# Gay porn and heterosexual women

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 31, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897 "2000-12-31T14:36:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/21 "2001-01-01T11:29:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ruadh \*  
> **And not to hijack Matt’s thread, but are there any straight men here brave enough to admit being turned on by gay male porn**

:: sheepishly raises his hand :::

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**Author:** ![thorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@thorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorn)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/22 "2001-01-01T11:30:50Z")

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Straight hetero- male here, who does find lesbian porn enjoyable. My wife says she’d ‘do’ Ling, from Ally McBeal. Too bad we’ll never meet her. 🙂 I had an ex that was turned on by gay porn and I tried to watch it with her. I could get through about 5-10 seconds of any physical contact, and had to turn away. Absolutely repulsive to me. No problem if she watched it and got turned on. I was the beneficiary. That said, I’ve ‘bedded’ around 70-75 women and she is the only one I know of that was turned on by male/male sex. I can also say that I have many female friends that, while we have discussed sex and porn as a turn-on, have never expressed an interest in male/male sex.

In actuality, it sends shivers up my spine to even think about male/male sex. Maybe, I’m a homophobe. If so, I’ll cloak myself in that current PC definition of those repulsed by the idea of male/male sex.

Not that there’s anything wrong with it, just not for me.

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**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/23 "2001-01-01T11:37:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eutychus55 \*  
> \*\*:: sheepishly raises his hand :::  
> \*\*

I am sorry for doing this but Patrick, this is one of the reasons you are so great! You are such a man! No wonder I loves ya!

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**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/24 "2001-01-01T12:07:58Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eutychus55 \*  
> \*\*:: sheepishly raises his hand ::: \*\*

you freak 😃

Only joking, Euty! (Kind of) I’m not turned on in the slightest by gay porn. Honestly. I can kind of see why some guys would be, but I’m not at all, no matter what Rae (AndyYrAStar) tells you…

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**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/25 "2001-01-01T14:59:36Z")

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Thanks for the responses, everyone. I think the point about porn generally being less-than-top-quality and mass-produced for the “grunt and moan” market was a good one, particularly.

**Shayna** - I think option number 3 is the most likely scenario.

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/26 "2001-01-01T16:27:51Z")

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I’ve been turned on by lesbian erotica before. Of the lesbian-created Dykes to Watch Out For variety, not, I hasten to add, of the usual by-straight-men for-straight-men variety.

> [@](#):
>
> "The women in these pornos are, like, not dykey at all, are they? There’s nothing remotely lesbian about them, they’ve got this big hair and these big tits, and they have these naaaaaaails! these talons! these claws! bigger than my fucking apartment with these nails! Now let me translate for you, because you may be lesbian-impaired, sir, but these nails are a yeast infection waiting to happen! Going out with that babe would be like going out with Edward fucking Scissorhands, you know what I’m saying? She’d be like, Can I touch you? and you’d be like AAAAAAAgh!  
> "And what is it with this straight boy fantasy, anyway? What the fuck do they think is going to happen? Say I’m in bed with my date, and we’re going at it, hot and heavy, and this straight guy walks in. Now what the fuck does he think is going to happen? We’re just going to roll over and go ooh, c’mere daddy, give me some of that? What the fuck do I want with his penis? I have four of my own! Four! Easy! And while we’re talking about this attached penis versus the detachable one - and I mean this, gentlemen, with all due respect, and now you know some shit is coming dont’cha! Cause when an Italian says ‘with all due respect’ it gives us license to say whatever we fucking want. So gentlemen, with all due respect, how long can you stay hard?  
> "My dick’s hard right now! It’s at home in a box!  
> “And I’m not telling you whose box, neither.”  
> -Lea DeLaria

Anyway, I used to write slash, which is male/male Star Trek (or other TV) fan fic, and I was one of a _very_ small number of gay male slashers. A huge majority were women, mostly straight (some lesbians). And damned if those women didn’t write some _fabulous_ stories! Really well-written - a real cut above the usual gay erotica - and fucking _hot_, too. Not that us men weren’t welcome. They liked to ask us, “Is this possible? Do gay men do this?” 🙂 It was fun.

