Western Heterosexual Masculinity, Anxiety,

and Web Porn

IAN COOK
Murdoch University
Perth, Western Australia

This article is an examination of nine pornographic Web sites.

Web porn is important because the Internet increases men’s access
to pornography. The pornography presented on these Web sites is
first examined in terms of the way that it manifests important con-
tinuities with pornography delivered in other ways. Central to
these continuities is the way that pornography manifests the anxi-
ety that is here taken to be fundamental to the acquisition of West-
ern heterosexual masculinity or male identity. An important
difference, though, is that this anxiety appears more clearly mani-
fested in these sites than it is elsewhere. In addition, however,
these sites appear to intensify this anxiety by making it harder for
men to prove that they are truly “man enough.”

Keywords: masculinity, male identity, pornography, Web porn,

Internet, anxiety, heterosexuality

The notion of a crisis in heterosexual masculine identity has become something of

a commonplace in the literature on men in contemporary society (see Walzer, 2002).
This view, however, seems to imply that there was a time in which heterosexual
masculine identity was not somehow “at risk”; that is, it might be taken to imply that
a time existed when heterosexual masculine identity was stable and secure.
This view is difficult to sustain. It might make sense, then, to approach this in
terms of relative degrees of crisis. Two reasons can be presented for adopting this
view. The first is that theories of the subject as decentred suggest that a stable male

Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Ian Cook, Politics and International Studies,
Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, Western Australia, 6150 Australia. Electronic mail:
i.cook@murdoch.edu.au.

The Journal of Men’s Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, Winter 2006, 47-63.
© 2006 by the Men’s Studies Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

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COOK

centre is illusory, which may normalise anxiety. The second is that Freudian
approaches to masculinity, in particular object relations psychology, suggest that
male sexual identity is always unstable or conducted against a primary attachment to
the mother. These ideas offer ways to reconsider crisis and, more important here, to
approach Western heterosexual masculinity.1
Heterosexual masculine identity is an ongoing production of self that is under-
pinned by an unfulfillable desire to produce a centre and to generate a self that
represses the initial primary identification with the mother. In short, heterosexual
masculine identity can be understood to be performed against anxiety. This anxiety
is a function of the (failed) repression of femininity that is central to the production
of male identity.
Many writers have recognised and commented upon this anxiety and the way
that it is manifested in pornography. Their analyses of pornography suggest that a
need to overcome primary identification with the mother manifests itself in the
rejection of femininity through dominating the feminine, denigrating the feminine,
privileging the masculine, knowing (and controlling) the feminine, and possessing
the mother. Certainly, the Web porn sites examined for this article reflect these man-
ifestations of anxiety. The fact that Web porn is multimedia, in which video and text
are combined, in which person-to-person communication can be simulated via a
constructed intimacy,2 means that it tends to express anxiety more overtly by linking
images that express anxiety with its textual expression.
While the sites are powerful expressions of this anxiety, they also make it more
difficult for men to prove that they are “man enough,” which causes and reflects the
anxiety central to being a heterosexual (Western) man. If being man enough
involves proving a lack of femininity, then the sites seem to add significantly to
what must be done to prove one’s masculinity, for they suggest that there are a
plethora of available and libidinous women who can be satisfied by those men who
have what it takes. By implication, those who fail to both take advantage of these
women and satisfy them are not man enough.
This article is divided into four sections. The importance of Web porn is
explained in terms of the way that the Web massively increases men’s access to
pornography. The second section presents Western heterosexual masculinity as
underpinned by anxieties that derive from primary identification with the mother,
the otherness of the female body and femininity, and which have been heightened by
feminism. The third and fourth sections present reasons to believe that Web porn is a
clear and direct expression of the anxiety of Western heterosexual men and that it
serves to intensify this anxiety.
This is neither a call for censoring or controlling Web porn nor a condemnation
of Web porn. Anxiety may be an inevitable feature of Western heterosexual mas-
culinity and may be essential to the production of male identity. Further, there is no
clear evidence that the consumption of pornography that expresses and even intensi-
fies men’s anxiety will result in any increase in harm to either the men themselves or
others, such as women and children. Finally, an intensification of anxiety might
cause men, or some men, to consider personal or social changes that might reduce
the levels of anxiety that exist in all Western heterosexual men.3

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 WESTERN HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY

All but one of the Web sites discussed in this article were hosted by Nasty Dol-
lars (nastydollars.com). At the time of writing, Nasty Dollars hosted 18 Web sites.4
These included the Web sites discussed in this article: MILF [Mothers I’d Like to
Fuck] Hunter, 8th Street Latinas, Mike’s Apartment, Cumfiesta, Captain Stabbin’,
Tranny Surprise, Street BlowJobs, and MegaCockCravers.5 The other Web site dis-
cussed in this article is SlutBus. Each of these Web sites, except MegaCockCravers,
provides nonmembers with a general narrative concerning the Web site, a specific
narrative about the women featured, selected stills, and free video “trailers” in which
these women feature. Members have access to a full set of still photographs and
downloadable videos of the women featured. MegaCockCravers provides nonmem-
bers with a general narrative, specific narratives for the women featured, and
selected stills. Members have access to more stills and downloadable videos.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WEB PORN

