(Isreali) Gay Pr0n is the Bestest Thing Ever!

[eumelia]

The links are NSFW!
I repeat, the links (and possibly this entire entry) are Not Safe For Work!

Via the Ha'aretz article: Can gay porn save Israel's image? which was originally featured in The Forward: Pornographic Stimulus Plan about about Michael Lucas' project called Men of Israel, featuring... well you can guess.

I read about this project back when Michael Lucas was here in Israel and both the queer and mainstream media were hounding him a bit (for different reasons).

I have a problem with this project.
Not the pornography; honestly, so long as the people get paid and aren't coerced to do something against their will... there's not much I'm going to complain about in this context.

My problem is with Lucas' attitude regarding his project.
Allow me a quote from the article:

Lucas claims that his motivation behind “Men of Israel” was not just titillation, but also a counterbalance to lopsided portrayals of Israel in mainstream media. “It’s free PR for Israel, and it’s much better than the PR they’re getting on the news,” he said during a tour of the company’s expansive second-floor offices, with views of the New York Times building across the street. “The reality is that Israel has only one face to people on the street, and that’s the West Bank and Gaza. All people see in the media is a country of disaster. They get images of a blown-up bus.”

Is he fucking kidding?
Promoting Israel as a gay tourist spot is not the way to "counter portray" the Occupation, nor is fetishising Israeli bodies, which honestly, are already grossly fetishised.
Also, can he be more shallow regarding Israel's portrayal in the media,which yeah, is pretty shallow regardless. However, Israel does its best to present itself (unsuccessfully) as a monolith of culture and opinion.

Not to mention this gem:

“I’m not sure the vast majority of his audience know or care about his political views,” [Aaron Hicklin, editor in chief of the gay magazine Out] said.
[...]
That may change with a letter that Lucas sent on August 31 to GoGay[link added by eumelia], Israel’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Web site, excoriating gay Israelis for staying closeted. “Excusing these pitiful cowards for not coming out of the closet and accepting their façade is only hurting Israel,” he wrote. “By hiding from your reality, you are empowering intolerant disillusioned fanatics.” The idea for the letter came, he said, after Israeli men “started hitting me up on the Web site, inviting me to hook up, then said they’re not out. They’re delusional. They’re cruising this Web site, benefiting from the fights of other people. They think the gay movement has nothing to do with them, that the shooting of gay youths in Tel Aviv has nothing to do with them. What reason is there to be in the closet in Israel in 2009? It’s embarrassing.”

Emphasis Mine.

Is he fucking kidding?
Really, did he just say that in conjunction with the gay youth centre?
I have a lot of respect for sex workers and people who work towards sex-positivity, but honestly.
I'm sorta speechless here.
Israel is not some kind of Queer Paradise.
It's not.
The Tel-Aviv bubble is very much burst when it comes to that.

Israel is plenty fetishised when it comes to militarism and the use of Jewish Israeli bodies is nothing new when promoting Israeli Hasbarah.

Michael Lucas, I don't care that you're a Zionist, or that you use your ideology to fetishise Israeli Jewish men. Seriously, I do not care.
But how dare you criticise and chastise other Queer folk, not actually knowing what it is they have to do in order to cruise in a place where they feel safe, and even consider the possibility that perhaps, due to an overt act of violence against the youth in our community... they might be a bit iffy about being Loud and Proud.

Michael Lucas, you suck and not in the good way.
Get the fuck off my lawn and stop trying to present it as though the manure smells like Axa Deodorant!

N.B. This post is getting flagged isn't it?

Comments

[lishablog.livejournal.com]

OK, this totally depressed me. I was expecting something about porn in Hebrew and somebody writing something that was actually kinda good. And then it turned out to be about fetishizing Israeli bodies and playing "zionist Israel lover" to the tune of a porno soundtrack. Grumble...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Most of the Israeli porn that I've encountered is not very sex-positive... but the vast majority of porn isn't, so what are you going to do.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

What did you expect from a person who makes porn movies, exactly? I enjoyed the Forward article, but I wasn't expecting enlightenment.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Him being a pornographer has nothing to do with him being oblivious to the situation and being insensitive to the way queer chose to live in an environment that is hostile to them.

Also, stating that his is the first Gay Israeli Porn is just plain wrong seeing as I'm actually friends with someone who was a part of the gay Israeli porn industry, but that's just regular we-have-more-then-camels-here irritation than anything else.

[ninboydean.livejournal.com]

These were all so safe for my work ;-)

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Lolz.

[(Anonymous)]

I live in New York City and if it wasn't for the promotion and positive thinking and strategy of Michael Lucas than I would have never have thought of Israel as the progressive state it actually is. Porn is his business so he has used what he has in a positive light. Lucas should be honored as many ppl are doing so toward him-- this posting is shameful to call names to someone supporting your country.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Nice to know that having objectifying and fetishising a specific people in the Middle East is the way you view progression.

That was sarcastic, just in case you got the wrong impression.

[mizzpyx.livejournal.com]

Wait a sec. The guy mentions explicitly that people were shot because of being queer, and then says that there's no reason to be closeted anymore?! Wuh tuh fuh?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Quite obviously, Lucas is an insensitive oblivious ass.

But oh well. So long as people know this, I suppose.

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly!