Happy Birthday Ken Ryker

I have never made any secret of my abiding appreciation for porn, which feels for all the world like it was designed for someone like me - not just as a sexual outlet but for attaching some plot (however minimal) as well as the all-important aspect of art direction to what is (let's be frank) a rather clinical proceeding, especially when merely watching it. Yet for all that, porn is definitely flawed; for one thing, it sets up unreal expectations, and for another it seems to encourage those people it's intended to educate to engage in cookie-cutter sex - making it ultimately counter-productive. Still, I cannot help but think, after twenty years of consuming this unique consumer product, that in many ways sex (at least at the high level it's practiced in porn) is best left to the professionals*...

Gay porn is unique in that the expressions of male sexuality in it seldom adhere to the same narrowly defined categories the punditocracy would have one believe; whether straight, gay - or the one that makes the other two uncomfortable, bi - or whether top, bottom, or versatile, porn's variety reflects reality far better than the cliches would have one believe. Beyond even the charted universe of sexuality is the nebulous grey area inhabited by men who are known as 'gay for pay'.

As might be expected, the whole 'gay for pay' thing is highly controversial. Identity politics being what they are, many professional homosexuals tend to scoff at the idea that straight men might have it off with each other without somehow being closet cases. These are usually the same people who think that any good-looking straight guy - especially if he's famous - is secretly gay. Straight men, too, can have their various insecurities sorely tested by the idea that they could have enjoyable sex with someone who doesn't arouse them visually because sex is about the interplay of all the senses, but most especially touch.

Honestly, given the trouble many straight guys have getting women into bed without the purchase of important jewellery and the playing of Olympic-calibre mind games - and given the aggressive nature of male sexuality - the solution seems elegant as well as purpose-built. No less a paragon of heterosexuality than Tim Allen has frequently stated in his stand-up act that if straight guys could only learn to give each other blow jobs the world would be a better place - guys would get what they want most from someone who knows how it's supposed to be done and women wouldn't have to do badly what they least wanted to do in the first place**. This is what is known as a win-win situation. Unfortunately, none of the straight men I know seem to feel the same way, but it doesn't stop me from making my argument now and again, when I have a clear escape route and they're too drunk to chase me.

Among the more famous of the 'gay for pay' pornstars is Ken Ryker - now retired - who for a number of years could be counted on to fulfill the popular gay male fantasy of getting banged by the quarterback. Although he also starred in bisexual and straight videos, Ryker's oeuvre consists mainly of all-male titles such as The Backroom, The Matinee Idol, and The Other Side of Aspen 4: The Rescue. This 6'4'' stunner - endowed with a compelling 11 inches - now works as a rep for Frixion Lube.

*Not that an amateur can't also have fun in the pursuit... The presence of a professional baseball league, for instance, doesn't affect the enjoyment of tossing a ball around.
**Forgive me if this passage smacks of casual misogyny, because that's not my intention; for both men and women sex is a biological function, but it seems that women are more often socialized to treat sex either like a business transaction or else as something more than it is, which is a biological function.
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