ABSTRACT
Lesbians active in the antipornography movement claim lesbian-feminist pornographers dabbling in the genre are “pimps for the pornography industry.” Lesbians disagree on whether the “authentic” representation of our sexuality is cinema verite, or carefully constructed scenes that are airbrushed or stylized. The ability of lesbians and gay men to identify with characters across sex lines—though perhaps not across gender roles—suggests that porn may work in a more complicated way than the porn-causes-violence-against-women argument indicates. Lesbian porn and gay male non-cum-shot-centered porn are attempts to reassure ourselves against the cultural paradigm of cum worship that our sex is real, is hot. Gay male porn is attempting to network old codes to demonstrate the erotic power of safe sex, to find new images for the body-pleasure tie that binds the urban gay male community in the age of AIDS.
