Porno Paradox

Sex Oddity? - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
Caution: Today’s blog entry is fairly explicit and covers an adult topic (albeit an unusual topic). Proceed at your own risk! 

Buck Angel is a 42 year old man who might provoke no interest or curiosity were you to see him on the street. He has a shaved head, reddish beard, tattoos, and a compact, muscular build. You might figure he has an “alternative” life style due to a pierced nipple and profuse body ink, but you wouldn’t guess that he’s a star of adult videos. He’s even brought home several awards including one for “Most Outrageous Scene”.

Want some more surprises? Buck is a genetic female and still has a vagina. He underwent top reassignment to remove his breasts in 1992, but explains that a prosthetic penis would be unsatisfactory for his purposes. He considers himself to be a man in every sense and sees his clitoris (abnormally enlarged by years of testosterone injections) as a surrogate penis. Buck is married to a heterosexual female, Elayne, a nationally known body piercing expert. They live happily together in a Spanish style, middle income neighborhood – in a house with a pool and 5 dogs.

Buck grew up in a normal home – with an outdoorsy father, a mom and a sister. His father played football with Buck and liked having a tomboy daughter. Buck’s dad later had trouble accepting Buck as a transgender and faulted himself for playing so many rough-and-tumble games with Buck when Buck was young. (More recently, Buck said that this was nonsense – the football games were not a relevant factor in his gender identity). As a teen, Buck came out as a gay woman to his parents – but his gender odyssey was just beginning.

Buck was actually a pretty 19 year old woman and had a brief (2 year) modeling career as a glam, beautiful woman. He spiraled into drug and alcohol abuse during this phase. The modeling only created an internal schism and made Buck hate himself more – enough so that he started cutting himself. The substance abuse took Buck to another phase where he was unemployed and lived on the street.

Literally lying in the gutter, Buck decided to address his gender crisis by coming out as a transgender man. He quit drinking and simultaneously underwent breast removal. The rest of his story is like a really strange Horatio Alger success story. He became a porno icon – known as “the man with a pussy”. He’s acted with men and women. He’s also broadened his domain into public service and transgender counseling. He has appeared on TV Shows (eg, Tyra) and was also a panelist on Sex Week at Yale University.

I have to say I was reluctant to watch Mr. Angel – the documentary of his life. I was certain to be horrified by what was “down there” among other things. Buck’s voice is a little bit high for a man, but not so much that he can’t still pass as a man. His eyes are larger and more expressive than a macho man would normally have, but again it’s something fairly minor. If you saw him on the street, you’d think nothing about it and assume he was a man. Of course -- it would be another story at a nude beach.

I was somewhat flummoxed years ago when Cher’s daughter Chastity went from a pretty blonde to a stocky, portly Italiano man. It seems like an extreme measure to take one’s body to a “chop shop”. Even more extreme to do like Buck and step from there into porn. I won’t pretend to have the answers or know the wherefores. To borrow from the Kink’s song Lola, it’s a mixed up world. If you want to see how mixed it can all be, watch Mr. Angel on Netflix. You might not change your mind about anything, but you’ll have expanded your awareness of what can possibly occur in our mixed up world.


© 2014 Snillor Productions