KAOS: Eddie Diaz

Showing posts with label Eddie Diaz. Show all posts

The Parodical

The Parodical

news you won't read anywhere else

Youths on a beach stare in horror
at a billboard showing the cover.

ttitude - the gay lifestyle magazine - has apologised for the shock inclusion of a black model in its Sex Issue cover shoot.

"We have tested and trusted procedures in place to ensure this doesn't happen, but it's sadly inevitable that occasional breaches will occur," a spokesman for the magazine told the Daily Mail newspaper.

African-American model Eddie Diaz appears in the extended version of the cover, but Attitude bosses say they managed to limit the damage and keep him off the cover. Diaz himself admits, "I just hoped that by crouching down on the floor I'd slip under the radar. I really didn't want to cause any trouble, and apologise unreservedly for any offense I've caused."

Sagat and Diaz allegedly came to
blows over whose trainers were best.

We asked Attitude for a response to Diaz's comment, but a spokesman replied, "No one in the office speaks ebonics.

"Nor does anyone in the gay community want to see these sorts of people in our magazines. Gays want to read about Kylie and Lady Gaga, not rap music."

It's not the first time Attitude has run into trouble for breaking the rules universally adhered to by the gay media. In June, out singer Kele Okereke appeared on the magazine's cover, sparking outrage.

These boys told us: "We only ever
read Gardeners' World Magazine."

"He's about as queer as Bill Clinton," one reader complained. "Now they're trying to pass themselves off as gay just to get on the front of our magazines. That cover rightfully belonged to Jake Shears."

Prominent African-American bloggers have blasted Diaz's inclusion. "This is a return to slavery," lesbian separatist Jasmyne Cannick protested. "The white gay establishment have their magazines, and we have ours. Let Diaz appear in Clik or Flavalife.

"No good can come from the races mixing."

The Forestry Commission says it will "plant more trees than ever before" next year.

*This news item is fictitious.

I dream in black and white, I wanna make love in colour

id Cybersocket, I wonder, realise the controversy its "40 Amazing Porn Stars" list would cause?

Probably - there's nothing like a good controversy to drive traffic. But more interesting than the list itself, and who is and isn't on there, is the debate it's sparked.

Some have argued that Cybersocket's list is acceptable. And lists are essentially worthless, Zach Sire of The Sword says, not unreasonably. Elsewhere, Jeremy Feist points out personal preference is your prerogative: not finding black guys sexy doesn't make you a racist.

All of which is true. Despite personally digging Brad Patton as much as Shorty J as much as Peter Le, I don't think it's wrong (or requiring justification) for someone to say "I'm only into white guys". Being gay doesn't mean we're all misogynists, after all.

However, Cybersocket's list reads thus: "40 Amazing Porn Stars - Consider this a sampler of the guys who have been shining most brightly on our radar during the first half of 2010." It's not one individual's personal choice, thrown up on their own personal blog.

If I were to come up with my own Top 40, for my own obscure little blog, you can bet there'd be every flavour of boy candy in there. That's just me. I could easily fill such a piece exclusively with the models of PapiThugz and Taggaz, but then I'd have to call it my "Top 40 Amazing Black and Latino Porn Stars", wouldn't I?

And if ka-os|theory wasn't such an obscure little blog, such a list of exclusively black models could be deemed as deliberately provocative and controversial. Gee, I'd probably see a huge spike in page hits - right, Cybersocket (the self-proclaimed "leader in gay and lesbian online information")?

Race isn't a non-issue, least of all in gay porn.

The response from readers to this micro-controversy falls broadly into two categories: those protesting against the list, and those claim there's nothing wrong with Cybersocket's list, and that the problem is actually with its detractors. "It's not racist, it's personal choice!" they cry. "Race card, race card - I didn't vote for Obama, gee I must be racist," is another favourite. Oh, and the old intellectual heavyweight: "Grow up".

It's that remarkably common tactic in the GBLT community: deny everything. Prejudice doesn't exist. There is no homophobia, just hypersensitive queens playing the victim card. There is no racism, just hypersensitive queens playing the race card. And so it goes on - deny everything, and you keep your veneer of Teflon.

They might be okay, hardened and heartless queens that they are, but what about that 16-year-old black kid who's just realised he's gay, and stumbles upon Cybersocket's list, and wonders, "Why am I invisible?"

The Cybersocket list is a dog's dinner for many reasons: not because of what's in it, but because of what isn't. Not because, in isolation, it's pretty trivial, but because of what it says about the gay media in general. It perfectly captures a snapshot of a mainstream gay media intent on portraying an airbrushed, snowy white landscape where everyone looks like Sean Cody models. And it provides fuel for divisive racial separatists like James Earl Hardy and Jasmyne Cannick.

So it could be argued that Cybersocket's list of porn models isn't racist. But I dare anyone to deny that what it is, is symptomatic of casual racism in the GBLT community.

||| The Adams Report has a list of links to articles debating the subject.

||| Title quote: "I dream in black and white, I wanna make love in colour." Lyrics, BLACKstreet, "Black & White" (1999).

Who Let The Thugs Out?

DID MICHAEL LUCAS have any idea about the can of worms he was opening when he made his now infamous comments about black models in porn?