While Web porn is different from most other forms of pornography in that it uses
multimedia, its importance derives from its ubiquity and the anonymity of its con-
sumption, for the Web provides unparalleled access to an enormous amount of
pornography while allowing consumers to access that pornography without opening
themselves to the social condemnation that might attend being seen as consumers of
pornography. Further, some commentators believe that Web porn has served to nor-
malise pornography.
The Web is important because it has changed or is changing the very nature of
the consumption of pornography. Cooper and Griffin-Shelly’s (2002) “Triple-A-
Engine” of “accessibility, affordability and anonymity…” (p. 11) neatly summarizes
the ways in which increased consumption of pornography has been significantly
enabled by the Internet.6 Fisher and Barak (2001) argue that “spectacular growth in
availability of sexually explicit material on the Internet has created an unprece-
dented opportunity for individuals to have anonymous, cost-free, and unfettered
access to an essentially unlimited range of sexually explicit texts, stills, moving
images, and audio materials” (p. 312).
An important consequence of increased accessibility is that it draws in male con-
sumers who would be unwilling to access pornography in any other way. As O’Toole
(1998) suggested, it is “the only porn delivery system they’ve got—or the only one
they will use. The convenience and anonymity of the internet makes it easier for indi-
viduals to try porn out, people who simply wouldn’t go into a sex shop to buy videos,
or scour their nearest red-light district looking for their hard-core magazine of
choice” (p. 275).7 Increased accessibility means that pornography now affects many
more men than it did when it was delivered through previous technologies.
Some commentators contend that delivery via the Internet has also made
pornography more acceptable or “mainstreamed” it. For O’Toole (1998), “the hip
new internet phenomenon has made porn more culturally acceptable to many more
people” (p. 274). Cronin and Davenport (2001), on the other hand, see the normali-
sation of pornography as a function of commercial pressures. For them, “pornogra-
phers are exploiting e-commerce (more or less wittingly) to normalize practices that
have been stigmatized or proscribed in traditional markets and to achieve pres-

49
COOK

ence—to make their products and services more visible and wholesome, like sport
or entertainment” (p. 35). This normalisation is an important aspect of Web porn’s
relationship to Western heterosexual masculinity. For it is because Web porn is
more accessible and more normal than it has ever been that its effects on Western
heterosexual masculinity require consideration.

SOURCES OF THE ANXIETY OF MASCULINITY

Two principal sources may be asserted of the anxiety that is fundamental to Western
heterosexual masculinity. One is the basic psychological process of separating from
the mother, which is an essential feature of Freudian psychoanalytic theory, and par-
ticularly object relations theory. The second is the anxiety caused to men by the
presence of the female, both as the unknowable female body and as the feminine
within the male body itself. This anxiety has been intensified by feminism.

OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY AND ANXIETY

While the source of male anxiety can be understood in a variety of ways, object rela-
tions theory offers useful insights into the anxiety that is central to ego-formation.
The recognition and internalisation of the separateness of the mother is central to
this process. As Chodorow (1978) put it,

… the infant achieves a differentiation of self only insofar as its

expectations of primary love are frustrated. If the infant were not
frustrated, it would not begin to perceive the other as separate.
Frustration and ambivalence generate anxiety. Freud first argued
that anxiety triggers the development of ego capacities which can
deal with and help to ward off anxiety. Thus, anxiety spurs the
development of ego capacities as well as the creation of ego
boundaries. (pp. 69-70)

While this process is both constructive and traumatic for children, the processes
through which it is enacted are different. For the male child it requires (libidinal)
detachment from the mother so that attachment to another woman becomes possible.

OTHERNESS AND ANXIETY

An additional source of male anxiety derives from the effects of two forms of other-
ness. One of these is the otherness of the feminine and the feminine as manifested in
the female body. The second is the otherness of the feminine of the male body.
Freudian psychoanalytic theory, augmented by Jungian theory, provides an inspira-
tion for the analysis. For theories of initial polymorphous perversity combined with
notions of the co-presence of the anima and animus in the human body suggest that
the male body contains both masculine and feminine possibilities.8 Another source
of inspiration for this analysis is Foucault’s analysis of the power-knowledge nexus,

50
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which suggests a pressure on the male body to know itself and to know its other in
the process of manifesting self- and, more important here, other-control.9

FEMINISM

The significance of these sources of anxiety has been heightened by feminism,

which is widely accepted as having changed the conditions within which Western
heterosexual masculinity is performed.10 Its importance for this analysis lies in its
destabilisation of Western heterosexual masculine identity. As Kaufman (1999) has
pointed out, “with the rise of modern feminism, the fulcrum between men’s power
and men’s pain has been undergoing a rapid shift. This is particularly true in cultures
where the definition of men’s power had already moved away from tight control
over the home and tight monopolies in the realm of work” (p. 89).
Central to this shift is the extent to which women see themselves as able to
make choices that reflect their treatment by men. For Seidler (1998), “women felt
that if their claims were not met by changes in men’s behaviour, they would make
lives for themselves. This was very threatening to men who had often grown up to
think that their relationship, once established, could be taken for granted as the back-
ground against which they went on to live their individual lives” (p. 197). Giddens
(1992) has argued that feminism’s destabilization of the supports for hegemonic
masculinity has led “male sexuality to become troubled and, very often, compulsive.
Male sexual compulsiveness can be understood … as an obsessive, but brittle acting
out of routines that have become detached from their erstwhile supports” (pp. 111-
112). An important result of the new sexual politics is that “many men are unable to
construct a narrative of self that allows them to come to terms with an increasingly
democratized and reordered sphere of personal life” (Giddens, 1992, p. 117).

