Arnold Zwicky's Blog

(The TitanMen TaXXX Day special offer ad for this year is heavy with massive erections from the 2017 gay porn flick Taxxx, so that’s off on AZBlogX. What’s here is packed with crude language about men’s bodies and mansex, definitely not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)

The DVD cover, just barely penis-free, for Taxxx:

(#1) left: Matthew Bosch, middle: Liam Knox, right: Alex Mecum (the ad photo has these individual images, but in the order Mecum, Bosch, Knox)

If you’re jacking off, I’ll tax your meat,
If you like getting fucked, I’ll tax your seat

And the cover for its predecessor, 2016’s The Taxman Cumeth:

(#2) left: Adam Ramzi, right: David Benjamin

If you hustle studs, I’ll tax your receipts,
If you’re doing it in the bushes, I’ll tax your mesquite

Three things then: the facial expressions in these photos, especially the smiles; the content of the two flicks; and the Beatles song “Taxman” parodied above:

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.

Facework 1: display shots vs. action shots. Publicity photos for gay porn come in two basic varieties: the pornstars displaying themselves to the audience (display shots) and the pornstars engaging in sex for the audience (action shots). Both are carefully posed, even the action shots.

Display shots are most often frontal displays — though the rear display is also popular, because it showcases the model’s buttocks. (And see my 12/29/18 posting “The side display”.) In any case, the model’s face is as important as his package and his butt — because we are facially oriented creatures and because the porn companies are marketing specific pornstars, and their faces serve as symbols of their porn personas.

In a display shot, the actor’s gaze is most often forward, locked with his audience — though other gaze directions do occur, especially the gaze downward (which I’ve posted several times on this blog).

Finally, in a display shot, the actor is most often smiling, establishing a rapport with his audience (in a Good Buddy presentation). In contrast, in action shots the participants most often present themselves either as Men at Work, serious Craftsmen; or as Ecstatics, unhinged with pleasure. (There are other possibilities; see the links in the “Facial expressions in mansex” Page on this blog.)

DVD covers mostly use display shots rather than action shots — usually, display shots engineered so that no cocks or balls are visible. That allows the DVDs to be publicly visible; the back covers will usually have an array of X-rated display shots of the actors and (X-rated) action shots, to show the serious prospective buyer what he can get.

#1 and #2 are typical DVD front covers for gay porn, complete with smiles from everyone. Contrast these presentations with the action shots released for Taxxx, all of which have the pornstars, in character, doing either Craftsman or Ecstatic. Two examples, with the dicks cropped out or fuzzed over:

(#3) Two Men at Work: Bennett Anthony fucked by Liam Knox

(#4) Craftsman does Ecstatic: Eddy Cee Tee fucks Alex Mecum

(Side note: in action shots, there’s a tension between naturalism, in a photo that looks like it was just caught on the fly; and (artistic) composition, in a photo that has the bodies aligned in formally satisfying arrangements. On the naturalism side in #3, on the composition side in #4 (though at least one Ecstatic definitely loosens up a formal composition).)

Facework 2: smiles. #1  shows some of the range of what you can do with your mouth in smiling: All three men exhibit the primary physical gesture of smiling, a contraction of the muscles at the corners of the mouth, causing the corners to rise a bit. That’s pretty much all of the oral action in Matthew Bosch’s smile in #1. His lips are closed. Liam Knox’s lips are somewhat open, Alex Mecum’s even more so, producing a “broad smile”. (Mecum’s ecstatic grimace in #4 is even broader.)

(The broadness of a smile is often taken to be an indicator of the degree of the emotion expressed by smiling: pleasure, happiness, amusement, whatever. Simple-smile emoji 🙂, broad-smile emoji 😀 .)

Other relevant oral dimensions: extent of corner-raising, taken to an extreme in the conventionalized smiley —

(#5)

and lip-rounding (to various degrees) and lip-spreading or -widening (to various degrees). Rounding and spreading are antagonistic gestures. A very broad smile with rounding gives an extravagant version of the O-face (or cum-face), as here (source not identified):

(#6)

On the other hand, spreading a simple smile gives the “surfer smile”, seen here on Australian surfer Owen Wright:

(#7)

The Wikipedia article on smiles introduces another dimension of smiling, very much relevant to #1 and #2:

A smile is formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Smiles performed without the eye contraction may be perceived as insincere.

