Ye Olden Porn:Vintage Gay Erotica

Wolf Mendelsohn explores some sites that specialize in archiving gay erotica from the past.

Many people are surprised to learn that gay erotica and pornography are not modern inventions and that they have existed for centuries. Over the years, societal values and ideals may change – but human romantic love and sexuality have remained surprisingly consistent. Luckily, quite a few examples of vintage gay erotica have survived and each year more examples are beginning to surface. This month we’ll check out some websites dedicated specifically to vintage gay erotica from the past.

Gay Erotica From the 1960’s, 1970’s, & 1980’s
Mass market gay pornography is a relatively new development. At sites like BijouGayPorn you can check out a large collection of home movies and underground 8mm gay films from the 1960’s, as well as gay porn videos from the 1970’s and 1980’s. It’s one thing to read about men visiting gay adult theaters back in the 1970’s, but it’s another thing altogether to be able to actually screen the videos that were being played at the time. Gay porn videos from the 1970’s sometimes lack the high quality and modern editing style of today’s pornography, but these films can often be like cultural time capsules that give us a rare glimpse into the past.

Gay Erotica From the 1950’s and Earlier
There are occasional gay film reels from the fifties that surface, but before that most gay pornography and erotica was photographic in nature. During the past decade, quite a few blogs and Tumblr sites such as Victorian Gentlemen In Love have been archiving examples of gay erotica from previous eras. Recently, that blog published an amazing photograph from the early twentieth century (allegedly from France) which depicts a 16-man orgy that looks just as hot and crazy as any of the orgy scenes that Bel Ami has filmed in recent years. It seems safe to say that there isn’t anything happening in today’s gay porn videos that wasn’t being done 100 or even 500 years ago.

Some other great sites dedicated to vintage gay erotica include:

• The curiously titled That-Suicide-Is-Painless
• VintageMaleErotica
• VintageGaySmut
• Antique-Erotic
• VintageGayMen

Other Records Of Gay Love And Passion
Author Ric Norton has written many books on LGBTQ history and his website at RictorNorton.co.uk contains an amazing collection of his essays. In addition, the site offers information about his books and a wonderful collection of primary documents, bibliographies, and useful links to other websites about LGBTQ history.

If you’d like to get a more intimate look at the love lives of men from the past, we highly recommend Norton’s book My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries. The book includes the love letters exchanged by dozens of male lovers during different time periods and in different societies. The love letters go back as far as ca. 139 and stretch all the way to the 1960’s and include famous figures as well as everyday men.

If you enjoy the art of vintage pulp fiction novels, you might also get a kick out of the over-the-top covers from old gay pulp novels. You can check out some nice examples at the Homo History site.