WEB PORN AND THE REPRODUCTION OF FAMILIAR ANXIETIES

OF WESTERN HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY

The Web sites examined here support the claim that Web porn clearly and directly
expresses the anxiety that porn has always manifested. Four aspects of these Web
sites reflect the anxiety that underpins heterosexual masculinity. The first is the pre-
sentation of men as hunters. The second is the presentation of women as objects that
deserve no emotional attachment, which is especially evident in the “money shot.”
Third, the sites reflect an obsession with women’s genitalia, which is a forlorn
attempt to know women’s difference and pleasure. Fourth, the sites reflect a
homosociality that is fundamental to the performance of, and anxieties present to,
heterosexual masculinity. This connection with other male bodies is so pronounced
that the term “homo-heterosexuality” seems appropriate. A fifth aspect, which is
specific to MILF Hunter, is a concern with the sexual conquest of mothers.
Each of the following sections begins with a discussion of the preceding analy-
ses of pornography as a manifestation of the anxiety of heterosexual masculinity.
Bird’s characterization of heterosexual masculinity, though, provides a general
framework for the following discussion. For him, heterosexual masculinity is char-
acterized by “emotional detachment … competitiveness … constructed and main-

51
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tained through relationships with other men whereby simple individuality becomes
competitive individuality; and … sexual objectification of women … constructed
and maintained through relationships with other men whereby male individuality is
conceptualized not only as different from female but as better than female” (quoted
in Barron & Kimmel, 2000, p. 166).

MEN AS (DOMINANT) HUNTERS11

The presentation of men as hunters might be taken to manifest their actual domi-
nance but is better understood as reflecting their anxiety. Horrocks (1995) rightly
rejected the contention that pornography “is a representation of fundamental male
attitudes of conquest and despoliation.” A male porn-user is not a triumphant hunter
expressing hubris over the bodies of the conquered, for “his conquest is illusory, his
lust has no object except himself, the female body that he scrutinizes is in fact
replaced as an object of desire by his own penis. Relations with others fall into a
despairing narcissism; women become phantoms, shadows, projections of his own
unmet needs” (p. 103).
The depiction of men as dominant over woman is most evident in the narratives
of Street BlowJobs, SlutBus, and MILF Hunter. Each is created by men who hunt for
(female) prey.12 The display of trophies is an important part of the general narrative of
MILF Hunter, for “who would have thought a hick from Miami could make a site
about MILFs ... that he has hunted down and banged. Finally a place to show my tro-
phy MILFs.” While Street BlowJobs contains no general narrative, each of the spe-
cific narratives begins with “I started this search.” Those interested in SlutBus are
told: “The Mission? Pick up the hottest girls we find. And get them to let us fuck them
& cum in their pretty little faces all while video taping the whole thing.” Mike’s
Apartment generally works through the use of a lure or trap, but even here we are told
that, on at least one occasion, “We went on the prowl for some new ass for the flat.”

DESPICABLE, DIRTY,13 AND STUPID WOMEN

The need to degrade and denigrate women, or at least some women, is a clear
expression of the anxiety that drives behaviours that reflect Western heterosexual
masculinity. For Frosh (1994), intimacy is dangerous to men “because the bound-
aries of the masculine self are so fragile that they can be all too easily overwhelmed”
(p. 112). This, in his view, “produces the vicious splitting of the feminine in male
fantasy—the Madonna/whore division that parcels out the safe sphere of nurture
from the demonic sphere of the erotic …” (pp. 112-113).14
No discussion of these Web sites can ignore the attempts to devalue women in
text and images presented. The sites objectify women, relegate them to means for
satisfying “normal” (pathological) desire, and present them as sources of financial
reward. While these women are represented as interested in sex, no matter how
interested or willing these women are, they remain things to be used and left for the
next object-commodity.
SlutBus was the most overtly and persistently misogynist of the sites examined
(and was included because of this). The very name of the site bespeaks an aggres-

