What's Up with Men in Porn?

[errantember]

I mean, these guys are getting worked over by people whom they, as a sex, have been most conditioned to want, and yet they have virtually no facial expression or commentary beyond the occasional canned "take it baby." Obviously they're *in* to what's going on, or we'd know otherwise. Unlike the women, they can't fake it. And yet, they're *so* undemonstrative.

I don't get it.

Comments

[goudananda.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that for some people sex seems to be a pretty basic reptilian brain function. There isn't necessarily alot of cortical firing going on. I seem to be very focused and cerebral even during the act but I get the notion that most men just enjoy tight and wet.

I also wonder whether some of that is acting. For instance, what can a porn star say that's not in the script that isn't allowed. The audience for porn is maybe considered to not want verbal interaction?..not sure.

It is my feeling that most of what I see in pro porn just isn't my bag. I prefer amateur as everyone seems into it and real.

[athene.livejournal.com]

That's why I prefer the animated stuff

[laughingturtle.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there! I personally prefer it when they have some sort of "I'm really enjoying this" look on their faces. Maybe they are just concentrating to make sure that they don't lose it too soon?

Of course, most of my favoritest sexy times I've had with partners involved a lot of silliness and giggling and I guess most of the world wouldn't want to watch that either. LOL

*shrug* That's why I'm busy watching the girls in porn...the guys are usually pretty boring...unless it's gay porn...in which case they do tend to be a bit more demonstrative in their joy (the catchers at least).

[gryphynshadow.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joys of professional sex...

The guys are in to it, in as much as they need to be to get an erection, but as for keeping it, well. They have drugs for that. Most of the pro porn features male actors that have been to an obliging doctor who prescribed for them drugs to help with their impotence... Viagra to the rescue of the film industry.

The guys are focused on maintaining an erection, as opposed to having a good time. The refractory period for a male means that every time they ejaculate, you've lost film time, and in the porn biz, time is money. Think of how long those guys are going at it, and how often in a given scene you get to see the poor guy come. Now take into account the demands of filming a sex scene: stop and start while they change the film angle, adjust the positioning, apply makeup, lube or whatever else needs applying... The poor dears are so focused on keeping an erection that they can't just let go and enjoy themselves.

Women don't have to be actually 'in' to whatever's going on. A bottle of lube and some simulated moaning and screaming, and their job is done. It's easy to act when you don't have to also focus on what your body's doing. Poor men in pornos, however... They actually have a very hard job.

Add in the modern porn marketing scheme... The woman is an object, for the use of the penis, she exists to moan and scream and tell the penis how amazing it is. The male actor is a stand in for the viewer's penis (the assumed audience is almost always male, except for those films marketed to women). In a sex scene, you'll see the woman's face more often than you'll see the man's, because the man is supposed to be 'you', the viewer. If he had a face different from yours, it would break the fantasy for the viewer.

No, really, look at most porn... during the sex act, the odds you'll see the guys face are pretty slim. And if you do see his face, well, he's working and concentrating really hard on, well, being hard.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what I was gonna say....

also...icon lust!!!

[kiki39.livejournal.com]

*looks at your girl-monkey icon with my boy-monkey icon* O_O

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

*girl monkey shakes her tail at your boy monkey*

[kiki39.livejournal.com]

Note stiffness of boy-monkey icon's tail (while maintaining his rather neutral facial expression).

(With apologies to Errantember for attempting to initiate hot cross-dressing sock-monkey icon sex in his very serious post... )

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

Is this where the director says "cut" and the poor sock monkey boy has to maintain his stiff tail while the girl monkey gets her makeup touched up and her tail checked for stray hairs?

[kiki39.livejournal.com]

Anyone wanna fluff my monkey?

[oracle-tx.livejournal.com]

*tries not to die laughing at the sock monkey porn production while at work*

Honestly during sex I lose certain cognitive functions. Talking is tough, and please don't say anything in another language! My brain and the sex comes to a screeching halt while I try to translate, even if I don't know the language.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

You have *no* sense of propriety.

[kiki39.livejournal.com]

Blame Canada!

[errantember.livejournal.com]

As an American born and raised, my only to major responses to Canada are ignorance and blame. In fact, it's a pretty amusing prejudice. It's mild, but very prevalent and somewhat insidious because of it's mildness. If you feel like killing someone just because they're from a different country, you might do a double-take. If you are simply annoyed because someone from a certain country thinks they're somehow relevant, you're much less likely to judge yourself harshly.

[kiki39.livejournal.com]

*nods to this*

Note the increasing popularity of amateur porn, where men and women's natural reactions are highly valued.

I suspect "traditional" porn is marketed to a very narrow audience of straight-identified (ahem.. ) monogamous males who prefer not to have flamboyantly demonstrative penises insistently nudging the boundaries of their relatively "safe (ie. pussy-centric) fantasy world. :P

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

I would agree with gryphynshadow and kiki. Mainstream porn is like corporate capitalism: so focused on what is ostensibly proven to be profitable that any creativity or deviation is accidental at best. The script shifts (not the "plot", but the positions and "extremes" to show just how wild the sex is), but it is all very generic.

There is more conscious, sex-positive porn out there, but you have to hunt for it, and the most successful renegades are focused on the growing porn-for-women market, not on the rather underspending guys-who-think/feel market.

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

Actually, I want to add that there is also some non-gender focused porn out there too that just focuses on being hot and not what bits the viewer will want stiffened and it's an unfortunately small niche.

[ladydreamtime.livejournal.com]

I was going to say something similar, that they don't want the man/men taking attention away from the woman. I think that's why fucking machine porn is popular with men--they get to watch a woman getting fucked without another guy's body in the way. I like fucking machines as well, but it's more for the control aspect: the fuck can be exactly the way you want it to be (dildo size, speed, duration, etc.).

[jslorentz.livejournal.com]

I like fucking machine porn, not so much because I like to avoid seeing men but because the men in standard porn are so ugly and dispassionate (honestly, so are the women, but machine porn started just enough on the fringe that for a while you got real women with real bodies and real emotions for a while there--which was very nice).

There's also something cool about being able to focus on just one person's simple and honest pleasure, which is why I also like beautiful agony (http://beautifulagony.com/public/main.php).

[dj-warhammer.livejournal.com]

Watch gay porn if you wanna see guys having fun. :)

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Ironic to think the best way to get male facial fun (of multiple types) into straighter porn would be to try to hack together the women from mainstream porn with the men from gay porn.

Talk about a rotoscope job.

[emmainfiniti.livejournal.com]

I am a fan of many of the kink.com vids because it looks like everyone is enjoying the play and it is just happening to be filmed. I am notably not a fan of traditional porn.

[laughingturtle.livejournal.com]

Tristan Taormino's Rough Sex videos are well worth it too...although I have to admit I'm so enamored with one vid I have yet to watch the others. LOL The one with the hispanic chick and the fella who looks like Vin Diesel is pretty doggone hot! :-)