Porn Review: Sexing the Transman XXX Volume 3

image

The legendary Buck Angel offered me a copy of his film Sexing the Transman XXX Volume 3 because I previously enjoyed the first volume. The original Sexing the Transman was very much focused on trans guys’ solo sexuality – masturbation techniques, favorite toys, and so on. Volume 3 is different, but in a great way: it’s a whole lot more diverse, and there’s more partner-sex to feast your horny eyes on.

The Sexing the Transman series has a specific and steady format, where Buck first interviews each participant about their life and identity and then films them either jacking off, fucking, or getting fucked (sometimes all of the above). I love porn where you actually get to learn a little something about the people you’re getting off to, so this format sits well with me.

The first scene features Bleu, a trans guy, and Je, his genderqueer partner who sometimes refers to herself as a “cunted fag.” Both halves of this pair have a cool alternative look, complete with body mods (tattoos and stretched earlobes ahoy!). They also both share a super positive attitude about identity. “Be yourself and own that shit!” says Je.

It’s clear that these two have a great real-life sex life. They understand each other’s bodies and kinks intimately. Je mentions in the interview that she’s into having her hair pulled, being slapped, and getting fucked really hard – and Bleu delivers on all of it. Their chemistry together is fantastic. I could barely rip my eyes away from Je’s awesome blowjob skills to take notes while watching this scene. They both fuck each other with strap-ons, rough and hard, smiling all the while.

The second scene focuses on a trans man of color, Rex. An effort was definitely made to infuse some racial diversity into the Sexing the Transman series with this volume, which is great (I think volume 1 was all white guys!). Rex talks about how happy he is with the results of his top surgery, and when he showed off his chest, I had to agree that his body looks sexy as hell. Normally I don’t go for muscly types too much, but Rex is undoubtedly a hottie.

After chatting a bit about his transition and the self-assuredness it’s brought him, he jerks off with the help of a bright blue jelly vibrator. Naturally, it sort of makes me cringe to watch people using jelly toys, but Rex’s pussy managed to be transfixing nonetheless. He has multiple orgasms in the scene, all with visible vaginal muscle contractions – yum – but hardly any moaning – boo.

For me, it was a disappointment to read on the back of the DVD box that Rex has a sock fetish, and then to find that it isn’t even brought up in the film itself. Sure, he keeps his socks on the whole time he’s jacking off, but it’s never pointed to as a source of arousal. I always want to know more about people’s interesting fetishes!

Next up is another couple, Rude Bwoy and Lola. Both are trans, and in their interview they talk about how it’s good to be with another trans person because they understand each other better than some previous cis partners did.

Though Lola is gorgeous and Rude Bwoy is a cutie, this scene didn’t do much for me. The actual sex was limited to nipple play and a loud, lengthy blowjob, and was punctuated by Buck’s overinvolved comments from off camera: “That’s awesome.” “You like that? You like to be sucked off?” Admittedly, Buck’s unseen voyeurism is (supposed to be) part of the charm of the series, but I find it more distracting than arousing most of the time.

The fourth scene features a total hottie named Dicky Johnson. His adorable New York (?) accent reminds me of a young Richard Dreyfuss circa The Goodbye Girl – which maybe doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it is, as I’ve always had a massive crush on young Dreyfuss!

Dicky identifies as gender-fluid and he’s got an appropriately androgynous (not to mention totally foxy) look. In his interview, he explains how he sort of fell into his transition “by accident” because he started taking steroids to become a female body-builder, suddenly looked very masculine, and decided to go with it.

There’s an editing error in this part of the DVD which is a bit distracting – after Dicky takes off his shirt, an earlier part of the interview repeats again. Buck’s editing job is practically impeccable except for this one issue, though. (Lots of split-screen shots, so you can see people’s genitals and their faces in close-up at the same time. Delish.)

As Dicky jerks off, Buck gets more involved than he’s gotten in any of the previous scenes, playing with Dicky’s nipples and even fucking him with a dildo. Dicky seems cool with it and it’s actually pretty hot, almost like watching an amateur POV video between real-life lovers. Buck’s voyeuristic comments bug me but it’s a whole lot more palatable when he actually does stuff, rather than just talking about doing stuff! Bonus: if you like the sound of men growling during sex, you’ll swoon over this scene, because Buck and Dicky both sound like salacious animals during the home stretch.

The final scene stars Buck himself, getting fucked by a cis dude named Sean. After a lot of rough pounding, manly moans, and dirty dialogue, the two guys sit side-by-side and jerk off until Sean comes on Buck’s chest. Sean calls Buck “buddy” the whole time, which I found hilarious (but maybe I just don’t watch enough gay male porn… or any, really).

