How was Rapid’s immense popularity leveraged to help launch a new “rough sex” porn studio? Did this move help to revitalize Rapid’s fortunes, who aged 23 at the time of his bareback debut, was a twink performer nearing the end of his expected porn lifespan? And what insights into the mainstream integration of bareback and ageist restrictions normally placed on twink performers are to be gained from textual analysis of audience reactions to Rapid’s bareback debut? Audience reactions that, as I note briefly, also reveal certain class-based assessments of Rapid and his infamy at the time. My qualitative method-textual analysis in the cultural studies tradition (see Fürsich, 2009)-is used to interpret audience reaction to this debut (both the performance itself and the notion of a ‘star’ being used to promote a bareback launch event), drawing out key themes for discussion. This process reveals a decidedly negative reception of Rapid, the promotion of bareback as event, and the quality of the bareback performance itself, all of which I read in accordance with what these narratives have to tell us about bareback at the time. Yet, I also take the opportunity-writing several years after this critical moment in Rapid’s career (in 2018), and then at the time of revision and publication several years after that again (in 2021)-to reflect on the success of the campaign.
