As Long if It Is Out of Sight: the Conditions that Enabled the Emergence and Circulation of Gay Pornography

Abstract

This article aims to historicize, from a critical perspective, the conditions of possibility for the emergence and circulation of gay pornography and its ideals. The analysis will be articulated by locating two historical moments. Initially, conditions of possibility for the emergence of pornography in contexts permeated by codes of censorship and clandestinity are situated. Then, paths of postlegalization of pornography and its transformation into popular culture in the pharmacopornographic society are trodden. It is provisionally concluded that that the conditions of secrecy enabled the existence of gay pornography. Furthermore, although gay men have found in pornography opportunities to see themselves as beautiful, worthy of desire and to have validation of their sexual practices, such productions also circulate inferior perspectives and subalternization in relation to them.