Porn star/stripper/escort: economic and sexual dynamics in a sex work career

This article explores the career dynamics of performers in the gay male pornography industry, by focusing on a common career path- from porn star to stripper to escort. Between 1995 and 2005, most men performing in gay porn films, unlike contract actresses in the straight porn industry, have been unable to earn enough income to work exclusively as performers in front of the camera. The industry's constant search for new faces and fresh performers creates what sociologist Paul Cressey has called "the retrogressive dynamic": The longer a person works in a sexual occupation, the less one is paid, and the lower the status of the work venue. In the porn industry, one aspect of this process is referred to as "overexposure," during which the performer experiences a diminishing "fantasy potential" as fans lose erotic interest in the porn star who has appeared too frequently in too many movies. Performers attempt to confront the retrogressive dynamic by limiting the number of adult films in which they appear in a year, diversifying their sexual repertoire, or shifting into other roles within the industry (behind the camera, marketing, production, etc.). One common option is to pursue work in economically complementary forms of sex work such as stripping and escorting.     

Nextext

Gay men who are marked as "sexual outlaws" have unique and tense relationships with social regulatory forces, and for the porn star, the tensions are exacerbated. Surveillance, attraction, seduction, repulsion, authority, and discipline mark the communicative dynamics between the bodies of subject/object, performer/spectator, image-maker/imagined. This essay, which is a follow-up to "Sextext," is a fictional account of a porn star who navigates personal and social relationships in the context of a culture that averts overt discussions of carnal desire.     

"Economic growth," population,and the environment

Thought and policies on population and the environment are damaged by the concept of "economic growth," which implies that the pattern of economic change of the United States is a Nature-programmed course that will automatically elevate all nations and take care of problems of population and the environment. This doctrine is essentially a myth, which is popular because of its flattering promises. The required cause-and-effect analysis of the policies required to limit population and preserve the environment cannot prevail and save the future until the influence of wishful myths such as that of "economic growth" is radically reduced.     

Xena and the Warrior Poets: Audre Lorde,Monique Wittig,and the myths of lesbian origins

This paper explores the connections between the television show Xena: Warrior Princess, and the myths of lesbian origins which were created by a loose collection of writers known as warrior poets. It argues that the show contains significant components of those myths as imagined by Audre Lorde and Monique Wittig. In particular, both show and myths share the presence of irresponsible gods; ideas of destiny; and women-centredness, which includes parthenogenesis, love, desire, and rivalry between women. The paper suggests that the transformative power of the show comes largely from the erotic connection between women that is at the core of these lesbian origin myths.     

Gay Porn’s Bareback Momentum

ABSTRACT

A profound shift has occurred in the last decade in mainstream commercial gay pornography from condoms to “bareback” (condomless) depictions of anal sex between men. This article explores gay porn’s “bareback momentum” as demonstrated by the displacement of condoms in the 10 most visited gay porn Web sites (that have operated for 10 years or more). While all 10 began by releasing condom pornography, the study finds all except one (Falcon) have since gone bareback—represented visually as a timeline. The sites analyzed are, in order of popularity: Sean Cody, Helix Studios, Lucas Entertainment, Corbin Fisher, Bel Ami, Next Door Studios, Randy Blue, Falcon Studios, Cocky Boys, and Chaos Men. Textual analysis reads each site’s transition individually, yet connections between the sites are the article’s central concern, from which an emphasis on couples and break-up narratives is revealed. Falcon’s commitment to retain the condom is attributed to its brand identity.     

新世纪安徽省就业问题及对策研究

就业是民生之本,就业问题是安徽省当前和以后一段时间重大而艰巨的任务。当前,安徽省劳动力就业问题包括就业歧视问题、非公经济的不发展问题、劳动力市场的不健全问题等。要全面充分地解决就业问题,除了对症下药外,安徽省还必须正确认识处理效率优先与就业神话、政府主导与社会神话以及人口擎肘与经济神话的关系。     

In the slammer: the myth of the prison in American gay pornographic video

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance of the prison scenario and its various permutations in the texts of American commercial pornographic video. The paper will identify the prison as a highly eroticised all male environment, an arena where the active/passive dichotomy of gay pornography is staged and re-staged. The significances of the prison are multiple. The prison draws on a gay mythology of homosexual desire that has its origins in sources as diverse as the literature of the Marquis de Sade and Jean Genet and the erotic illustrations of Tom of Finland and Etienne. Prison scenarios take many shapes in gay pornography such as the American penitentiary, the military brig, and the fantasised dungeon of the leatherman. I see these scenarios as performing an important function within gay porn by offering idealised spaces for the acts of pornography: voyeurism, narcissistic display and active/ passive role-play.     

