Shoes on Black Dudes

Something has been bothering me. I've been watching more Interracial porn lately. Several things about IR bother me a great deal and I'll touch on them in due time. What I want to harp on right now is relatively minor, yet peculiar neverthless.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices this. Why is it so common for the male talent to keep their shoes on? Is there an historic, cultural, or symbolic significance I'm missing out on? I would imagine it being a difficult thing to pull off. Think about it: you're on the set; right after the BJ, you got to get nude. You've got two options if you want to keep your shoes on.

1. You keep the shoes on while you pull your pants off, not an easy feat with most kinds of pants. Try it. I just did; I wear boot cut jeans and it's still a hassle.

or

2. You take your shoes off, remove your pants, then put your shoes back on.

In both cases there's reason to believe that if you see a dude naked with his shoes still on, he really wanted it that way. But why? You've got to admit the image is pretty silly. I've come up with several possible explanations:

A majority of black men, perhaps just the ones who do adult films, have ugly feet.

I'm looking down at my own feet. Yes, I'm now pantsless and shoeless. They're not the world's prettiest; they're a bit on the flat side and the toe joints have seen better days, but they don't make me self conscious enough to cover them up. Perhaps I'm an atypical example. I realize now, maybe for the first time, that I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking at guys' feet. I couldn't tell you what normal.

There is a segment of the IR audience with shoe fetishes.

I myself like to see women keep their shoes on during their scenes. And when you think about it, even though it's even easier for a girl to undress and keep her shoes on, it's just as ridiculous. The reason that's the standard is because there's a lot of dudes who get off on that (or maybe it's the other way around). Is it implausible to assume there's a group of paying customers who feel that way about shoes on black guys? I just wonder what focus group they dig that up from.

It's signifying.

It's a black thing. It's a black porn star thing. So even if you were black you wouldn't get it because you do your screwing behind close doors and you haven't cum on a girl's face since high school. Maybe it's a ritualism that sprouted spontaneously out of the IR community, a way to distinguish themselves from others. I wonder if Henry Louis Gates Jr has written about this yet.

The reason could be absolutely practical.

I've found that black people in general tend to be more hygienic than whites. I'm not trying to be racist, although I suppose it's ultimately unavoidable when discussing IR. Poorer people in general (not dirt poor, but working class and lower-middle class), and blacks in particular, especially blacks from the South or from the islands, tend to be more finicky about cleanliness. Personally speaking, I've known plenty of white people who'll skip and shower or two, sit on a couch with their feet tucked beneath them, kiss their dogs, or walk into a gas station bathroom barefoot. And I know vastly more black people who are disgusted with them. It's not unreasonable to believe that cats with that kind of upbringing would find walking around barefoot on a porn set to be the height of filth, no?

If you have theories of your own please let me know. In the meantime try to remember the last time who've seen a white porn star keep his shoes on. If you can, it's only like one or two. And the the point.