More than a comic sidekick: Fat men in gay porn

Abstract

How and where do fat gay men living in cultures that vilify them for both their weight and their sexual identity go to find affirming, constructive images of men like them engaging in acts of intimacy that run the gamut of kissing to engaging in ordinary sexual acts to expressing love? Using Ann Cvetkovich's theory of the everyday life of queer trauma as a starting point, this article presents pornographic performances on websites, films and video as key sites where fat gay men can find such positive representations of themselves. Ultimately, this article argues for and exemplifies scholarship in sexuality studies that considers pornography contextually and not monolithically, because it can do much good for viewers who cannot find their sexual and romantic lives depicted in many other places, satisfying the ethical necessity that adults of all body types be taken seriously as sexual beings.