Sexual Racism in the Gay Porn Industry
>> September 14, 2008
Here's a very interesting article that discusses sexual racism in porn. I'm not sure who the author is but this article is taken from this site.
The Need for Brandon Lee: Sexual Racism and the Importance of Gay Porn
The porn industry has received criticism from feminists and racial activists for what they perceive as the proliferation of stereotypes in the media that is produced. What they are acknowledging is that fact that porn, like any other kind of media, serves to socialize its viewers to gender and racial roles.
For a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person, self-identity is very much intertwined with the concept of sexuality. For them, the old gender roles espoused by a heterosexual-dominated society do not seem to apply. However, compromises between the socialization imposed by popular heterosexual society and the new sexual identities have created further self-identifiers such as “butch”, “femme”, “top”, and “bottom”. All of these are reflections of the traditional gender roles of masculinity and femininity in the homosexual mirror.
Pornography is an essential source of socialization for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) community. Unable to inherit the cultural capital of their heterosexual predecessors, the lgbt community has looked towards alternative sources, such as gay-centric media, observance of other members of the community, and comradeship with experienced members of the community.
For the purposes of this analysis, only the gay male community will be analyzed, and gay pornography will be used as the source of the sample. The lack of images catering to the gay community in mainstream media has created an even greater need for gay-centric media. It is only recently that there has been a prevalence of gay-centric media publications and icons in mainstream media.
Before the prevalence of such images, pornography was essential in creating a “popular memory” for the gay community. (Burger 1995, pg 3) As an underground industry, pornography grew as the demand for it grew. It is no coincidence that gay pornography gained its momentum after the 1969 Stonewall riots, and with the gay liberation movement.
Movie theatres which showed these “gay films” were notorious as gathering places for these gay men. Video-tape technology and the rise of the mail-order industry allowed for the more private viewing of such films in the privacy of people’s homes. For many men still trying to come to terms with their own sexuality, gay pornography serves as a form of anticipatory socialization, teaching the skills and knowledge needed once the male assumes the new sexuality.
However, as anti-pornography advocates are keen to point out, there is a lack of “media watchdogs” to regulate the images and portrayals shown in these films, which may or may not be accurate. Most films are created not for their message or positive images, but for the pleasure of the target audience, which in turn would translate into greater revenues for the film studios. Unfortunately, this audience tends to be gay white males.
The images portrayed in gay pornography have helped reconcile the gender roles socialized by heterosexual society. In a gay porn film, it is common to see dominant and submissive figures.
Most of the time, the “dominant” and “submissive” roles will be conveyed through characteristics such as masculinity and femininity. As in heterosexual porn, the masculine male is portrayed as the more desirable of the two. In the most definite act of gay sex, anal intercourse, the roles of “top” and “bottom” reflect the traditional male/female roles in heterosexual intercourse. Traditionally, the “top” is usually the partner with the more “masculine” characteristics, and assumes the “male” role of the penetrator, while the less “masculine” partner remains passive, assuming the “female” role and “bottoming” for the “top”.
Film studios go through great pains to convey these images in their films, sometimes even employing straight males to assume the roles of these “masculine” males who epitomize the gay male ideal, in essence “fooling” the gay viewer to the sexuality of the individuals. Such straight actors are called “gay-for-pay” in the industry, and many of them have carved out huge careers in the gay porn industry despite their sexuality.
Despite a growing visibility of non-white gay males, the domestic gay porn industry is still very white-male dominated, and the lack of these “watchdogs” have allowed for a disproportionate amount of racial stereotypes. Most of these “ethnic” films, with titles such as Black Power (Catalina Black Gold Series), Cholos in Charge (Catalina Baja Bay Series), and With Sex You Get Eggroll (Catalina Far East Features), are not geared towards the ethnic audiences they seem to be presenting, but to a white male audience that finds pleasure in the propagation of racial stereotypes.
