Men.com

Men.com is a gay pornographic website founded in 2003. It is owned by the Canadian company Aylo (formerly MindGeek), owner of the monopoly on Internet pornography.[1][2][3]

History

Men.com LLC purchased the domain in December 2003 from entrepreneur Rick Schwartz for US$1.3 million; Schwartz had acquired it for US$15,000 in 1997.[4] Scenes production began around 2011.[5] The website initially featured videos of actors performing sexual acts with condoms, but it gradually shifted to bareback content. In an article for Porn Studies, Craig Tollini analyzed how producers such as Men.com and CockyBoys "follow the normalization of pornography without condoms", and examined the impact of this transition on both media and audiences.[6]

As of 2020, Men.com was the second most-watched gay porn website and it had expanded to nine individual sites.

Actors and directors

Notable pornography actors that have worked for Men.com include Rocco Reed, who had worked in over 400 straight porn titles.[7] Matthew Camp starred in a film series inspired on Tom of Finland.[8] Matt Lambert directed one of these scenes, "Pleasure Park".[9]

Reception

Joseph Brennan was critical of the actors featured on Men.com, describing their performances as "monolithic" and confined to specific top and bottom roles. In his review of the subsite Super Gay Hero, which includes parodies of popular franchises such as Pokémon Go, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Pirates of the Caribbean, Brennan noted that, like other Men.com productions, the subsite features hypermasculine actors portraying superheroes. He concluded that the microsite "replicates tried-and-tested gay porn conventions, rather than using parody to subvert them".[10]

In January 2020, Men.com had a traffic ranking of 31,083 according to Alexa Internet.[11]

Awards

In 2017, a line from a Men.com scene titled "Private Lessons, Part 3" (later renamed "Right in Front of My Salad?") became an Internet meme. The scene depicts a woman eating a salad before noticing the cook is having sex with her husband behind the kitchen counter, and exclaiming, "Are you guys fucking? Right in front of my salad?!"[23] The "right in front of my salad" meme is used in response to a post that is disgusting or unseemly.[24] In the same year, a video was criticized in Australia for featuring an actor being penetrated with a didgeridoo, a musical instrument created by Aboriginal Australians.[25]

See also

References

  1. Shanti Mathias. Who owns all the porn on the internet? The Spinoff, November 9, 2022, retrieved April 10, 2025^
  2. David Auerbach. Vampire Porn Slate, 23 October 2014, retrieved April 10, 2025^
  3. Todd Spangler. Pornhub Parent Company Acquired by Canadian Private-Equity Firm Variety, March 16, 2023, retrieved April 10, 2025^
  4. Domain names once again fetch top dollar CNN, December 25, 2003, retrieved 15 April 2025^
  5. JC Adams. Men.com Sets Monthlong 10th Anniversary Celebration XBIZ, August 2, 2021, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  6. Craig Tollini. How two holdouts went bareback: CockyBoys and Men.com's initial transition to producing videos without condoms Porn Studies, October 4, 2019^
  7. Rocco Reed Makes Bottoming Debut for Men.com XBIZ, October 27, 2012, retrieved April 10, 2025^
  8. Mikelle Street. Matthew Camp to Star in Tom of Finland Gay Porn Series Out, December 4, 2019, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  9. Tyler Akers. Pleasure Park – Matt Lambert – Tom of Finland Foundation – Men.com Gayletter, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  10. Joseph Brennan. Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero University of Texas Press, 2020^
  11. Men.com Alexa Ranking Alexa.com, retrieved January 3, 2020^
  12. This Is What Winners Look Like TheSword.com, January 10, 2017^
  13. Sharan Street. 2018 GayVN Awards Winners Announced AVN, January 21, 2018, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  14. 2021 GayVN Award Winners Announced AVN, January 18, 2021, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  15. 2024 GayVN Award Winners Announced AVN, January 26, 2024, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  16. Winners AVN, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  17. Sharan Street. 2015 Grabby Award Winners Announced AVN, March 25, 2015, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  18. Sharan Street. 2018 GayVN Awards Winners Announced AVN AVN, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  19. 2019 GayVN Awards Winners Announced AVN, January 22, 2018, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  20. Grabbys Europe 2024 Grabby Awards, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  21. 2024 Winners Grabby Awards, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  22. XBIZ. 2022 XBIZ Awards Winners Announced XBIZ, January 10, 2022, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  23. Josh Jackman. The viral 'Right in front of my salad?' film has a brilliant sequel PinkNews, Pink News, September 6, 2017, retrieved January 7, 2018^
  24. Candice Jalili. There's A New Internet Meme Out There And You Can Thank Porn For This Gem Elite Daily, August 3, 2017, retrieved April 15, 2025^
  25. Nick Duffy. Controversial gay porn film features men having sex with a didgeridoo Pink News, May 19, 2017, retrieved August 24, 2025^