The voice. That’s it. When you meet Buck Angel, the one thing that even comes close to betraying that he was born a woman is the slight, feminine lilt in his voice. Still, it sounds more like the stereotypical “gay man” voice than one belonging to a biological female, except that isn’t quite right, either: the pitch is close, but the timbre is far from flamboyant. Even when discussing his role in a graphic sex show with a male accomplice at London’s Torture Garden — “I mostly slap him around and make him get on his hands and knees, maybe flog him a little and drip candlewax, and maybe I’ll fist him; I do some fisting stuff up there” — he keeps a modest tone, never lapsing into caricature. But the voice … that’s really the one clue, the closest thing to a giveaway that there’s something different about Buck. Well, that and the vagina.
FEBRUARY 8, 2006
The voice fools Howard Stern. When Buck shows up at Stern’s Sirius Radio studio to take part in a self-explanatory game called What’s My Secret, the crew sees a man, five-foot-eight, muscle-bound and covered in tattoos, sporting a clean-shaven skull and a thick Fu Manchu that, says Stern,“is a better mustache than I could ever grow.” For the purposes of the game, that little vocal flourish is a red flag.
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“You’re gay,” Stern guesses incorrectly, and the air goes out of the room. If not gay, then what? What else could there be about a biker-looking workout junkie with a deceptively faggy voice? The crew is stumped and silent until Stern’s longtime sidekick, Robin Quivers, has an epiphany.
“You have not always been a man,” she announces, triumphant and grinning. Buck’s eyes close to slits as he turns to face her, grimacing and nodding his head. Bang on. “This is a man who went through a sex change.”
“You are very good,” he says, thinking, Quivers is a total dyke — of course she knows who he is. “That is awesome!”
Stern looks legitimately dumbfounded, saying he never would have guessed Buck’s secret … except that’s not the extent of the story. “You really have to guess what’s going on in Buck’s pants,” says Stern’s producer, Gary Dell’Abate. Stern looks like he’s catching on and asks Buck if he’s had “the surgery,” but Buck shakes his head.
“No, I’ve still got a pussy. That’s the whole thing: I’m Buck Angel, the man with a pussy.”
Like manna from heaven. All tension dissipates, and the Stern crew starts the inevitable pile-on. “So you’re not really a man.” “You have sex with women? So you are gay.” “You’re just fooling the authorities. If you’re legally a dude, then I’m legally a black man,” Stern says. Ad nauseam.
Yet Buck is all smiles, happily whipping out his wallet and passing around his driver’s license to prove that, legally, he is indeed a man. “My vagina does not make me a woman,” he insists, a statement that lands so far beyond the crew’s breadth of understanding that he may as well have delivered it in Martian. As Stern repeatedly tells him he’s “a chick, no offense,” Buck lets it roll off; he understands they’ve never seen anyone like him before, and he realizes that they’re not going to “get it” right away. Then it’s revealed that, as a woman, Buck was a female model, and Stern is even further flummoxed: Photos show Buck in a former life, a tight wet T-shirt over perky breasts and a slim frame, frosted blonde hair and strong, sharp features.
“You were a hot chick,” Stern says, less disrespectful than disbelieving. “What a waste. I would’ve done you.” That’s funny, Buck thinks, because God knows he would never have done Stern.
Ostensible mutual disgust aside, it’s still the Howard Stern show, and Buck ends up being asked to take off his pants. He obliges, but first asks, in complete earnest, if everyone’s ready for what they’re going to see — “a big man vagina,” that is, with a clitoris enlarged by nearly two decades of testosterone therapy. He drops his trousers and groans rise immediately from the room; writer Artie Lange barely peeks through fingers laced over his eyes, Quivers cackles, but Stern lets loose with a guttural laugh that belies the horror he’s tried to put on and instead indicates some sort of tangible fascination with what he’s seeing.
“I had a really weird thought,” Stern says to Buck at one point. “Do you want to get on the Sybian?”
The Sybian is a sex toy that looks like a saddle with a rod in the center, onto which different “heads” can be attached and then vibrate, weave and rotate. Porn stars are frequent Stern guests, and they’re often asked to ride the device. Buck, although he’s the world’s most successful female-to-male transsexual porn star, bristles internally at first, thinking there’s no fucking way he’s getting on that thing, but that’s quickly quashed by the showman inside that tells him to just do it. So he hops on and proceeds to purposefully make everybody as uncomfortable as possible.
He stands up a few minutes later after having taken enough, the room full of staffers on the brink of convulsions, and decides to bring down the house. “Oh God,” he says, pawing at his tenderized crotch and looking down at the machine, “I squirted!”
“I was fucking with them so hard,” Buck tells me two years later from his home in Mérida, Yucatán, where he lives with his wife, body piercer Elayne Angel. He’ll never go back on the Stern show, he says, not because he was hurt by what Stern and the others said to him, but because he thinks it would detract from the dominant performance he gave the first time around. “I know how to play that game,” he says. “I can make fun of myself too. I’m a porn star! Give me a break.” And though the experience was degrading to an extent, Buck knew exactly what he was getting himself into — it was the Howard Stern show, after all.
