Do you get your information about pop culture, politics and basically everything from sites like Salon and Slate?
That may or may not be OK. Just don’t get your information about “What Women Want Or Whatever This Is Supposed To Be” because holy hell: sad.
Yes, this “James Deen” guy looks like a particularly cute, charismatic Jewish summer camp counselor (I’m guessing; being a shiksa, I have no idea, actually — or why Jews seem so eager to stay at something called a “camp,” but anyhow…) and he doesn’t sport a bald head, fake “tribal” tattoos or a torso that’s three Carlsbergs away from a beer gut.
But the unstated (and far more intriguing, politically incorrect) reason women like Deen so much (to the tune of thousands of “scenes” and a large, rabid base of superfans) is that he’s all that — and still a “dom.”
That is: He specializes in manhandling female performers. Slapping. Spitting. Spanking. Things that don’t even show up on Glee or Gossip Girl or those vampire movies or whatever it is hip, “transgressive” women watch these days now that Sex and the City isn’t on, when they aren’t getting drunk so they can pretend to each other they like watching male strippers “with cute butts” (?) gyrate on poles (???)
And none of them watch that “erotica/porn by-and-for women/couples” stuff either.
The Slate writer tries for the coveted “Understatement of the Year” Award:
Viewers turned off by the typical porn guy— especially young women—started picking Deen out of the scenery.
Today, they can watch him (…) bind and gag sex slaves for Kink.com…
Yes, in much the same way you can watch Robert DeNiro, oh, I dunno, lose his temper just a tad in Taxi Driver…
Anyway, some (male!) commenters at least step up to call b.s.
And it gets better:
But the real obstacle to the proliferation of female-friendly male porn stars is, oddly, a rather nasty and subtle strain of homophobia, revealed in the following double-bind:
The straight male performer must be attractive enough to serve as a prop, but not so attractive that he becomes the object of desire.
Hess is spot on. Men need to see a penis in straight porn (presumably to stand in for their own), but not one that is attached to a guy who might be threateningly attractive, not to mention plausibly appealing to the woman involved.
Wow, it’s been over twenty five years since I’ve read this sort of Not a Love Story-era convoluted no-basis-in-biological-or-physical-reality academic “feminist porn theory.”
If I turn on a radio right now, will “Against All Odds” be playing too? Is Roseanne on later?
Anyway: This Slate piece is the female equivalent of “I read Playboy for the articles” — except that Playboy actually had some good articles.
