Some Like It Mellow: On Gay Men Complicating Pornography Discourses

Despite the proliferation of writing on pornography generally, much of the literature that focuses on gay pornography specifically conforms to either a pro- or anti-porn framework. This overly simplistic dichotomy positions pornography as a homogeneous construct, albeit one that is either “good” or “bad.” Even theorists who situate pornography on a continuum, with erotica at one end and hardcore at the other, tend to reify these discourses. Further, it is not uncommon for researchers to draw conclusions about the effects of pornography consumption without defining exactly what pornography is. This ethnographic research draws on qualitative interviews with 20 consumers’ of gay pornography in Toronto, Canada. By using a thematic analysis to document the ways in which gay men define, distinguish, and conceptualize gay pornography, five definitional categories were developed: Mellow; Commercial; Raunch; Amateur; and Bareback. These broad conceptualizations are discussed in reference to writing on gay pornography. Our research results emphasize the importance of clear definitions of pornography within pornography research.     

Unique decomposition of low-order time series

ABSTRACT

We give necessary and sufficient conditions on the parameters of processes ARMA(1, 1) and ARMA(2, 1) for representation of each as unique sums of independent simpler ARMA processes, including deduction from the sum process of the innovation variances of these summands. This work on inversion is motivated by examples in the article of Granger and Morris (1976 Granger, C.W.J., Morris, M.J. (1976). Time series modelling and interpretation. J. Roy. Statist. Soc., Ser. A 139:246–257.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and by our earlier article (Ku and Seneta, 1998 Ku, S., Seneta, E. (1998). Practical estimation from the sum of AR(1) processes. Commun. Statist. Simul. Computat. 27:981–998.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), to which the present article is a self-contained sequel. The theory is illustrated by the analysis of tree ring data.     

Retrospective accounts of first exposure to minoritized sexual and gender identities

Although there has been considerable research about attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people, there has been little research into how people first come to be aware of minoritized sexual and gender minority (SGM) identities. This study sought to address this gap. A sample of sexual minority (n = 150) and heterosexual (n = 802) young adults (N = 952; M_age = 18.88 years, SD = 1.75; 949 were cisgender, three were transgender), primarily recruited from a large southern university, were asked retrospectively to recount their first exposure to or awareness of SGM identities. Responses between SGM and heterosexual participants were compared through a variety of analytical approaches, including analyzing themes about the source from which participants first recalled encountering these identities, and whether understanding about these identities came through a personal connection to someone with these identities. SGM participants reported encountering minoritized sexual identities a year earlier than did heterosexual participants, with both groups encountering these concepts in middle childhood, on average. SGM participants were more likely than heterosexual participants to report learning about minoritized gender identities from someone with a minoritized gender identity, while heterosexual participants more often reported learning about these identities from media or celebrities. Heterosexual (vs. SGM) participants were also more likely to imply that minoritized gender identities were adopted to be popular, rather than being authentic identities in themselves. Framed by developmental intergroup theory (DIT), we discuss implications of these findings, especially potential interrelationships with the development of prejudiced attitudes about SGM identities.