86
These red states have a disproportionately high number of gay porn viewers
(www.thepinknews.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
86 points (100.0% liked)
LGBTQ+
3721 readers
339 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
as someone who lives in the south, my personal (read: worthless) speculation about this is that in the South, gay porn is more taboo and is a "forbidden fruit", which makes it psychologically more appealing. There is a study that showed when we make something forbidden, there is a greater desire to have it and a larger physiological response upon seeing it.
So I think for bisexuals, closeted gay men, and even some curious straight men, the forbidden nature of gay porn in the South makes it more novel, compelling, and rewarding - so it makes sense to me that by making it forbidden you see increased demands.
But don't put much stock into my speculation, it's just a guess and based on almost nothing - human sexual behavior is very complex and we should be careful about the narratives we build about them.
It's easy to shit on the South, conservatives make good villains for their role in the country's reactionary politics - but ultimately the average Southern conservative voter are conservative because they lack education, are poor, are victims of religious exploitation - and so our villains are also some of the most victimized populations (even though they are victimized often from their own politics - though not exclusively).
Demands for justice can easily turn into a blood-thirst for revenge, and sometimes I think there is a little bit of that going on against closeted or conservative gay folks who work against their own interests - we hate them and we want to see them suffer, esp. from their own bad actions.
Of course it's reasonable to have resentment for the people working against LGBT+ rights, but I think sometimes what psychologically motivates us can be a little bit darker and can overcompensate - the desire for justice can sometimes be masking an underlying anger and desire for justified revenge.
ContraPoints sorta goes into this territory about blood-thirst and revenge porn in her video on Envy, if you want more on this.
Anyway, these might be some reasons to be cautious or recognize the nuance ...
There’s definitely a difference between the people proposing such things (a minority) and their followers:
The minority definitely seem get caught with their pants down more often, usually with a rent-boy and a bag of meth. Totally get that maybe this is about “forbidden fruit”
But the rest? Definitely due lack of education and religion (which usually follows the former).
Now, for the most part, the poor southerners I’ve met really don’t care about homosexuality when you talk to them alone. In bigger groups, it’s definitely a problem. How you fix this, I definitely don’t know, but it is definitely not by victimizing.
Unfortunately, the minority have created other “cognitive barriers” to prevent the poor from realizing what their actual challenges are - Immigrants is another good example.
In short, this is just another form of class warfare.
Sure, though I would be careful not to reduce this to class warfare (not necessarily what you're doing, just wanted to clarify). Instead I would just say that economic oppression is a huge part of the dynamic. Poverty and the role of religion in hegemony are both clearly connected to both economic oppression and the social problems of homophobia and heteronormativity. 😅
And I want to re-iterate and emphasize your point: there is a huge difference morally between the propagandists, political strategists, politicians, and others who make up the life-blood of reactionary groups like the Heritage Foundation, the American Family Association, or the Republican party who are actively working to achieve their political and social goals, and the lay people who are the audience or supporters of those groups.
People who attend churches, donate to reactionary groups, vote for right-wing parties, etc. tend to be less informed and aware of how they have been duped, and thus are better seen as marks or victims who, due to the dynamic of their abuse, participate in perpetuating and enabling their own victimization (usually without awareness). I think the Marxists would call this "false consciousness", the way the working class lack awareness of their class status and so on.
But more broadly, we can think of this as a social dynamic where there are people who manipulate and those who are manipulated - whether it's a multi-level marketing scheme, an employer and their employees, or a political party and their voters.
My point is that the revenge we seek might be more justified when directed at the manipulators rather than when directed at the manipulated. I think we tend to attack the manipulated much more, however, because they are easier targets.
Anyway, I feel that's worth mentioning.
Love and welcome the clarifications - Couldn’t agree more