Todd Morrison - Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography

Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia

Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 47, Numbers 3/4 2004.

Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia

Todd G. Morrison, PhD

Editor

Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 47, Numbers 3/4 2004.

First published by

Harrington Park Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580 USA

Harrington Park Press is an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580 USA.

This edition published 2012 by Routledge

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Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 47, Numbers 3/4 2004.

2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Cover design by Marylouise E. Doyle

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eclectic views on gay male pornography: pornucopia / Todd G. Morrison, editor.

p. cm.
Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 47, Numbers 3/4 2004.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56023-290-0 (hard cover)ISBN 1-56023-291-9 (soft cover)
1. Pornography. 2. Gay erotic videos. 3. Gay menSexual behavior. I. Morrison, Todd G. II. Journal of homosexuality.

HQ471.P6469 2004

363.47086642dc22

2004015699

About the Editor

Todd G. Morrison, PhD, is a social psychologist at the National University of IrelandGalway. He is founder of the Canadian Psychological Associations Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues and has a longstanding interest in gay and lesbian studies. Dr. Morrison conducts research on pornography, male body image and homonegativity, and has published in a variety of journals including Psychology of Men and Masculinity, Youth and Society, and the Journal of Social Psychology.

Todd G. Morrison, PhD

National University of Ireland-Galway

Pornography that targets heterosexual consumers (hereupon called heterosexual pornography) has received substantial attention from social scientists. For example, according to the electronic database PsycINFO, 407 journal articles were published on this topic between 1980 and 2003. (It should be noted that this figure excludes doctoral dissertations and articles not published in English.) Other databases such as the Social Science Index (SSI) reveal similar levels of scholarship (i.e., using pornography as a keyword, 337 entries appear between February 1983 and April 2003).

While numeric indicators of knowledge production denote interest in a given topic, they do not illuminate why that interest exists. The attention directed toward heterosexual pornography likely reflects the importance some academics have accorded this medium, both at the individual and societal levels. For example, some argue that heterosexual pornography eroticises mens fear and loathing of women and encapsulates a sexual political system that reflects and strengthens andrarchy (Dworkin, 1997; Russell, 1998). Conversely, others contend that heterosexual pornography is not necessarily oppressive or exploitive of women, and in fact may serve to enhance individuals sexual self-determination (Chapkis, 1997; Nagle, 1997). Still others recommend moving beyond the condemnatory/celebratory impasse. They maintain that a binary analysis of pornography is simplistic and that neglected features of pornography exposure such as cross-gender identification should receive greater attention (Wilcox, 1999).

There is no logically compelling reason to argue that sexually explicit material directed toward gay men is less meaningful or influential than its heterosexual counterpart. Yet, despite the apparent ubiquity of gay pornography, and gay mens evident familiarity with the medium, academicsparticularly those in the social scienceshave been curiously mute on this topic.

Inspection of the limited published work that is available reveals that much of it falls into one of two categories: (a) biographic accounts of an individuals experience in the gay pornography industry (e.g., Isherwood, 1996; OHara, 1997; Poole, 2000); and (b) analyses of gay pornographic magazines, films, and/or performers, usuallythough not exclusivelyfrom a cultural/film studies perspective (Burger, 1995; Celline & Duncan, 1988; Duncan, 1989; Dyer, 1985, 1994; Merk, 1997). Unfortunately, in the midst of self-reflexivity, illusionism, meta-discursive analysis, assimilability, and the frenzied will to see, the latter category seldom provides insight into the nature of the relationships among gay male pornography, its consumers, and gay culture in general. (See Harris [1997] for a notable exception.) The abstruseness of much of this work divorces the medium from any pragmatic context, lending it an air of unreality. Consequently, myriad questions about gay male pornography remain unexamined. For example, what is the relationship between exposure to gay male pornography and self-assessments of attractiveness? What are viewers perceptions of this medium in terms of the messages it disseminates about gay male sexuality, masculinity, femininity, the ageing process, and safer sex? Does gay male pornography serve an important educative function? And how important is this medium to gay male culture?