Gay porn star Dale Cooper is speaking out against studios who try to make his cock and his muscles look even bigger than they already are.
In a lengthy interview with The Awl, Dale Cooper talks about literally everything you could ever possibly talk about—from escorting to Grindr and knitting to Amazon Wish Lists—but here is how he feels about Photoshopping his cock:
Dale: […] I think there’s a larger sort of tendency in our culture to start to move away from those older ideas of what a man is, what makes him attractive. The male body is now all of a sudden being inspected and being open for display, which I think is really interesting. Unfortunately, in a sort of counter to that, I’m starting see the display of the male body not as some form of late gender equality, in terms of which bodies are selected to display, but rather as the body in general increasingly coming under the domain of the economy—of advertisers. I think that’s the main problem. And for me, as a porn performer, I’m the steward of my own body, in a way that a lot of other people in the modeling industry aren’t. And a large part of that is because the porn industry doesn’t have the money the rest of Hollywood has. So it’s not like they’re going to go in and fine-tune my body. A lot of companies Photoshop, and I actually have a policy: they can remove blemishes and things like that from me, but please don’t make my cock bigger, don’t make my muscles bigger. If you want someone with a bigger cock and bigger muscles, go hire someone else.
The Awl: Why?
Dale: I want my body to be real. If they want to take a zit on my ass away, I’m all for that, thank you. But beyond that, I think it’s really irresponsible and kind of gross. I did this one shoot, I won’t name names, and when I saw it… Most of the photos I’ve seen, you can tell they’ve been Photoshopped a bit: the colors they pop a bit more, and so on. These photos were the first where I didn’t recognize myself as being the person in the photo. And that is a problem. So I wrote them an email saying look, I really appreciated working with you guys, but if we’re doing anything else in the future, I want to look like me.The Awl: What did they say?
Dale: Oh, they were amenable. I did some other work for that company, and I haven’t seen how those photos turn out. I should probably keep a check on it. But I think they understand, in a lot of ways, but it’s sort of a weird thing to ask, when I pretend I have this control over my body when I don’t, really, because it’s turned into bytes and bits of information and distributed and sent out all over, so that people may project on me whatever they want.
[The Awl]
AND:
Here are 10 pictures of Dale Cooper that he would approve of. As far as I can tell (and I’ve looked at a lot of pictures of Dale Cooper), they weren’t Photoshopped to enhance his muscles or his cock.
Dale Cooper via CockyBoys, NakedSword, Randy Blue, GuysInSweatpants
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
just shut the fuck up and use your body to make money…
once a piece of meat for profit, that persona does not really exist.
you have split in two.
Dale is great for porn and fantasies
Dale is great for porn and fantasies
Dale is great for porn and fantasies
maybe the other half would be worth a conversation.
I like to imagine that Ryan Reynolds’s O face looks something like that third shot of Dale with Austin.
Is the porn audience ready for a porn star with an image that comes with more substance and depth? I assume most audience members might just shout ‘just shut the hell up and show us your cock and ass and have sex!’.
I sure wish the likes of Dale all the best, because they do give gay porn a good rep.
Wouldn’t it be fun if you could photoshop yourself before you went out ? (“Tonight, I’ll give myself an eight pack and add four inches to my dick …. oh, yea …. I almost forgot to make my ass look like two watermelons…”)
In those ‘real’ pictures of Dale, the only thing I would photoshop out are those TATTOOS ….everything else is just fine as it is.
He’s so fucking cute..
Dale’s face needs photoshopping!
He looks like Marc Jacob’s uglier brother!
Who wants to see what ‘carey579’ looks like?
The dude’s hella handsome! He just has bad hair.
omg I am gonna fake internet marry him.
XOXOXOXO I LOOOOVES YOOOOU DAAAAAALE!!!!!1111!!
Well said.
I appreciate the fact that he wants to stay true to himself and not misrepresent, but I find it odd that someone that tries to come across as intellectual as he does would only realize now that “The male body is now all of a sudden being inspected and being open for display…” In gay porn, no less. Shocking, ain’t it? And in other news, people who work in porn sometimes run the risk of being objectified…
To people like that, everything is profound and has meaning!!! The a philosophical dilemma of buying a roll of toilet paper.
People like that may like to read, to study but they also use it to promote themselves as ‘the whore who read a lot’, ‘the enlightened whore’. In an environment where there are people going in and out jail, prostitution and all kind of sexual exploitation, be someone who thinks, who study put you in a better position than the others because a ‘enlightened whore’ may not be only a dick or an asshole fucking for money.
What is Grinder?
It is a footlong you order delivery for.
Honestly, I think this whole issue is dumb.
I think they should Photoshop ginormous cocks, EVERYWHERE! I WANT DICK DOMINATION! I want dicks the size of people in these porno pics.
When you love a porn star for more than their physical qualities, it becomes a sort of a soulmance. Dale Cooper is that rare new porn star with a soul for me. He’s dreamy and oh so sweet (maybe a bit crazy too, but which boyfriend that you’ve ever had hasnt been and at least he wears it on his sleeve). Call me Dale.
I think people who use words like “soulmate,” with people who they don’t know personally, are called “stalkers.”
Yes I will be stalking him soon u dumb non-reading cracked-out bitch.
oh, we know that already.
We definitely know that u r cracked out.
I bet your raiding the underwear drawer right over at Dale’s apartment in Baltimore!
Dale seems like a nice guy. I wish he’d drop association with Colby. That guy is a pretentious douche. According to Colby porn is art, but when articles come out like this, only proves that it isn’t art to begin with.
Another pet peeve, when gay porn stars post book requests in Amazon wish lists…I like my porn stars to ask for the most recent Reebok shoes or muscle creatine.
When I see those amazon lists of books, I have to wonder if it is for show. And I’m forced to ask, “ever hear of a library card!?!”
You know LIBRARY books there are free. And with funding diminishing because of reduced rentals, it might be worth using the card instead. I mean, really! You don’t have to impress us! We don’t care about your grey matter. We care if you take it in the ass!
Don’t come crying to me about first amendment rights when ICANN finally implements the xxx designation.
I agree with some of what you’re saying. I really don’t see porn as an art form, it’s just ways for guys get payed for looking good and fucking. I disagree in the sense that i don’t think a porn star just has to be some lusty, horny all the time personality. So some porn stars like to read, it’s possible. I doubt it’s a show, because then they’re stuck with all these books. If he wanted to really push this intellectual side, he’d talk about all the books he reads, but to actually have someone send those books. Seems a bit much, if it’s just a facade.
Only old people and children go to library.
“Only old people and children go to library.”
Ugh.
Everything is for show online. Just look at the article, he posed with a Roland Barthes book nude with a hardon. It was staged.