The growing trend of gay porn studios switching to produce content without condoms has become so prevalent, major pro-condom studios have started to jump on the so-called bareback bandwagon.
In the most shocking (read: not shocking at all) announcement since staunch condom advocate Michael Lucas released his first bareback film and subsequently outed the HIV statuses of his performers, gay porn conglomerate Falcon Studios has announced that an upcoming film, California Dreamin 1, will feature “digitally removed condoms.” Falcon has long been one of the leading studios for condom advocacy in the gay porn industry.
Bareback porn films sell better than films that use condoms—regardless of what Internet trolls or terribly mistaken advocates will lead you to believe, this is a fact. The logic behind asking models to wear condoms and then spending a large amount of time removing them in post-production, obviously, is to sell more copies of a film while still being able to coin it as “safe.” “Safe,” here, implying that performers have little risk of transmitting HIV or other STDs while wearing condoms.
Although Falcon also owns and continues to distribute one of the largest collections of “vintage” bareback porn, they sell it under the title “pre-condom.” California Dreamin’ 1 director Tony Dimarco calls his new film “a throwback to the classic, pre-condom Falcon poolside movies from the 70’s and 80’s.”
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He adds (NSFW):
With this movie I really wanted to capture the essence of that time, when life seemed more carefree and spontaneous. In keeping with this concept, I felt that condoms need to be addressed. I wanted to give the impression of a pre-condom movie, but use condoms as we do in every scene we film. I found a way to film the movie safely and effectively, while giving the experience that I had intended and using the hottest modern stars.
And thus, the discussion begins. In lieu of pointing out the obvious flaws with creating “bareback” porn and continuing to remain a pillar of condom advocacy, we’ll let Gay Porn Blog (NSFW) commenter Jay do the talking for us. He hits the nail on the head, to say the least:
One of the big arguments against bareback porn is that it sends ‘the wrong message’ by glamorizing unsafe sex. So, if viewers are unaware of the digital trick, won’t that message still be sent?. Conversely, if we bareback lovers are aware of the digital removal of the condom, the magic will be gone(at least as far as ‘raw’ appeal; the scene might still be hot). I don’t know exactly which segment of the market they’re trying to please and what they’re trying to accomplish with this silliness: those who love bareback will be automatically turned off by the fact it’s fake; and those naive enough not to notice will probably be hooked on bareback porn which I assume is not Falcon’s intention.
What do you think?
TinaTheGreat
Pornography, gay or straight, is not a good example to model your own sex life on.
If you don’t understand that, you are obviously not mentally mature enough to have sex.
Mikey
Condoms when used correctly are 98% to 100% safe (depends on the study). The snarky author of this story who used “safe” in quotes is showing their bias. I don’t think the studio was trying to be sneaky at all with the condom erasure. They’ve actually been really upfront about it. If they can find a way to make bareback lovers happy AND keep their models safe – that’s great, IMO. People are bitching about a movie that hasn’t even come out yet.
mrsbuela
makes one wonder what else they’re “fixing” digitally.
It’s sad they can’t do anything about the personalities (or lack of) and/or the acting abilities of their “talent”….
tardis
Finally. With all this technology, I was wondering when a porn studio would remove condoms digitally. Porn is fake and no reason for its bareback scenes to be real.
balehead
Obviously they are all jealous of porn stars as usual…
Tackle
While this is an interesting idea, I think it’s gonna have very little appeal. We all know that alot in porn is fake. And by increasing the fakery (digitally removing condoms) it’s gonna be even more of a turnoff for the companies that do this. And what’s next, are they gonna digitally add cum oozing from some guys hole? And guys who enjoy bareback porn are not gonna settle for this, when they can watch the real thing.
zaneymcbanes
@tardis: “Porn is fake and no reason for its bareback scenes to be real.”
Excellent point.
Miss Manners
Falcon filmed bareback then make up a story that they digitally removed it. The only thing they digitally removed was condoms from the set when they filmed these bareback scenes.
Kangol
@Mikey:
Exactly. But hey, why not model for gay men of all ages that raw sex has no physiological consequences?
It’s not like in addition to HIV there aren’t countless other STDs/STIs, ranging from chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, HPV, etc. to think about.
And since condoms do prevent a majority of these, that’s an even better reason not to use them in pornographic videos, which have powerful psychological and emotional effects.
