Instead, it fetishizes elements of the tangible destitution experienced by the ordinary Joe male performers, such as homelessness and past incarceration, used to leverage gay sex acts from typically heterosexual men. Poverty gay-for pay, a lesser-known gay pornographic subgenre, is devoid of the contrivances and modelesque men who populate mainstream gay-for-pay porn.
The gay-for-pay genre of gay pornography often utilizes inauthentic narratives, situations, or settings to indicate its male performers are heterosexual and partaking in on-camera gay sex strictly for remuneration. Through this reflection, I arrive at the conclusion that the time was right for an aging twink performer to be freshened-up by a transition to bareback-similar transitions of which have become widespread across the gay porn landscape in the intervening years between the 2015 Johnny Rapid Goes Bareback event and the present day, thanks in no small part to advancements in HIV prevention technologies.
I read the case study in line with the concept of time, which has particular resonance with bareback. Yet I also take the opportunity-writing several years after this critical moment in Rapid’s career-to reflect on the success of the campaign. The analysis reveals a decidedly negative reception of Rapid, the promotion of bareback as event, and the quality of the bareback performance itself, all of which I read in accordance with what these narratives have to tell us about bareback at the time. This article explores a critical moment of going bareback in the career of arguably the biggest gay porn performer of the 2010s, Johnny Rapid.