When I spotted this S&M book in a Nakano shop, it was
wedged between a back issue of BeBoy and a Hoshin Engi doujishi anthology.
Pure curiosity struck me then, simply because I had never seen a Male-Male
magazine by men, for men. I also hold a deep-seated hatred for whoever
perpetrated the words, "yaoi is gay porn". As I stood in the
bookshop staring at the cover admiring the nice knot job, I decided to buy the
book just to see what the difference is between S&M porn for guys and the
S&M Yaoi I was used to. Before you read on, please bear in mind that my
assessment of S&M gay porn was is solely based on this one magazine. I do
not know what "normal" gay porn looks like, and after looking through
this book, I dare not venture out of Yaoi-Land again. It could be my luck
that I crossed the hardest gay porn to review but then again, I've seen the
hardest yaoi out there to compare it
with.
There's so many differences between the two genre that it startled even me. Yaoi may have its water sports, scat, rape, shota rapes and abuses and fisting--but it has nothing on the sheer violence of this guys' magazine. The magazine began with a mixture of real photos of men trussed up in various homemade contraptions, more elaborate rope tying (hojojutsu), dungeon play parties, enemas being administered through the bathroom hose, and of course good ol' water sports and fisting. The photos were not that offensive and kind of odd to look at. I'll never get used to real pictures of penises being scribbled out by a marker by the editors. Then the magazine moved on to articles which discussed the finer points of torturing your loved ones. To be precise, piercing the nipples with syringe needles and match-sized metal pins. Amazingly, the photos were bloodless. However, I found the pictures of grimacing middle aged men just as disturbing. I had to put the book down for a long break before willing myself to look at it again.
The magazine continued on with three manga
stories. The names of the artists and the style of the art was
unmistakably male. The characters were beefy with much emphasis on facial
and body hair. Major difference number one between Yaoi and Gay Porn: The
gals do not find beefcakes or hairy bodies and faces that attractive. 
The
image has as much sex appeal as Dom DeLuis getting it on with Ernest Borgnine.
However, it was not the character designs that scared the hay out of me.
It was the story itself. The one that left the most sordid residue was
"Nightmare" by Gengoroh Tagame. A tale of a man who kept on having nightmares of
being a POW subjected to a variety of tortures by his captors. The man
goes to a shrink and pleads for help. After being hypnotized for a
regression treatment, the man returns to the dream. This time, his captors
greet him with a chain saw in the nightmare he would never wake up from.
If you are morbidly curious about one of the scenes, go here
for it. The first thought that came to mind when I saw that picture
was being very grateful for not having a penis.
The third part of the magazine was similar
themed stories in text, with very graphic illustrations. Gory death scenes
involving anal impaling with a sharp instrument or cutting off the penis seemed
to be a common way to end the lovely stories. There were no declarations
of love or forgiveness by the uke/victim to be had. Nor were there looks
of concern or the mildest hint of guilt from the seme. I sincerely do not
recall a yaoi manga, even an S&M PWP, that had the seme torture and rape the
uke, then kill the uke just
because the seme was tired of him. I estimated at least 5 snuffs in this
magazine alone (all drawn, thank you). Not including miscellaneous single
illustrations of killings or extreme torture scenes inserted throughout the
book. I suppose that could be point number two in the divide between Yaoi
and S&M Gay Porn. I like the men in yaoi-land to suffer beautifully
and gently. Or rather, suffer something that isn't disfiguring or fatal.
Spankings can be sexy (none of that in this magazine, in case you're wondering)
but cutting off legs or arms or cocks just does not do it for me. The
illustration on the right was from a short story which detailed the way a group
of rebellious ronin were killed after their capture. Despite their
state of undress, nothing sexual happened to them. The story went right
into describing the manner of each members' horrendous demise with too much
details in the illustrations to go with it.
The book concluded with an amusing advice column for the confused Sado-Maso seeker, complete with not very cute SD characters demonstrating various techniques. What S&M magazine could close without pages of ads for sex toys whose usage I could not decipher at a first look, and ads for videos and clubs where men can find men with S&M tastes?
My first thought after finishing this book? After I
finished shuddering, I decided that I had over estimated Boy's Pierce--a
magazine which featured female yaoi-kas yet carries gay porn catalogs, ads to
recruit young men for "models" in men's adult magazines, and
even gay chat lines you call to talk to a "real" gay man. In 
each
issue of Boy's Pierce, there's a full page eastern and western gay porn review
with thumbnail scenes graced from the flicks in question. Boy's
Pierce also took on the heavier S&M themes that even the water
sport-inclined Reijin didn't want to touch. For some time, I thought Boy's
Pierce was a gay manga magazine, despite the female artists in the
marquee. The ads certainly targeted men, not women. A level of
violence is prevalent in both SM-Z and Boy's Pierce, just in vastly different
degrees of it. Maybe the yaoi-kas faint at the sight of a dismembered
penis, like me.
And so, after looking at a m-m magazine for guys and m-m magazine for gals, my steadfast belief that Yaoi is not gay porn is stronger than ever. I would most likely go into a minor tantrum if I hear "yaoi is gay porn" again. Yaoi is pretty and aesthetically pleasing, with or without a plot to go with the story. If I want to see men cutting up other men, I'll just go back to the Air Force.
~ Kitty
Want an interesting topic to chat about when you
want to break the ice in the next party? Or maybe bring something new to the
bedroom? You can read up on HOJOBUTSU (the art of rope tying) at http://www.webcom.com/jikatabi/hojo.html
It's even got a link to a page with descriptions of torture inflicted on
prisoners in Edo period for you history buffs. The site's put together and
run by a gay man who confesses he's aroused at the sight of "a Marine
crying". Follow the site links for info from a gaijin's point of view
on Japanese S&M.