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sion toward and need to degrade women. This is manifested in the general narrative
of the site. “We get any slut we can into our bus ... then we videotape them sucking
cock and getting fucked! We find ’em, we fuck ’em, then dump ’em.... The fun?
Treating these slutty bitches like they deserve to be treated ... with a slam bam thank
ya ma’am & a swift kick in the ass!” (emphasis added).
The women of SlutBus are sluts, skanks, crazy bitches, tramps, or whores (one,
at least, is a “cock bucket”).15 All are “fucked hard,” and some are “shredded”;
whereas others need “stuffing.” Emotional detachment and sexual objectification is
also manifested at those moments in the narrative at which the women are presented
as deserving their treatment. Usually this is because they entered the SlutBus in the
first place. “Hey, didn’t you parents tell you not to take rides from strangers?”
Occasionally the site reveals a degree of fear that may explain the misogynist
frenzy into which it often descends. One woman’s name “Vixen” suggests a “fox,”
but the fox is also a cunning, if not treacherous, creature. Another woman wove “her
Gypsy magic” and wore pigtails “DAMN, I LOVE PIGTAILS! So Innocent! So
deceiving!!!” While the rage expressed in SlutBus is more extreme than that found
in the other sites, all reflected some rage.16
Dominance and denigration are combined in the money shot, which involves
ejaculation over a woman’s face, torso, or anus. The money shot can be interpreted
in a variety of ways that reflect different aspects of its psychological significance.17
It may show a female body marked by a successful hunter. Or, as Williams (1990)
has suggested, “repeated ejaculations onto her face could … be read as visual proof
of her objectification and humiliation” (p. 112). In his article about the making of a
low-budget porn movie, Hart (2000) recounts a conversation between the director
(Margold) and a novice actress who resists doing a “money shot” because it burns
her eyes. “I don’t want it in your eyes,” counters Margold. “I want it in your face.
It’s what sells. It’s the most important thing in this business. When anybody comes
in your face, everybody in the audience is coming in your face!” The money shot is
a common feature of video, film, and Web porn. It is central to the title of the Cum-
fiesta site but is present in all of the sites discussed here.

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT WOMEN

Male anxiety is also expressed in an obsession with women’s genitalia. Horrocks

(1995) argues that, in photographic pornography “the model splays her legs, opens
her vagina to the camera. Part of the intent is to demystify the mystery of the female
body…” (p. 106). Williams (1990) has suggested that the desire to know the female
body, especially the forbidden parts of that body, was expressed in a great deal of
visual pornography of the ’60s and ’70s. In her view, this pornography was “never
intended simply to celebrate a sexual permissiveness ‘liberated’ by the American
sexual revolution; it was at least partly linked, as this revolution was itself linked, to
a quest for greater knowledge about sexuality” (p. 72).
The need to see women’s genitalia, which is common to all hardcore pornogra-
phy, is present in all of the sites discussed here. Indeed, they seem to reflect “early,
primitive forms of hard core, [in which] sex is more simply (that is, less problemati-
cally) represented according to certain basic principles of maximum visibility—

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COOK

whether that visibility constructs a narrative event or not” (Williams, 1990, p. 91).
The fact that the narrative provided is very weak, even weaker than that to be found
in videos, means that the focus on display and penetration is paramount to the
pornography provided on the Web sites. The regular and considerable attention that
is given to penetration18 is an expression of men’s inability to know a revered and
feared object: a women’s body. Horrocks has suggested that “both the breast and the
vagina must be compulsively examined, because they are ‘treasures’ not possessed
by the man” (Horrocks, 1995, p. 114).

HOMO-HETEROSEXUALITY

Another expression of the anxiety that drives Western heterosexual masculinity is the
desire for recognition from other men.19 Connell (1995) has suggested that “by ado-
lescence, the construction of heterosexuality was a collective practice usually under-
taken in peer groups” (p. 123). Wight (1996) links this to the idea of men as hunters.
In his view, “the predatory discourse … comes out of a profoundly homosocial cul-
ture…. It involves the stereotype of masculine sexuality, in which men gain esteem
from their male peers by having as many sexual partners as possible” (p. 154). This
homosociality, or homo-heterosexuality, is evident in a variety of ways and makes
clear that the consumption of pornography also expresses men’s desire for men.
Another reading of this style of pornography is also available. In this reading,
pornography is understood to represent homosexual fantasy. Put simply, the male
viewer identifies with the woman and not, as might be presumed, the man. Of the
various fantasies expressed in the pornography that depicts sex between a man and a
woman, “also present is the passive wish to be penetrated, to be the object of the
other …” (Cowie, 1992, p. 140). In Giddens’ (1992) view, “for boys and girls alike
impulses towards submissiveness and mastery become interconnected, and the wish
to be dominated is a powerful residue of the repressed awareness of the mother’s
early influence” (pp. 126-127).20
All of the sites, with the exception of Street BlowJobs, involve the participation
of more than one man. This other man is sometimes only the camera operator and
sometimes a participant in sex. Captain Stabbin’ is always accompanied by another
man (sometimes his “first mate”). The fact that Captain Stabbin’ is presented as
“The Anal Adventure” can be taken to be a reflection of a niche taste for anal sex
but seems also to suggest homo-heterosexual desire. This paradox is presented in the
general narrative itself: “What’s better than a girl with a hot pussy? A girl with a hot
pussy getting poked in the ass!”
The protagonists of SlutBus are always accompanied by other men, whose per-
formance and genital dimensions seems as exciting to the other men as they are sup-
posed to be to the women involved. Max’s “giant black cock” often receives
favourable comment. While “Coco had been bugging to find a sweet Philipino girl
to watch get fucked hard!!! So we ... found Coco’s fantasy downtown by the court-
house just waiting to get her tight little pussy fucked!!!!”
The best example of the second reading, homosexual fantasy, is found, of
course, in Tranny Surprise. Each woman on this site presents a challenge: “Cross-
dresser? Pre-Op Post-Op?” The penises of cross dressers and pre-ops are regularly