Watching the video of his appearance though, I tell Buck I got the impression that for all the fronting Stern did, it seemed like he really, truly wanted to be OK with Buck and what he was seeing, but that it was so different from the world with which he was familiar, he came off as incredulous and more than a little phobic.
“Exactly!” Buck says, downplaying the severity of Stern’s barbs. “I think Howard likes me a lot, and I think Howard respects me a lot. The stuff he said to me was very minimal.” That is to say, Stern was just confused; there are plenty of others who make concerted efforts to actually attack him — often, the community of transgender men.
According to Buck, this is because he doesn’t identify as a trans-man — he considers himself a man, plain and simple. “They’re the ones who are more political,” he says of trans-men. “I think they get sort of upset about me calling myself ‘the man with a pussy.’”
Buck has also butted heads with the trans-man community over what Buck claims is the increasingly frequent practice of fundraising parties thrown by pre-op men to finance their sexual reassignment operations; he was even quoted by the Village Voice for an article on the subject. “Boy, did I get myself into a big problem with that,” he says, but claims he received a decent amount of supportive feedback, too, from others who feel that if one wants to be a man, then, well, “be a man, dude.
“Too many of these fuckin’ people are in this situation where they’re begging,” he says, which he understands to a point, “but how come you can’t get a job?” Buck worked two jobs to pay for his surgery, and the sense of pride that comes along with that achievement itself nicely complements the satisfaction of finally feeling comfortable in one’s own skin. “But a boob-cutting-off party?” he asks. “What the fuck is that?”
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It could be, of course, that these men feel they’re entitled to reach their transformative goal any way they see fit. They were slighted to begin with by being born with the wrong body, and that the destination, in this case, is far more important than the journey.
“It just seems so female,” Buck says of the trend, though. “I don’t know any transsexual women that throw cock-cutting-off parties! They just don’t go there.” He concedes, however, that there aren’t any guidelines on how to be a man, and that, his objections notwithstanding, he’s not suggesting that all men should feel they need to emulate him. “I’m just an old-school kind of guy,” he says. “I couldn’t imagine anyone paying for my surgery.”
Sexual reassignment surgery is expensive, though the prices vary. For a transgender man, breast removal can run from $3,000 to $15,000, a range Buck likens to the difference between buying a Volkswagen or a Cadillac. Some people can wait a few years and have a higher-end procedure, but for some, the urgency takes precedence. “And believe me,” he says, “it is an urgency for most of us. You can’t deal with having boobs. It’s horrific. To me, and a lot of guys, I think, it’s worse than not having a cock.”
Buck opted for a $7,000 operation, which, he says, would likely run closer to $10,000 nowadays — not cheap, but, he admits, it was a necessity for a person who’s more than a little vain. The first nine doctors he visited told him any chest surgery would result in nasty scars, which he found unacceptable; he wanted to be able to take off his shirt and not have anyone know he used to be a woman. His tenth consultation was with a surgeon from UCLA who specialized in operating on biological men with gynecomastia, a glandular issue that results in overdeveloped breasts, and who was confident he could perform surgery that would leave minimal scarring. Buck was lucky: He had small breasts to begin with, and the doctor’s prediction was correct.
This was 15 years ago. The surgery, combined with testosterone therapy, had Buck well upon his way towards a sense of ease he’d never really experienced. And a good thing, too, because he probably would have killed himself otherwise.
Buck was born the daughter of parents he (lovingly, sarcastically) calls “old school, Republican, scary white people,” and was equal parts loner and tomboy. He was raised playing football, wearing boys’ clothes and playing almost solely with guys — hell, he was even called “Buck” as a young woman. The second of three girls, he always felt that he was raised more like a boy than either of his sisters, though he rejects the idea his crisis of gender was caused by his upbringing; rather, he thinks his parents knew that there was something inside him that required a different approach than those tried with his sisters.
He eventually came out as a lesbian to his parents, but with what, at the time, seemed an unthinkable qualifier: “‘It’s not that I feel like a gay woman,’ I told them, ‘I feel like a man.’” Buck’s dad, who he describes as “super macho,” began to weep and blamed himself; he had wanted a boy, and must have thought he had somehow left his middle daughter fundamentally confused and irreparably damaged. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Buck started doing a whole bunch of drugs. Coke, crack and massive amounts of booze did their thing — he admits there are significant parts of his life of which he has little to no memory — and before long, his family disowned him completely. He doesn’t blame them, and, without a hint of self-pity, cops to being, by all accounts, a miserable scumbag. By his mid-twenties, he was suicidal, having been tossed off by most people in his life, and was living on the streets as a thieving, drug-addled prostitute. He hit bottom about as hard a person can, but he somehow conjured up the presence of mind to start attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which he says undeniably saved his life.
He started having what he calls “awakenings,” and tried to isolate what made him start doing drugs in the first place. Three years into his sobriety, with the help of a therapist, he felt like he could comfortably trace the roots of his drug abuse to his incredible gender confusion; at the time, he didn’t even know transsexuals existed. But one shot of testosterone, he says, was all it took, “and all of my problems were lifted from me.”
