Bareback (sex)

Bareback is a slang term to describe acts of unprotected sex (i.e. without the use of a condom). The origin of the term is by analogy to riding a horse without a saddle.

Contents

Origin

Before the invention of oral contraceptives, this slang term was used to describe hetereosexual sexual intercourse without a prophylactic (condom). Such practice carried an increased risk of pregnancy.

Since the mid 1980s, the term has become more commonly used to described unprotected homosexual anal sex. Sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention campaigns encouraged condom use but an urgency arose once transmission of HIV/AIDS was somewhat understood. The gay male community, having been affected the most by the pandemic, mobilized quickly so that the practice of unprotected anal sex quickly became taboo within the community. This was the time when the need for a term to describe the difference between "protected" and "unprotected" sexual acts arose.

Claimed resurgence

The resurgence of barebacking in first-world gay communities during the 1990s has been a frequent topic for gay columnists and editorialists in The Advocate, Genre magazine, and Out magazine.1 An article in the online resource The Body lists no fewer than 22 reasons as to why barebacking has become increasingly acceptable in the gay community.2 The following list includes some of the points made by The Body, but goes beyond it in drawing on some more recent research:

  • "Some men no longer fear AIDS."3 In other words, the advent and relatively noticeable success of protease inhibitors and other drugs for treating HIV infections have changed the perception of HIV infection from an untreatable terminal illness to a treatable chronic malady similar to diabetes or epilepsy.
  • There is a decreasing effectiveness of health education messages in the gay community, a kind of condom fatigue: "Some men are so sick of hearing about AIDS that they just ignore the whole issue."4
  • Individuals under the influence of drugs, such as alcohol or methamphetamine, are less likely to be concerned over potential hazards of their behavior.
  • "It has been suggested that barebacking is a form of rebellion."5 Along the lines of this suggestion, some recent academic work has argued that barebacking is a way to reach for transcendence, to overcome the boredom of everyday average life in our hyper-rationalized society.6
  • Online solicitation services for barebacking partners have led to an increase in the practice.7
  • Some gay men seem to feel that using condoms is "unnatural." For example, in a trailer of the Flava Works video "Raw Rods 2," released in 2008, a scene of two men having unprotected anal intercourse is accompanied by the caption, "We do it like God intended us to." This almost sounds like a reference to natural law.8
  • It is often said that the increased availability of bareback pornography contributes to the apathy, romanticizing, and eroticizing of the practice.

Controversy

"Say no to Meth and bareback" sign

Bareback sex by gay men is controversial both inside and outside the gay community. Some condemn barebacking and barebackers because they believe that the practice has caused upsurges in of STDs and HIV infections among young people and has given bad publicity to the gay community.9

Other commentators say that the publicity which barebacking has received is disproportionate to its pervasiveness, and that any focus by news media or epidemiologists on barebacking has more to do with stereotypes of gay men as promiscuous and irresponsible, along with the larger culture's aversion to gay male sexuality, instead of any real change in what gay men are doing. The latter group of commentators may also argue that adult men should be able to engage in the consensual acts of their choosing without permission or apology.10

Bareback has become a fetish among some in the gay community. In addition to bareback pornographic films, there are websites and discussion boards on the Internet devoted exclusively to barebacking that feature pictures of men engaged in bareback sex, personal advertisements of men seeking bareback sex with other men, and erotic short stories involving barebacking. This subculture has developed its own slang terms, such as "breeding" (ejaculation inside the rectum of the receptive participant), "charging up" (the same as breeding, but the male doing the ejaculating is HIV-positive), and "Russian Roulette party" or "conversion party" (a group sex party attended by HIV-positive and HIV-negative persons, the latter taking the chance that they may become infected with HIV).

Pornographic films

Bareback gay pornography used to be available only in older, so-called "pre-condom" films from the 1970s and early 1980s. But since the 1990s, an increasing number of studios has been devoted to the production of new films featuring men engaging in unsafe sex. For example, San Francisco-based studio Treasure Island Media, one of the pioneers in this area, has produced bareback films since 1999. However, in the late 1990s, it was often Eastern European studios that supplied the demand from homosexual men in North America and Western Europe for bareback pornography. These studios included SEVP, Eurocreme, and Czech producers who provided footage to Hot Desert Knights for their "international line."

