Rapid

 

Did you know that Gay Porn Stars inspire scholarly papers? No? Well, today is your lucky day. Because that's exactly what I'm going to talk abou today. I got the heads up on Str8upgayporn, my smut repository and now I'm running with it. Being one of the permutations of the Aging Twink, the whole thing called my attention, and after reading the article, my curiosity was piqued. I had not heard much about the subject of the article, somebody called Johnny Rapid, but that was inconsequential. It was a scholarly paper and it dealt with porn. Is there anything more interesting? That was rhetorical, by the way.

The thing is, Mr. Rapid is 'gay-for-pay'. He's one of those 'straight' actors who get fucked over and over and over for money (they were counting his being fucked on studio productions and they were very close to documenting his 200th time on that website, yep, people keep track of these things) and therefore not one of my usual go-to porn performers. I prefer my gay porn performers to be, well, gay. 

Ok, so first things first. There's the thing about Mr. Rapid being gay-for-pay:

In the gay pornography industry, that uses amateurs as well as professional actors, the term gay-for-pay refers to actors who identify as straight but who engage in same-sex sexual activities for money or sexual gain. Some actors who are actually gay or bisexual will be marketed as straight to appeal to the "allure of the unattainable," because straight men (or those newly coming out) are virgins to sex with other men; scholar Camille Paglia declared that "Seduction of straight studs is a highly erotic motif in gay porn"[5] and anthropologist William Leap has similarly written, "as in most gay male settings, the young, the muscular, and the unfamiliar are more sought.

WIKI

Maybe the main reason why I am not very familiar with his oeuvre is because I don't watch much studio porn. And I have discovered that gay-for-pay actors are not my cup of tea. I don't really find anything interesting in a man who has sex with men for money but who apparently secretly hates his job. I know, it's a 'job' but really? What kind of life is that? Yes, I'm judging them.  Intellectually, I can understand why some gay men find the 'straight stud' attractive, but it does nothing for me. I have actually had sexual relationships with self-proclaimed 'straight' men when I was younger and to tell you the truth they are not really all that. They may look hot and appear to be hot but they tend to be sticks in the mud (as Maddie calls them). Nope. Why would I want somebody who does not really want or like me? Someone who at the end of the day despises me and what I am? The mental contortions are way too complicated  and exhausting and not something I'd like to do at the time of rubbing one out. Oh, you like the fantasy of a straight man who hates you but you still want him to fuck you? Good for you.

Now, the ageing Twink angle is explored in the paper, too. And I found it interesting. We all know the heavy emphasis on youthfulness and age in the gay porn world (and outside of porn, too). More than one commenter on this blog has mentioned a performer being 'long in the tooth' or 'been around for awhile'. Age is currency in gay porn and it is taken into account to launch products:

This discourse is worth considering because it is underscored by prejudices of aging; with Rapid(-as-twink)’s late age and recent controversies outside of his porn career used by commentators as just cause to attack his selection for the campaign. In short, many believed Rapid to be past his prime, and thus unfit to draw sufficient interest in the launch of a new site. Of course, we now know that this event was in fact a success, and was followed up by a sequel the following year—Johnny Goes Bareback… Again! We also now know that Rapid’s career did not suffer the kind of terminal decline that is typical of other twink performers—such terminal decline as I have examined elsewhere, such as regarding Jake Lyons (see Brennan, 2016a). 

BRENNAN

As a version of the ageing Twink, I kind of relate to this topic. It's hard out there for men who cannot make the transition from Twink to Twunk to DILF. Some of of just dont' have the time and dedication that this kind of transformation takes. We live in an in-between world, placed in the border between being youthfully older and performatively experienced. But I've seen that transition it in gay porn many times. There's been other gay porn performers who have made the transition and have kept working after having started as a Twink. The emphasis on youth in porn is a tricky one, because inevitably, the performers will keep looking younger and younger, compared to the age of the viewer. I guess I am much luckier because I tend to prefer porn performers in their late thirties and forties (or fifties, natch), so the men I like to watch on the screen have a longer shelf life. 

But I can understand why Rapid saw himself in a precarious situation. His being 'straight' and getting fucked was being overshadowed by his ageing out of a niche and he needed another 'first'. It was time to do something 'new'.

The scandals:

But we should remember that considerable controversy surrounded Rapid at the time of his bareback debut, meaning that his success was not assured. Mercer’s (2017) discussion of “celebrity damage” (see 178–79) in his monograph is helpful in understanding the kinds of verdicts on Rapid’s character that were still fresh at the time of his bareback debut. In fact, announcement of the bareback debut in mid-2015 followed reportage earlier that same year of Rapid’s arrest for battery and attempted solicitation of sex with a minor. Given this timing, it is unsurprising that a theme to emerge from the discourse was that the bareback debut was a “stunt” aimed at redemption, and at a critical late stage in Rapid’s twink career. 

