“Black Pole” and “Asian Hole”: Language Ideologies in Interracial Gay Porn

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ideological interconnection encapsulated in the “language-race-masculinity” bundle in Asian-themed interracial gay porn produced in the United States. Reflecting on the conceptualization of “accented pornography,” I propose to incorporate the theoretical constructs of interactional sociolinguistics and language ideology to expand the analytical scope and enrich the theoretical lens adopted in gay porn studies. Through analyzing the linguistic feature of English accents and language-centered practices of styling, labeling, and erasing in four selected gay porn scenes, I demonstrate how racial and masculine identities intersect and mutually constitute each other in dynamic ways. In addition, I highlight the iconic linkage between language and race that has been long neglected in gay porn studies and argue that the discursive and institutional practices of gay porn-making are dictated by the dominant ideology of White supremacy that relegates both Asian and African American communities to hierarchically lower positions in the U.S. society.

KEYWORDS:

• Accented pornography
• interactional sociolinguistics
• language ideology
• interracial gay porn
• intersectionality
• race
• masculinity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Porn in this article refers to moving-image pornography only.

2. Throughout this article, I use “he/him/his”, “she/her/her” or “they/them/their” if I am certain about the cited persons’ gender pronouns; or otherwise, I use the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them/their”.

3. I acknowledge that the use of terms such as “effeminate, effeminacy, and feminization” may potentially reproduce inequitable gender ideologies discursively. In this article, I wish to take a clear stance, and encourage my readers, to be cognizant of the ideological meanings associated with stereotypical masculinities and femininities and further contest the dominant structures of gender binary and male-female power asymmetry.

4. I should also acknowledge that due to the character setting and the sociopolitical history of immigration in the United States, the accent associated with “How you doin’?” in Friends also carries phonological traits of the Italian language.

5. This understanding owes to Bucholtz and Hall’s (2004, p. 498) theorization of three pairs of tactics of intersubjectivity, including adequation and distinction, authentication and denaturalization, authorization and illegitimation. The authors define authentication as a tactic concerning “the construction of a true or veridical identity”.

6. This figure was hand drawn by the author to depict Ari Nucci’s hand gesture in the porn series.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.