Overall, I think volume 3 could easily be considered a standout of the Sexing the Transman series, because it strikes a great balance between sex and masturbation, it’s pretty diverse in terms of performers’ ethnicities and body types, and it makes Buck’s voyeurism into a useful and hot addition rather than a slightly awkward distraction.

Thanks so much to the studly Buck Angel for the opportunity to review this DVD!

Obscenity, Authenticity, and Coming Out: My Day at the The Feminist Porn Conference

image

On Friday night, I attended the Feminist Porn Awards, an annual event held by my local sex shop Good For Her. I hadn’t planned on going, because I’ve been a little strapped for cash lately, but my friend happened to have an extra ticket and invited me along at the last minute. Obviously, I was thrilled.

The awards were really exciting and a lot of well-deserved films took home Crystal Delights butt plug trophies. I was especially pleased that Fifty Shades of Dylan Ryan (which I loved) received the prize for best kink film, and that so many oppressed groups were honored – for example, in Nica Noelle’s awesome trans-positive flick Forbidden Lovers, and Matthew Clark’s short film Krutch, which focuses on disability and sex.

Honestly, though, it was sort of hard to concentrate on the awards because I was surrounded by so many hot porn stars I could hardly breathe. Dylan Ryan was a few seats to my left, Wolf Hudson was to my right, and directly in front of me were James Darling and Jiz Lee. I have watched all of these people fuck, many times, and have gotten off doing it. I’ve met some of my favorite celebrities before, but seeing someone in person who’s actually induced an orgasm in you (however indirectly) is quite a different story. (And yes, I was way too shy to speak to any of them!)

image

The next day, I got up bright and early for the Feminist Porn Conference, put together by Tristan Taormino to coincide with the recent release of the Feminist Porn Book (a great read which I highly recommend). My boyfriend, whose career and hobbies have nothing to do with sex, had nonetheless enthusiastically agreed to come with me, so we went together.

The first session we attended was Lesbo Retro: A Dyke Porn Retrospective, hosted by Shar Rednour and Nan Kinney, two totally captivating dykes associated with iconic lesbian porn companies like Fatale Media and On Our Backs. It was an hour of lezzie porn from the ‘60s up through the ’00s. A lot of it was silly and strange – voluminous hair (both on performers’ heads and in their pubic regions), stilted dialogue, “dyke drama” screaming matches – but I walked out of it with damp panties anyhow. (What can I say? I love a good cunnilingus scene.)

Shar and Nan recalled when they couldn’t ship media to certain zip codes because of the obscenity laws that existed there. Sexual acts like fisting and female ejaculation were considered too extreme to be legal. They would have been risking jail time by distributing those materials to some areas, mostly in the south. I said a little prayer of gratitude for the internet and its magical powers of distribution, as well as for the trailblazers (like Shar and Nan!) who ushered us into our more sex-positive time.

image

The second session we attended was To Be Real: Authenticity in Queer & Feminist Porn. It featured Jiz Lee (swoon), Dylan Ryan (also swoon), Shar Rednour again, and Dr. Jill Bakehorn, a sociologist whose research has focused on feminist porn.

The discussion was lively and thought-provoking. Many questions were raised: what is authenticity? How do we know if something is authentic? How can something as performative as porn ever really be authentic? Are we using the word “authentic” when we really mean something else, like sincerity or relatability? And if it gets us off, does it really matter whether or not it’s authentic?

This conversation really hit home for me, because although I’ve often told myself and others that I like “authentic” porn best, sometimes I watch porn that’s probably as genuine as any but just doesn’t do a damn thing for me – like porn where a performer isn’t making any noise, or is making noise but in a way that’s gratingly repetitive and monotonous. Who am I to say that that’s not how those people genuinely react to sexual stimulation? It would be more accurate to say that I simply like porn that suits my tastes, regardless of how genuine it may or may not be.

image

Next up was a panel called Being Out Now: How Performers Navigate Sexual Morality and Media Representation. It featured Tina Horn and James Darling (both favorites of mine, both pictured above) as well as Arabelle Raphael, Bianca Stone, Jiz Lee, and Quinn Cassidy.

This panel’s contributors were amazingly diverse in experience and identity. All of them do porn, all of them have at least dabbled in other kinds of sex work (most still do it), two identify as genderqueer, one as trans. All come from different sorts of families with different tolerance levels for what they do and who they are.