Oh well, gay/bi/trans men, especially you younger ones who don’t remember the worst years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and haven’t received any sex education at school or home, another video company is throwing you to the wolves!
Chris-MI
People in porn do all sorts of dumb-ass things, like sexually harassing the pizza delivery boy and getting lube all over their Brooks Brothers’ suits.
I personally find bareback a massive turn-off because it’s real and it kills people. I would feel the same way about icky horror movies if I didn’t know it was food coloring and chicken parts.
By the way Tackle, the dripping cum is hand lotion and always has been. They wouldn’t bother with a digital effect for that one.
KittyLitter
took queerty long enough.
Niall
Interesting. Quite surprised this is the first time this idea is being used as I’ve wondered why this isn’t done more often.
Alaska_Dude
If it gets you hot and makes your dick hard, who cares? Hopefully porn studios will start using this technology to remove ass zits from the bottom guys. Seriously. Top guys wearing rubbers in porn are less boner-killing than bottoms with a bunch of bright red ass zits. Nobody wants to see that.
Black Pegasus
**Note to self**
Falcon studios is now on record for producing FAKE porn. Avoid at all costs.
QJ201
There used to be distinctions between bareback porn…from the ‘vanguard” fetishizing semen exchange from Treasure Island Media’s stable of poz or don’t give a crap performers to the “timid” no condom, but no semen exchange from a decade ago among “neg” performers.
Now it’s just a creampie and cumdump parade in most contemporary bareback porn
Joetx
“Bareback porn films sell better than films that use condoms—regardless of what Internet trolls or terribly mistaken advocates will lead you to believe, this is a fact.”
Whether bareback porn sells better than condom porn is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
What IS relevant is preventing the spread of STDs, especially HIV/AIDS, which sadly is on the RISE AGAIN (!) due to attitudes such as. Calling people “Internet trolls” & “terribly mistaken advocates” is the type of smug & ignorant attitude that leads to dangerous, unhealthy behavior.
tdx3fan
@Kangol: Nice list. Other than Hepatitis, those are all skin on skin contact. Even if you wanted to make the argument that condoms reduce the risk of skin to skin contact STIs, you would still have the little issue that these can all be transmitted orally through blow jobs and ramming. Sure, condoms reduce risks, especially of fluid transference STIs, but do not try to sell them as 100% effective while trying to guilt everyone that does not always use them.
tdx3fan
@Joetx: I like America Horror Story… I do not go around killing people. You are making a spurious correlation with zero evidence. You are very far off base. Rates are raising for a few reasons and bareback porn is not to blame. Kids think they are invisible anyways and our sexual education system greatly fails our teens. If you want to bunch your panties do it over the fact that Religous groups and conspiracy nuts are stopping the expansion of HPV vaccines to young males… which would virtually eliminate their chances of getting HPV.
tdx3fan
@tdx3fan: *invincible… must love auto correct!
Fitz
My name is Fitz, and I like porn. Real porn. With real sex. Not wrapped up. Not digitized. No… I do not worry about the health of the actors. Nor do I worry about my waiter’s feet, nor my gardener’s back. It’s their responsibility to care for themselves.
jimbryant
Is Falcon still making porn? Sheesh. Do they still employ mainly straight guys?
In any case, porn is not a good direction in life. It’s usually associated with drugs and desperation. It looks all shiny on the screen but you don’t see the shiny sores that develop with the STD’s.
Porn is a form of concentrated promiscuity.
KittyLitter
@jimbryant: Yup. Still as lame as ever. Not even worth watching their garbage.
masc4masc
This seems so fake. I’d rather just watch with the condoms. I don’t understand why porn has to be bareback for guys to enjoy. It’s not like they can feel it. I just don’t get it .
DShucking
I don’t understand why anyone would be against digitally removing condoms from porn movies.
Fitz
@masc4masc: Never actually HAD sex, have you?
SteveDenver
Bareback porn only underscores that those involved are disposable.
That Falcon is even trying to appeal to that segment of the porn market may indicate they’re just steps away from abandoning protection altogether.
Bareback porn is for stupid assholes.
SteveDenver
@masc4masc: Maybe they don’t want to be reminded that people still use condoms and there’s are reasons to consider doing so themselves.
boring
Peter Jackson can’t get skin textures 100% in a 300 million dollar movie, what does Falcon think they have that he doesn’t?