54
 WESTERN HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY

presented. Sometimes the man depicted performs oral sex or has anal sex performed
on him. This may be a reflection of the niche marketing of this portal, but it also
seems a good reason to believe that the sites express homosexual fantasies on the
part of heterosexual consumers of pornography. Tranny Surprise can be taken to
express the desires that are less directly presented in normal hardcore pornography.

MOTHERS21

An aspect of Web porn that seems somewhat unusual is the branding that is
achieved through reference to mothers. MILF Hunter is an example of this.22 Those
who have been influenced by Freud’s work would not be surprised by the overt ref-
erence to desire for the mother, though in this case the desire for mothers is repre-
sented as a desire for other people’s mothers.23 For those who apply object-relations
psychology, “A basic trust, the very source of ontological security, is intrinsically
compromised, since the boy is abandoned to the world of men by the very person
who was the main loved adult upon whom he could count” (Giddens, 1992, p. 115).
Thus, “a narrative of self-identity has to be developed which writes out the pain of
the deprivation of early mother-love” (Giddens, 1992, p. 116).
As Horrocks (1995) put it, the consumption of pornography is an expression of
“preoedipal trauma: she is also the hallucinatory image of one’s long-lost mother,
with her endlessly available body, her capacious breasts, her womb which men
yearn to re-enter” (p. 123). For Frosh (1994), “the boy turns away from the mother
and identifies with the father … but this process is so infused with anxiety … that
father and mother are split into paternal and maternal ‘principles,’ the one idealised,
the other devalued” (pp. 110-111).24 The desire to master the mother may also play
itself out in terms of “romantically imagining oneself or others as idealised heroes or
gods….” This is a “means of disconnecting—in infancy or adolescence—from the
woman who first mothered us” (Sayers, 1997, p. 98).
The pursuit and sexual conquest of mothers and the homo-heterosexuality mani-
fested in Web porn are significant in that they express important attributes of West-
ern heterosexual masculinity. Homo-heterosexuality reflects the extent to which other
men are the real audience for the expression of Western heterosexual masculinity,
and it is a desire for recognition by and connection with other men that drives West-
ern heterosexual masculinity. This process is infused with anxiety, since the desire
for the appreciation of other men cannot be acknowledged without threatening the
performance of Western heterosexual masculinity itself. The pursuit of mothers
reveals yet another dimension of the anxiety that drives Western heterosexual mas-
culinity. This anxiety is also reflected in the attempt to present the self as a dominant
hunter of women; the practice of degrading women, particularly in the money shot;
and the obsession with female genitalia expressed in the sites under consideration.

WEB PORN AND THE INTENSIFICATION OF THE ANXIETIES

OF WESTERN HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY

While pornographic Web sites are significant because the pornography presented on
the sites discussed reproduces the functions of pornography in a pre-IT environment

55
COOK

and reflects Western heterosexual masculinity of an analogue machine age (in which
the digital machine is simply a different type of machine). The pornography avail-
able on these sites, however, also intensifies the level of anxiety that is central to the
performance of Western heterosexual masculinity.
The argument presented in this section relies upon the premise that viewing the
material presented in these sites affects men’s sense of themselves. More specifi-
cally, it affects their responses to a basic driver of Western heterosexual masculinity:
“a fear that as men we are not ‘man enough’ and a sense that men have to be con-
stantly prepared to prove their male identities” (Seidler, 1998, p. 195). Bird’s sug-
gestion that Western heterosexual masculinity involves competitiveness takes on
particular salience in this context, since it is a potential source of increasing anxiety
with respect to the performance of masculinity. Men are anxious to prove them-
selves and become more anxious as more needs to be done to produce this proof.
Two effects of the Web sites, either individually or in combination (i.e., through
portals such as Nastydollars) seem important. One effect of these sites is to demand
that men conquer increasing numbers of women to demonstrate their manliness, for
the Web sites redefine the norm associated with the number of “trophies” that must
be collected in order to demonstrate true manliness. Not only are more women to be
had, however; normal women are also represented as having to be satisfied. The
Web porn presented in the sites discussed establishes and reinforces the idea that
women can only be satisfied by men with large penises who can maintain erections
for indefinite periods.25