Then he lost everyone all over again.
“When I first decided I was really a man and not a woman,” he says, “because I was a dyke, my circle of friends all pretty much dropped me. They couldn’t even comprehend.” Buck says the stereotypes are true, and that, about militant lesbians, “they are male-haters; they are not positive about men, and they have a lot of issues about men. I don’t know if it’s penis envy or what, but most of them were like, ‘Dude, you’re out of here.’”
A handful of friends stuck with him, but having worked so hard to build back up a strong network of people after being alone for so long, only to see it disappear again, was devastating. Fuck communities then, Buck thought, if all they do is uphold the tenets of a rigid, unchanging identity, and then spit you out when you deviate. The dykes won’t stick with a trans-man, and the trans-men get offended by a guy who has the balls to trumpet the virtues of his vagina. Why go through the effort of establishing nomenclature for every variation of queer identity if they’re going to be used as tools of division? If only your average straight-laced queer-baiter knew how closed-minded some sects of these hated deviants can be.
A funny thing happened, though. Over the past few years, a number of these women who once told him to go screw? They’ve come to him for advice on how to have a sex change. And at first, empathy was far from the order of the day. “I’m not one who likes to hold on to animosity,” Buck says, “but my first impulse was to say, ‘fuck you, you guys totally dogged me when I was hurting and feeling so confused.’
“But then I thought, OK, you know what? I’m a pioneer. It’s sort of my duty to say, ‘yes, I can help you.’”
JANUARY 13, 2007
The Adult Video News Awards, which are essentially the Oscars of pornography, were once described in a David Foster Wallace essay as an “irony-free zone.” The porn industry is, if nothing else, helplessly earnest. Buck knows this, and can see the humor in his surroundings, but the fact that, on this night, he’s nominated for Best Transsexual Performer of the Year is an honor nonetheless, especially considering it’s the first time a female-to-male performer has ever been nominated. Though he only started doing porn in 2003, it’s taken some serious chutzpah to get here.
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“In the beginning, they would not even look at me,” he says of others in the porn world. “They were mortified, and I was shocked because I thought they were going to love it. They have everything! Fifty-million-man gang-bangs, balloon fetishes, clown fetishes, horse fetishes, whatever the hell they do.
“But,” he says, “they thought I was the sickest thing ever.”
Though he initially signed on with the production company Robert Hill Releasing, he ended up branching out on his own, and now produces, directs and stars in his films himself, after he realized that, otherwise, he was just going to be mocked. (Also, he was being screwed out of money.) Once he left Robert Hill, the company hired another trans-man to star in their films and called him “The Man With a Pussy,” a title Buck now has trademarked. (Seriously.) This performer, however, had had no surgery, and once his clothes came off, he looked like a woman. “They used him to make freak-fest movies,” Buck says, “and they bombed.” Working within such a small niche market, a producer needs to have the utmost respect for the material — the people who are going to be turned on by it comprise such a small market share, you can’t afford to make them feel like they’re freaks.
The industry must have recognized his dedication, because when it comes time to announce the winner of the 2007 Transsexual Performer of the Year, Buck hears his name called, sees his face on the screen, but is told not to go up to the stage to receive his award; his category is the very last one of the night to be announced, and people are already filing out of the auditorium.
“It’s totally rude and disrespectful,” he says. “We’re behind the ‘best anal gang-bang,’ we’re behind the ‘best cumshot up your hole,’ we’re behind every single other genre. They look at us like we’re freaks.”
(Dykes? Check. Trans-men? Check. The vultures of the adult entertainment industry? Check.)
“Of course, I was still super happy to win the award,” he says. “It was super huge and historical.”
He even called his dad after the show.
“He loved it,” Buck says. “He said, ‘That’s so cool! I have a son who’s a porn star!’” Once Buck started his sex change, he rehabilitated his relationship with his family, with whom he says he now has as healthy a connection as he could ask for. His parents call him their son, his sisters call him their brother, they come to Mexico to visit and love Elayne. “I truly believe,” Buck says, “that all your family ever really wants is for you to be happy and successful and not fucked up on drugs.”
Many people’s lives may be easier if Buck didn’t exist. Not if he were dead, mind you, but if he had just been born in a man’s body. Or, barring that, if he had just shelled out the $70,000 for a limp piece of meat to hang between his legs, risked the 50-percent chance of never having another orgasm, and lived his life as a sexually unsatisfied man who at least fit in neatly somewhere. Ours is a society built on binaries, after all: Man and woman, good and bad, husband and wife, hero and villain. They allow for order, or at least the illusion of such. A person is one thing, or they’re another thing, and that’s it. Without a Buck Angel around, one need not address the idea that sexuality is perhaps more fluid than originally thought.
