ABSTRACT
In Chapter 7, the author argues that Black men in gay porn are portrayed then eroticized as missing links in the context of primitiveness and primality. In gay men’s pornography, consumers and producers construe Black men as less human (i.e., more primitive) than their counterparts, and this image then serves as a source of erotic attraction. Typically, this process involves relegating Black men to one or more of three subordinating associations: natural rawness, unrefined putrescence, and anachronistic animality. A rhetorical association with the concepts of “raw” and “natural” epitomized the “realness” of Black men in gay porn, who are apparently unaltered by the supposedly feminizing forces of civilized humanity.
In addition to subordination, Black men are primitivized in gay men’s porn through diminution, which entails referring to Black men as “boys” as well as the concerted infantilization of Black participants in corporate “bait” films, where straight men are coerced into performing in gay pornography. For Black men in gay porn, the portrayal of primality entails presenting Black masculinity as violent and powerful, intended to arouse the viewer by offering an image of Black masculinity as “sensuous but dangerous.” Racist portrayals of Black men in gay porn are normalized through the association of monstrosity and violence with power, which commands fascination and admiration from Black and white users alike.