In most of these “ethnic” films, the “ethnic” actors tend to keep within specific roles that are portrayed. In a short overview, black (African American) men tend to be portrayed as extremely well-endowed, oversexed machines (Fung 1995, pg 181), Latino men as quiet, well-endowed, masculine working class barrio boys, and Asian men as thin, smooth, submissive bottoms with smaller than average penis sizes.
This industry definition of “Asian” also seems to include only Asians of East Asian descent, namely those with Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean characteristics. Other Asian ethnic groups, such as South Asians, are rarely, if ever represented in the medium. In interracial films, in which white males interact with these “ethnic” males, these “ethnic” actors tend to keep within their stereotyped roles. However, in some cases, there are exceptions to the rule.
In a scene from Chi Chi LaRue’s 1998 film Fortune Nookie (Catalina Far East Features), lawyer Jacob Scott refrains from reading a will to a penniless Brandon Lee, a man who is also the beneficiary of his uncle’s estate, unless Lee paid for his services by fucking Scott with his 10-inch cock. Lee proceeds to be serviced by Scott, and then plows Scott in the ass. (Spencer, GVD).
To the average gay porn viewer, the scene described would be just one of the many common scenarios utilized by gay directors and writers for their productions. However, the dynamics change once the actual scene is seen on screen. Brandon Lee is Asian, while Jacob Scott is white. What viewers are seeing is a well-endowed masculine Asian male being the “top” in a film directed by one of the best porn directors in the business (Chi Chi LaRue), and released by one of the major gay film studios in the nation (Catalina Video). This scene seems to refute Asian stereotypes in the industry. However, while this film was touted as one where “an Asian gets to top a white man,” the old stereotypes still apply.
The late 80’s and 90’s led to the creation of the “power bottom”. This was a masculine individual who seemed to derive more pleasure from being the “bottom” in the course of anal intercourse than the “top”. Porn actors like Joey Stefano had carved out careers as superstars in the industry, alongside “power tops” like Jeff Stryker, as masculine men who enjoyed taking it up the ass. In film scenes, the “top” no longer was necessarily the dominant figure, but the “bottom”. (Burger 1995)
This phenomena can clearly be seen in the scene from Fortune Nookie. Even though Lee is the top in the sex scene, it is Scott who is clearly the dominant figure. As the lawyer who is withholding information from Lee, Scott maintains authority over Lee. Throughout the scene, Scott is constantly encouraging Lee with “dirty talk”, while Lee remains silent, albeit producing a few grunts and moans. Lee, like the highly-sexed Black and Latino stereotypes, has been reduced to a tool, dominated by his huge penis.
Lee finally gets to hear the contents of his uncle’s will, which entitles Lee to the Asian male bordello (brothel) owned by his uncle. The next sex scene is a pairing of white Paul Morgan and Niko Time, an Asian member of the bordello. Morgan, a paying white customer, “tops” a submissive Time. Time fits the stereotypical image of the Asian male, with his thin body, smooth skin, and penis size which does not compare to that of Morgan’s.
Following the unorthodox scene involving Lee and Scott, the movie reverts back to the old expectations of the white male viewer, with the stereotypical Asian male (Time) literally “servicing” the white masculine male (Morgan). Morgan dominates the scene as the paying customer, while Time performs his role, audibly responding to being dominated by Morgan with moans and squeals.
A third scene in the film involves no interracial dynamics, but instead pairs two male members of the bordello. Erik Tenaka and Tishiro Ho. They decide to “practice” their trade on one another, with a “well-endowed” Tenaka taking charge and “topping” Ho.
For “same-race” scenes, penis size serves as the primary factor in determining the dominator in the scene. However, a degree of “Asian-ess” also seems to be underlying this choice. Of the two, Ho has a more pronounced “Asian” accent, his dialogue mumbled and barely understandable. Tenaka takes control easily, giving orders to Ho, the visibly more “stereotypical” Asian. Throughout the sexual act, only moans and groans can be heard from both actors, a contrast from the earlier two scenes where the white male asserts his dominance through verbal commands and “dirty talk”.