It makes sense in a masochistic sort of way. You feel certain impulses, desires, and rather than addressing them and finding a way to incorporate them into a healthy life, you don’t just suppress them — you adopt a world view that makes such urges impossible to even consider. The idea is to simplify your life, to reduce everything to a pair of choices, but the grand irony is that it’s this attempt at simplification that ends up destroying a person. Which is not to say that embracing these multiform routes through life is simple by any means, but the potential payoff is far greater. Under the current system, who is supposed to be turned on by Buck, anyway? The vagina is a deal-breaker for gay men and straight women, and the fact that he’s a man probably wouldn’t sit well with straight guys and lesbians. And yet, he’s got his fans, his following.
That said, he’s not a hero. He’s not saving the world by getting fucked in his big man vagina. To an extent, though, he is indeed the face and the voice of a new way of thinking, one long denied its existence and its relevance, and of that, he is living proof.
Let’s just not give it a name.
Visit Buck online at BuckAngel.com.
BME/News and Modblog highlight only a small fraction of what
A great read. I love hearing about Buck Angel because somehow it always reawakens my faith in humanity.
A great read. I love hearing about Buck Angel because somehow it always reawakens my faith in humanity.
Aww, no dirty pictures? But big hormonally-enhanced clits are the best!
Aww, no dirty pictures? But big hormonally-enhanced clits are the best!
i absolutely adore buck angel,
i was surprised to see him here on BME.
🙂
thanks for the post.
i absolutely adore buck angel,
i was surprised to see him here on BME.
🙂
thanks for the post.
What a brave person, I like his strength and attitude a lot. It’s great that his family came around, too. I also think he’s really attractive =)
Great story.
What a brave person, I like his strength and attitude a lot. It’s great that his family came around, too. I also think he’s really attractive =)
Great story.
Good article – nice to see some variety on BME.
Good article – nice to see some variety on BME.
I don’t have any words. This is a truly spectacular article.
I don’t have any words. This is a truly spectacular article.
Sad day, I wanted to see what his mangina looks like. Good article, interesting man.
I’ll have to google search him.
Sad day, I wanted to see what his mangina looks like. Good article, interesting man.
I’ll have to google search him.
This is a great article. Probably one of my favourites, I just love his attitude towards everything.
This is a great article. Probably one of my favourites, I just love his attitude towards everything.
hes still kinda got the chick ass… great story lol
hes still kinda got the chick ass… great story lol
Great article. To be honest, I haven’t thought much of your shorter ModBlog posts, but this article was one of the best you’ve done and I’m looking forward to more.
Great article. To be honest, I haven’t thought much of your shorter ModBlog posts, but this article was one of the best you’ve done and I’m looking forward to more.
Im so glad to see him on here, ive been lookin out for him since i first heard his name. thanks for the good reads….
Im so glad to see him on here, ive been lookin out for him since i first heard his name. thanks for the good reads….
Buck Angel is awesome; good article, too! Thank heavens for non-specific queerity, is all I say.
Buck Angel is awesome; good article, too! Thank heavens for non-specific queerity, is all I say.
buck angel is the best.
buck angel is the best.
excellent article, I’m glad to see that Buck is such a strong and positive person!
excellent article, I’m glad to see that Buck is such a strong and positive person!
This dude, is the man! I’m curious to see his porno.
This dude, is the man! I’m curious to see his porno.
really nice one jordan…well done…
i didn’t knew about this guy, now i’m curious about him and his porn movies :x…
really nice one jordan…well done…
i didn’t knew about this guy, now i’m curious about him and his porn movies :x…
way to pioneer! thats pretty fucking awesome, once i read that buck was formerly a woman i recognised the more femine features to the face, but still i think he could probably beat me up.
way to pioneer! thats pretty fucking awesome, once i read that buck was formerly a woman i recognised the more femine features to the face, but still i think he could probably beat me up.
…i’ve just watched a vid of him…ye, the voice tells him up…
i give him kudos for this, it must had been a hard long walk for him to get to this point
…i’ve just watched a vid of him…ye, the voice tells him up…
i give him kudos for this, it must had been a hard long walk for him to get to this point
Well written article!
Funny, I had just been telling my father-in-law about the hot piece of ass that is Buck. The more written about him the better.
Anyone who wants to see more of him should go to his website and buy, buy, buy.
Well written article!
Funny, I had just been telling my father-in-law about the hot piece of ass that is Buck. The more written about him the better.
Anyone who wants to see more of him should go to his website and buy, buy, buy.
The article is very good indeed, although I would definitely prefer to read an interview with an artist, than a pornstar.
Why wouldn’t you interview Loren Cameron?…
The article is very good indeed, although I would definitely prefer to read an interview with an artist, than a pornstar.
Why wouldn’t you interview Loren Cameron?…
This was fantastic! Thank you for a well-written article on such an interesting person.
This was fantastic! Thank you for a well-written article on such an interesting person.
That was an amazing read. Very well written and such an amazingly intriguing topic. I love that I read this blog so much, every day I’m forced to rethink my programmed mindset. Thanks for opening my mind a bit more day by day.
and in regards to this statement “The vagina is a deal-breaker for gay men and straight women, and the fact that he’s a man probably wouldn’t sit well with straight guys and lesbians.”
As a bisexual woman, I would totally accept a big man vagina into my bedroom, the best of both worlds.
