a position of worshipping the alpha male, the homosexual male is placed where society wants him to be, less than the heterosexual male and submissive to him.

Another common theme in gay pornography is the use of college or fraternity boys, this is not a strict gay portrayal but one of young athletic men who compete against each other in some form of challenge. The loser is made submissive to the other males who are portrayed as superior for having beaten him.

In terms of explicit exploitation, well known gay porn websites such as Broke Straight Boys are an attempt to try and coerce males in financial hardship to put a price on how much they would be willing to sell their sexuality for and perform gay sex acts or more commonly have sex acts performed on them.

Once again this also ties into the issue of the gay men being portrayed as wanting to make themselves submissive to the heterosexual male to pleasure and worship him.

This example shows how the porn lobby is trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes; the truth is you cannot have exploitation in the name of liberalism.

It is not a fair argument to argue the right to seek sexual gratification through taking advantage of and coercing those who are financially desperate, this is something which robs another a person of their human rights and dignity.

Currently there is no critical examination of porn in the gay male community, this debate must be had and the question needs to be asked; how many homosexual males are viewing explicit material and being coerced into a false sense of what is expected of them?

The other concerning factor is how explicit gay pornography impacts a young homosexual males formation of his sexuality and will the viewing of such material condition him to a view that he is less masculine and subordinate to the heterosexual male?