Over at Paper Clips N' Potato Chips, the debate is about how white men perceive black male sexuality. The "Black Brute", the "submissive black bottom", and the thug are three stereotypes depicted in American porn, and Clarence wonders what forces have engineered this scenario.

My main concern with Clarence's articles (the general thrust of which I agreed with) is the notion that white men are to blame for the perpetuation, and dominance, of the thug stereotype in porn. On this I completely disagree.

The portrayal of the thug character in porn is almost exclusively limited to black-on-black/blatino/latino films. There just isn't enough porn of the type that would indicate the thug being fetishized by whites to suggest that the thug fantasy is white-driven. If it was, we might expect to see a white boy thrown into the CocoDorm, for example - if Flavaworks could sell more DVDs and memberships by selling a black-on-white gangbang fantasy, they would. But their audience is primarily black, and simply not interested in those sorts of interracial depictions.

Secondly, it seems to me that the majority of white men who are sexually attracted to black men simply aren't attracted to the thug image. The popular "type" is the conventional gay muscle man: men like Diesel Washington, Brian Bodine, Jason Tiya and Eddie Diaz et cetera. Whilst Washington and Diaz could be described as dominant tops, both Bodine and Tiya frequently appear in both passive and active roles. If we look at studios like Randy Blue, racial stereotyping is largely absent; the emphasis is on hyper masculinity, a fantasy where all parties are "one of the guys".

In short, most white men don't like the thug image. It's a black thing (or in other words, Caucasians not welcome).

For further evidence of this, look at the extraordinary racial diatribes provoked by the shutdown of thug paradise Nubian101 by "evil whitey" Titan. It's a situation portrayed both by the site's owners and its fans as black against white.

Clarence says, "Now as for the point that popularity of the thug image is principally attributed to the urban culture. That alone does not explain all of it. While surely there are African-Americans that fantasize about the ideal 'thug', that would account for it being a niche, like bears, twinks, etc."

I'd argue that the thug, or urban culture, is the popular currency of the black gay community, and not a niche at all. It's something that's been adopted as "theirs" and one which excludes whites. If you don't believe me, just log on to BGCLive, where the only niches you'll find are those black men who don't represent themselves as thugs.

You might not like it, but the dominance of the thug in porn isn't down to "evil whitey". In fact, quite the opposite: I'd argue that it's a defence against white men, something that clearly signposts the separatist mentality of us and them.

Hell Is Other People

OVER AT SURREALISTICALLY Speaking, Amerikasmuse is asking "What's the deal with Black men not being cordial to each other?"

That's not a subject I can add very much to, but widen the net a little and boy, just try and shut me up.

His post (which is actually a voice post; an intriguing innovation if you're vocally adept. You can listen to it as you work on other things, like downloading Carioca or Eddie Diaz videos from, say, Gay Porn Clip) is essentially about basic manners, and the rage the lack of them in our fellow man can provoke in us.

Living in London, this a problem one encounters on average every 2.5 seconds when in a public arena. People are ignorant - how hard is it to say please or thank you? How hard is it to let me off the train first, before you attempt to shove your ill-mannered ass on board (no doubt pulling an idiotic case on wheels behind you at the same time for everyone else to trip up on).

Londoners seem to have adopted passive aggression as their sport of choice. God forbid you should step out of my way on the pavement. And a trip out with the pushchair just ain't the same unless you send everybody else scurrying in all directions as you lead the charge. And why are you shoving that disgusting, stinking burger into your face as you walk down the street? Can't you wait until you get home? Oh, and if you must step on my foot, would it hurt to say sorry?

Amerikasmuse talks about black men being rude to black men. This made me wonder; is one group ruder than others? Not so long ago I read an article that suggested the more privileged your background, the less inclined you are to make a good impression with good manners; with people of a less privileged background the reverse was true. That's certainly been my experience in dealing with the public: people in suits are generally monosyllabic or completely mute.

To generalise, white women are the worst culprits (although they probably tie with West Africans, particularly Nigerians). A former colleague, a very sexy Bajan dude, once told me that women, particularly white women, expected men to lick their boots, hence their poor attitude. He also had issues with black women, although those concerned their preconception that he was a sex-crazed pussy hound...

Without a doubt, the group with the best developed social skills (which is what basic manners are) are young, black men of Caribbean descent. This conclusion is based upon observation of the many souls I encounter in my day job, and through my own personal experience of Jamaicans, Bajans, St Lucians, Vincentians et cetera over the years. They possess an almost old-fashioned set of manners - instilled by strict parents who didn't tolerate even so much as a little backchat, and who were immune to the Western hippie bullshit of the '60s that's ultimately landed society in the trouble it's in now...

So be nice when you're out and about. As George Costanza once said, "We're living in a society here!"

Elsewhere - What's the deal with Black men not being cordial to each other?

LENSED

FAG MAG DNA has gathered the boys from adult sex site Randy Blue (where, presumably, the men have sex - WITH each other) for an all-American swimwear shoot. This, we like. Eddie Diaz, we love. Via Rod 2.0. Elsewhere: Reese Rideout and His Randy Blue Buddies Sizzling In DNA