Hello and welcome to my little rant in defence of fetish content containing violent masculinity play and violent masculinisation. If you take issue with any of this, please try to first get your stress-response deactivated and sort out your thoughts and feeling in, for example, a scrapbook before getting into fights in reblogs and comments.
(Also, I mean the ACTUAL porn category and fetish, not the mood boards and "become the man your heart longs to be" inspiration "porn" slapped onto classic art pieces, I'll explicitly not be talking about those. For input on that refer to this prior post I made)
TW for homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, gender based/patriarchal violence against men, gender play, and the politics of queer fetish/kink.
"There is no systemic compulsion or force to adhere to masculinity irl, so there is nothing tangible to fetishize."
What is the function of institutions like gender segregated boarding schools, boy scouts, Sport camp, Box club, Wrestling club, boot camp, mandatory military service for men and most infamously ex-gay-men conversion?
What is the purpose of phrases like "You are a man, act like it", "Don't be a wimp!", "Go get your mop of hair cut before I shave it off!"?
Those are examples of compulsion and societal force to perform masculinity, and to do it "correctly" under threat of violence.
Jumping off that: If there is no force to be masculine, why are gay and GNC men so regularly targeted by other men trying to force them into "proper" masculinity, making them victims to very real violence and hate crimes. (And reducing all homophobic, patriarchal and transphobic violence against queer men down to "misogyny", is not the answer to that unless your last name is Dworkin or McKinnon or you understood both cisheteropatriarchy and intersectionality in a fundamentally different way than I did.)
"It doesn't do anything to subvert cisheretopatriarcy. It's just your normal "men being men". Nothing revolutionary about it."
But are gay, queer and GNC men, and trans masculine people really "just men being men", are they even "real" men by cisheretopatriarcies standard? So isn't "non-real"/"abnormal" men claiming manhood for themselves kinda subversive? Kinda queer?
For gay and gender non-conforming cis-men, playing with these expressions of (toxic and violent) masculinisation is reclaiming a violent force to conform that was imposed on them from childhood, but doing so on their terms.
To trans-men/mascs and butch women who have been violently emasculated and been denied their truth all their lives, playing with the violence and societal pressure that other "men" have experienced, is affirming and claiming something that is "theirs" and a reversal and polar opposite of the forced emasculation and feminisation they got from birth, but once again on their terms and consensually.
"The posts are either walls of text, or are all weird, vague and non-stimulating pictures. So boring."
1 That's your personal taste in kink or fetish content, not a proper criticism of genre, Fetish content doesn't have to appeal to you in order to exist. Soft-core sides exist to every fetish out there. It doesn't have to be graphic to be a turn on for some.
2 Also, maybe you are just looking in the wrong places. Tumblr still bans anything needles, nipples and nudes. I personally recommend looking on other sites for the more dicey and dark image based stuff. On here it's mostly insider stuff (not tagged, hidden accounts, speak easy style and in the style of old porn zines), there are quite a few medical coercion, mind break and boot camp indoctrination style creators out here for text based content, but they tend to stay hidden, for obvious reasons. (Many also migrated to BDSMlr, twitter, mastodon, and other platforms after the porn ban)
3 (I guess I WILL be talking about what I would call the mood board mishap mislabelling and babyboy-ification of the fetish on here) I personally also think a lot of publicity visible Tumblr "forced" masculinization play content is NOT actually intended as kink/fetish content, actual porn or even as erotic, it's mostly young 18/19/20 or even underage trans boys/men/mascs expressing an aesthetic that they "mislabelled" as "force masc", for whatever reason, maybe they stumbled across the soft core side of it found it appealing, and then just ran with the label into the opposite direction. Or they want to claim that aforementioned societal pressure to conform, but without eroticizing or caricaturing it. Same for "boyhypno", (considering I know that genre to be