Out.com just featured a very interesting and important article on self- and media- images of gay Asian men, and prominently featured PeterFever star Damian Dragon. Here’s what they had to say about their conversation with him:
The LA-based Canadian-born pornstar Damian Dragon, who’s part Northern Indian, Japanese, and South Pacific Islander, has experienced similar assumptions. Growing up in the ’90s, he identified exclusively as a bottom, spurred in part by mostly white partners who expected him to be “more into the servitude of them, rather than being pleasured myself,” he says. “I just sort of fell into those roles, until I realized that I wasn’t comfortable in those roles and then kind of evolved into topping more. It’s a lot of fun to see life from both sides and be able to flip back and forth and have that fluidity.”
On screen, with his shaved head and tattoo-adorned body, the 48-year-old cuts a domineering figure. On PeterFever, he’s often cast as a top. The studio’s mission was a big reason he returned to the industry last year, after taking a nearly decade-long hiatus. In 2009, he says “it was hard for me to connect as an Asian man with people who were filming porn at that time. I didn’t feel like I found my place. It was a little bit disparaging.”
The way he sees it, there’s a long way to go, but he’s noticed a perceptible shift in the industry within the last few years towards diversifying mainstream depictions of gay Asian roles. And audiences are responding.
“I didn’t really realize how much of an affect I had on other Asian men until I started working with PeterFever,” he says. “They have a very large Asian base of viewers and I started getting notes via various social media from all over the world just thanking me for not portraying the stereotypical Asian man in the gay porn industry. It really meant something to me, that I am doing something in my own small way to help them see something within themselves.”
Despite his apprehensions, he re-entered the industry with a renewed intention. “I knew I wanted to portray Asian men who are gay in a really positive, strong sexual light,” he says, “especially when not a lot of Asian men feel that way.”
https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2018/12/17/how-tumblr-porn-let-gay-asian-men-be-more-fetish
This is just part of the opinion “think piece”, and we can’t recommend it highly enough. Support Out.com and read the full article there.
