Using "Boy" To Promote A Site with 20-somethings...

[rawTOP]

I know the term "boy" is a sensitive term and can get you in trouble if you're not careful - especially if the guys are would fit in the "barely legal" category.

I've been discussing with colleagues how to best market some European bareback content... It's from a studio with "high quality" content (a lot of beautiful muscular jocks). I posted some pics on my blog and asked my readers which terms they'd use to describe the pics and (other than the 24% who labeled it "boring", plus the one who did a write in suggestion of " artifical sex with men you'll never meet" :D ) the top categories were:
Euro Boys (17%)
Pretty Boys (17%)
Euro Hunks (14%)
Euro Guys (14%)
I was surprised the term 'boys' made such a prominent showing. I always attribute that to guys who look "barely legal". These guys are clearly not teens - they're more jocks than twinks, but it's a mix - usually guys in their mid and upper 20s fucking guys in their lower and mid 20s... So we can't really use 'jocks' or other terms that are pretty narrow and don't capture the entire group.

Originally I had termed them "hotties", but that term failed miserably on the survey I did with my blog readers.

So the question is whether it's safe to market guys who are clearly legal as "boys". We're thinking of domain names like EuroBoyBareback.com for the bareback stuff and EuroBoyHunks.com for the condom stuff... Does anyone see problems with that or have suggestions?

We also have to get over the Euro = Czech thing, but that we feel like we can deal with...

[marcjacob]

I think its pretty safe. Im in England and all my friends use the term boy to be guys way over age. I call Broke Straight Boys guys as boys and their clearly over 18. When you get down to twinks I always put the 18 year old thing in but if its obvious that they are legal, I dont see a problem.

[abostonboy]

This is a tough call. You know, I use the term kids now and then, but not in porn. Just the other day my bf was asking me why I was "flirting" with this 22 year old. I told him I wasn't "flirting" as he was just a kid. Why would I want to flirt with a kid?

I think a lot has to do with age. I will say someone is just a kid or a boy, but only compared to me that's how I feel. Once you get past a certain age, the terms you use may be used in a different context than what others may use.

A "boy" to an 18 year old may mean someone younger than him. Though, in gay we use terms like, "you go girl", "crazy for the boys", etc etc...

[nickbaer]

I think the term "boy" to describe twenty year olds went out of style with the end of WWII and the reference to US soldiers as "the boys"...

Probably best to give it up.

[rawTOP]

I think the term "boy" to describe twenty year olds went out of style with the end of WWII and the reference to US soldiers as "the boys"...

Probably best to give it up.

But the poll of my users says that's not the case. Plus, I hear and see 20-somethings referred to as boys all the time.

[Gaystoryman]

I think the term "boy" to describe twenty year olds went out of style with the end of WWII and the reference to US soldiers as "the boys"...

Probably best to give it up.

Guess I am stuck in a time warp, cuz its still used a lot around here too lol I also like to qualify it though, simply to avoid hassle from the word police or nut jobs out there whistle

[nickbaer]

It's an intra-generational thing... you can call someone else your age a boy, but someone older than you - like a generation or 2 older - shouldn't.

You can call a friend a "sissy" or "fag", but a stranger wearing a white sheet and carrying a torch shouldn't.

[rawTOP]

It's an intra-generational thing... you can call someone else your age a boy, but someone older than you - like a generation or 2 older - shouldn't.

You can call a friend a "sissy" or "fag", but a stranger wearing a white sheet and carrying a torch shouldn't.

That's totally not my experience. I'd definitely call a young guy a boy and not think twice about it. I'd only think twice about calling a black guy a boy given that I'm lily white and dominant that could come across all wrong unless I know they're OK with the whole slavery fetish thing (I've had a bottom ask me to call him the "n word")...

[marcjacob]

Load of people I know use the term boy. Loads of sites do too. I use boy in tons of sites. Its certainly not outdated at all. Im only 29. I have friends who are 18, and they use it "phwoar that boy is cute".. "met some boy in a nightclub" etc etc

If 18 year olds use it, its not out of date.

[abostonboy]

It's an intra-generational thing... you can call someone else your age a boy, but someone older than you - like a generation or 2 older - shouldn't.


I totally disagree with that one. Just this week I called my bf's friend a kid. My bf is 34. His friend is 23 or 24. The reason they got in a fight was because his friend imho is still a kid. I used the term kid to be polite, it wasn't really what i felt about him. The same is true with the guy that I was accused of flirting with. He's too young for me so I said he's just a kid, why would you think I am flirting with him. I could have used boy as well. He's in his early twenties and twoo young for me.

The term "boy" imho is not bad as long as you don't use other words in front of it.

Look at my screen name - abostonboy. Duh! Look at BostonBoyz.com, the directory that I started - two boys from Boston telling it like it is on the gay web. Heck, look at justusboys.com.

Terms like "boys night out", "crazy for the boys", etc are very common.

Just flipping through HX Magazine in NYC I see many ads for parties with the term BOY.

Now, on a social networking site, don't have boy looking for boy as an option. I would never put terms like young, teen etc in front of boy either.

But, it is very common to refer to someone over the age of 18 as "boy" both in porn and outside porn. In fact, since it is commonly used outside porn to refer to someone over the age of 18, and in many cases over 21, I think it has become to refer to someone over the age of 18 in porn as well. Sure, in the wrong context, it could mean someone younger. That's where one has to make the "tough call".

[abostonboy]

That's totally not my experience. I'd definitely call a young guy a boy and not think twice about it.

I agree with you totally.

