ABSTRACT Jeff Stryker, impossibly endowed, bulging with muscles, foul-mouthed, and unquestionably masculine, remains an enigmatic porn icon whose legend persists some 35 years after he first growled his way on screen. Stryker appeared primarily in gay male porn, where his level of stardom has never been surpassed. Yet, for all this, he is rarely discussed in connection with non-binary and bisexuality, his bi films are dismissed as gay or part of a failed fad, and he is typically regarded as the epitome of the ‘gay for pay’, non-reciprocal, emotionless porn star so ubiquitous in a post-HIV era infused with fear, shame, and self-loathing. This article aims to resituate Stryker as a trailblazer in the harnessing and subversion of porn categorization at a critical moment in US history, an important lens through which we might better understand porn stardom and the performance of masculinity and desire.