While watching the very queer and very explicit erotic video with older gay male lovers “Joe + Michael Make a Porn” over at Himeros.tv, I kept thinking how beautiful it was.
Not simply in how it was shot or due to the attractiveness of its participants—a pair of salt-and-pepper gay lovers relishing in each other’s bodies. That being said, the film work is breathtaking and the director is highly adept at walking that so-very-fine line between stylish and immersive.
The older men are a beautiful representation of diverse bodies and ways of having sex, including how to make love in a wheelchair.
Instead, I found it so beautiful how the short erotic film reminded me of what a queer friend of mine once said. For him, the most beautiful form of inclusion in any media is when it’s simply there: not with obvious fanfare, not an item on some kind of checklist the creator felt obliged to tick off to appease a progressive audience, but just that being queer is there as everyday ordinary human existence.
I felt and saw this progressive form of “everyday” representation in” “Joe + Michael Make a Porn.” Both men are, to use a euphemism in their “Autumn years”—and one is a double amputee.
Related Read: Interabled sex scene between Pierce Paris and wheelchair user Kenneth Cronin
A glimpse of love
Though I don’t have a lot of experience as a consumer of queer porn, and less so with any featuring disabled performers, I watched “Joe + Michael Make a Porn” with rapt attention.
The direction helped, as I mentioned, the person behind the camera knew how to make themselves invisible yet present enough to understand precisely where to put their camera.
This was equally true for the production values, with the sound blissfully crystal clear, unlike so many other porn videos I’ve seen: allowing me to hear what everyone was saying, right along with all those juicy noises every good—and enthusiastic—couple makes when making love.
Briefly, I wondered if my interest was fueled by how unique this video was for me. However, as it went on, that doubt all but vanished as I realized that I was wholeheartedly caught up in the action.
And, yes, it was beautiful in how it was done and how it was a great example of my friend’s vision of inclusivity, as everything about Joe and Michael was wonderfully there without the film ever seeming to linger on their age, Joe’s disability, or their sexuality.
Throughout, I felt like I was a special guest they’d invited to sit and watch them play: to vicariously share in their tender, sweet, steamy, raunchy, and loving poolside antics.
And right along with my arousal, there were more than a few tears as well: my salt-streaked cheeks there in gratitude to them and himeros.tv for allowing me to vicariously join in their touching and passionate fun.
Related Read: Paraplegic Woman on Sex, Love, and Passion
Inclusion—
Staying with my thoughts that “Joe + Michael Make a Porn” is beautiful, I want to enthusiastically compliment Davey Wavey, the mind behind himeros.tv, for really getting this idea and creating videos with real older gay male lovers.
Perfectly evident in how he announced the video by mentioning Joe and Michael’s desire to star in one, and how the production’s aim was to show that incredibly hot sex isn’t exclusively the purview of buffed and polished 20-year-olds.
And, as far as I can tell, aside from bringing up the importance of physical diversity in adult entertainment they never once mention the fact that one of its stars is disabled.
Again, he is wonderfully just there.
—versus exploitation
Before sitting down to write this review, I did a small amount of research. Mainly checking how other porn sites address if their performers have any sort of physical disability.
The result was, I’m sad to say, largely disappointing. Sure, I didn’t do a particularly exhaustive search, but the time I did spend at it left me with a decidedly bitter taste in my mouth.
Oh, disabilities were there but, echoing Kirsty Liddiard’s article from Sexforeverybody, that are notably marketed to appear to Devotees by emphasizing their scars and stumps.
Freely admitting to melodrama, this felt ugly: the complete opposite to the beautiful approach to disability in Joe + Michael Make a Porn. For the performers in those other videos, the condition of their bodies was more important than who they were as people.
In other words, they were treated as sexual objects: whats instead of whos.
A celebration of humanity
The world is a better place because of Davey Wavey. Through himeros.tv, he’s shown you can celebrate the joys of queer sex, and that older people can be just as beautiful and enthusiastic as the younger set at it.
And right along with this, that disability isn’t something abnormal or should be separated from those with them to appease a sexual fetish.
Because right along with queer and senior sexuality, disabilities are all part of everyday life—and a beautiful one at that.