Some Gay Porn Belongs In A Museum

Posted November 9, 2015 11:26 AM by with 0 comments

al parker seed moneyOnce we embrace our sexuality, one thing we generally leave in the closet for good is feeling compelled to embrace the heterosexual normative for the remainder of our days. Professionally speaking, that in part helps explain the high percentage of gay men in creative occupations deemed “non-manly” by the masses.

As “aesthetic” professionals, gay men contribute heavily to society’s continued evolution in beauty, fashion and the arts. As sexual beings, our continued evolution as a LGBT community has been shaped heavily by something near and dear to us: gay porn.

As Mike Stable discussed in the Huffington Post and explored in his movie “Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story,”

… creating imagery that would make gay men feel proud of their sexuality. For tens of thousands of closeted customers in small towns across the country, those Falcon films were the “It Gets Better” videos of their day.

The contributions of gay porn to gay culture and gay culture to American tapestry have found a showcase in Pennsylvania as part of the Philadelphia Print Center 100th Anniversary celebration.

Live_And_More

Gabriel Martinez, a Philadelphia artist, has pulled out all the stops for “Bayside Revisited,” his installation exploring the Fire Island of the 1980s and its mythical place in gay culture as told through films, slide projections, ink-jet prints, pieces involving laser-etched fabric and mirror, and gelatin silver prints.

You enter through a curtain printed with the image of the late gay icon Donna Summer’s Live and More album cover; inside, the gallery resembles a club. In the dim lighting, the first work you see involves nothing more than a hanging mirror ball, a 16 mm film projector, and the wall behind both, onto which scenes from the 1971 landmark gay porn film Boys in the Sand are projected and refracted by reflections from the mirror ball.

This isn’t just some gay dude with sex on the brain who decided this was art. This was purposefully included in a curated exhibition of the century. As I was researching the life of Casey Donovan, the star of “Boys In The Sand,” for his birthday biography a week ago, what I didn’t know about the film, and its star, left me both astonished and grateful:

Back in December 29, 1971, the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City was the location of a film premiere the was the culmination of full-scale publicity campaign that included screening parties and full-page ads in The New York Times and Variety. That film was Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand and the instant success made Casey Donovan the world’s first bona fide porn star or any gender or sexual persuasion. The film’s mainstream acceptance established a brief period of “porno chic” and paved the way for the crossover success of Deep Throat in 1973.

The Philadelphia Print Center at 100 Exhibition runs through December 19, 2015 at The Print Center, 1614 Latimer St., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. More information and tickets may be obtained at the Print Center website.

For more on the life, loves and lust of Casey Donovan …
gay porn star Casey Donovan
Explore the Casey Donovan Theater at NakedSword

 
More Lascivious Links
[Visit the “Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story” Facebook Page]
[Explore the Hottest Pre-Condom Classics at the NakedSword Cinema]
[GayPornBlog on Vintage Porn]

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