The last days of gay porn

Abstract

‘The Last Days of Gay Porn’ examines the evolution and dissolution of the gay male pornography industry from the perspective of an insider who is both a filmmaker and an analyst, and asks whether adult films have a place in the current Internet era. The author briefly explores the cultural influence of gay pornography over four decades, from its origins in the late 1960s, through the hedonism of the 1970s, the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, when the author argues that the gay adult industry performed a tangible public service by incorporating condoms into its films, and into the 1990s and a new century as the rise of the Internet, social networking and ‘celebrity sex tape culture’ render moot the point and purpose of pornography.