That was an amazing read. Very well written and such an amazingly intriguing topic. I love that I read this blog so much, every day I’m forced to rethink my programmed mindset. Thanks for opening my mind a bit more day by day.
and in regards to this statement “The vagina is a deal-breaker for gay men and straight women, and the fact that he’s a man probably wouldn’t sit well with straight guys and lesbians.”
As a bisexual woman, I would totally accept a big man vagina into my bedroom, the best of both worlds.
I watched a program with him in it (I think it was Sexcetera) I was shocked to find out he had a vag.
good on him though, he seemed so happy
I watched a program with him in it (I think it was Sexcetera) I was shocked to find out he had a vag.
good on him though, he seemed so happy
Jordan, you’ve done such a fantastic job on this article. I work in the adult industry, so I’ve known of Buck for many years now, and it’s been incredible to watch him succeed as he has.
Jordan, you’ve done such a fantastic job on this article. I work in the adult industry, so I’ve known of Buck for many years now, and it’s been incredible to watch him succeed as he has.
Buck Angel is way sexy. It was great to see such a thoughtful, in depth article on him
Buck Angel is way sexy. It was great to see such a thoughtful, in depth article on him
#22: Why not interview both? I quite liked this and would also love to see an interview with Loren Cameron as well.
#22: Why not interview both? I quite liked this and would also love to see an interview with Loren Cameron as well.
I love Buck Angel. Not only is he cool, sexy, and comfortable with himself, he is also very down-to-earth and a genuinely nice person to boot. 🙂
I love Buck Angel. Not only is he cool, sexy, and comfortable with himself, he is also very down-to-earth and a genuinely nice person to boot. 🙂
#28: Yes, that would be perfect – comparison of two bery different persons, but very similar visually, at least at the first glance 🙂
#28: Yes, that would be perfect – comparison of two bery different persons, but very similar visually, at least at the first glance 🙂
he really scares me without pants :c
he really scares me without pants :c
He’s pretty alright for a she!
He’s pretty alright for a she!
Absolutely gorgeous in every respect – I’m going to sleep well tonight after reading that.
Nice one Jordan!
Absolutely gorgeous in every respect – I’m going to sleep well tonight after reading that.
Nice one Jordan!
I’m glad that he so comfortable with himself. [not that he shouldn’t be] =)
I’m glad that he so comfortable with himself. [not that he shouldn’t be] =)
This is – without a doubt – one of the very best articles I’ve EVER read on BME during the 9 years since I found the website. Beautifully written about a fascinating subject, and done in such a way that it wasn’t presented as a ‘freak show’ type thing. It struck me as something which would be equally ‘accessible’ to both those of us in the mod community, and many of the mainstream folks – sort of more ‘New York Times’ than ‘National Enquirer’. Well done; I look forward to more like it.
This is – without a doubt – one of the very best articles I’ve EVER read on BME during the 9 years since I found the website. Beautifully written about a fascinating subject, and done in such a way that it wasn’t presented as a ‘freak show’ type thing. It struck me as something which would be equally ‘accessible’ to both those of us in the mod community, and many of the mainstream folks – sort of more ‘New York Times’ than ‘National Enquirer’. Well done; I look forward to more like it.
Were you getting paid by the letter, Ginsberg?
Well written young man.
Were you getting paid by the letter, Ginsberg?
Well written young man.
amazing article!!!! amazing story! amazing person that Buck!!!! it is already hard to be confortable with yourself when you’re a gay man/woman in a worldwide macho society, and i’m saying this from a personal experience; and i can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for buck!!! this is the kind of person whose portrait one should have inked into skin, a real and true fighter!!!
got to say this again… amazing having read this article!!
now if you’ll excuse me i’m going to watch one of buck’s movies!!!
amazing article!!!! amazing story! amazing person that Buck!!!! it is already hard to be confortable with yourself when you’re a gay man/woman in a worldwide macho society, and i’m saying this from a personal experience; and i can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for buck!!! this is the kind of person whose portrait one should have inked into skin, a real and true fighter!!!
got to say this again… amazing having read this article!!
now if you’ll excuse me i’m going to watch one of buck’s movies!!!
Very interesting read, seen Buck in so many bizarre mags and whatnot, it was about time i got a better idea about what he’s about.. Cheerios! 😀
Very interesting read, seen Buck in so many bizarre mags and whatnot, it was about time i got a better idea about what he’s about.. Cheerios! 😀
This really is one of the best articles I’ve ever read on BME.
This really is one of the best articles I’ve ever read on BME.
just fantastic!!!!
just fantastic!!!!
Great job Jordan. As the woman who knows Buck Angel best, I’d have to say you really captured the essence of what an amazing person he is. Not just his persona, but the real deal. He is a truly courageous man, and it has been a challenging journey for him; Buck is an amazing guy. (And believe me, he is definitely all man. Really!) I’m proud to be his wife.
FYI, most of his fans are gay men. His second biggest fan base is women of all sorts (gay, bi, and straight–since you point out our fascination with labels).
