Gay for Pay: MTV's True Life Explores Working in the Sex Industry

MTV has a show out called "True Life," and is has several different segments.This particular segment of the show follows three people who work in the porn industry.

Out of the three I was most intrigued by Aaron: a straight man who performs gay sex for a living. Until watching this I was previously unaware of the term gay for pay: men who say they are straight but do gay porn. Aaron says he is a straight man who started his career as a dancer and this eventually led him to doing gay porn. He says he simply can not turn the money away and uses Viagra to get through his scenes. He says he is very confident in his sexuality and so it does not bother him in anyway to perform gay sex, even while his gay male co-stars tease him about not yet "knowing" that he is actually gay. In the episodes I saw they did not interview any women but I am still curious how a women would react to dating Aaron. I will try not ruin the show for you in case you decide to watch it (which you can do online http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/213160/can-i-see-you-naked.jhtml#id=1582518 ). I wish him a lot of luck and wish he would have found a better way to tell his family about his profession but it turns out well enough in the end.

In discussing the show with a few friends I learned of HBO's, Pornucopia; an adult film documentary where, including many other things, there are several straight, married men, who perform in gay films. Their wives even join them on set and watch the films. I spoke to several friends and surfed the Internet and found that most people have the same reaction: straight men don't do gay porn. This made me wonder about the straight women who do lesbian porn. It seems to be much more acceptable for a women to be physical with another women and not be labeled as a lesbian. Men do not have this ability, they are either labeled as bi-sexual or gay. I know some would argue that any physical activity with someone of the same sex makes you gay but many people seem to be accepting of women being able to cross back and forth without having to identify as lesbian or bi-sexual. Is this confusion on our part? Sexism? I am unsure what it is but there is a society of gay for pay that I think many people are just unaware of. I think with shows out like "Tila Tequilas Shot at Love" peoples acceptance of bi-sexuality is being pushed and tested.

According to Jeffrey Escoffier, as quoted in an article by Hilary Tuttle of NYU news at http://www.nyunews.com/home/ index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=da106e24-6a60-416a-bfbc-b2552324fa52, " "gay for pay" is not merely a career option; it is also an economic strategy. Actors get paid more for filming a gay porn scene than they would for straight porn, Escoffier said. Ultimately though, actors in gay porn make less annually because gay porn makes up a much smaller portion of the sex industry."

I also found on more than a few sites that many straight women enjoy watching gay male porn. On gaypornblog.com Mike says he has had many women admit to him that they enjoy gay male porn. I think this is all very interesting because I have always pictured the gay male porn audience as being gay males. Interestingly I found that many lesbians enjoy gay male porn as well. As it was explained on a few different sites girl on girl videos are primarily filmed for the audience of the straight man and do not seem come across as legitimately lesbian porn. Where as with the gay male porn there is a bit of an androgynous feel to them that makes them appealing. Apparently, I was wrong and have learned some very interesting information about our sexual habits and view points as a society and hopefully have enlightened you to some things as well.

Sources:
http://www.nyunews.com/home/ index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=da106e24-6a60-416a-bfbc-b2552324fa52
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v11217373TxHQqMzJ
http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/storage/paper869/news/2008/03/06/Campus/Guys-On.Film.Straight.Up.Gay.Porn.For.Some.Actors-3255805.shtml