Intimacy in Dyadic Sexually Explicit Media Featuring Men Who Have Sex with Men

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sexually explicit material (SEM) featuring men who have sex with men (MSM) may be a source of information about intimacy in same-sex male relationships for MSM. However, little is known about how MSM SEM depicts intimacy between male performers. The current study examined the 220 most viewed dyadic scenes of MSM SEM videos for the presence of verbal intimacy (compliments, personal disclosure, and expressions of care) and physical intimacy (kissing, cuddling, affectionate touch, and genital touch before and after sex) between performers. At least one example of physical and verbal intimacy was present in the majority of videos (91% and 68% of videos, respectively). Most forms of physical and verbal intimacy occurred before or during sex, with intimacy being least evident post-sex. We also tested if the presence of intimacy was associated with viewer interactions with videos (likes and dislikes) and number of views. Only one of seven forms of intimacy, care (verbal), was associated with more interactions (i.e., likes and dislikes per 100,000 views), and there was no association with the number of views. Potential implications for MSM’s understandings of intimacy are recognized and discussed with reference to sexual script theory.