What is the history of Gay Porn? Mk 1

If you think of gay porn as the depiction of explicit sexual acts between men, then it seems that every civilisation has been at it throughout history

So, let’s explore through the history of gay porn! The Ancient Greeks had a particular flair for it. Still, anywhere that they used words and images, archaeologists seem to be able to uncover evidence that there was an audience for some man-on-man action.

In today’s context, we’d probably classify some sexed-up images on a vase as homoerotic art. Porn as we now know it began to emerge alongside photography and film development.

Gay porn – the early days

The first known porn film traced back to 1908 shows heterosexual sex. The earliest known gay porn film dates to 1920 – a French film, Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly.

The Surprise of a Knight is believed to have been the first gay porn film made in the US. It was released in 1929.

Censorship laws meant that the production and distribution of gay porn had to be done discretely.

The physique magazines and films of the 1940s and 1950s – which featured naked men in bodybuilding poses – were a camouflage to avoid prosecution under the US obscenity restrictions.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the availability of 16 mm film cameras enabled the production of underground movies. That featured men in solo scenes and explicit encounters. These were generally sold and distributed through mail-order.

Gay Porn - Cade Maddox

Stretching out Salvador

There was a cross-over between porn and art during this period. Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963), Andy Warhol’s Blow Job (1963) and My Hustler (1965), and Paul Morrissey’s Flesh (1968) are examples of experimental films that were influenced by the gay porn subculture and in themselves influenced what was possible to create with gay porn films – encouraging a stronger focus on production values and narrative.

The US slowly liberalised its censorship and obscenity laws in the 1970s. Gay porn began to flourish and became increasingly commercialised.

Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand – starring Casey Donovan – is recognised as the first gay porn feature film. It had a cinema release in New York City in 1971 and was a commercial success.

Adult cinemas that played gay porn became an intrinsic part of gay life then—a hotbed of cruising and hookups.

The era of video

The rise of video – and the widespread adoption of the VCR for home-viewing – in the 1980s transformed the gay porn industry.

The lower cost of production and distribution led to an exponential growth in gay porn.

Films were released directly to VCR for home consumption. That led to the demise of adult cinemas.

The video era ended with the emergence of the internet. It is believed that one of the main drivers of the growth of the internet was the demand for porn. Poor became increasingly available on the internet. It resulted in a steady increase in quality and functional formats. There was no longer any mail-order demand for VCRs.

Most porn studios struggled to adapt to the economics of distributing and monetising porn online. Users quickly became accustomed to accessing porn for free via the internet. Users became increasingly reluctant to pay for porn.

HIV and porn

The emergence of HIV accelerated the demise of public spaces where gay men could have sex. Porn became something that you watched at home, usually alone.

Masturbation was a safe sex strategy.

Condoms became a standard requirement for all porn scenes.

Porn scenes all seemed to follow a fairly standard format and featured guys who looked the same – young, hairless, white, and athletic.

Bad boys of bareback

By the late 90s, porn was starting to explore some of the gay subcultures that had emerged. One of the visible – and controversial – was the fetishisation of sex without condoms, known as bareback sex.

This was before PrEP and before U=U. HIV was still a significant health crisis, and the virus was being transmitted through sexual contact.

For men who had already acquired the virus, a celebration of bareback sex was a way of reclaiming their power – a sex-positive way of embracing the freedom from fear of ‘catching’ HIV.

In particular, cum was fetishised and celebrated.

Studios such as Treasure Island Media and SX Video quickly built a strong following as bareback sex presented a dramatic alternative to a seemingly sanitised world of condom porn.

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