Wanted: Out of the Box Thinking - Race Matters (with Angel Cruz)

(by Lotta Roti and Angel Cruz) 

Lotta Roti: I'm a 40 years old female heterosexual tomboy woman who loves gay porn and especially twinks. I write my impressions, opinions and observations of porn and the world around it in my blog, Twink Mama's Lounge.

Angel Cruz

Angel Cruz: A 22 year old model/writer/sex symbol, looking for a change in the industry I love so dearly. Chasing the ream with a plan in hand.

Lotta:

DISCLAIMER: Honest, I tried to back up claims I make in this article by doing some actual research. However, it turns out that while there is a plethora of research done about business owner attitudes, customer expectations and conformism and social progress versus market-driven industries all this knowledge is very fragmented all over the internet and buried in the archives of academic journals. No-one seems to have been interested in writing a general compilation or historical account about this issue. A remarkable part of it is also private research and thus a business secret. So instead of conducting a months-consuming academic study I will write based on impressions and gut feelings - and anyone who claims to know better can always challenge what I write.

No-one could say that ethnicities other than caucasian have no place in porn or sexual mythos: they most certainly do. Some of the most popular stereotypes belong to them, and some of the most well-known and paid porn models are black or latino. There are less American asian or arab models that I know of. However, for black models who don't feel like either growing bulging muscles and shaving their heads or styling themselves after ghetto thugs there aren't many work opportunities available. That is because the generic "guy" - the protagonist of a sexual narrative that is not specifically ear-marked as an ethnic fantasy - is, in the mind of a conformist thinker, in reality caucasian. A latino will do if he downplays his ethnicity - they can choose to go with either the fiery latino lover or a dark-haired ordinary guy route - but that black face and features are too different.

Ricky Sinz

Zilla Diege

Angel:

For many its beginning to seem as if being gay and hot is exclusively a caucasian right. As if the only way that a non-white person ( or one that cannot pass for white ) can only be considered attractive is if he can dominate, take advantage of or be predatory of a caucasian model. It appears that's all we are. We seek out the poor white guy lost in the hood or jackhammer away at little twinks with our bulging muscles and massive cocks while they plead for mercy. This typecasting has caused the entire industry to stagnate. Adult entertainment has always been about the exploration of the sexual psyche. Constantly, pushing the envelope and introducing people to new fetishes and fantasies. However, we as an industry have failed to accomplish this. We got comfortable. We have rested on the industry approved labels and formulas of what works. Nobody is taking risks. Nobody is venturing into the unknown. Black models are thugs or punishers. White models are twinks or jocks. Asians submissive fucktoys. And latinos are the passionate forbidden lover. It's old. It's boring. Where is the desire to explore?

In our personal lives we find that there are many young boyish thin black and latino men that are as sexually appealing as there caucasian counterparts. They invoke the same overwhelming sexual desires (in some cases even more) . In our private lives we do NOT practice the same thing . In our private lives we all strive to experience each other and explore what each other bring to the table, but when the camera is rolling we all seem to forget the things we experienced and hot exciting and hot they were . Why is it we as an industry are now afraid to share our private desires with the fans who pay our salaries, attend our events and buy our films? Where is the push to diversify and include models of all shapes sizes and colors? So many beautiful men are excluded because of the fear of not meeting what we THINK customers want.

Sean Berrett

Chase Coxxx

Lotta:

Does this have to be so? This is what people want, so this is what the business owners will give them. Right? There are more white people around, so of course the majority of the models are white. Right? Sexual desires are not politically correct. Right?

Angel:

No. It doesn't. That’s the whole deal of it all . A majority of customers are open to diversity. In fact, many of the consumers of porn seek it. Oddly, enough no companies seek to provide that diversity. The consumers or gay porn are looking for something different - a fantasy that they have yet to explore on their own, whether that fantasy is a foray into leather or their first interracial experiment (albeit, we exaggerate on camera a bit). Even in urban companies there are thousands of members and customers who dream of being with a black guy and have lived vicariously through models like Cody Kyler. However, when looking at many other 'mainstream companies or "niches " you don't see this willingness to indulge people who fantasize about being with twinks like Tommy Anders or jocks like Brent Everett. It's hard to imagine yourself as a skinny white boy when you are one too many shades too dark and vice versa.