A PLETHORA OF AVAILABLE AND LIBIDINOUS WOMEN

An important aspect of the reality of these encounters is, at least according to those
who produce the narratives for these sites, that the world is full of women who
desire sex with men.26 The general narrative of Cum Fiesta contains the following:
“NEWS BULLETIN: Do you have ANY idea how EASY it is to find horny ass
chics that want to get fucked? They are ALL OVER the Web in places like erotic
personals, chatrooms and AOL. We’ve met up with TONS of these HORNY ASS
teens….” This idea is also repeated in specific narratives. One of the women of
CumFiesta “came in and flashed me her G-string right off the bat.” Another “flashed
her tits right there in the doorway, and then, when we got in the room, she started
teasing me by fingering her asshole.”
The message that is reiterated on these sites is that the women involved were
ready, usually eager, participants. The site “8th Street Latinas” sometimes plays on
stereotypes of more sexually free South and Central American women. “With a little
convincing ...” one woman “came by.... The best part is she spoke some real dirty
Spanish, and it was turning me on big time!” However, it also tends to reiterate the
eager woman theme. “After a few beers and 100 degree, sun I asked her if she
wanted to come back and hang out at the pool at my house. It was an easy sell, and
we were back at the pad in no time.”
Geena of MILF Hunter “was a go-getter! She came on to me the moment we
shook hands and was ready to continue partying at my place.” One of the women fea-
tured in SlutBus “loved to suck Max’s Huge Black cock so much that she couldn’t

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even talk!! She just moaned “UNGH UNGH UNGH’!” Another “squeaky little slut
was very horny and hasn’t had sex in four months and needed a big cock bad.”
The creators of Street Blow Jobs seek to encourage members by advertising
“Cum Craving Chicks Inside!!” One of the women featured in StreetBlowJobs went
“on about her BF and how he was a dick and the fact that he didn’t use it enough.”
The protagonist of this Web site asked another women “on a date and she said no. I
then offered her some loot to get freaky and she just went for it. I am tellin’ you
guys ... girls are sluts, baby!” In the case of Salina, “it was as easy as 1, 2, 3 ....”
Many of the women presented in this site were not immediately eager to engage in
sex with a stranger; however, all of them responded positively to the offer of money
or more money.27
The premise of Mike’s Apartment, in which women allow the recording of vari-
ous sexual acts for accommodation, requires willing participants. However, some of
the women are represented as being more willing than others. “Silke had to be the
easiest flatmate ever to find. She saw my site and emailed me! How about that for
easy! She sent me an email saying she was going to be in town and really wanted to
stay in the apartment and was more than excited to have some hot sex instead of
paying the rent.”

CHANGING THE NUMBERS GAME

Exposure to Web porn will contribute to a reevaluation of understandings of the

level of sexual activity that manifests true manliness. As Sophie Freud (1999) has
pointed out, “the people who use ‘normal’ in the sense of ‘average,’ have a reference
group in mind and that this reference group may not be considered normal by other
people” (p. 334). While an endless stream of sexual conquests has long been a domi-
nant male fantasy, the unreal nature of this fantasy was usually close to the surface
for most men.28 The existence of a plethora of libidinous women who are willing to
have sex with (not overly attractive) strangers represents a source of significant anx-
iety for those men who are unable, or unwilling, to achieve the number of conquests
that are presented as being available to them. This is important because of the fact
that, as Seidler (1998) put it, “men can feel good about themselves only by putting
other men down … [so that] I can feel good about myself only by knowing that I am
doing better than others” (p. 203).

PROV(ID)ING SATISFACTION

Possibly as a result of a combination of sexual liberation and feminism, women are

assumed to have needs that require satisfaction (and which may only be satisfied by
men with capacities greater than those of normal men). It is in this respect that femi-
nism has affected the performance of Western heterosexual masculinity. Crucially,
men’s inability to know women means that they are unable to know women’s plea-
sure. Understood in this way, women’s pleasure is something over which men have
little real control, since they can neither understand it nor understand how it is
achieved. Williams argued that a change occurred from the stag films of the 1950s
to contemporary hardcore pornography. In her view, the former’s “lack of concern

