The biggest homosexual truism in gay porn is the father/son dynamic; i.e. older actors paired with younger newbies. In the gay world, I found this phenomena to be equally pervasive, as impressionable and somewhat inexperienced boys enter the lifestyle and are then initiated by their older counterparts. As a kid, entering the Castro, back in the late-1980s, you had to instinctively maneuver through a mind-field of older and aggressive gay men who tried to persuade you into doing the most bizarre and kinky sex-acts. As it was also the near-height of the AIDS crisis, I often felt like I was dodging and running away from diseased and monstrous zombie lepers. It was as if they wanted to give me the kiss of death in a sick hope to somehow preserve their own fading lives. I would resist them for years. Eventually, I decided to give-in. And then, years later, I became one of the vampiristic corrupters.
What brought all this to my mind was a report concerning a relationship between 70-year old designer Calvin Klein and his 23-year old ex-porn star boyfriend. Klein has always had a penchant for the sexualization of youth, ever since he became famous for the pedophilia-chic commercials starring a very young Brooke Shields. No one who lived through the late-1970s to early 80s could ever underestimate the power of those adds. I remember stopping everything, while watching TV, when they popped-up between programs. Decades later, like an aging vampire, he is still latching on to a youthful icon. Of course, this is not the sole domain of homosexuals, as older men often partner with younger beautiful girls: Hugh Hefner and his minions, Anna-Nicole Smith, and Courtney Stodden. But, here the dynamic is different: as the older male usually comes off looking even more elderly and desperate. In gay couplings, the younger man usually reemerges from the relationship: prematurely aged and drained. It makes them bitter and lonely. It perpetuates itself, as later on, the abused becomes the abuser.