‘When I was discovering that I was gay, I was also discovering porn at the same time and it was a way for me to actually figure out [my sexual identity]. I want to have a relationship with porn that’s not linked with shame anymore,” Celebrity Treasure Island winner Chris Parker says.
Sitting side by side in a white Toyota Corolla, the Dancing With the Stars host, along with contestant Eli Matthewson, describe their first interactions with porn in the opening sequence of the new documentary web-series, Chris and Eli’s Porn Revolution.
For Parker, he remembers almost confessing to himself that it was “okay” to want to look at men. For Matthewson, whether it was “hunkymen.net” or “straightcollegemen.com”, the heteronormative smokescreen of these videos meant he “could be straight as well”.
The brutal reality of these memories is complex. You can almost taste the hormonally charged adolescent confusion, but it’s disarmed through injections of humour – a Trojan Horse, if you will.
Their experiences also provide a counter-narrative to the moral panic that’s prevalent in the media, web series director Kate Prior says. Porn sits at the intersection of ethics, morals, technology, sexual morality, gender, politics, employment rights, and stigma, she says.
“I don’t think fear-mongering or binary narratives are useful because it’s