There was much discussion about whether one is obligated to come out, and how to remain true to oneself even in situations where one chooses not to come out (a choice usually made out of a desire to maintain safety for oneself and/or the people one is close to). For example, Arabelle suggested that sex workers who don’t want to come out can still vocally support sex workers’ rights when talking to people they’re not out to.

It was interesting to hear the perspective of a white cis male, Quinn Cassidy, in this feminist discourse. He pointed out that the parameters of a person’s “closet” can change depending on what environments that person exists in – meaning, for example, that he often has to “come out” as a cis male in queer communities that may assume he is genderqueer.

Moderator Tina Horn asked the audience to participate in an exercise: we were told to raise our hands if we are “out” about our involvement in the sex world, first to parents, then to siblings, extended family, the world at large, and our employers. It was interesting that so many people (including several of the panelists) said they are out to the internet and the world, but not to their aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

The panel concluded with a discussion on how to be a good ally to sex workers, which included advice like “Listen to them” and “Don’t call yourself a sex worker if you’ve only shot one queer porn scene” and “Start a chapter of SWOP in your area.”

image

The last session we attended was a Q&A with Shine Louise Houston, the creator of Crash Pad Series, a huge presence in today’s feminist queer porn world. I’ve reviewed a few Crash Pad scenes before (here, here, and here) and I’m a huge fan of the site.

Shine screened a video she made in which she “interviews herself” via the magic of post-production. The interview was funny and honest, like Shine herself. One thing she mentioned which struck me as particularly interesting is that she almost never jerks off to her own porn, even though the whole Crash Pad Series is based around her personal fantasies of voyeurism. She also pointed out that porn is “about more than getting off” – when done well, it can be a medium for pushing boundaries, for exercising one’s right to free speech, and for normalizing certain sex acts so people feel they have permission to explore. Hear hear!

The Q&A session after the video ended up being mostly a discussion about coming out as a pornographer, after Shine confessed that she isn’t out to her kids and doesn’t plan on changing that in the foreseeable future. While I appreciated that some of the audience members felt strongly about coming out as a form of political activism (“being militantly out,” as Quinn Cassidy had phrased it earlier in the day), I didn’t like that some of them seemed to be shaming Shine for her choices. I think everyone gets to choose whether or not they want to come out, and to whom, and it isn’t helpful to shame someone for staying in the closet if that’s what they want to do.

It was also interesting to hear that people frequently complain to Shine about her site not being diverse enough, but that she also receives complaints when she puts a cis male on the site (some past examples include Ned Mayhem and Mickey Mod). How sad that the queer community, known for diversity and acceptance, would revolt against cis guys even if they’re having sex in deliciously transgressive ways.

Just before leaving, I bought a copy of Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Pegging (which had nabbed Tristan the Smutty Schoolteacher award the night before, yay!). Then I headed home, smiling and feeling wonderfully enlightened.

Photo credits: the Feminist Porn Awards, Wikipedia, Crash Pad Series, and Queer Porn Review.

Sharing the Sexy #17

• Here’s a rad article on how to stimulate the A-spot! (If you want my advice on this same topic, I suggest getting your hands on a Tantus Tsunami, my favorite A-spotting tool.)

• Original Plumbing, a publication produced by and for trans guys, is expanding their web presence and needs your help! (The perks for contributing include things like indie porn subscriptions, so… why the hell not?)

• Here’s a piece on luxury sex toys, including Jimmyjane’s latest offering, the Hello Touch. (What are your thoughts on fingertip vibrators? I have historically hated them but am willing to believe that Jimmyjane might change my mind on this.)

• Ever wondered how to share sex toys safely?

• Would you want your vulva to look like Barbie’s? Oy, ladies. Love all your parts!

• A monthly delivery of tampons, pads, and chocolate for just $15 per month? How sweet!

• Kendra is planning her first gangbang.

Sharing the Sexy #12

• Here’s an article on sex with trans men. A trans guy friend of mine says, “When in doubt about a part of a trans person’s body, ask what it is and what you should call it.”

• Sexxit had a great thread this week that asked the question, if most women need clitoral stimulation to reach orgasm, why are so many men surprised by this? A lot of very interesting responses ensued.

• The “female Viagra” will be a nasal spray, apparently.

• Tantus has some new butt plugs out and they look terrific.

• This woman has an orgasm every time she eats an olive. What the fuck?!

A dude with a scat fetish (i.e. poop) did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. Aaaand this is why I love/hate the internet.

• Steve Pavlina, whose eclectic and informative blog covers everything from entrepreneurship to spirituality to polyamory, wrote about how to invite cuddling without inviting sex.

• This week I watched Strange Sex’s feature on the man with the world’s biggest penis and I am kind of shocked that he’s just some nebbish white dude.