Great job Jordan. As the woman who knows Buck Angel best, I’d have to say you really captured the essence of what an amazing person he is. Not just his persona, but the real deal. He is a truly courageous man, and it has been a challenging journey for him; Buck is an amazing guy. (And believe me, he is definitely all man. Really!) I’m proud to be his wife.
FYI, most of his fans are gay men. His second biggest fan base is women of all sorts (gay, bi, and straight–since you point out our fascination with labels).
this is the best article i’ve ever read about buck angel.
well done, BME. well done.
this is the best article i’ve ever read about buck angel.
well done, BME. well done.
I’m definitely among Buck’s fans, as are many of my (admittedly all female) friends. I, too, was impressed by the article and really enjoyed the lede with Howard Stern (what an interesting coming-together!). I was blown away to know he was married to Elayne – such a neat connection to our community! Congrats and thanks to both of them on their wonderful contributions to the world!
I’m definitely among Buck’s fans, as are many of my (admittedly all female) friends. I, too, was impressed by the article and really enjoyed the lede with Howard Stern (what an interesting coming-together!). I was blown away to know he was married to Elayne – such a neat connection to our community! Congrats and thanks to both of them on their wonderful contributions to the world!
Amazing read!
I remember reading about Buck when I was about 16, so 2005, in bizarre magazine. It’s weird for me to think that people have trouble with accepting who he is. When I read that article, I didn’t think he was weird or unusual. I accepted him for who he was. I hate closed minded people, we need more Bucks in the world!
Amazing read!
I remember reading about Buck when I was about 16, so 2005, in bizarre magazine. It’s weird for me to think that people have trouble with accepting who he is. When I read that article, I didn’t think he was weird or unusual. I accepted him for who he was. I hate closed minded people, we need more Bucks in the world!
What a great article. Just when I become apalled with humanity and depressed with the hate that proliferates all society, There are examples of great people who have forged ahead to be their own selves.
I have two little children and I my dream for them is always that they will not suffer for who they are and who their mother is. Hooray for BME.
What a great article. Just when I become apalled with humanity and depressed with the hate that proliferates all society, There are examples of great people who have forged ahead to be their own selves.
I have two little children and I my dream for them is always that they will not suffer for who they are and who their mother is. Hooray for BME.
Thanks for running an awesome story. Transsexuals are amazing people who are often viewed only by their “trans” label, and not for the amazing people they are.
Thanks for running an awesome story. Transsexuals are amazing people who are often viewed only by their “trans” label, and not for the amazing people they are.
Im glad to see my fav person interviewed on BME.
for anyone’s info on who was his surgeon.
Here is his surgeon’s website.
http://www.altermd.com/Transsexual%20Surgery/chest_conturing_example.htm
2rd row of pictures are buck’s chest. you can see his tattoos.
I think Dr. Alter is great surgeon.
Im glad to see my fav person interviewed on BME.
for anyone’s info on who was his surgeon.
Here is his surgeon’s website.
http://www.altermd.com/Transsexual%20Surgery/chest_conturing_example.htm
2rd row of pictures are buck’s chest. you can see his tattoos.
I think Dr. Alter is great surgeon.
What an incredible person, i absolutely agree with the person above me who said that Buck reawakened their faith in humanity.
Definitely a fan, what a great story.
What an incredible person, i absolutely agree with the person above me who said that Buck reawakened their faith in humanity.
Definitely a fan, what a great story.
Jordan Ginsberg writing about Buck Angel = one terrific read!
Jordan Ginsberg writing about Buck Angel = one terrific read!
yeah I’ve seen him in tv once, really special man with a very interesting history
yeah I’ve seen him in tv once, really special man with a very interesting history
This reminds me, back in February, Shannon posted an article promising an interview with Boris, who from what I could tell was born male and did the reverse of what Buck did, and got himself a vagina.
(http://news.bmezine.com/2008/02/04/my-friend-boris/)
I don’t suppose any of the current modblog editors know where that ended up? I’ve been dying to read it.
This reminds me, back in February, Shannon posted an article promising an interview with Boris, who from what I could tell was born male and did the reverse of what Buck did, and got himself a vagina.
(http://news.bmezine.com/2008/02/04/my-friend-boris/)
I don’t suppose any of the current modblog editors know where that ended up? I’ve been dying to read it.
Hes amazing, inspiring and beautiful…
Hes amazing, inspiring and beautiful…
I LOVE Buck!!! He’s in my top friends at myspace, ha ha.
Gender is not binary! San Fran is one of the best places on earth, like another planet, because they have more than 2 genders there. Gender can be on a spectrum, it is not always binary.
Yay for genderbending, Buck is sexy as fuck!
I LOVE Buck!!! He’s in my top friends at myspace, ha ha.
Gender is not binary! San Fran is one of the best places on earth, like another planet, because they have more than 2 genders there. Gender can be on a spectrum, it is not always binary.
Yay for genderbending, Buck is sexy as fuck!
I have been an admirer of Bucks for years (I hate the word ‘fan’ – I’m not a fanatical person!). Great to see him gracing the pages of my favourite internet hidey-hole!
