Recently I was in San Francisco working on my doctorate and as a teaching assistant for a course called "The History of Gay Male Erotica." Honored to be asked to teach the present day materials (1980s–2007), I read up on my history and watched a lot of videos and picked some scenes to show the students. There was one model, in particular, that caught my eye. He was from Titan media.

When I’m at school, I often visit an upscale grocery to buy snacks in between classes. While I was there, checking out some of the hand lotions, I saw Mr. Titan stocking the shelves in the beauty aisle. I kind of looked at him and decided I needed to get out of there. As I was checking out, I looked back at the beauty section and he came walking out, looked at me, and gave me the biggest grin and wink. The cashier snapped me back to reality as he caught me blushing!

For the next few days, I have never visited the produce section so much in my life or sampled so many hand lotions. I went to class several of those days smelling like a grapefruit or a walking bundle of lavender. After showing clips to the students of Mr. Titan in action, I finally got the courage to speak to him. I managed to convince him to go to lunch with me so I could talk to him about the industry. Little did he know that I harbored secret desires.

Lunch was great. He is a really nice guy appearing in films to earn some extra money. Besides, he is really good at what he does and enjoys it. My discussions with him were focused on trends in gay porn. I was particularly interested in what he knew about barebacking in the industry. I wondered that if there aren’t condoms in movies, won’t some men be tempted to leave them out in reality?

From what I understand, safer sex in gay porn has been in place since the 80s. However, there are some producers and actors that are making movies without using condoms. It was taboo and now it is becoming a fetish among men. Mr. Titan and I talked about these actors and studios. He said that the studio he works for has a "condom only policy."

Other studios who promote bareback movies are usually low-budget/fly-by-night studios. They produce a movie and that’s the last you hear from them. He also said that many of the actors in those movies are young guys in need of some quick money and attention. He said there are studio standards among the big studios but smaller and foreign studios don’t follow those same "unspoken" rules. I told him I was especially concerned about movies that are made in Eastern European countries where HIV rates are higher among gay/bi men.

My issue with bareback movies is that if men are watching them and they become part of their sexual pattern and fantasies, they may not want to use condoms when they have "real-time" sex. My hope is that the studios that produce these videos will remain focused on maintaining a safer sex attitude when producing movies. I hope actors will not put themselves at risk for easy money. I admit that some of the best erotica ever made was produced in a time when we didn’t have to worry about HIV. But times have changed and the world is a different place.

Lunch with Mr. Titan was great. He’s a good conversationalist, and I walked away with a greater respect for the actors in these movies. I even got a parting kiss from him. That made my day and gave me good material for future use. I look forward to my next trip to SF and my visit to the beauty aisle.