‘Macho Behavior’: Latino Fan Club and the Emergence of Thug Pornography (1980-2000)

• In Event: Racialized Sexuality in Latinx Culture and Politics

Abstract

The production and consumption of Latinx pornography cannot be untangled from the history of exploitation, marginalization, and racism that forms part of the everyday life of Latinx individuals. Pornography, rather than creating the material conditions of Latinx bodies, reflects the class and racial fantasies of the primarily white consumer. Through an analysis of films, photographs, interviews, and jacket covers produced by the Latino Fan Club, I analyze the emergence of “thug pornography” as a response to the whiteness of 1980s gay pornography. I pay close attention to aesthetic and linguistic strategies used by Brian Brennan, the owner and director of Latino Fan Club, and the performers to render Puerto Rican and Latinx sexualities intelligible. Following scholars like Juana María Rodríguez, Mireille Miller-Young, Jennifer Nash, Tan Hoang Nguyen, and Ariane Cruz, I show how the racial fantasies promoted by the Latino Fan Club, which often involve rape, violence, and domination of white models by Latino performers, are deeply embedded within racist discourses that seek to criminalize Latino men. Finally, I analyze how Latinx performers negotiated the director’s and the viewer’s expectations with their own understanding of Latinx sexuality and pleasure.

Author

• H. Manuel Acevedo-Reyes, University of Virginia-Main Campus