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for the woman’s pleasure is precisely what the contemporary hard-core narrative
feature can no longer exhibit” (Williams, 1990, p. 92). A result is that hard-core
pornography is an attempt to situate “pleasures within its own discourse to represent
the visual truth of female pleasures about which it knows very little” (Williams,
1990, p. 117).
Given the fundamentally phallic nature of pornography, the attempt to present
women being pleasured comes down to the insertion of the penis; for “in the sexism
of heterosexuality the self-identity of men is inextricably tied to their penises”
(Thomas, 1999, p. 131).29 In the first instance, this is an erect penis. The erection,
however, immediately refers to the attributes of the penis that is erect. In this con-
text, “the focus on hardness, strength, activity, and endurance in hegemonic mascu-
line sexuality determines how a man measures his own ‘success in sex’; it
centralizes sex around the penis and universalizes penises …” (Potts, 2000, p. 89).
Williams noted this in her discussion of the money shot, which represents per-
haps the most graphic illustration of a failed attempt to represent the penis as phal-
lus. Here the phallus-penis only represents power when it disconnects from the body
over which it “has” power. For Williams (1990), “we might properly call it a lack of
relation to the other, a lack of ability to imagine a relation to the other in anything
but the phallic terms of self” (p. 114). The problem is that the phallus-self immedi-
ately refers to the penis-self and the fundamental question of Western heterosexual
masculinity (“am I man enough?”) refers directly to the possession of a “man
enough” penis.
The problem is twofold. It reflects a failure to imagine women’s pleasures in
other than penile (phallic) terms.30 It also makes the penis the sole bearer of the pos-
sibility for women’s pleasure. In a primarily visual medium, this makes the capacity
to sustain an erection and the size of a man’s penis expressions of his capacity to
produce satisfaction (at least as far as other men are concerned, and it is they who
are most important for the manifestation of true manliness).
It is at this point that MegaCockCravers takes on particular salience.31 For here
we are presented with women who can only gain satisfaction from men with “mega”
cocks. The women who (allegedly) have created the Web sites “are a group of girls
who come together for our love of oversized shafts.… We are not embarrassed to
say all we want to think about is sucking and riding the biggest cocks around. If you
think you have a big enough man pole to meet one of us and be featured on this site,
email us here....” While men are encouraged to email these women, as Monica put it,
“Please don’t respond unless you are 14 inches or larger.” Whereas, for Sara,
“unless your potential is at least 12 inches rock hard, you don’t have a chance.” Sun-
shine, on the other hand, “usually settles for average sized guys because its so hard
to find a thick cock over 12 inches.”
None of the women of MegaCockCravers can be satisfied by men whose
penises are less than 12 inches long.32 Indeed, the pleasure that they derived from
sex with men who possess such penises produces cravings. Kayla’s “passion for
massive cock takes up all of her free time.... Her record cock is 141/2 inches, and
she’s still looking for bigger. Kayla, aren’t you ever satisfied?” After experiencing
sex with a man with a “mega” cock, Sunshine says she’ll “never be the same,” and
all she “can think about is fucking a cock this big over and over again.”

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Dana “never imagined she could become addicted to massive cocks. She was so
used to her boyfriend’s average 51/2-incher that she didn’t think it got much better
than that. Until a friend hooked her up with a guy who was 151/2 inches long and
about 7 inches around. She said it hurt at first, but now she’s hooked!” The impor-
tance of this narrative is the lack of satisfaction with average penises that Dana
experienced subsequent to having had sex with a man with an above-average penis.
The message that is central to these narratives is that female satisfaction cannot be
truly achieved by men with average-size penises. To be man enough, in this context, is
to be well above average. Men’s anxiety concerning their ability to satisfy women
may be evidenced by the significant amount of spam associated with penis enlarge-
ment and drugs to counter impotence (such as sildenafil [Viagra], tadalafil [Cialis],
and vardenafil [Levitra]). A number of Web porn sites offer free access (on a trial or
longer-term basis) for those who supply an email address. To provide an address is to
be placed on mailing lists that are sold to Internet-based vendors. The probability of
consumers of Web porn being inundated with spam that offers penis enlargement and
drugs and other treatments to improve erectile stamina is very high.
Being “man enough” then would seem decreasingly possible for most men. This
is not only because they possess normal-sized penises and can achieve and attain nor-
mal erections. It is also because they are unlikely to have the time, resources, or other
attributes necessary for achieving the number of conquests that are available to them
in a world replete with libidinous women. In short, Web porn creates conditions
under which many men may become increasingly anxious with respect to their ability
to perform according to redefined standards of Western heterosexual masculinity.

CONCLUSION

The increased and enhanced accessibility of Web porn make it significant both as an
expression of the anxiety that underpins performances of Western heterosexual mas-
culinity and as a source of the intensification of that anxiety. The possibility that
Web porn may intensify that anxiety means that it is of particular interest to those
who study masculinity, especially Western heterosexual masculinity. Anxiety need
not be understood as a problem, though its potential intensification of anxiety may
make Web porn either a significant personal or social problem. Anxiety may be con-
sidered an essential part of psychological development. Otherness may also be an
inescapable attribute of being human and, should this be a source of anxiety (either
in disturbing projections of sameness or in frustrating a desire on the part of human
beings to know the other), is an inescapable attribute of being human.
The facts that feminism has heightened this anxiety and Web porn has intensi-
fied it provide no ground for believing that eliminating the effects of either of them
is desirable. Indeed, the greatly increased access to pornography that is enabled by
the Internet may reveal the anxiety expressed in pornography to increasing numbers
of Western heterosexual men. It may also make them more aware of those processes
in society and Web porn that intensify the anxiety they are assumed to feel as West-
ern heterosexual men. These effects may result in some desire for either personal or
social change on the part of those men for whom this anxiety and its intensification
are troubling.

