Bisexual pornography

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Painting by Édouard-Henri Avril: two men and a woman having a threesome.

Bisexual pornography is a genre of pornography that most typically depicts men and at least one woman who all perform sex acts on each other. A sex scene involving women and one man who all perform sex acts on each other is generally not identified or labeled as bisexual.[citation needed]

History[]

Representations of bisexual eroticism have been found in ancient Etruscan tomb paintings that feature homosexual activity combined with heterosexual activity.[1]

Pornographic film industry[]

In the first half of the twentieth century, some stag films presented bisexual content. Polissons et galipettes features several French examples, primarily L'heure du thé and Madame Butterfly (both c. 1925), which feature acts performed between both men and women. Kenneth Tynan documents many examples, including the French The Chiropodist from the 1920s and the American A Stiff Game (which features a rare interracial male-male pairing).[2]

Bisexual pornography began to develop as a genre in the 1980s. While bisexual content featuring lesbianism had been prevalent during the 1960s and 1970s, bisexual content featuring male homosexuality was first introduced by major pornographic studios in the early 1980s. Paul Norman was one of the earliest directors to gain a reputation for creating bisexual films, with his "Bi and Beyond" series debuting in 1988.[1] Content featuring male bisexuality has been a growing trend since the advent of internet pornography.[3][4] However the genre remains a very small proportion of the pornographic DVD market; for example at porn retailer HotMovies.com, there are only 655 bisexual titles out of a catalogue of more than 90,000 films.[4] Bisexual DVDs sell much better online than in adult video stores, possibly due to customers in stores feeling embarrassed to buy them.[5] Most bisexual pornography is made by small production companies rather than the major studios. Actors are mostly amateur; any well-known actors in bisexual porn tend to be from the gay pornography industry.[4] The sex columnist Violet Blue states that bisexual pornography usually features gay male actors who are straight-for-pay. Blue says that many bisexual productions suffer from poor casting, lack of enthusiasm from homophobic directors, and lackluster performances because "all too many bisexual videos feature two men having sex with each other while desperately trying not to enjoy the female participants."[6]

Although including heterosexual content, bisexual pornography is often considered a "gay" genre by the pornographic industry and many of its viewers are gay men.[7] Bisexual pornography is often placed near the gay section in adult video stores, since many consumers are gay men.[8] As the genre has developed, it has become increasingly associated with the gay male pornographic industry. By the 2000s, bisexual productions used less scenes with women together and bisexual scenes now frequently resemble gay scenes with heterosexual content added.[1]

Male performers in heterosexual porn who have appeared in bisexual porn, have had their sexuality questioned and been stigmatized,[3] and have been accused by the gay community of being in denial about their sexual orientation;[4] while male performers in gay porn who have appeared in bisexual porn have been accused of being heteronormative.[9]

Female actresses face much less stigma for appearing in bisexual porn, although many still get stigmatized for performing with male performers who usually work in the gay pornography or transgender pornography industry.

In August 2018, MindGeek's gay pornographic website Men.com created controversy by releasing its first scene featuring MMF bisexual porn, sparking a discussion over whether bisexual porn belongs on a gay porn website.[10] In reaction to the controversy, MindGeek decided to stop featuring bisexual pornography on Men.com and created a separate bisexual website instead called WhyNotBi.com.[9]

By 2019, bisexual pornography was a fast growing genre. In that year "bisexual" was one of the top seven defining terms of the year according to Pornhub.[11]

Notable directors and performers[]

See also[]

Bibliography[]

  • Marjorie Garber: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life (Routledge, 2000). ISBN 0-415-92661-0

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Summers, Claude (2005). The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television. San Francisco, California: Cleis Press. p. 234. ISBN 1573442097.
  2. ^ Di Lauro, Al and Gerald Rabin. Dirty Movies: An Illustrated History of the Stag Film 1915-1970 Chelsea House Publishers, 1976. pp. 33, 71, 130, 152.
  3. ^ a b c Tina Tyler (2008-02-22). "Bi Roots". XBIZ. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  4. ^ a b c d Joanne Cachapero (2008-09-26). "Both Sides of the Fence". XBIZ. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  5. ^ Acme Andersson (2008-05-31). "Specialty on the Shelf". XBIZ. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  6. ^ Blue, Violet (2003). The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos: How to Watch Adult Videos and Make Your Sex Life Sizzle. San Francisco, California: Cleis Press. p. 214. ISBN 9781573441728.
  7. ^ Escoffier, Jeffrey (2009). Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore. Philadelphia: Running Press. p. 235. ISBN 9780786747535.
  8. ^ Light, Jonathan (2002). The Art of Porn: An Aesthetics for the Performing Art of Pornography. New York, New York: Light Publishing. ISBN 0960362835. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  9. ^ a b "MindGeek is launching a bisexual porn studio 'focused on men'". Gay Star News. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  10. ^ "First bisexual scene at Men is with Arad Winwin, Daxx Carter & Silvia Saige (tip @ Tchelo)". MenofPorn.com. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
  11. ^ "Why People Across the Sexuality Spectrum Are into Bisexual Porn". Healthline. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
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