". WWII-era poster promoting condom use. Initially used for
contraceptive purposes, condoms also came to be used to limit or prevent
sexually transmitted infections (STIs), even after other contraceptive methods were developed. As
AIDS emerged and the sexual transmission of
HIV became known in the 1980s, the use of condoms to prevent infection became much more widespread, especially among
men who have sex with men (MSM) who engage in
anal sex. At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, in the context of the invention and development of
safe sex, the uptake of condoms among Western MSM was so widespread and effective that condom use became established as a norm for sex between men. From 1995, several high-profile HIV positive men declared their refusal to wear condoms with other HIV positive men in gay publications, dubbing the practice
barebacking. While these early articulations of barebacking expressed a concern for HIV prevention, in that they generally referred to dispensing with condoms in the context of sex between people of the same HIV status, the
moral panic which ensued was so pronounced that barebacking came to be framed as a rebellious and transgressive erotic practice for HIV positive and HIV negative people alike, irrespective of the risks of HIV transmission.
Resurgence and stigma A resurgence of barebacking in first-world gay communities during the 1990s has been a frequent topic for gay columnists and editorialists in
The Advocate,
Genre magazine, and
Out magazine. Many of these articles express concern over bareback sex's popularity, and liken it to irresponsible and reckless behavior, despite the fact that a third of gay men take part in the practice. Academic works suggest that barebacking is a way to reach for transcendence, to overcome the boredom of everyday average life in a hyper-rationalized society. Some men are dispensing with condoms in the context of seroconcordant sex (sex between two men of the same HIV status). Early articulations of barebacking generally refer to sex between two HIV-positive men, whereby barebacking could be considered an early harm reduction strategy, similar to
serosorting, which was later endorsed by some public health authorities in the USA.
Gay pornographic films Bareback
gay pornography was standard in "pre-condom" films from the 1970s and early 1980s. As awareness of the risk of AIDS developed, pornography producers came under pressure to
use condoms, both for the health of the performers and to serve as role models for their viewers. By the early 1990s new pornographic videos usually featured the use of condoms for anal sex. However, beginning in the 1990s, an increasing number of studios have been devoted to the production of new films featuring men engaging in unprotected sex. Mainstream gay pornographic studios have also continued to feature the occasional bareback scene. Also, mainstream studios that consistently use condoms for anal sex scenes may sometimes choose editing techniques that make the presence of condoms somewhat ambiguous and less visually evident, and thus may encourage viewers to fantasize that barebacking is taking place, even though the performers are following safer-sex protocols. (In contrast, some mainstream directors use close-up shots of condom packets being opened, etc., to help clearly establish for the viewer that the sex is not bareback.) == Health risks ==