More recently, even "mainstream" pornographic studios such as Kristen Bjorn Productions have featured the occasional bareback scene.11 Other studios like Falcon Entertainment have reissued older pre-condom films in order to stay competitive, given the new popularity of barebacking.12 Finally, new American studios have entered the market without the traditional reluctance of the mainstream to produce barebacking films and thereby possibly promote unsafe sex in the gay community. Flava Works is an example of a company that produces both "safe" and "unsafe" pornographic movies featuring young African-American and Latin men. These studios and the stars of their films have often come under heavy criticism for showing, and perhaps romanticizing, bareback sex. The controversy over Flava Works is a case in point.

Some bareback pornography studios say that they do not inquire whether their models are HIV positive, but assume that they are infected. For example, Hot Desert Knights (HDK) was one of the studios that initially operated on the assumption that all of their bareback models were HIV positive.13 However, on February 7, 2008, HDK announced that it would begin testing its models for HIV and engage in a process of "sero-sorting," a controversial scheme in which studios match HIV-positive performers with other HIV-positive performers, and negative with negative. Critics suggest that sero-sorting may not prevent the development of a multi-strain "supervirus."14 By contrast, Bel Ami is one of the studios that claimed from the beginning to test their bareback models for HIV before allowing them to participate in condom-free scenes. A notice on the Bel Ami website states: "all our performers are regularly tested for the presence of HIV or other communicable diseases."15

Heterosexual bareback

Condom use amongst heterosexual people has dramatically increased during the last 20 years as groups have responded to health messages about HIV/AIDS prevention.citation needed At the same time, the word "bareback" has gained utility as a way to describe sex without a condom.

Bareback heterosexual sex without a condom has not created the moral panic that gay barebacking has. Furthermore, barebacking is gaining popularity in the swinging arena, where organizers frequently offer a vetting service for members to reduce the risk of STDs.

Prostitution

In the sex trade, the willingness to bareback is a selling point for sex workers to their clients, and this despite the increased risks. The term "girlfriend experience" (GFE) was coined to denote an encounter between a prostitute and a client that could be considered "a real relationship for the moment with a sincere woman who enjoys the experience, not just mechanical sex. It should not, however, be implied that the GFE automatically includes barebacking; to do so may result in denial of commercial sex services. "16

See also

References

  1. ^ Reference needed here.
  2. ^ See Rick Sowadsky, "Barebacking in the Gay Community," The Body (May, 1999).
  3. ^ Ibid.
  4. ^ Ibid.
  5. ^ Ibid.
  6. ^ See, for example, Dave Holmes, Patrick O'Byrne, and Denise Gastaldo, "Raw Sex as Limit Experience: A Foucauldian Analysis of Unsafe Anal Sex between Men," Social Theory & Health 4 (2006): 319–33; and James I Martin, "Transcendence Among Gay Men: Implications for HIV Prevention," Sexualities 9 (2006): 214–35.
  7. ^ See Keith J. Horvath, Blair Beadnell, and Anne M. Bowen, "Sensation Seeking as a Moderator of Internet Use on Sexual Risk Taking Among Men Who Have Sex With Men," Sexuality Research & Social Policy 3 (December 2006): 77-90.
  8. ^ The image to the right is a screenshot of the trailer in question. (It is placed here for documentation of the claim made in the main text.)
  9. ^ Reference needed.
  10. ^ Reference needed.
  11. ^ The Kristen Bjorn movie "El Rancho" contains a scene in which Pedro Andreas and Daniel Marvin engage in bareback sex. The studio emphasizes, however, that the performers are real-life partners.
  12. ^ "Bareback Classics" (FVS 301) is an example of such a re-issue by Falcon.
  13. ^ J. C. Adams, "The Adams Report: The GayVN Awards Show Highlights" (2002), quotes Jackson Price, the then director of casting for HDK, as saying, "we assume everyone is positive," and as implying that HDK did not require disclosure of any model's HIV status. (This report no longer appears to be available online.)
  14. ^ See "Bareback Studio Begins HIV Testing," The Sword (February 7, 2008).
  15. ^ http://www.belamionline.com/vodstore/condomfree.asp
  16. ^ "Discussion of GFE and Old Dave's Response," Sexwork Cyber Resource Center. Also see "Why do so many men pay for sexworkers even with legal risks in the US? The sought after GFE ('Girl Friend Experience')," Sexwork Cyber Resource Center.

Further reading

  • Nicolas Sheon and Aaron Plant, "Protease Dis-Inhibitors? The Gay Bareback Phenomenon," managingdesire.org. With a long list of further references.
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