Queer effractions: male to male porn and the pursuit of self-shattering

The changing status of HIV disease has significantly influenced cinematic representations of sex between men and the pleasures these representations offer. This article examines two different cinematic explorations of ‘risky’ sex: one, the documentary Chemsex, on the combining of sex and drugs; the other, raw (condomless) porn – including auto-porn, porn made by the people engaged in the sex being filmed. It argues that, because the sexual is the site of so much ambivalence, its representation engages sensibilities far more nuanced than the term pleasure suggests.