Feminism Week: Making The Case For Guy-On-Guy Action

Written by: Phoebe Raven, CC2K Staff Writer

CC2K TV Editor Phoebe Raven argues that movies and TV could stand to show more guys getting busy.

First up, I admit my experience with porn movies is fairly limited, but the ones I did catch—even the soft core versions on German television (oh, yeah, it’s not even on pay TV over here, there is nakedness everywhere after 11 p.m.)—all feature at least one lesbian sex scene. The standard formula for many a porno seems to be to have a sex scene within the first three minutes of the film to get the viewer “into it,” and the easiest way to get the predominantly male audience interested is to show some hot girl-on-girl action.  Am I right so far?

Now that is all fair and well, but for me as a woman there is only so much excitement I can get out of it, especially when the breasts that are being fondled are so obviously fake that the only part I can later remember about the scene is silicone.  (For clues as to what real female breasts look like in various bodily positions, watch The Reader and admire Kate Winslet’s natural beauty.)

I feel that for obvious reasons the female audience is being neglected not only by the porn industry, but by filmmaking in general when it comes to “sexy scenes.”  I can think of at least a dozen examples where a scantily clad, attractive Hollywood starlet seductively strolls across the room over to the man she wants to seduce, sits in his lap and the action gets going.  Yet the only example of a male seduction maneuver I can think of off the top of my head is the more funny-than-sexy striptease Gerard Butler performed in P.S. I Love You.  (He made up for this with every shot from 300 he was in though.  Especially in that scene with him and the queen the night before he leaves for battle.)

The movie world is still male-dominated (Can you name a female director other than Sofia Coppola?), hence it doesn’t surprise me in the least that female nudity springs up everywhere. The porn industry is even more male-dominated, hence it shouldn’t surprise me that lesbian sex scenes are littered everywhere.

But here’s the kicker: if filmmakers actually wanted to appeal to the female audience on a basic level, the best thing they could do is include scantily clad men or a hot guy-on-guy sex scene instead of the lame standard hetero love story they force into everything (Aragorn & Arwen, Bruce Wayne & Rachel, etc).

I know, I know, there are plenty of men going “eeeeeew!” at this exact moment, because homophobia is much more widespread among men than women.  So tell me fellas, in the interest of equal rights: Why is it OK to have two women making love but it is not OK to have two guys doing that?

In any case, I distinctly remember the first time I saw the first episode of the American version of Queer as Folk (sometime in 2006, again on regular German television), and it literally blew my mind.  I could not believe I was seeing what I was seeing—that someone really had the guts to put what I saw on a television screen—and at the same time I found it incredibly exciting.  Seeing Brian and Justin in bed together, the whole scene tinged in blue light, I could finally relate to what men feel when they see two women getting it on.  I finally felt included, as if I had been let into an inner circle, a door had been opened and angels sang “Hallelujah.”  Seriously, it was a revelation.

In my head I had rationalized why men like lesbian sex for years, but I had never actually found a way to relate to it.  In retrospect I don’t know why I didn’t immediately think that maybe gay sex could be appealing to women.

I still wouldn’t go so far as to watch gay porn, but I love watching movies like A Beautiful Thing, The Broken Hearts Club, Latter Days, Summer Storm, Get Real, and the aforementioned TV series Queer as Folk (both the British and American versions).  I actually make it a point to go out hunting for more fare like these.  Some of them don’t actually feature any sex scenes that are any more explicit than the heterosexual relations we see in a PG-13 romantic comedy, and yet the novelty of seeing a gay storyline unfold on screen makes them worth watching anyway.

Though in the cases of Latter Days and Queer as Folk, I can’t even count anymore how many times I have hit rewind on the sex scenes.  Girls, I can only recommend watching either of these to not only liberate you, but also to give you new ideas and certainly get your blood rushing.  And guys, I recommend you watch them as well, because don’t you dream about a girlfriend who is okay with lesbian sex?  Well, it works the other way around, too.  There is nothing hotter than a guy who is not homophobic and can enjoy his girl enjoying a gay sex scene on screen.

Again, all these things should be so self-evident, natural, and understood and maybe I am the only female who came to the revelation of gay sex late (well, relatively—I was 23), but I wish this knowledge was dispersed widely and more openly.  Much like men, I assume, talk about which movies are good to watch for a sex rush, women need to do the same.  Instead of swapping DVDs of the latest romantic comedies or Sex and the City, we need to swap DVDs of Noah’s Arc and Queer as Folk.  And the next time our boyfriends, partners, husbands, one night stands, or whatever else divulges his fantasies of two hot women sharing their beds and getting it on, we should be liberated and open enough to admit we wouldn’t mind sharing our bed with two studs who aren’t afraid to let their bodies touch.  Obviously, reality probably never will come close to the ideal combination of Gerard Butler in the shape of 300 and Christian Bale in the shape of American Psycho or Batman, but we’re allowed to dream, right?  And if the dreams actually can flourish into reality, then we are one step closer to equal rights in the sexual fantasy department.