Among humans, smiling is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, joy or amusement. It is distinct from a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace.

… While conducting research on the physiology of facial expressions in the mid-19th century, French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne identified two distinct types of smiles. A Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which raises the cheeks and forms crow’s feet around the eyes). The Duchenne smile has been described as “smizing”, as in “smiling with the eyes”.

From my 10/13/15 posting “Numb3rs and a soap-opera-handsome hunk”:

(In this photo, Vilasuso isn’t quite smiling with his mouth, but he’s definitely “smiling with his eyes” — appparently known as smizing in some circles. The verb smize is of course a portmanteau of smile and eyes.)

(The term smizing might have been introduced by supermodel Tyra Banks on America’s Top Models; certainly she popularized it.)

Previous notice on this blog of smiling with the eyes in gay porn:

— on 2/14/17 “Sex and smiles for VDay”

— on 2/15/19 “From the files of facial expressions in gay porn”

Now, everybody in #1  and #2 is sporting a nice Duchenne smile. So that you can separate the optic effects from the oral effects, I’ve cropped out the eyes in the two photos:

(#8) The eyes of #1

(#9) The eyes of #2

All could be identified as smiling, just from these bits of their faces. David Benjamin in #2, with his strong Duchenne eyes and his fairly broad and fairly spread mouth, comes across as especially warm.

Here’s Benjamin in a photo from his own portfolio, showing that smile:

(#9) Striking hazel eyes, half-Latino (his father is Guatemalan), 7″ cut, versatile, gives good interview

Movie guide. Gay porn scenes can be set in the most unlikely circumstances, but one recurring setting involves situations where there’s a power imbalance between men: the more powerful man imposes himself on the less powerful, or the less powerful  seduces the more powerful, or the less powerful turns the tables. The IRS agent and the (possibly errant) taxpayer fits the format nicely.

TitanMen descriptions for the two flicks. First for the one in the mailer, Taxxx (2017), three scenes, very briefly described (with, of course, verbal sexplay):

The agents are back, and they’re ready to bust your balls. The only way out of this TaXXXing situation is to unzip a big out-of-pocket contribution. Watch what happens when TitanMen exclusives Matthew Bosch, Eddy CeeTee and Liam Knox show some personal interest in their jobs.

Taxman Matthew Bosch works out a deal with deduction abuser Jason Vario, the two deepthroating each other’s uncut monsters before Matthew gets his furry ass inspected.

Stressed out Alex Mecum needs a break from his forms, and gym-fresh Eddy CeeTee is happy to donate his dick to the cause.

Agent Liam Knox catches “massage therapist” Bennett Anthony in a big fat lie, then blackmails him with his big fat dick.

Then for the previous film, The Taxman Cumeth (2016). Here the TitanMen description is long and detailed, pretty close to an act-by-act account, The long form is in the AZBlogX posting on these flicks; here’s my short form:

He’s got a personal interest in you. He means business. And he’s going to audit your ass [note your ass ‘you’] if you withhold from him. He’s the tax man, always ready to whip out a penalty for early withdrawal. Join these men as the taxman cumeth and they collect on their dirty debts.

Tex Davidson [confronted by] agent Eric Nero, conducting an inspection for a home office deduction.

SF Titans baseball coach and former star player Diesel Washington gets a visit from his accountant David Benjamin, who’s nervous about income his client wants him to ignore.

Stroking his bushy meat, Nick Prescott gets interrupted by bearded agent Adam Ramzi, who needs to do a home office inspection. “Most home offices don’t have a bed in them,” says the skeptical taxman.

The Beatles and their “Taxman”.  From Wikipedia:

(#10)

“Taxman” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles and released as the opening track on their 1966 album Revolver. Written by the group’s lead guitarist George Harrison, its lyrics attack the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson.

Harrison said, “‘Taxman’ was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical.” As their earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, the Beatles were liable to a 95% supertax introduced by Harold Wilson’s Labour government (hence the lyrics “There’s one for you, nineteen for me”, referring to the pre-decimal pound sterling which consisted of twenty shillings).

Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more

 

This entry was posted on April 14, 2019 at 11:43 am and is filed under Facial expression, Gay porn, Gaze, Gender and sexuality, Music, Parody, Portmanteaus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.