Richard Vytniorgu
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00918369.2022.2048167
This article therefore aims to increase understanding of effeminate gay bottoms in the West by close reading a small sample of pornographic sexual fantasy narratives published in the public domain on the social media and blogging platform, Tumblr, contextualizing them by reference to non-Western illustrations of gender-stratified androphilia. These narratives consolidate identities such as the pussyboy and the boiwife, which denote an exclusively sexually receptive male androphile with marked evidence of gender nonconformity who seek as sexual partners men who are masculine, dominant, and exclusively sexually insertive. Crucially, their sexual orientation, sex role preference, and gender expression are seen as inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing; they are not simply gay men who “like to bottom.” I will argue that narratives of pussyboys and boiwives on Tumblr indicate the continued existence in the West of a form of male androphilia which is more typical outside the West: “a combination of sexual attraction, position preference in anal sex (insertive/receptive), and gender presentation” (Stief, Citation2017, p. 82). These narratives demand attention in order to nuance debate around gay bottoms, and to insist that gender role positionality is important in making sense of anal sex role for some gay men (Hoppe, Citation2011).
h/t @atax1a
This paper draws on posts published by fourteen Tumblr accounts that were located via tracing reblogs in a snowball fashion via comments and by looking for the terms pussyboy and boiwife. This is admittedly a small sample, but they were selected out of 203 blogs which I have identified as circulating fantasies related to gender-stratified androphilia more broadly and which sit within the category of BDSM erotica (dominant/submissive gay sexual fantasies). The rationale for selecting these fourteen for close analysis is that they post original written text with reblogged images or GIFs; that they have a large follower count in the thousands (indicating influence); and that they deal explicitly in fantasies involving a pussyboy or boiwife. Most of these blogs are run by users who self-identify as a pussyboy or boiwife, and their posts and/or blog bios use these terms frequently. This was a further reason for selecting the fourteen blogs under analysis: to explore the distinctive nature of their voices and how they fantasize about being a boiwife or pussyboy. A few of the blogs selected are also run by users who self-identify as masculine lovers of effeminate pussyboys and boiwives; these were selected to offer a broader picture of who the pussyboys and boiwives are in dialogue with, and how their fantasies intersect with those of the “Daddies.” To the best of my knowledge, most of the posts here date from between 2015 and 2021, and, because they are Not Safe for Work (NSFW), they can only be accessed by registered Tumblr account holders using the following formula in the search bar: (@username), even though they are effectively in the public domain.
Pussyboys and boiwives on Tumblr use the medium to explore their identity, which weaves together sex-object choice (masculine, dominant top men), sex role (exclusive submissive bottom to the extent that most will only suck dick and get fucked), and gender presentation (effeminate, domesticated “wife”). These interconnecting features largely shape the themes which these bloggers explore in their blogs. Physically, these males present as recognizably male rather than typically female, and most identify as gay. Blogger 1 encapsulates this effeminate bottom identity when they say: “As a boy who wants to be a wife to a dominant Man, I want to embody all the traditional roles—my Husband won’t ever have to worry about not coming home to a clean house, an uncooked dinner, or a smooth pussy.” Blogger 1 is one of the most vocal of the boiwives I have studied in that they have thought hard about their role as an effeminate bottom: “Males can be girls too,” they argue, “and that’s perfectly ok. And some males only want to be girls to their respective Man, but still be a male to everyone else. And that’s ok too.” Equally, Blogger 1 is insistent that while they value those “girls” who have made “that final plunge and truly switch[ed]” over to becoming a woman, they [Blogger 1] nevertheless still identify as a male.
