The new ‘Porn Wars’: representing gay male sexuality in the Middle East
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19419899.2014.983741
ISSN1941-9899
Autores Tópico(s)Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
ResumoAbstractThis article argues that Michael Lucas' Men of Israel was made in response to the rising popularity of Arab themes, performers and locations in recent gay male pornography, particularly American studio-based productions. The article explores how recent representations of Arab society, culture and men in gay male pornography employ varying degrees of performativity and authenticity in an attempt to break down differences, and bridge connections, between East and West, while Lucas and his film attempt to maintain that rigid imaginary border. I argue that the texts are a microcosm of the contentious and ongoing debates about homosexuality in the East and West and crystallise how gay identities are used as currency to push various cultural political agendas generally and through pornography subculturally.Keywords: pornographygay maleIsraelArabtransnational AcknowledgementsI wish to thank my MA thesis supervisor, John Greyson, for his excellent supervision, and Dorit Naaman for her help with an unpublished, stand-alone article on Men of Israel. I also wish to thank Joseph Massad who provided me with some valuable literature, my current supervisor Thomas Waugh for his ongoing support, and the three anonymous reviewers for their in-depth, generous and thought-provoking feedback.Additional informationNotes on contributorsEvangelos TziallasEvangelos Tziallas is currently a doctoral candidate at Concordia University and an editorial board member of Porn Studies. He has published articles on the use of surveillance footage in cinema, 'torture porn', the Saw series, and the films Head On and Mysterious Skin. His dissertation's working title is 'Doubled visions: surveillance, identity, and queer(ed) narrative fiction film and pornography (1970–2010)', and his major areas of interest include surveillance, queer cinema and cultural politics, and pornography.
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