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Do all men enjoy shemale porn?
I’m leaving out of my answer the role of mtf transgender performers in the transaction—on which see Do real transsexuals and “shemale porn” have nothing in common?, and the transactionality, on which see Is it wrong of me to enjoy “shemale” porn? I know it’s degrading and fetishizing, but what can I do about the fact that I like it?
Uncontroversially, I trust: some cis het men enjoy mtf transgender porn, and some cis het men are repulsed by it.
And that’s spelling out stuff your question didn’t, OP. I don’t know what the stats are on cis gay men enjoying mtf transgender porn. Or for that matter transgender people enjoying it. (Then again, I don’t have the stats on cis het men; I trust someone does, at Pornhub if nowhere else.)
That’s not really the interesting question, and I surmise not the question OP is actually getting at. The question is more, what kind of cis het men enjoy mtf transgender porn—and, more interesting still: what does that tell us about their construction of heterosexuality, and femininity?
Bear in mind that the performers in TS porn are a subset of transgender performances of sexual identity, which themselves are a subset of queer sexual identities.
- TS porn involves women who have transitioned mtf, but almost never involves them having gender-affirming “bottom surgery” (I can think of only one performer, and she was already established).
- TS porn involves women who for the most part embrace the social characteristics of femininity (long hair, breasts, makeup): they are not drag performers, who identify as men and satirise the construct, or genderfluid people, whose performance of sexual identity is deliberately ambiguous.
- TS porn involves transwomen performing solo, with cismen or transwomen, much more than it involves them performing with ciswomen.
What kind of cis het men like TS porn?
Men who are still, at some level, het (or bi). They are attracted to performances of femininity. To be blunt, they are much more comfortable with someone who looks like a women performing fellatio or receiving anal sex, than they would be with a macho bearded man doing so.
There is a societal and a narrowly biological understanding of femininity from the cis het perspective. Viewers of TS porn may be confronted to realise that their construct is broader than just narrowly biological. (Those whose construct isn’t will be repulsed by TS porn, and won’t consume it further.) Of course, porn is always about kink, and that’s part of the kink. The kink clearly exists. (It explains where there are almost no “post-op” performers.) But the kink doesn’t do as much as you might think to undermine heterosexuality.
Hence complaints about TS porn adhering to a heteronormative construct of femininity or attractiveness. Hence why there are few performers who don’t look overtly feminine (though non-zero). Hence, if you think about it, why there are relatively few scenes involving mtf women and cis women.
Of course, mtf women are also shows as tops, both of transwomen and of cis men. It’d be interesting to see whether as many cis het men are OK with those depictions: they pose a bit more of a challenge to heteronormativity. But then again, so does pegging.
Elliott Mason brings up the question Does being attracted to transgender women who have penises, or porn involving them, mean a man is gay? This is a rich source of information, in some part because it has been overenthusastically merged.
SEEN: Designated Survivor, Season 1
I resisted watching this. I did not want to watch a show about how the terrorists are out to get us, and the president is some Action Man, and “Kaboom Kablooey Ergo No Habeas Corpus”.
In other words, I have made a point of never seeing 24, and I did not want to watch 24 #2.
I came around through the trailer and the interviews: this was a series that was as much about how someone grows into the responsibilities thrust upon them.
Verdict:
- So well done and tight, it deserves a place in the annals of the Golden Age of Television (which is now). So well done, in fact, I was astonished that it came from Network TV and not Cable.
- Episodes 1–5 were what I hoped for. It was about the growth of new president and those around him. With some annoying sideplot about finding the terrorists, but even that was being handled well.
- The showdowns in Michigan started straining credulity.
- Episodes 6–10 ended up being what I feared: terrorist scare of the week, gradually crowding out the stuff I preferred to see. By the final episode, the president is just some annoying dullard, getting in the way of the thrills and spills cliffhangers.
- I’m not giving up on this at all: it is very good; but I feel let down by where it chose to go. But I guess West Wing #2: The Reboot of Washington D.C. (kaboom) was not fit material for our Age.
Who is Nick Nicholas?
A2A by Michael Masiello, Edward Conway, Jean-Baptiste Bertrand
I can neither confirm nor deny that the following is a depiction of Michael and Edward encouraging me to answer this question:
The brutal history behind some of Parliament’s unusual traditions | Metro News
(And I mean, if it did, then which of Edward and Michael would get to be Justin, and which would get to be Rona Ambrose?)
(Consider your answer carefully, fellas. She likes Ayn Rand.)