mostly about erotic hypnosis, petplay, leather, rubber, abdl and servitude). Do I think it is slightly strange that they named their inspo stuff after a porn genre and hardcore fetish? Yes. Do I think they are treating a fine line between experimenting with masculinity and uncritically reproducing cis-male power fantasies but for themselves? Yes. Is it in my rights or even a "moral obligation" to shame or humiliate a bunch of U21s for making strange tagging choices, spamming a hardcore fetish with (at best) soft core content or "doing stupid shit and having questionable "opinions" that cis boys would be pulling around the same age and would not be catching this much vitriol for"? No. I'll just block the guys that are "cross/miss tagging" their poems and inspirational quotes as porn or are trying to play the "not all men" or "being misogynist is gender-affirming"-BS, especially when they are underage. Some of them even explicitly say that they are "safe for work"/"non-fetishistic" and are very obviously new to or not into BDSM and Fetish in general, so all of that's a pretty dead giveaway. I hope they will at some point learn what the word actually means, but until then I guess I'm sharing tumblrs gender play kink tags with "masculinity-core" aesthetic blogs and transgender "dudebros", cause I sure don't have the energy to educate every single trans masculine young adult on here on not labelling their aesthetic experimenting, social commentary, inspiration porn and ventures into (neo)classic art or hard rock as an established porn and fetish genre or that becoming the ignorant prick might feel liberatory to themselves but is certainly not "trans liberation".
"I don't want to be a man! That's gross!"
YKINMKATOK. If it don't apply, let it fly. Why do you feel the need to announce and degrade another person's fetish when it does not appeal to you? Why are you going through the tag? Use your energy for something that actually serves you. I dislike a lot of stuff too, I got the tags blocked and stay on my side of the ballpit.
"It's stolen/appropriated from transwomen and forcefem!"
Is Fetish/kink is inherent/acquired or "consciously chosen"? Can something be stolen when it's not chosen?
Especially since both fetishes predate the rise of the internet by decades. I for my part don't entirely know why it "boomed" in recent years on here (and that weird "inspo" direction it took) though, as for me it's mostly been on platforms or offline. Edit, I have learned, that a transfem user (I'm not sure if I should tag xem or not, I don't want to bother xem) sorta accidentally revived this section of the gender play scene on Tumblr by starting the forcemasc tag here, although xer idea was far more on the gentle dominance and softcore encouragement side, which is fair, and also xer posts about it are quite good so if recommend checking xer out, and maybe (if you have the financial means) supporting xer on xer linked platforms. This also explains where that particular tag comes from because I knew it mostly as masculinization play, gender play, and transition play from fetlife, grindr and other platforms. Also explains the "stolen from transfem" situation that boggled me from the start. So I gotta admit: Yep guys, that tag **WE** (as in GNC/transmasc/gay man Tumblr) have actually misappropriated and ran off with in a direction that might have already been around but not under that name. So a little history/parallel evolution/reinventing the wheel lesson on that end. And big apologies to the trans women and femmes that got caught up in that mess.)
"It's super new and just a trend"
The gay scene of the 1960s and after would beg to differ. Literally, just ask an older gay or trans man about masculinisation/gender play. Or go look at some old gay military-kink porn. The drill sergeant "There are two types of men. Men and fags/boys, I'm gonna make you one or the other, your choice" type stuff or the "I know that you truly are a boy/man, even if you deny it, and I will drag it out of you by force, if necessary" that is a big trope in older porn zines for gay trans-men.
Again the "new and trendy" side that is mostly taking the name "force masc" and slapping it on an aesthetic whithout any sort of (even just implied) criticism or interrogation, kind of miffs me too, but they'll learn at some point. At the latest, when they go to an event and instead of pictures and vibes they get leather daddies, boot blacking and whipping workshops.
"It's a problematic iteration and reproduction of toxic masculinity and glorification of patriarchy!"