BRENNAN

Rapid was linked to homophobic performers and was seen as misogynistic and somehow perverted (apparently he and his wife tried to convince a girl to be part of a threesome and the girl was a minor, resulting on Rapid getting arrested). And this is when I think that the lives of the performers do inform the viewer. As much as pornography is fantasy, there are some inescapable facts that I cannot condone: racism, sexism and plain out fuckery are not tolerated in my book. No matter how hot the man, he'll forever be tainted by who he actually is and I'll never watch anything with him again after I learn he's been a racist asshole or a virulent homophobe. Some gay men are excited by the prospect of watching garbage humans fucking. I am not.

The Barebacking:

Gay men tend to see ‘risk’ myopically when it comes to bareback. To carry through the equine metaphor: a sizable proportion of gay men today wear blinkers when it comes to bareback and risk—holding HIV in their field of vision. Rather than reducing this to an example of reckless abandon—a position with its own pleasures —, I believe that understanding can be reached through contextualization and account for the cultural formations and practices that have become embedded in gay culture, and which were shaped by so-called unsafe sexual practices of the past. 

BRENNAN

Apparently the hook to bring Rapid back and rebrand him was barebacking. There's a lot of baggage in barebacking for men over thirty: many of those men were closer to the  AIDS epidemic and its devastating consequences than younger men, who have come of age in the age of PrEP and drugs that control the devastating effects of HIV. It may make sense then, that Rapid's career in porn was revitalized by an act that may seem risky, but at the same time has the allure of the forbidden and therefore desirable. Bareback porn may have its detractors, but it's undeniable that it adds to the perceived rogue character of a porn actor and therefore enhancing his perceived value among his fans. 

I don't see how the added lure of being fucked bareback on camera would enhance the value of a porn performer, but it worked for Rapid: his career seemed to have been revitalized by his going bareback and therefore somehow confirmed that some gay men see the practice as both desirable and somehow devoid of risk. What was once considered a risk is now mundane.

It's all fake:

Both the scene itself together with the promotional images that accompany it are criticized as overly staged—“There’s some[thing] decidedly unsexy about a group of guys stopping to pose for the camera in mid-fuck” (C14)—, under erotic—“he’s the most boring and passionless gay porn performer I’ve ever seen, no matter how many dicks he can take at the same time. Sorry.” (C13)—, and, perhaps most tellingly of all, as not offering the kinds of authenticity that bareback promises—“That looks fun, said no one ever.” (C3), “Just because it’s bareback, doesn’t mean you don’t have to try.” (C24) In summary: boring, staged, and not authentic enough. Even with the performance of bareback double anal, a more risk-aligned sexual practice—as identified in Taylor et al.’s (2007) study of workplace HIV infections in the porn industry.

BRENNAN

Well, duh. Porn is fantasy. But even within the realm of porn, the constant pushing of one boundary after another by a performer can be seen as perfunctory and desperate. Rapid,  a gay-for-pay performer  who, having outgrown his Twink image is newly packaged as going bareback attempts to keep his grasp on his waning popularity by trying something new.  Add to that that he was plagued by accusations of misogyny and real problems with justice, there's no other solution than going a little bit beyond the straight-gay-being-fucked-bareback-for-money and add the double penetration.

Double penetration makes me pause and consider the lengths that this performer will go to keep getting money. He's 'straight', nevertheless, he is more than willing to go bareback and then do bareback DP to keep pushing the envelope (it's a known ruse in porn, that starts with 'the first time...' and ends with the performer doing most of what other performers do even in amateur porn. It's a ploy). So, pause for a moment and think about this: a man who is self-proclaimed straight has sex with men for money, goes bareback, which is intrinsically dangerous even under the rules of engagement in porn and then takes two dicks at the same time in order to add something to his allure. 

The layers are too thick and the conclusions would take too much space for a blog post. But I'll leave you with a thought: no matter how cute Mr. Rapid could be, no matter how much he'd get fucked and for how many dicks at the same time, the fantasy kind of doesn't work for me. I did get a chub while getting the photos for this post (pornography is pornography and it does its work well and I do like the idea of being ravaged by a big brute) but when I attempted to see him 'in action', his output left me somehow cold. No fire.

Porn is fantasy and the fact that a man seems to be trash in real life does not let me get in the mood for rubbing one out. I guess it's just me. I should learn to be less cerebral when it comes to porn, no? After all, it's all over after the money shot.

XOXO