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/27 "2001-01-01T16:31:12Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by thorn \*  
> \*\*In actuality, it sends shivers up my spine to even think about male/male sex. Maybe, I’m a homophobe. If so, I’ll cloak myself in that current PC definition of those repulsed by the idea of male/male sex.
> 
> Not that there’s anything wrong with it, just not for me. \*\*

Well, I don’t think you’re homophobic. As long as you don’t discriminate against us while we’ve got our clothes _on_, you should be OK.

Besides, I love and tolerate bree-- I mean, straight people - even though some of the things they do in bed, ugh! 😃

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/28 "2001-01-01T16:34:46Z")

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Incidentally, my favourite slash genre is P/K (VOY) (Tom Paris and Harry Kim, from _ST: Voyager_ - watch “The Chute” and you’ll know why) and B/m (DS9) (Julian Bashir from DS9 with any guy), with Su/C (TOS) (Sulu and Chekov from the first series) being a close third.

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**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/29 "2001-01-01T19:02:13Z")

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Ah, slash.

I went through a big fanfic period until I realized the collective time I spent sifting through stories that were utter trash was more than the time I spent enjoying good stories.

I confine myself to Willow/Tara slashiness on just one list now. It’s mostly moron-free. Although being introduced to the SDMB had increased my intolerance of sites where it looks like people spontaneously vomit on their keyboards.

Anyway, I don’t find porn arousing as much as it is funny. I don’t know- forced eroticism just doesn’t work for me. [sub]two girls kissing usually makes me sit up and pay attention, though.[/sub] I do, however, know quite afew straight women who love gay male porn. At the local gay bookstore, there’s a small number of straight women who come in and buy the gayboy mags.

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**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/30 "2001-01-01T19:23:49Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \*  
> \*\*Anyway, I used to write slash, which is male/male Star Trek (or other TV) fan fic, and I was one of a _very_ small number of gay male slashers. A huge majority were women, mostly straight (some lesbians). And damned if those women didn’t write some _fabulous_ stories! Really well-written - a real cut above the usual gay erotica - and fucking _hot_, too. Not that us men weren’t welcome. They liked to ask us, “Is this possible? Do gay men do this?” 🙂 It was fun. \*\*

Matt - exactly. I’d say that I know over 100 slash writers personally. Out of those, exactly 2 are men. Both are gay men, and both are ADORED at cons for answering that crucial question of “Can they really do that?” 🙂

And damn you…now I need to go find my P/K stash. 😉

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**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/31 "2001-01-01T22:01:45Z")

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I didn’t know there were any gay male slash fanfiction writers! You learn something new every day!

If memory serves, several fan authors have gone on to be “legit” mainstream authors. Some really good authors come from fan fiction roots. One I know of personally is Melonie Rawn (does a lot of thick Dragon SF books.) She used to write Starsky and Hutch and Star Wars fan fiction. I don’t recall if she ever wrote slash, though.

I haven’t done any illustrations for zines in a while, and slash was never my thing, so I didn’t illustrate for it. I think this thread is helping explain why many women like it, though!

Hey - if some of you are shocked by the Kirk/Spock thing, there are SO MANY other variations. Nothing is off-limits with slash fiction! I know there were Luke Skywalker/Han Solo pairings, and I am almost positive pairing up Darth Vader with everyone/anyone was also a favorite. (I would guess that the slash fiction pairing Darth and Luke subsided when it was revealed that Darth was Luke’s father.) Yes, this stuff goes _waaaaaay_ back. I know there must have been something slash written about “Beauty and the Beast” (the TV series with Linda Hamilton) but damned if I know who they’d pair up.