Porn is not about reflecting the demographics of the community or area. Who gives a fuck about what the population looks like? It's about what makes the population want to jack off. Let's be honest - a hole is a hole and a cock is a cock, but I don't see any reason why a skinny baby faced black guy cant be seen on camera with a muscular hot gruff white leather daddy. Maybe the urban vernacular and slight resistance to being dominated would be a welcomed addition to the Titan library. ( Scene: Samuel Colt in a leather cop outfit walks pass a cell .... looks in cell and sees ... *ahem* me shirtless doing pushups and lingers a bit ... I catch him looking ... "what the fuck you looking at pig?" .. Samuel decides its time to teach me a lesson... ) but , nobody has explored this. There is a market for it though. Untapped and ignored. Completely forgotten about and forced to lurk the rentboy realm to quench their thirst for something different.

Shane Frost

Phat Daddy

Lotta:

Social reality - part of which everything depicted in porn very much is - does not work that way. What people want is not hacked in stone, and what is given to them is not simply a passive reflection of that. Both of these things are fluid, in constant change and influence each other. While people generally tend to mate with those who look like them, this has never stopped them from fantasizing of more exotic people or seeking them out for sex. Sexual desires are hard-wired and biological, but they are also greatly influenced by the culture surrounding us and we create as much as consume it whenever we interact with other people. Surely you don't think that there is a gene that is responsible of making a homosexual male desire, specifically, frat boys in jockstraps?

I think and I hope that business owners are less motivated by conscious racism than by overcautious, conformist thinking, assuming that their customers want nothing but the same old, same old. This kind of stagnation has to do with the concept of loss aversion: an affordable failure seems more frightening than missing a potentially enormous gain. There was a time when everyone "knew" people who wear eyeglasses are not attractive. Then someone came up with the capital idea of designing attractive frames. The cultural stereotypes followed: glasses can make you look attractive in i.e. scholarly, smart or professional way. In 80's everyone "knew" that girls are not interested in computer games. There were a few hardcore tomboy-nerds like me who played nevertheless - but companies were quite happy to lose the money they would have gotten from other girls, had the games been more approachable for them. The first games specifically designed for girls were "proof" of the disinterest hypothesis as they failed: it didn't occur to the business owners to blame the insulting idea that girls would like to put virtual clothes on virtual paper dolls. Nowadays any company that would ignore female players would be insane - all they needed to do was to acknowledge that they exist and pay attention.

Steffen Van

Baby Star

Angel:

There are models as well as customers that ask to work with models of different races and different looks. I have heard site owners say everything from "I wouldn't fuck a black guy, so why would I film one" to "black guys are normally so muscular" (one quote is from a company whose roster is littered with my personal conquest, the other from a studio whose casting site is similar to myspace and has plenty of models who are wanting to work with me). So what determines the motives of the studio seems to vary. But, no matter how you look at it these are only excuses and excuses are like assholes ...

Tommy Anders

Bunni

Lotta:

Let's look at the way how a typical porn DVD is marketed. It is sold with a big, established name that is guaranteed to attract attention, and loyal fans buy it for this big name alone. Inside there are 5-6 scenes, where newer models and perhaps some tentative variations to the established routines are introduced. Why not use this formula for introducing more variety to the fantasies and scenarios? What if we had a lean, yuppishly good-looking African American business man in his suite getting served exceptionally well by the room service? A black professor of post-colonial studies obliges a white colonial guilt-ridden student who wants to be punished for the sins of his race, for those who like a bit of humor and irony? A black and white dorm roommate share an Oreo cookie and get an idea? And it's not like the twink, frat and jock romping grounds are race-exclusive any more - why not include cute, boyish black guys in the scenarios?

Ashton Michaels

Leo Luv

Angel:

Consumers are looking for more. They look to us as an industry to help them explore and they will pay for adventure. Studios know the power they wield. Studios know that when they decide to market a model, for whatever reason,. that the site members and customers will always give it a chance. It doesn't take much to sway gay men. Get them hard. Make them cum. They WILL come back. So let's explore. Let's take chances and do something new. Porn is one big family. Let's all make some money.

Hayden Chandler

Karamel