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NOTES

1. I have limited this discussion to Western heterosexual masculinity to provide

a limit to the discussion and to avoid speaking for sexualities other than my own.
2. This is manifested both through the simulation of blogs and the use of mis-
spelling and poor grammar that might be associated with natural communication.
These will become evident in the extracts from the sites reproduced below.
3. See Blazina, 2004.
4. These are WeLiveTogether.com, Cumfiesta.com, Topshelfpussy.com, Big-
naturals.com, Allamateurmovies.com, Wivesinpantyhose.com, Boysfirsttime.com,
Mikesapartment.com, MILFhunter.com, CaptainStabbin.com, 8thStreetLatinas.com,
TrannySurprise.com, StreetBlowjobs.com, MegaCockCravers.com, intheVIP.com,
EuroSexParties.com, and FirstTimeAuditions.com.
5. Accessed this article on 22-6-2004.
6. The material used in preparing this article was that available free of charge
from the sites.
7. See Horrocks, 1995, p. 119.
8. See Blazina, 1997.
9. See Williams, 1990, chapter 1.
10. See, for example, Addelston (1999, p. 337), Frosh (1994, p. 113) and Gid-
dens (1992, p. 28).
11. See also Websdale’s discussion of the “Predator Law” (1999, p. 109) and
Lynch, 2002.
12. For a discussion of the relationship between hunting and masculinity, see
Connell (1995, p. 194-195), Fine (2000), and Luke (1998). For discussions of
women and hunting, see Houston (1995) and Stange (1997).
13. For Horrocks (1995), porn “returns the ‘dirt’ to a bourgeois world which
had tried to pretend that no such thing existed” (p. 107).
14. See also Blazina, 2004.
15. Wight (1996, p. 164) has argued that this dichotomization of women is pre-
sent within all manifestations of hegemonic masculinity. See also Giddens (1992, p.
111) and Joffe (1997, p. 171).
16. A study of rape sites would provide even clearer evidence of the way that
Web porn sites manifest men’s anxiety. For rape sites, see http://bestrape.poreva.net/.
17. See Williams, 1990, p. 95. Bukkake is the word commonly used for sites
devoted to the “money shot.” See http://www.4-bukkake.com/.
18. Envelopment is just as available a description but has not been used in order
to reflect a man’s perspective.
19. From Barron and Kimmel (2000), “Internet newsgroups are the closest thing
to the all-male locker room that exist in the pornographic world…. Any adequate
explanation of the increased violence and shifting relationships between victims and
victimizers, then, must take into account the distinctly, purely, and uncorruptedly
homosocial element in the Internet newsgroup” (p. 166).
20. According to Cowie, the rape fantasy is “apparently found as commonly in
men as in women…” (1992, p. 142). “We cannot assume, therefore, that the man
watching the porn film showing scenes of violence identifies only, if at all, with the

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male (or female) figure who conducts the violence. The wish for a passive position
in the sexual relationship, even without the attendant masochistic fantasy, is
extremely common in male sexual fantasies” (Cowie 1992, p. 145). In Horrocks’
(1995) view, men “want to be that rock hard inexhaustible penis, and have it. One
can want to be the penetrator, and the penetrated” (p. 122). In Needleman’s (1997)
representation of Lacanian psychology, “constituted on the axis of the phallus, male
homosexuality is the dominant paradigm of all male desire” (p. 58).
21. Incest sites also reflect this aspect of pornography (in particular www.pure-
momson.com). For a portal to incest sites, see http://www.incest-o-rama.com/.
22. For a list of sites that use this theme, see: http://milf.org/.
23. “Mature moms with overflowing tits, big round asses and full lips that make
a perfect vacuum seal around a cock. Take a look at some of my missions ... at least
make sure your mom isn’t here … sucka!”
24. For Frosh (1994), “sexual abuse is a function of men’s own abhorrence of
the feminine within—it is a kind of continuing assault on the body of the mother.…
The man’s rage as he experiences sexual desire, associated with a breaking down of
masculinity and a sucking back into the body of the powerful mother, is extruded
onto the woman, who is, both individually and socially, the sanctioned recipient of
violence” (p. 113).
25. This is supported by an apparent proliferation of spam emails that advertise
penis-enlarging and erection-sustaining procedures and products.
26. These women are not presented as deviants—sluts, perhaps, but not
“nymphomaniacs.” For a discussion of the construction and reconstruction of
nymphomania, see Groneman (1994).
27. Some of the women depicted in the other sites are offered compensation for
their involvement. The women of 8th Street Latinas “will do absolutely anything to
get their citizenship,” those of Street BlowJobs and SlutBus are offered money (in
the latter not actually paying the women is an important part of the narrative), and
those of Mike’s Apartment do so for accommodation. The other sites make no men-
tion of payment or any form of compensation.
28. In his discussion of Australian men’s magazines in the 1950s, Laurie noted
that, “for men, the ideal type was the playboy, uninhibited, highly sexed and suc-
cessful in the mating game. Much of this playboy image, however, represented fan-
tasy and wishful thinking. Indeed, these magazines themselves demonstrated that
such male dominant worlds of carefree sex and no responsibility only existed in car-
toons” (Laurie, 1998, p. 123).
29. “The penis becomes the organ which articulates need, loneliness, grief, love,
hatred, fear, anxiety, and so on” (Horrocks 1995, p. 113).
30. This might be associated with the (Freudian) understanding of woman as
lacking a penis and, as a result, that the vagina is a void that must be filled if a
woman is to be satisfied.
31. There are a number of Web sites of this type available, which include
www.freakshowcocks.com and DangerousDongs.com (now hosted on Nastydollars).
32. Material available on the Web suggests that the average male penis is 5.9
inches when erect. See http://www.the-penis-website.com/size2.html.

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