Do you know why people say gay male porn is misogynist? I am not pro porn at all. I just dont understand why people make the argument that the receiver or submissive in gay porn is impersonating a woman so gay porn = women hate. If somebody sees two men having sex and considers one of them a 'woman impersonator' arent they projecting their OWN homophobic and misogynist views onto things? Isnt it enough to argue that commodifying and selling *anyone's* body is horrible?

I talked about that a bit in this post, though now that I’m reading it again I don’t think that I expressed myself particularly well.

I believe that gay porn is misogynist for two central reasons. The first of these is that the smaller and frailer in appearance of the men always takes the submissive role during sex. I would argue that this is because being penetrated is associated with women and femaleness, as is physical weakness. The idea of a large, strong man being penetrated by a smaller, more delicate one is unimaginable, because this would constitute an overt rejection of the masculine gender role. The more physically powerful man would in essence be seen as lowering himself to the “women’s role,” which would elicit disgust in the viewer.

This brings me to the second aspect of misogyny that is present in gay porn, which I had never really considered before cisfiend pointed it out to me. (He is, sadly, no longer on Tumblr, but I wanted to credit him anyway.) There is absolutely no room for expressions of femininity in gay porn whatsoever. If you pay attention to the types of men who are featured, they nearly always conform very closely to the masculine gender role, and this is true even in the case of “twink” performers who are valued for their thin and youthful appearance. This is likely in part because consumers of gay porn are incredibly hostile towards men in porn who are perceived as being even slightly feminine. In addition to this, it is quite common for “tops” to use misogynist slurs against “bottoms” during sex, which links back to what I said earlier about the role of the receiver in anal sex being associated with women. The receptive partner is a “bitch” and a “slut” because he has allowed himself to be lowered to a position associated with femaleness and thus with inferiority.

I hope that this made sense; it’s been a long day and an even longer week.