Mr. Man – Explicit Masturbation in Mainstream Movies (201X)

On the one hand: this is a v. poorly titled super clip–I am familiar with about a third of these scenes but none of them are from mainstream movies. (Ken Park and Shortbus are as close as you’re likely to get to mainstream and they were niche, art house hits at most.)

On the other hand: with mainstream releases continually pushing the envelope on what it’s possible to depict w/r/t sexual exchanges in movies, it is nice to see work which includes explicit masturbation as a valid mode of sexual expression.

That these scenes exist at all is a pleasant and radical corrective to the heteronormalized dude meets lady character–the latter who exists with little more depth than straight up eye candy or some sort of motivational force for the male protagonist’s redemption arc. (Further it challenges the prevailing notion that if there is full frontal nudity, it will favor boobs and bush but exclude penii.)

Yet this also–queerly, in my mind–presents masturbation as an act on a spectrum ranging from decadent self-pleasure to something that is complimentary to interpersonal sexual expression, i.e. the scenes where folks masturbate as a group, or for a consenting audience or as a way of ersatz participation in an orgy setting.

In other words: there is this notion that masturbation is what one does when sex is not available. But this presents masturbation as just another (infinitely varied) form of sexual expression–and that is something that resonates strongly for me.