ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a specific strand of fame, the star in gay video pornography. Contrary to the views expressed by Andrea Dworkin (1991: 56) and others, pornography cannot be regarded as a monolithic entity, whether we are speaking of its modes of address, its aesthetic form, or its agendas and effects. Definitions of what constitutes pornography change across national boundaries, cultures and historical periods, and differing pornographies emerge that address themselves to differing audiences. Just as pornography is not a uniform phenomenon, so gay pornography is equally diverse. My focus in this chapter is based on an analysis of specific aspects of commercial American gay video pornography, and I should explain the reasons for choosing this focus. France, Germany, several Latin American countries and the UK, all have their own indigenous gay porn industries. However, the American gay porn industry is by the far the largest producer of widely available pornographic texts. While statistical data concerning the size of the porn industry are notoriously unreliable, the dominance of American porn is suggested by its proliferation on the internet, the large number of influential American producers (on a global scale), as well as the ubiquity of the American gay porn aesthetic across the world.