These three scenes from Fortune Nookie represent the typical portrayals of Asians in domestic gay porn, and this has led to a social devaluation of Asians within the gay community, and a growing rise in “sexual racism”, in which sexual partners or members of a dating pool are singled out solely on their racial ethnicity. The premise of the film, an Asian male bordello, elicits an image of the traditional Japanese “geisha”, or prostitute. This affirms the image of the Asian male as a sexual creature to be used by white males. In the sexual hierarchy among gay males, Asians tend to find themselves at the bottom of the heap, unable to attain a similar level with the white males whose images proliferate as ideals in the media. Looking through personal ads and personal interests in chats such as Planetout and Gay.com, it is common to find statements such as:
No fat, no femmes, no Asians.
Not interested in arrogant, effeminate guys, asians or guys with attitude.
Seeking other similar goodlooking masculine guys, no fems, no asians please.
No GAMs (no Gay Asian Males) (Quan 2002)
Statements such as these tend to lump Asians automatically with undesirable traits such as “effeminacy”. While it is irrational to think that all Asians exhibit these traits, these are the stereotypes that are perpetuated in the popular consciousness of the gay community. Porn stars like Brandon Lee serve as “anomalies” in the gay porn industry, whose popularity can be attributed to their rarity and unique attributes, which in this case is his unusually large penis, which at 10-inches, is rare even for white males.
Only Asians who exhibit these “Brandon Lee” traits are viewed to be able to “top” in interracial relationships, and even then, dominance could tend to be held by the white male, as shown in the interracial scenes in Fortune Nookie. But this “sexual racism” does not always lead to a rejection of the stereotypical gay Asian. This “racism” also works the other way, creating unwanted attention and pre-defined expectations. “Rice Queen” is the term used to describe white males whose racial preference is Asian men. Even then, these “rice queens” seem to desire only the “exoticized” image of the Asian male, accepting only the image of a smooth, thin, passive and submissive male as a true gay Asian. (Wat, 2002) Most of these “rice queens” also tend to exoticize Asian culture in general, reflecting the old colonial stereotypes of the white “conqueror” in Asia.
Gay Asians also seem to reflect this “sexual racism” in the media and the community. As gay Asians, they are not receiving the same cultural capital as other white gay males. Case in point: Gay South Asians are completely omitted from most representations of Asians in the media. While people might tend to “generalize” gay portrayals in the media to apply to all gays, it is white male gays who are dominating the message, and Asians find little else besides sexuality to relate to the representation. Asians might find themselves confined within these pre-conceived notions about Asian men.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, most gay Asians might feel that the only way they can be accepted into the gay community is to embrace these stereotypes, and conform to the expectations of the white-male majority. Experiencing the same socialization as the rest of the gay community, gay Asian males might see themselves as “undesirables” and the white male as the ideal object of desire. This has led to the emergence of “potato queens”, Asian men who date white men exclusively.
Many Gay Asians also tend to distance themselves as much as possible from their ethnic backgrounds, creating “whitewashed” individuals who find no sense of relation with the rest of the Asian community. This has led to a lack of cohesion within the gay Asian community, which is a problem when groups try to rally support to help dispel such stereotypes.
One might hope that more stars like Brandon Lee would help dispel the myths surrounding Gay Asian men. However, Lee only produced seven films in his short 1997-98 career with Catalina Video, and few, if any, Asian stars in the industry have managed to fill that gap left behind by Lee when he left. The market for gay Asian porn has grown in the past decade, but most of these needs have been filled by studios that specialize in all-Asian productions filmed in Asian countries like Thailand. (Giant Robot, 2002) unfortunately, most of these all-Asian films are geared towards a white audience, capitulating on the “exoticness” of the models used and the locales.
Asian-themed pornographic films are still rare in the industry, with major domestic film studios like Catalina Video producing only ten films in from their Asian-specific branch Far East Features, with only eight of them original productions. Two of them are merely compilations of different scenes from the other films. As long as white males hold the reins in media and create a market for images of Asian males on their terms, there is little that can be done to remedy the propagation of stereotypes in gay porn.