I am curious, what are the latest trends in slash pairs? Whenever a new movie or TV show comes out that attracts fannish attention, slash fiction is written for it. I am always amused by who these authors pair up. (The one that grossed me out, though, was when slash authors paired up the two detective **brothers** in the 80s series “Simon and Simon”.) I know I mentioned that in a previous thread - that was just pushing it too far, IMO.

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**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/32 "2001-01-01T23:03:45Z")

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Latest trends??? WELL, lemme see here. 🙂 (and yosemite? I know someone who WRITES Simon/Simon slash. Even _I_ won’t read it. It’s just…wrong, IMO.)

Hrm. Highlander fic is still going pretty strong. Main pairings are Duncan/Ritchie, and Methos/damn near anyone. Voyager has a fairly stong base - best ones from there tens to be Paris/Kim stories. Due South, Sentinel, and Homicide were cancelled, but they still have a TON of stories coming out. There’s also a ton of Buffy slash, but since I don’t watch the show, I don’t follow it too closely.

Any other questions? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2001, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/33 "2001-01-01T23:26:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ruadh \*  
> **And not to hijack Matt’s thread, but are there any straight _men_ here brave enough to admit being turned on by gay male porn?**

Depends…the photographic variety does nothing for me, but m/m Slash and Yaoi dojinshi/fanart (Yaoi is the term for the (Explicit) genre of manga mentioned in the OP.)…well…that’s a different story now…

(I’m particularly fond of 4X2 Gundam Wing Dojin…)

(I also prefer it to have SOME similarity to Canon…no Hero/Villain pairings for me.)

(I just wanted to add another parenthetical statement)

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**Author:** ![kirk280980](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c77e96/32.png) [@kirk280980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirk280980)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/34 "2001-01-08T05:04:27Z")

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I don’t know any women who are turned on by male/male porn. Some of them think it’s disgusting, others are just indifferent about it. But I’ve never come across a woman who was into it. But nearly every guy I know gets excited at the thought of two women having sex with each other. I do think there is a difference between the sexes on this one.

From my own personal perspective as a gay male, I find heterosexual porn hard to stomach. I’ve seen a straight porno once, and I have to admit that it made my stomach churn. Some other gay guys I know can watch it easily enough, even if they would never even think of having sex with a woman. Different strokes for different folks.

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**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/35 "2001-01-08T10:25:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kirk280980 \*  
> \*\*I don’t know any women who are turned on by male/male porn. Some of them think it’s disgusting, others are just indifferent about it. But I’ve never come across a woman who was into it.  
> \*\*

Well now you have.

(Arguable not know, but certainly come across.)

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/36 "2001-01-08T16:29:55Z")

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Qualified assent from another het female here. I’m not really much into porn of any kind, and don’t care for the “muscle stud” body type so ubiquitous among gay pinups anyway. But there is definitely something very—not exactly arousing, but, I don’t know, poignantly beautiful maybe? about two guys together. (_sniff_ I get a little choked up just mentioning it.) Wonder how this ties in with the whole “fag hag”/“fruit fly” phenomenon: there are definitely many women who have very positive reactions to m/m sexuality, even if not all of them find it explicitly erotic.

(And I know for dead certain that Holmes and Watson had something going that dared not speak its name, even if Conan Doyle had no idea of it. (_sniff_…so lovely…) I have a very precise mental chronology of the relationship and can identify all the clues in the stories and novels. I even looked for some slash fanfic on the web to see if my ideas had been realized anywhere else, but it was all just way too crude and anachronistic—the **real** relationship was a thing of iron conventions and silent transgressions and dark Victorian angst. Sigh; I’ll never get a good description of it unless I write it myself.)

(And actually, the Kirk-and-Spock idea is also kind of cool. But I’ve wanted Spock for my own ever since I was a teenager and I’m not sure I could bear to share him. ;))

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**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/37 "2001-01-08T16:41:40Z")

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First of all, I was hungover one Monday after being forcibly ejected from a Bears game (a story for another day), and my gay houseguest (a good band name I think), knowing he had me hostage on the couch, popped in a THREE HOUR gay porn.

