ABSTRACT
In the films of New Wave Queer Cinema, the encounter of pornographic and non-pornographic narratives illustrate the manner in which the cinematic event is not monopolized by the pornographic mission. Beyond sexual urgency, Butt documents the moment before or after sex, offering a different contextualization of the event: The hobbies or seemingly arbitrary characteristics of Butt boys are treated on a par with sexual anecdotes. The Butt boys are neither presented as sexual case studies, nor introduced as psychological individuals, but rather shown as affective-sexual schizo-subjects who appear in the environment of everyday, creative affects, in an open environment of new object relations. Butt's humor, however, is indicative of the fact that the trivialization of sexuality only partially succeeds. Even though Butt, unlike “white trash”-porn, does not present castration humor, the power of sexuality as existential drama is not yet banished from its stories. Rather, the jokes in Butt negotiate the relationship between the sexual and the affective. Despite the sustained power of sexuality, Butt opens up a world of diffuse interest and contingent love. The ephemeral nature of these bonds is also reflected in the episodic nature of the fanzine's portraits. Butt presents the openness of these unreliable stories as a form of optimism.