I have been an admirer of Bucks for years (I hate the word ‘fan’ – I’m not a fanatical person!). Great to see him gracing the pages of my favourite internet hidey-hole!
Jordan – Your strongest piece to date, IMO
I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him but from all I have heard (including this article) I get the impression that Buck is the sort of person that helps makes the world a better place to live by keeping it interesting and evolving
Jordan – Your strongest piece to date, IMO
I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him but from all I have heard (including this article) I get the impression that Buck is the sort of person that helps makes the world a better place to live by keeping it interesting and evolving
Great article!
Great article!
He’s sooooo hot!
He’s sooooo hot!
Buck’s a friend of mine and it’s really wonderful to see him represented in such an in depth way that is both honest and positive. Buck is, above and beyond, one of the nicest people I’ve met in the porn business.
Buck’s a friend of mine and it’s really wonderful to see him represented in such an in depth way that is both honest and positive. Buck is, above and beyond, one of the nicest people I’ve met in the porn business.
there were no naughty pics:(
the article was awesome, i love hearing about this guy!
there were no naughty pics:(
the article was awesome, i love hearing about this guy!
Jordan: I have to agree with so many others when I to say this was AMAZINGLY well written. I was captivated from start all the way to finish. This is perhaps one of the best articles EVER written for BME.
I’m just amazed at never getting to be able to q/a Buck’s work…But from the article since he didn’t come to the industry until 2003, it makes sense as that was around the same time as I was on the ass end of the porn industry. I bet if I was still qa’ing sites I’m sure I’d find pictures/video of his work.
again…what a REALLY AMAZING article 😀
Jordan: I have to agree with so many others when I to say this was AMAZINGLY well written. I was captivated from start all the way to finish. This is perhaps one of the best articles EVER written for BME.
I’m just amazed at never getting to be able to q/a Buck’s work…But from the article since he didn’t come to the industry until 2003, it makes sense as that was around the same time as I was on the ass end of the porn industry. I bet if I was still qa’ing sites I’m sure I’d find pictures/video of his work.
again…what a REALLY AMAZING article 😀
This is an excellent article.
This is an excellent article.
Wow. This is by far the best article I’ve read on BME. It was such a great read and so well written. Seriously Jordan, kudos on this. While I knew who Buck Angel was, in persona, I didn’t know anything about who he actually was as a person. Absolutely great.
Wow. This is by far the best article I’ve read on BME. It was such a great read and so well written. Seriously Jordan, kudos on this. While I knew who Buck Angel was, in persona, I didn’t know anything about who he actually was as a person. Absolutely great.
#50, I have been wondering that as well.
#50, I have been wondering that as well.
Why is he a man “without a country”? It doesn’t explain that, except just state he lives in Mexico.
Why is he a man “without a country”? It doesn’t explain that, except just state he lives in Mexico.
Transgenderism is fine, but porn is sick, no matter who is doing it. Sex is supposed to be about love, not entertainment. I lost all respect for this person the moment I heard they were a porn star.
Transgenderism is fine, but porn is sick, no matter who is doing it. Sex is supposed to be about love, not entertainment. I lost all respect for this person the moment I heard they were a porn star.
great article.
but i must say having a mangina is not necessarily a deal breaker for gay men or straight women. only after these transmen voices are heard, and thier body be more visible, can gay men, and straight women even consider it as ab option.
it’s not a deal-breaker – it’s a new possibility.
great article.
but i must say having a mangina is not necessarily a deal breaker for gay men or straight women. only after these transmen voices are heard, and thier body be more visible, can gay men, and straight women even consider it as ab option.
it’s not a deal-breaker – it’s a new possibility.
excellent article, jordan! very well-written.
excellent article, jordan! very well-written.
Yes! Great article! More please!
Yes! Great article! More please!
I would have to agree with Buck on the fact that i do NOT look at myself as a trans man. i am just a simple “biological boo boo”, how my grandmother puts it. but i feel like just because underneath my clothing i had to have a feel snips and adjustments does not make me less of a male and i have to put myself in the “category” or being Transgendered. I have a beautiful girlfriend that looks at me as a male 100% and she is straight, and feels like if i did view myself as a trans male there would be problems. her parents don’t know and i feel they don’t need to know because while Buck is fine with saying he is a man with a pussy i simply am more conservative on that subject and just say im a man with some issues im getting fixed. I feel its like telling someone you were born with a crocked penis, (more saver though), but no one sees it, it doesn’t make you any less of a man, and no one needs to really know unless you a sexual with the person you tell. Thats is just my impute on the subject. get read thought, and thank you.
briden
I would have to agree with Buck on the fact that i do NOT look at myself as a trans man. i am just a simple “biological boo boo”, how my grandmother puts it. but i feel like just because underneath my clothing i had to have a feel snips and adjustments does not make me less of a male and i have to put myself in the “category” or being Transgendered. I have a beautiful girlfriend that looks at me as a male 100% and she is straight, and feels like if i did view myself as a trans male there would be problems. her parents don’t know and i feel they don’t need to know because while Buck is fine with saying he is a man with a pussy i simply am more conservative on that subject and just say im a man with some issues im getting fixed. I feel its like telling someone you were born with a crocked penis, (more saver though), but no one sees it, it doesn’t make you any less of a man, and no one needs to really know unless you a sexual with the person you tell. Thats is just my impute on the subject. get read thought, and thank you.
briden
To each his/her own – but – No matter what you say or think and how you feel, Buck is still a woman.