I liked it because the guys were forty times hotter, I love muscly, burly guys, and, it was so poorly produced it was like watching MST3K. I wouldn’t go out and RENT gay porn, but I was definitely turned on.

> [@](#):
>
> I’ve been watching “Queer as Folk”. What a great show! Where the hell was this when I was a horny teenager?

Now, I’ve been watching this show too, faithfully, and I do really like it. However, a lot of my gay friends are constantly complaining to me that one thing the homophobic straight community is forever thinking is that homosexuals are nothing buy promiscuous, unfeeling sex machines.

Isn’t Queer as Folk perpetuating this idea? It’s not just in the character of Brian, but Justin and Mike and a few others. I realize that its supposed to be a sexy show, late night and all that, sex oriented, but I wonder how gay men feel about the stereotype that’s being perpetuated that they just go home with a different guy every night and leave refreshed in the morning…

jarbaby

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**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/38 "2001-01-08T16:55:08Z")

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Holmes and Watson! Now that’s quite enough! **That is quite enough!!** Kimstu, refer to the Sacred Writings, and dispel such buggeristic notions!

On more than one occasion, Holmes remarked on Watson as having a _“way with the ladies”_. He was, IIRC, happily married and remarked on his contentment on more than one occasion. Holmes himself was passionately in love with the female criminal mastermind, Irene Adler, to the point of saying that she was “_the_ woman” as far as he was concerned.

Not **all** human affection is sexual, for crying in the beer. Is it impossible for us to believe that powerful, indeed passionate, friendships cannot exist unless they are somehow sexual in their origin? Nonsense, worse, childish, sniggering nonsense. What of Damon and Pythias, Jonathon and David?

Now, Batman and Robin, well, that’s clearly different…….

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/39 "2001-01-08T17:53:10Z")

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**elucidator** : _On more than one occasion, Holmes remarked on Watson as having a “way with the ladies”. He was, IIRC, happily married and remarked on his contentment on more than one occasion._

No argument; my hypothesis successfully accounts for all of this.

_Holmes himself was passionately in love with the female criminal mastermind, Irene Adler, to the point of saying that she was “the woman” as far as he was concerned._

Huge overstatement. Watson notes that he refers to Adler as “the woman”, and he was certainly greatly impressed by her as being the only woman who ever outwitted him, but there is never any reason to think that he was “passionately in love with her”. (And you should take another look at the Sacred Writings yourself, for chrissake: Adler was hardly a “criminal mastermind”, in fact, she was not a criminal at all, but a professional singer; she outwitted Holmes only in trying to preserve her **own personal property** (the photograph sought by the compromised King of Bohemia) from being stolen by Holmes! Huh, you call yourself a Baker Street Irregular?) And as for the nature and extent of Holmes’ undoubted fascination with her, my theory accounts for that too.

\*Not all human affection is sexual, for crying in the beer. Is it impossible for us to believe that powerful, indeed passionate, friendships cannot exist unless they are somehow sexual in their origin? \*

Of course not, and I never said it was. I’m convinced, for example, that the relationship between Dr. Challenger and his sidekick (whose name I can’t remember), or Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or Privates Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd, or Patrick Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, or Captain Hornblower and Lieutenant Bush, or any of a host of other famous pairs, did not involve sexual attraction. But I reserve the right to infer a different type of bond whenever I feel it justified (especially considering that these are only fictional characters with no actual feelings to be hurt by mistaken assumptions), and if you don’t like it you can do the other thing. And quit hijacking the OP. 😉

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**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-porn-and-heterosexual-women/47897/40 "2001-01-08T18:21:12Z")

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I had an ex-girlfriend who liked it, M/M porn I mean. I used to have a gay roommate, and so she and I had seen it there . Didn’t do much for me, but I can’t claim repulsion either.

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