An article on slate that says that men are homophobic when watching pornography. In other words, this is another feminist-appealing anti-male rant.
The straight male performer must be attractive enough to serve as a prop, but not so attractive that he becomes the object of desire.
Complete nonsense. It’s all about self image and arousal.
Men need to feel dominance. Men are aroused by feelings of dominance over a woman, for the same biological reason women are attracted to alphas that will dominate them (sexually) without being too threatening. Women have a sort of ‘marginal difference in attraction’ depending upon their degree of ‘alphaness’ in relation to other women. They are aroused by men that fit into the spectrum of ‘alphaness’ that is a comparative advantage without being a threat. Women ‘sort’ men that way. (It’s obvious isn’t it?)
In porn, men don’t sort much. They take almost every single opportunity. In life, men take any opportunity that won’t harm their reputation with other men. Women take only those opportunities that won’t harm their reputation with other women.
So, in pornography, it’s that men are ‘unaroused’ by the presence of a more dominant male who they see as a competitor, and therefore reduces their sense of dominance at that moment.
In pornography, men want a stand-in that they can empathize with where they feel dominant. (Just as they feel by watching sports. This is the side effect of our ability to imitate.) Romantic, patient interludes are a female arousal bias not a male one. In fact, Men need to be taught romantic sexual behavior as a skill. It’s not native to male behavior, which thanks to testosterone is more aggressive, and far less patient.
Women demonstrate their alpha desires too — just in different circumstances. Just as women who run cooking shows ‘can’t be too attractive’ or just as Oprah is a ‘safe’ counsellor to middle class white women. (Yes, those are both facts we have a lot of statistical data to support.)
Its the same for both sexes. We need situational dominance. We need to feel our self image is fulfilling to us in relation to other human beings. It’s about the feeling of dominance (or not) that comes from our self image when imitating through observation.
One commenter Lucas states the problem quite clearly:
“I can’t speak for the rest of the men out there but my personal opinion is that watching a woman have a good time and thoroughly enjoying herself is what attracts me to the porn to begin with and I really don’t care what the dude looks like because I’m not watching the porn because of him I’m watching it because of her”
(This article bothered me. It’s yet another self congratulatory absurdly feminist progressive framing of inter-gender relations that is counter to the facts. Men aren’t afraid of being turned on by homosexuality. They just viscerally react to it they way women react to sex with a dirty naked old man, with open bleeding sores, covered in vomit. It’s not complicated. It’s just gross. )