Who’s Nick Nicholas, you ask? Why, there have been many renowned bearers of the name Nick Nicholas.
Big Nick Nicholas, for example. Né George Walker Nicholas. Jazz sax legend.
Nick J. Nicholas Jr., former co-chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc.
Nick Nicholas, pioneering anti-spam fighter.
Even in Greek, the Greek Wikipedia has a disambiguation page between the painter Nikos Nikolaou (1909–1986): Panayotis D. Cangelaris – Artist Nicos Nicolaou
(… ok…)
and a now retired Cypriot soccer player (born 1973).
Oh, and then there’s some guy on Quora.
Some guy who now finds himself in a conundrum.
- Arrogant enough that I’ve been planning for months to write a series of blog posts here on who I am, in my various guises—partly as therapy, partly as advertising. And that’s still going to happen, people.
- And yet humble enough that I actually cried when I saw this question. And I will not, NOT be A2A’ing people for what they think of me.
- If, OTOH, any of you should feel like A2A’ing people, well, who am I to stop you.
Who am I? The answers by the others capture a lot of it, and I appreciate them. To my core. I’ll comment on each answer offered, but not yet: I’m still rather overwhelmed.
Here’s my take. And yes, each statement in this decalogue will end up a blog article.
- I’m Greek-Australian.
- I’ve trained as a linguist, and I have done computational linguistics stuff.
- I work in schools IT policy.
- Long history of engagement with artificial languages.
- I’m a middle-aged cishet man, recently married, no kids.
- Loud as a poor coverup for shyness, and with one’s usual share of psychological baggage.
- I play the mandolin badly and the violin worse.
- Politically centre-left blah.
- Culturally Christian but Atheist.
- I post too much here.
EDIT: The Decalogue of Nick by Nick Nicholas on Opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr In Exile
Are there Mafia in Melbourne?
Yes. In fact, Melbourne is a stronghold of the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian Mafia: Honoured Society (Australia). Their main business these days is drugs. They will turn up in the papers maybe once a year.
There was also the spree of Melbourne gangland killings from 1996 to 2010, in which the ’Ndrangheta was only one of six participants. (If only the papers were as clear in their explanations at the time as Wikipedia is now.)
Where should I start with Shostakovich?
Symphonies:
- The 5th is the standard introduction to Shostakovich.
- The 9th is small, but has all the hallmarks of true Shostakovich. It’s how I got started.
- The 7th is populist (rat-tat-tat-tat-tat), but its slow movement is sublime.
The 24 Preludes and Fugues have something for everybody.
How does everyone accept that they are going to die someday and there’s nothing they can do about it?
If you are a believer in a religion with an afterlife, as others have said, you are doing something about it.
If you’re an atheist? You accept it the same way you accept other unpleasant facts about life. Grudgingly and gradually.
When I was in my late 20s, I resented the fact that one day I would be dust. I hoped that non omnis morior. I wanted my linguistics papers laminated and buried in Svalbard.
I actually said that last bit out loud to people.
I accepted, gradually, that one day all that I was and loved and believed in and am part of would be dust. I accepted even that, if we’re not careful as a species, that might be a hell of lot sooner than the heat death of the universe. Maybe even within the century.
You may call it giving up. I prefer to think of it as growing up.
When I was in my early twenties btw, even before I was writing those papers I wanted laminated, I’d hang around this annoying guy. (Philip Newton, he was A in that XYZ and A anecdote about polyamory I wrote once.)
When I mentioned how we’d all die one day, and doesn’t that suck, he’d smirk and say “Speak for yourself.”
God I hated that guy. Don’t be that guy, OP.
The fates have had their revenge on him, for what it’s worth. He’s a middle aged management consultant with blue hair now. Blurgh.
SEEN: The Founder
The Founder (film) – Wikipedia—The Founder (Rotten Tomatoes)—The Founder (2016) (IMDB)
Just seen. Biopic about Ray Kroc and Richard and Maurice McDonald.
Good, well crafted film, I thought. Amazing and subtle performance by Michael Keaton. Susceptible to the cliches and annoyances in plotting of a biopic, including the mandatory flashback setpieces (though the setpiece here was cute). But interestingly amoral, and giving both sides their hearing—and linking both sides to their broader cultural resonances, of small-town decency vs self-made man capitalism.
One or two clueless reviews lamented the fact that we the audience had to join the dots, and work out that Kroc was the villain. Those reviewers are idiots who do not deserve to breathe. The ambivalence of the film towards Kroc is the point. Yes, he’s a nasty piece of work. Yes, he shafted the McDonalds out of their royalties.