Shit it going to look more fake than the VH1 TV edit of Showgirls.
AuntieChrist
I have never understood the fascination with porn..If I am with someone then I don’t want to see porn and if I am alone I can certainly find more interesting things to do…People are way too focused on sex, gays are the worst…I had boyfriends, and that whole thing of cruising and all the stupid pathetic games people play just wore me out…To ME porn is the refuge of tweekers and lonely oversexed idiots.
viveutvivas
For better or for worse, many of us have been desensitized to the point where the more vanilla images don’t excite us anymore. As a teenager I used to be able to beat off to vague allusions to sex in novels. At this point I can’t even get aroused by porn unless it is bareback.
But Falcon was always lame. Primped and coiffed models who just mechanically went through the paces with half-limp penises. I initially started watching bareback porn because the actors were actually enthusiastic about the sex they were having.
AuntieChrist
What I meant to say is jaded, lonely, oversexed idiots who can’t get a date.
viveutvivas
…says the person who doesn’t have a life either judging by the amount of time she spends participating in internet forums.
viveutvivas
That came out very snarky. My point is that many people, especially gay people, are indeed lonely, often through no fault of their own. The fact that they get judged for it by others just makes it worse.
AuntieChrist
@viveutvivas: I’m semi-retired dearest and have been with the same man for 25 years…But that’s no excuse for being mean…Sorry.
Joetx
@AuntieChrist: Pot meet Kettle.
AuntieChrist
@Joetx: At 53 that might be the case; however since I have been with the same man for 25 years your stolid comment is moot…Thanks for playing 🙂
Joetx
@AuntieChrist: My comment was in reference to yours re: being mean. Sorry for your lack of comprehension skills.
xonod
I’m going to make this simple for everybody. If you are a mature and responsible adult you have the right to make your own informed decisions without worry of another adults opinion. If you select to have multiple partners or lead a promiscuous lifestyle, or at the very least one in which you can’t all together trust your partners to be safe then it’s recommedend you use protection. That is with the understanding that they aren’t 100% effective and that they don’t protect from all STDs. If you otherwise feel comfortable with your partner and have a monagamous relationship and select not to use protection, that is your choice but please recognize the risks and make informed decisions. I think everyone. Bottom line everyone needs to make informed choices about their health and behavior. I hope that helps.
AuntieChrist
@Joetx: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Tackle
@xonod: That is simple, yet intelligent. Just so well put. I’m in 100% agreement with you…
Reid Condit
It seems to me Michael Lucas has the right approach. Besides his disclaimers which acknowledge the danger of HIV/AIDS, his also takes into account the fact that recently developed pharmaceuticals can minimize and even eliminate viral load. Furthermore, labeling a scene as raw or bare-back serves to remind viewers of the risks of bare-backing. You can’t have your cake and eat it too as Falcon would like.
GayTampaCowboy
I know this topic garners a great deal of comments – probably why articles regarding bareback sex and bareback videos are post so often – but i’m still very surprised at some of the posts here! I mean, many of the folks posting on here sound like Tipper Gore (remember, she was leading the charge to block certain video games, music, etc. from being sold because she thought it MADE consumers VIOLENT!).
Porn, for better or worse, is protected free speech and “artistic liscence.” You’re NOT going to get rid of it. That said, removing condoms from porn videos is just another form of “special effects.”
When you go to the movies and you see an actor get shot and blood blasts from his/her body – do you REALLY think that actor was really shot? Of course not.
When you see an actor fall off a building and the next scene shows a body on the ground – bleeding. Do you REALLY think that’s the real actor? And, could that actor/stuntman get hurt during the stunt. Does he/she know that? Of course. It’s a profession. It’s a professional risk.
So, when you consume tv or video or a movie – you suspend reality for the duration of the program. You do that WILINGLY. You know that going in. So, why all this venom about bareback films?
You don’t like it. Don’t watch it. GROW UP folks and stop acting like bareback video’s are the cause of hiv/std transmission. THey never have – and never will be.
glennroger
Falcon studios are just trying to make a buck offering fake digitally enhanced condom free scenes. Knowing that they even spent money to achieve this is a turnoff already. This is why companies like Treasure Island Media are popular. They are real.