[MiamiBoyz]

I agree with you totally.

I agree with your agreement!

Lee

[Squirt]

* Euro Boys (17%)
* Pretty Boys (17%)
* Euro Hunks (14%)
* Euro Guys (14%)

I was surprised the term 'boys' made such a prominent showing.

50% of your options had the word boy and they only scored 6% higher then the other 50% of options you provided.

In our Gay culture we use the terms to define sexy young guys (aka twinks) as the straight culture uses girl to define sexy young girls. It's when either term is used to describe any model that might look younger then "of age" that you run into problems.

Perception and legal age are definitely gray areas in our industry at this time.

The bigger question is what do surfers looking for porn correlate with the term boy? What kind of porn sites come up with various search terms that include the word boy? Those are the kind of sites you'll be competing with on searches.

[rawTOP]

50% of your options had the word boy and they only scored 6% higher then the other 50% of options you provided.

No, there a number of other options in the poll. The ones I listed were just the top responses. Plus that was round two of the poll - round one eliminated a number of other terms...

[gaybucks_chip]

Nearly all of our models (who are generally 18-24) refer to the guys they like or want to go out with as "boys", as in "I met this cute boy at the bar last night." It does not in any way connote someone who looks under 18.

The only place where I object to the use of the word 'boy' is when it *is* used to imply a model is underage. If your guys clearly look like college-aged guys, it's fine to say "college boy" or "hot boys at college" or "college jocks" or whatever.

[rawTOP]

Nearly all of our models (who are generally 18-24) refer to the guys they like or want to go out with as "boys", as in "I met this cute boy at the bar last night." It does not in any way connote someone who looks under 18.

The only place where I object to the use of the word 'boy' is when it *is* used to imply a model is underage. If your guys clearly look like college-aged guys, it's fine to say "college boy" or "hot boys at college" or "college jocks" or whatever.

Thanks. To me "college" is 18 to 22-23" some of these guys would fit in that category, but "college ..." seems too narrow - there are definitely ones in the mix that are older. I don't think college when I look at them...

[gaydemon]

If the guys you showed are European and muscly / fit, I would definitly been one of the people calling them Euro boys.

Euro Boys is kind of its own category of guys, young, muscly or fit. A bit like jocks, but maybe a bit more younger looking.

Bel Ami models are a good example of Euro Boys. Young, muscly and good looking. Too muscly to be a twink..

But then thats maybe just my own idea of a Euro boy lol.

[abostonboy]

I have a boyfriend. Though, some days I wish I didn't.

How old were the Beach Boys before they parted way. What about the Beastie Boys?

Heck, I think I would say to a 60 year old guy crossing the finish line in a Marathon, "you go girl!"

The thing to understand, that in none of these cases I am even taking age into consideration.

[Squirt]

I have a boyfriend. Though, some days I wish I didn't.

How old were the Beach Boys before they parted way. What about the Beastie Boys?

Heck, I think I would say to a 60 year old guy crossing the finish line in a Marathon, "you go girl!"

The thing to understand, that in none of these cases I am even taking age into consideration.

Well said!

[basschick]

i know guys who refer to guys over 30 and 40 as boys all the time.

a big catch with using boy in a site title is that you won't be able to advertise it on google adwords or on some tgps and link lists. our lawyer told us in 1997 not to use the word boy without a qualifier, btw.

[tigermom]

I get called "girl" and I'm in my mid-thirties. Older women are referred to as "older gals" often. So, I see no problem with the word boy, as long as it's nowhere near the word "young".

[dzinerbear]

Perhaps it's because of the niches I work in, but I have not had a big struggle with the word boy. On Gay Porn Pig when I say "Hot Boy Sucking Daddy's Cock," there's little doubt about what I'm talking about. It's a role playing thing and it's done on fetish sites all the time.

When I wanted to start a UGAS hub to recirculate a lot of Euro, uncut cock content I registered Euro Boys Club (http://www.euroboysclub.com) and when you see the content, it's a lot of the kind of stuff Bjorn mentioned in his post.

I would have no problem calling a 40-year-old man a "muscle boy," although I'd be more apt to start calling him a "muscle daddy."

While boy has connotations of "young" in some markets, in others it means "submissive" — dirty pig boy, nasty boy, cum hungry boy, butt boy ...

I wouldn't have a problem with you using "Euro Boys" in promoting your stuff, I'd know what that means. If you want to clarify it further you could say things like "Euro Muscle Boys."

Michael

[rawTOP]

I think the issue is Google, who wants everything to be a formula they can apply to all sites evenly... Now imagine them trying to figure out the difference between a sub "boy" and a teen...

Humans can tell the difference, but can GoogleBot? Then again they always say build the site for users not for spiders... ;)

[Rocket_Bryce]

You won't have a problem with google results. We get spidered every day on justusboys.com and have 203,000 pages listed in the index. BUT, as BassChick says, we can't buy traffic from google using adwords and send it directly to our site.

Regarding the use of the word "boys", I don't think it is an issue at all. We have dozens upon dozens of photos here in the office of men well over the age of 60 proudly wearing their Just Us Boys tshirts.

[basschick]

google lists millions of porn sites that say boy in the title or in the text. it's only with their paid ads that you can't use the words boy or girl, even if it's "21 year old college boy".


I think the issue is Google, who wants everything to be a formula they can apply to all sites evenly... Now imagine them trying to figure out the difference between a sub "boy" and a teen...

Humans can tell the difference, but can GoogleBot? Then again they always say build the site for users not for spiders... ;)