1 He was also named as the second most searched for gay porn star in Pornhub’s 2017 “Year in Review” annual analytics report (beaten to the top spot by relative new-comer William Seed, also a Men exclusive) 2 and was the 2017 recipient of Str8UpGayPorn’s Best Gay-4-Pay Performer award.
At time of writing, toward the close of the last decade (November 2018), Rapid was just five scenes short of his 200th scene with the studio, and while his age was beginning to count against him, remained a major player-ranked Men’s “most liked” performer with more than 6,800 audience ‘thumbs up’. Johnny Rapid began his porn career at the start of the 2010s as a fresh-faced 18-year-old, shooting scenes with Boys First Time and Bukkake Boys before signing with Men as an exclusive and releasing his first scene in November 2011. Through this reflection, I arrive at the conclusion that the time was right for an aging twink performer to be freshened-up by a transition to bareback-similar transitions of which have become widespread across the gay porn landscape in the intervening years between the 2015 Johnny Rapid Goes Bareback event and the present day, thanks in no small part to advancements in HIV prevention technologies. I read the case study in line with the concept of time, which has particular resonance with bareback.
Yet I also take the opportunity-writing several years after this critical moment in Rapid’s career-to reflect on the success of the campaign. The analysis reveals a decidedly negative reception of Rapid, the promotion of bareback as event, and the quality of the bareback performance itself, all of which I read in accordance with what these narratives have to tell us about bareback at the time. But as women continue to use their voices to undo that legacy of toxic masculinity, a different kind of change is taking place from within the culture: These twinks, after all, aren’t just enviably lean boys or the latest unrealistic gay fantasy, but a new answer to the problem of what makes a man.This article explores a critical moment of going bareback in the career of arguably the biggest gay porn performer of the 2010s, Johnny Rapid. When Nicolas Ghesquière unveiled his spring/summer 2016 collection for Louis Vuitton, the actor and musician Jaden Smith, then 17, wore a metal embroidered kilt, going beyond drag to question what, if anything, boyishness looks like now.įemale body types have always cycled in and out of style yet with men, alternatives to the ideal of imposing physicality have usually been ignored or lampooned. Sivan has also walked in a few runway shows, and several modeling agencies, including the German company Tomorrow Is Another Day, now specialize in lithe men, lending their sometimes-teenage charges to Prada and Valentino. But there seemed to be safety in his slimness - both for the artist to express himself and for his countless questioning teenage fans. When Sivan, 22, performed on “Saturday Night Live” in January, his shirt was blown open by a wind machine, his whole mien charged with sex. Today, gay twinks such as Olly Alexander of the band Years & Years and Troye Silvan feel less costumed. But if the godfathers of nonbinary pop - from Freddie Mercury to Adam Lambert - paved the way, their personas often came across as glam-rock caricature. Historically, music’s leading men have been less burdened by stereotypes of masculinity. There are several modern variations: Euro twinks (the boys of BelAmi, a Slovak pornography studio named after the novel by Guy de Maupassant), twunks (a portmanteau with hunk, embodied by modern-day Zac Efron) and femme twinks (like the fabulous American figure skater Adam Rippon). By gay male standards, he’s the ultimate twink.Īlthough the origin of the term has been disputed - some trace its history to “twank,” 1920s British slang for a client of gay male prostitutes, while others insist it’s a vulgar riff on the cream-filled Hostess snack - twinks are young, attractive, hairless, slim men. Chalamet, 22, is five inches shorter, naturally smooth, with a pronounced clavicle and a concave torso. Hammer, 31, is 6-foot-5, with broad shoulders and body hair. This is memorable not because we’re watching two straight actors perform a pas de deux of muted gay desire, but rather because of their difference in size. Sensing Elio’s nervousness, Oliver begins to massage his shoulder. (No, not that one.) It happens near the beginning of Luca Guadagnino’s gay odyssey, when Armie Hammer’s character, Oliver, sweaty from volleyball, pauses to steal a drink from Elio, played by Timothée Chalamet. There’s a scene in “Call Me by Your Name” that I can’t get out of my head.