The Blunt Cutting-Edge: The Construction of Sexuality in the Bengali Feminist Magazine Sananda

This article focuses on the construction of one's relation to pornography in contemporary media by examining agony columns of young adult women's magazines. The analytical approach employed is a “close reading” from the perspective of queer theory, purposing both to “queer” the portrayals of heterosexuality and to critically review representations of non-heterosexuality. The focus is especially on the role of affects and emotions in moving subjects “toward” and “away” from porn and producing conceptions of gender and sexuality. On the one hand, the positive affects of excitement and interest are associated with men in the data corpus, whereas the negative affects of disgust and upset are usually connected to women. On the other hand, affects are absent when discussing queerness. The study thus offers an application of Ahmed's notion of the productive role of emotions both in expanding the idea of productivity from constituting ethnicity to establishing gender and sexuality and also in directing attention to the absence of affects or emotions in constituting norms.     

Gender and Racial Stereotyping in Rape Coverage

This article uses critical discourse analysis to discuss and analyse articles about rape that appeared in a South African newspaper, Grocott's Mail, between 14 October, 2008 and 29 October, 2009. Drawing on existing literature on “rape myths” in media coverage of rape, this article argues that Grocott's Mail perpetuates racial and gender stereotypes through the way in which it reports on rape. While not all of the articles included in the analysis use rape myths, most use one or more when discussing rape incidents. Specifically, Grocott's Mail tends to use rape myths that blame the victim for the rape and de-emphasise the role of the perpetrator in the rape.     

The message is the message-maker

For those engaged in family planning or other demographic work of an active kind, serious errors can be made and much money and skill wasted unless there is a clear idea of available means of communication. Literacy and media-diffusion figures offer vague parameters, especially in Asia, and the role of spoken communication -- considered key in "illiterate" societies -- is even more difficult to assess. For mass media, the starting point is "diffusion rates" representing numbers of TV sets owned or newspapers sold per 1000 population and so on -- measures of quantity. This article surveys the population growth rates, urban-rural distribution, educational levels, literacy rates, numbers of newspapers bought, radios and TVs owned (per 1000 population) for 12 Asian countries, and discusses their meaning in terms of media use. Chief among the points made are that print media still have an enormous role to play in the developing countries -- newspaper diffusion rates are quite high, even in countries with low urban population (especially India). The quality of electronic media (too often considered the natural "wave of the future" everywhere) varies but is generally not high. Where they are fully developed their role is vital -- but it might be noted that it is the message makers themselves who are most vital. Choosing the right medium and the proper message for it is essential.     

Ephebophilia and the creation of a spiritual myth in the works of Ralph Nicholas Chubb

The writings of Chubb, a boy-lover inclined to spiritualism will be studied with a view to understanding how he created an exonerative myth to reconcile his sexual interest with his desire for spiritual fulfillment. In this myth Chubb is the prophet of a deity who looks like a young boy and loving boys has spiritual significance. Chubb's pre-modern perception of his sexual orientation helps us to understand the changing views of homosexuality. This study may help in understanding the relationship between sexual desire and the development of personal myths.     

Gender Monstrosity

Deadgirl (2008) is based around a group of male teens discovering and claiming ownership of a bound female zombie, using her as a sex slave. This narrative premise raises numerous tensions that are particularly amplified by using a zombie as the film's central victim. The Deadgirl is sexually passive yet monstrous, reifying the horrors associated with the female body in patriarchal discourses. She is objectified on the basis of her gender, and this has led many reviewers to dismiss the film as misogynistic torture porn. However, the conditions under which masculinity is formed here—where adolescent males become “men” by enacting sexual violence—are as problematic as the specter of the female zombie. Deadgirl is clearly horrific and provocative: in this article I seek to probe implications arising from the film's gender conflicts.     

Representing sex workers in video games: feminisms,fantasies of exceptionalism,and the value of erotic labor

This article critiques the representation of sex workers in “AAA” video games, with a focus on the devaluing of erotic labor. Existing feminist commentary has interpreted these representations as examples of the objectification of female game characters, perpetuating harmful misconceptions of sex work as fundamentally exploitative. By contrast, taking cues from feminist media studies, porn studies, and sex workers rights activism, I argue that what makes these representations of sex workers problematic is not their engagement in erotic labor but the ways that the games in which they appear devalue that labor, through both dialogue and interactive elements. Across their many appearances in AAA games, it is strikingly common for sex workers to offer their services to player-characters for free or at a discount, or for games to allow players to take their money back after erotic labor has been performed. This contributes to a gendered fantasy of exceptionalism in which a player-character’s masculinity is tied to being too attractive or too powerful to pay for sex. Critiquing these representations demonstrates how AAA video games prompt players to reenact widespread cultural biases against sex work. It also points toward the need for a diversity of feminisms within game studies.     

