We've got a special treat for today's Model Citizens post. As one of our top performers on Pornhub, Colby Jansen is the very first person to claim the Top Bear Performer Pornhub Award at our first event in 2018. In that very same year, he also won the GayVN Favorite Bear Award. So as an icon in the industry and a mentor to young performers, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to chat with Colby and see what he had to say about how the industry has evolved in the last decade and his experience as a bisexual performer.
How has your perception of the industry changed since then? How was your work evolved as a bisexual performer?
The industry evolves all the time, even for me personally as a bisexual performer. When I was working with men.com, they were pitching me as a straight gay-for-pay guy, and I really wasn’t. I’ve never been gay-for-pay. I enjoy my boy time. I also noticed, back then, there were some female performers who wouldn’t talk to you if they found out you were a gay or a gay-for-pay performer because of the misconception with AIDS, and that hurt.
But that’s not necessarily the case anymore; the industry and people have evolved. It’s almost 10 years I’ve been doing this, and I have long a history with good and bad memories of how people treated me and other performers. So many guys were told that it’s not okay to be with another guy, but it’s cool to watch two women together. Even though that still happens now sometimes, it’s cool to see how the world has evolved. I was kicked off my rugby team for being a gay performer and being married to a trans woman, and then I started playing in Canada and they didn’t care. They wanted me on their team. I get choked up just thinking about it.
So it’s really great to see people making their own content now. Nobody is forcing me to do boy-on-boy content; I do it because I like doing it and it’s my choice. It doesn’t really matter if it’s with a cis woman, a gay guy, or a trans woman, the energy just has to feel right.
Courtesy of Colby Jansen
At what point did you realize you were bisexual and decided to be open about being a bisexual performer?
I think it happened during my time with men.com. They were pitching me as a straight guy who was getting seduced by a gay man. For example, I would play a coach or teacher being convinced by a male student in getting a blowjob for a grade; this idea that nobody starts out gay, they just get sucked into it. And since people thought I was gay-for-pay, I was getting a lot of heat for it on Twitter and being told I was stealing money from the gay community. So that’s when I started telling people that I’m bi because they weren’t seeing what was going on in my personal life on social.
What of misconceptions about bisexuality do you continue to face today?
I’ve got so many gay friends who tell me, “Oh, you just haven’t met the right guy, yet.” The funny thing is, I’ve had sex with so many more men than they ever will! It’s a not a matter of meeting the right guy. For me, it’s about meeting the right person. The funny thing is, to the straights, I’m gay, and to the gays, I’m straight; like they don’t want to accept that I’m bisexual.
Also, I have my own version of bisexuality. Someone’s cookie-cutter version of bisexuality is not going to work for me and it’s not going to work for everybody. There are shades of sex. One day, I’m more into girls, and others, I’m more into dudes. One day, I’m more top, and others, I’m more bottom. It’s about what I want to do.
Sexually fluid content continues to grow in popularity. Why do you think that is?
Years ago, before the Internet, gay porn was really taboo, and if you wanted to watch porn, you’d have to go to the theatre and it was all very seedy. You basically had to hide you porno mags. It was such a struggle. Now, you’ve got all this content easily available to you and you can watch whatever you want from home.
Think about the sexual minds of the adolescents of today and how they’re growing up with trillions of gigabytes of porn and how all that consumption is changing their brain. They're watching and thinking, “Well that's a big muscular dude sucking a dick while having sex with a girl,” and, “That’s a big dude getting banged by a trans woman.” They’re exposed to such a variety of content and they can watch it all on their phone while they’re in the bathroom at school! That’s really going to open up people’s minds about sex and the different ways you can have sex. We’re seeing a big sexual awakening and open-mindedness; people don’t have to repress their feelings and interests anymore.
Courtesy of Colby Jansen
Since you've been in the industry for almost a decade, what kind of advice can you give to performers who are just starting out?
Remember that you are in charge. Just because something is on the script doesn’t mean you have to do it if you don’t want to and didn’t sign up for it. You can say no and you don’t have to take a role you feel is demeaning you in any way.
What have you learned about yourself since joining the industry?
I realized that at the beginning, I was closeted. I put shackles on myself and stopped myself from doing what I wanted to do. I did that in my personal life, too. I was in a relationship where my partner didn’t want me having sex off camera, but I really like sex, and I didn’t want to feel restricted. So I had to find someone that will let me do that and understand how important it is for me to be open. However, I had to become open and honest with myself first to understand that. I didn’t need to be promiscuous. I can go and do the things I want to do, I just need to communicate that and that I’m being safe about it.
So the number-one thing I learned about myself was that I don’t need to be ashamed of who I am. Also, accepting that although I’m primarily a top, I like bottoming, and getting over that hump, mentally, was a lot.
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