I'd say it's more leaning towards subverting, queering and perverting toxic masculinity, because it shows how (toxic) masculinity and patriarchy is something one is forced into. And eroticising that. In most gender play men/masculine people are both perpetrators and victims, the drill sergeant and the cadet, the experienced man and the boy. That's not how patriarchy wants people to view and understand masculinity. It's a mirror of what it truly is, but it's an uncomfortable truth for most. Boys are bullied into becoming men. The first step to becoming the "patriarch"/the top dog is being relentlessly tormented. The structure of patriarchy does not "want" that to be a known fact. (how much and unthinking, societal structure inside a hivemind can "want" anything)
There are certainly those that do this active and conscious criticism and questioning insufficently or not at all. And that whether ignorantly or maliciously think their privileges are not reflected in how they participate in this play. Especally those leaning into a more militarized or even totalitarian direction of the fetish. And those "playing" with deeply problematic aspects of those things quite often are guilty of this. "It's not a fashist dogwhisstle if its a fetish thing" comes to mind.
Once again the "mood board" side is a bit more complicated, because it doesn't do that active subversion, it mostly is a 1:1 reproduction and wishing for that violence inherent in masculinity for the purpose of "claiming something that should have been". THAT is something that can and should be criticised. But again, since this sub/sidegroup is mostly young adults experimenting and being vulnerable in their expression, needs and wishes, any criticism has to be quite careful, because we all know that teens don't learn or change their behaviour, when faced with what they perceive as rejection, judgement or shaming. So that's something that needs doing, but it needs doing by people with patience and energy to deal with adolescents and their needs.
"Only weird trans-mascs and "theyfabs" like it."/"It's tboy cringe"
What makes (trans/queer) masculine/neural expression of sexuality and fetish so "weird" or "cringe"? Also, again, the queer, gnc, gay and trans men, at least those that survived the aids crisis, in retirement homes would like a word.
If it's about the teenagers and their aesthetics, guess what? Teenagers will do embarrassing and "cringe" things, that's just what happens when you have big emotions, complex thoughts and free internet access without the corresponding impulse control, big picture consequence/risk awareness and abstraction ability/critical literacy skills. So maybe quit being an ageist troll and don't bully "cringey young adults".
You are also flinging "stop having interests/sexual thoughts I don't approve of, it's cringe" at a group of people that have spent their childhood and teens being bullied and ridiculed for whatever interest or sexual fantasy they pick up. (Girls and those assigned as such, are incredibly shamed for their hobbies, interests and likes, no matter what they do from toddlerhood onwards, be they too girly or too tomboyish, so maybe them getting pissed about seeing others reproduce that but then denying that they do because "trans men are men, exactly like cis men, and cis men don't experience sexism, and don't get misogyny treatment, that applies to trans men too" is not them being "whiny man babies", but them being sensitive and over-aware of specific types of mistreatment towards them, (especially when it's used by cisgay women/men to "punish" them for perceived "gender treachery"/"invasion of gay spaces")
"I just don't like it"
Again. No problem. Just don't make up reasons like the ones above for why you don't like it. You don't need a "political" or "moral" reason to like or dislike something. Needing reasons are for actions, not likes/dislikes.
closing words:
Forced masculinization/transition play as a form of more violent gender-expression-play can and should be considered a subset of discrimination/supremacy play and should also be treated as such, including but not limited to necessitating a constant internal evaluation and criticism of how we both as individuals and as a community are participating in it and a certain attitude of "Even if I personally do not want anything to do with, and I see a lot of elements that can be problematic about it, I understand how it can be a tool of liberation for others affected by that real world experience", that big parts of the self-critical part of the fetish community already adopted or at leat in part attempted to.
So, I hope I didn't step on anyone's toes (too hard). And gave a somewhat coherent defence of the porn genre and maybe an explanation of why it's slightly "wonky" here on Tumblr.
PS upon second read I realize that I used way to many "big words" and this text isn't exactly accessible. So I'll try to write a changed version that should be a little more easy, or I do a explaining of the difficult words I'll see once I've slept a bit.