(A number of gay pornstars, but no man-man sex and just a bit about male bodies, so somewhat racy but probably not a danger for kids or the sexually modest.)
I start with a gay pornstar whose performances I enjoy, for several reason: Tommy Defendi shown here in a porn publicity shot (back on 7/23/11, he was featured in flagrante in an AZBlogX posting):
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Here I’m primarily focused on faces and evaluative judgments of them. Defendi’s face is certainly attractive; he’s a good-looking man, but the question is: in what category of masculine attractiveness? And what label to apply to it? — at the high-masculine end, ruggedly handsome or just rugged; or handsome; or beautiful; or cute; or at the low-masculine end, boyishly cute or just boyish. I’d label him cute, along with some other pornstars, some male models, and a fair number of mainstream actors (all men whose livelihood depends of their faces and their bodies, among other things).
To come: very brief notes on Defendi. Comments on categories and labels in the domain of male attractiveness. Further examples of cute gay pornstars, of a variety of types. And a note on cute male actors outside of porn, notably Matt Damon.
Tommy Defendi. I took special notice of Defendi while assembling categories of my gay porn DVDs, in particular a large collection of “best of” compilations; there’s one for him, which I viewed again, with pleasure, a few days ago.
The Lucas Entertainment site says, in its sketch for Defendi, that he’s 6′ 1″ tall with a 9.5″ cut penis (those are porn inches; the figures are notoriously inflated), but it doesn’t mention that he has a notably thick penis. The main text says, probably with some inventive embroidery, that
Tommy Defendi is a demolition worker in Florida. He’s also a straight top, and likes sports and working out. His favorite part of sex is the intimacy.
He might indeed be straight, but in his sex scenes he’s amiable and enthusiastic, often puckish. He does seem to be primarily a top, but by no means exclusively.
His face has some of the characteristics of “beautiful” male faces: heart shape, big eyes, lovely long eyelashes. I’m not quite sure what moves him into cuteness rather than beauty for me. (But see my “Male beauty” posting of 3/10/16.)
Notes on categories and labels. First note: these categorizations and their associated labels are very much bound to social circumstances. I’m reporting on my own usages here (as a white middle-class American); many speakers do not share my system. In addition, the usages are those primarily of (straight) women and gay men: straight men are inclined to see one big category in the domain of male attractiveness, a category many of them label good-looking. (Many straight men are uncomfortable indeed about referring to another man even as handsome, and certainly not as beautiful or cute.)
Second note: evaluations of facial attractiveness are very much influenced by factors beyond those in a static face shot. The rest of a man’s body — his body type, musculature, and so on — figures very much in how the man is seen. Even more so, the play of expressions on a man’s face, his gestures, and other dynamic factors influence people’s judgments very strongly. Defendi is cute in repose, but it’s even more of a pleasure to see him move.
Some other cute pornstars. Defendi is roughly in the middle of a scale that runs from ruggedness at one end to boyishness at the other.
Also in this range is Dean Flynn, who’s gotten a lot of press on AZBlogX. See my 11/15/10 posting in particular. Here he is displaying himself (photo cropped at the waist):
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And Danny Vox (an uberbottom; Defendi is mostly a top, Flynn is famously versatile), seen here once smiling and once more serious:
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Then on the boyish side, close to twinkhood, Christopher Ash (posted about here on 6/8/15:
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And on the rugged end, Dario Beck (posted about on AZBlogX, with writeup, on 11/4/11):
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Beck tends to bearishness, and someimes presents himself as a relatively lean, very hairy bear (an otter on steroids?).
Mainstream bonus. Quite a few mainstream actors fall into the CUTE category. Cute, beautiful, and handsome actors supply lead roles in romantic comedies; casting a plain man, a decidedly boyish man, or an aggressively rugged man as a romcom lead is certainly possible, and does happen, but that’s casting against type.
One of the Kings of Cute in the mainstream movie world is the versatile actor Matt Damon, who somehow has failed to appear before on this blog. Extremely brief version of his Wikipedia entry:
Matthew Paige “Matt” Damon (… born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer and screenwriter. He is ranked among Forbes magazine’s most bankable stars, and is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
… He came to prominence in 1997 when he wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck
Damon as young and cute in Good Will Hunting:
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And older, more recently, but still cute:
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