The residential segregation of occupational groups in central cities and suburbs

The impression of journalists and social critics in the 1950’s that post-war suburbia was uniformly middle-class has been generally rejected by social scientists, but there is a persisting belief in a high degree of residential segregation by social level in suburbia and in a high degree of socio-economic homogeneity within suburban neighborhoods. A comparison of eight central cities with their suburban zones in 1950 and in 1960 revealed, for both dates, (a) small differences in occupational distributions between the central cities and the suburban zones and (b) generally higher Index of Residential Dissimilarity values for pairs of occupational groups in the central cities. These findings indicate that suburban neighborhoods, at least in the eight suburban zones studied, were little, if any, more occupationally homogeneous than the central city neighborhoods. This suggests that the belief in homogeneous suburban neighborhoods should be added to the growing list of discredited “myths of suburbia. ”     

More Than Pop Culture: Depictions of HIV in the Media and the Effect on Viewer's Perception of Risk

When young adults are questioned about where they gain their knowledge of HIV, overwhelmingly popular media (including television) is reported. Thus, the goal of this article is to question how media is used to educate and influence young people's present perceptions of HIV/AIDS. Narrative analysis of popular prime time shows was used focusing on the story lines and characters used to introduce the topic, as well as the myths and facts about HIV. Results presented provide researchers a clearer insight to how popular shows discuss HIV/AIDS while also highlighting the ways Social Cognitive Theory can still be utilized.     

Male sex workers in three Australian cities: socio-demographic and sex work characteristics

This article describes the socio-demographic and sex work characteristics of sex workers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. A total of 185 male sex workers completed the questionnaire component of the study. The results of this study serve to debunk many of the myths surrounding the popular view of the male sex worker (MSW). The respondents in this study were on average 27 years old, and the majority had completed secondary education, with 30% having gained some form of tertiary qualification. Interestingly, those MSWs who had not completed secondary education were mostly street workers and were generally aged under 25 years. The majority of sex workers lived in rented accommodation, with only 6% reporting to be homeless. Half of all respondents identified as being "gay," 31% as "bisexual" and 5.5% as "straight." More than half of the respondents were in a permanent relationship. Only 7.3% of this group reported using heroin daily, although the majority consumed alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and ecstasy. The majority of sex workers had been in the profession for less than six months, although some had been working in the industry for more than ten years. Most of the sex workers reported having taken an HIV test and a preference to offer safer sex. The article highlights ways in which the work context of MSW can be better understood and supported by education and public policy programs.     

Interpersonal contact experiences with gay men: a qualitative investigation of "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men

The purpose of this investigation was to understand how "fag hags" and gay-supportive heterosexual men (GSHM) describe the nature and quality of their interpersonal contact experiences with gay men. Eight archival interviews were analyzed using the methodologies outlined in Hill, Thompson, and Williams (1997); i.e., consensual qualitative research. The results yielded suggest that the nature of contact experiences relates to direct contact with gay men in institutional or social settings or via indirect, formative experiences. The possible roles that contact plays in attitudes formation include: (1) normalizing homosexuality, (2) challenging previously held myths and stereotypes, and (3) increasing a person's likelihood of having contact experiences with gay men and developing gay-supportive attitudes. Participants described the quality of the contact as taking place in the context of a friendship that developed between them and a gay male that strengthened after the gay friend came out. Furthermore, the impact of these contact experiences did not change fag hags' sense of morality, but "improved" their attitudes toward gay men. The results from this study have broader social implications in that they contribute to the much-needed discourse, from a qualitative perspective, on the ways in which people form gay-supportive attitudes. Future research should focus on describing the transformational nature of contact between gay men and heterosexuals in order to uncover any processes or stages that heterosexuals go through in developing gay-supportive attitudes.     

A Realist View of Aging,Mortality, and Future Longevity

Differences in methodology and philosophy have led scientists analyzing the same mortality data to arrive at very different conclusions about the behavior of mortality trajectories, the nature of aging, and the future of human longevity. This note describes the authors’views on these issues, which taken together can be termed a “realist” position. In this view, life expectancy is unlikely to exceed an average of 85 years absent significant advances in the control of aging. We identify a number of myths that have been attached to our work: 1) Reaching an average life expectancy of 85 years is a pessimistic outlook for human longevity, 2) Species possess an intrinsic mortality schedule that cannot be modified by human intervention, 3) Realist scenarios of the future course of human longevity are based on notions of biological determinism, 4) Realists assert that there is an age beyond which there can be no survivors, 5) Hypothesized biological barriers to longer life spans have been scientifically studied and refuted, and 6) Realists claim that life expectancy at birth cannot exceed 85 years. In dispelling these myths, we hope to provide a more accurate representation of our school of biodemographic thought.     

Psychodynamic theory and pastoral theology: an integrated model

The article proposes that a pastoral concern for gay and lesbian individuals must be sensitive to the psychological and social dynamics involved in their attachments, separations, and losses. Drawing on object relations theory and insights from self-psychology, a model is proposed whereby counselor and counselee can examine the cycle of attachment, separation, loss and reattachment that characterizes all important relationships. The suggestion is made that this cycle is applicable to the development and reformulation of life-giving myths and ways of being in the world. Finally, an analysis of the role of early narcissistic wounds and the healing process in therapy is presented.