But—and I know that by saying this, I really have made my peace with the Market, God and Marx forgive me: I don’t think he was ultimately in the wrong. That is how business really is supposed to be.
What’s your favourite Christmas carol? Why?
I got a related question in my feed a few weeks back. I passed, but I kept thinking I should answer.
Yesterday, Tamar and I had stopped off on the way to a work Xmas BBQ, for her to pick up cheese and for me to pick up caffeine. The shopping centre blasts out Christmas songs, which is… regrettable. Especially because it’s on the open street.
And suddenly, this strange Anglo-Latin twang came across from the speakers:
Gowdaytay gowdaytay kristoos est nahtus, day mareeeeah virgin-ay gowdaytay
It was horrid. I was going to banter at the café “I like Latin, and that ain’t Latin”, but the staff already knew to ignore my bizarre remarks, so I didn’t bother.
But I was intrigued, so I went on to YouTube.
What I’d heard was the Steeleye Dan (EDIT: Steeleye Span) version of Gaudete. Rocking it like it’s 1582.
And herewith, the first version I found after Steeleye Dan’s, that I actually liked:
The jaunty syncopation, the modality (pity about that musica ficta leading note), the stern verse: it is pretty awesome. I was playing different recordings from YouTube all the way to the BBQ.
Whatever you do, don’t listen to the Erasure remix; jaunty syncopation tends not to work too well with an unimaginative drum machine:
Btw, I’m a Bah Humbug kinda guy, but to all of you here, whether Jesus of Nazareth was to you God or a Prophet or a Deceiver or a Crazy Hippy: my Season’s Greetings to you. May you find some joy over the next few weeks—and hold on to it.
What are the funniest nicknames you’ve been given over the years?
In the order that I recall then:
The delightful Australianism Nicko: only once from a blokey geography teacher.
Acka Nicka in my local high school (where I mercifully only stayed a year), because of my premature acne.
Nick Squared in my elective high school, because Nick Nicholas.
NSN as an undergraduate, because I used to use my patronymic as a middle name, so that was the email address I was allocated.
The Minoan Genius in postgrad by a fellow historical linguist, because we came across the phrase once in some crackpot Basque interpretation of the Phaistos disc, and I’m from Crete.
Not nicknames as such, but I appreciate it when Greeks call me Nikóla or Nikolí, which are familiar forms of Nick. Conversely, I resent the hell out of it when they call me Nik. Am I speaking in English to you? No? Then it’s Nikos. Damnit.
I nickname people obsessively here, but I don’t think I’ve gotten one in return. Be careful what you wish for, I guess…
EDIT: Philip Newton reminds me of opoudjis, on which see Nick Nicholas’ answer to How did you get your nickname? I don’t even think of that as a nickname, but that is how it got started.
What were the long-range effects of Nixon’s foreign policy?
The world was blessed, that a US president should take so much interest in foreign policy, and stake his posterity on it. The world was cursed, that Nixon was that president, and he squandered so much of his foreign policy on political point-scoring.
From my reading:
- His biggest legacy was opening up China, and he knew it. The rest of his legacy… mpf.
- He was stuck with Vietnam, and it was a quagmire: the more frantically he tried to pull himself out (including by invading several other countries, threatening to drop the big one, and dropping all sorts of ordnance anyway), the more stuck he got. Long-range effect: the US deterrent floundered, and Cambodia succumbed with nary a word. But it’s not clear how that outcome could have been averted anyway.
- The Detente with the Soviet Union was more a gesture than a real breakthrough, and the SALT treaties achieved little—especially because Nixon kept undermining Gerard Smith, the chief negotiator who was trying to do his job. But at least things didn’t escalate when they could have. Some have argued that Detente artificially extended the lifetime of the Soviet Union by a decade; but the Soviet Union’s demise would have been much messier a decade earlier.
- Allende may or may not have been overthrown anyway without the US’ connivance, and the massacres in Bangladesh weren’t incited by Nixon personally. But the insensitivity with which Nixon & Kissinger handled Chile, Bangladesh, and any number of other crises squandered the moral authority the US had (and it did have it back then).
- Nixon was out to lunch by the time of the Yom Kippur War, because of Watergate: Kissinger had to handle it on his own. Kissinger, it has not be said, did as best as he could in the circumstances, and whatever mess there has been in Israel before and since can’t be laid at Kissinger’s feet: it long predates him.