Even if Buck had all the surgery, – still a woman – and I don’t think it should be legal to claim you are the other sex. Yeah yeah yeah, I get all the mental anguish stuff and all that…it still does not change your DNA.
To each his/her own – but – No matter what you say or think and how you feel, Buck is still a woman.
Even if Buck had all the surgery, – still a woman – and I don’t think it should be legal to claim you are the other sex. Yeah yeah yeah, I get all the mental anguish stuff and all that…it still does not change your DNA.
“I would definitely prefer to read an interview with an artist, than a pornstar”
You’re missing the point. He’s not a pornstar in relation to this interview, he’s a modified person for whom porn is a career – and my applause go to Jordan for interviewing him in such an unbiased fashion in that respect, as well.
laser, it depresses me that ascribing a gender to a person is so important to folk still. It’s just a little tag on your DNA that you’re talking about, a chromosome here or there, that defines gender to you. It’s not really important. Who honestly gives a flying toss about what gender is on someone’s driving license? It’s a bureaucratic bit of fluff, really. Actually, let me rephrase: Who honestly has a good reason to give a flying toss about what gender is on someone’s driving license?
If Buck had “female” on his driving license, it’d just make getting pulled over a whole lot more hassle. That’s about it. So what gender is down legally is unimportant. So far as philosophically: if it matters enough to you to philosophise about it, you need to really address your priorities.
That’s just a long, ranty way of saying that what you are is not who you are, and is thus irrelevant, or else should be. Yay Buck for using it to his advantage.
“I would definitely prefer to read an interview with an artist, than a pornstar”
You’re missing the point. He’s not a pornstar in relation to this interview, he’s a modified person for whom porn is a career – and my applause go to Jordan for interviewing him in such an unbiased fashion in that respect, as well.
laser, it depresses me that ascribing a gender to a person is so important to folk still. It’s just a little tag on your DNA that you’re talking about, a chromosome here or there, that defines gender to you. It’s not really important. Who honestly gives a flying toss about what gender is on someone’s driving license? It’s a bureaucratic bit of fluff, really. Actually, let me rephrase: Who honestly has a good reason to give a flying toss about what gender is on someone’s driving license?
If Buck had “female” on his driving license, it’d just make getting pulled over a whole lot more hassle. That’s about it. So what gender is down legally is unimportant. So far as philosophically: if it matters enough to you to philosophise about it, you need to really address your priorities.
That’s just a long, ranty way of saying that what you are is not who you are, and is thus irrelevant, or else should be. Yay Buck for using it to his advantage.
(note: first and second paragraph are directed towards different posters.)
(note: first and second paragraph are directed towards different posters.)
What a fine article! I have been reading BME for several years and this is about the best article I have read on this very fine site. I have known Buck for several years and, as a gay man, I find him to be a truly wonderful and loving man, and a very hot stud. As a performer and as a human being, he is fantastic . Excellent job, Jordan.
What a fine article! I have been reading BME for several years and this is about the best article I have read on this very fine site. I have known Buck for several years and, as a gay man, I find him to be a truly wonderful and loving man, and a very hot stud. As a performer and as a human being, he is fantastic . Excellent job, Jordan.
Surprised, this is a great story and it takes an almost perfect human being to overcome and fight as Buck did.
Surprised, this is a great story and it takes an almost perfect human being to overcome and fight as Buck did.
What an amazing article! Buck Angel’s one of my heroes and this is the best article I’ve read about him in a long time.
What an amazing article! Buck Angel’s one of my heroes and this is the best article I’ve read about him in a long time.
#71: You are missing my point.
I really do think that an interview is briliant. However, Buck is a person who become famous for his performances, and as such it is impossible to dicvide him from his pornstar background and his approach to the life in general. Although I’m far from judging him on this basis, and I generally don’t have anything against porn and porn industry (I just don’t enjoy it, although I aprecciate its influence on modern audiovisual techniques development), I just don’t consider it a form of art.
Loren Cameron on the other hand is an artist. His photographs, although some of them feature naked models and naked himself as well, are far from being “sexy”. His art brings up the questions about sexuality, gender, life, love and identity, and is not intended to give a boner, which is the reason I enjoy it and find it important, as well as doing a good work towards creating the awareness of transsexual people among those not interested/involved in extreme porn/body mod/whatever. I suspect that If my mother would see Buck on TV in one of his typical performances, she would change the channell immediately. On the other hand, I remember watching a documentary, featuring Loren with her, and we both found it a briliant piece of work. And that is the reason I would prefer to see him here.
#71: You are missing my point.
I really do think that an interview is briliant. However, Buck is a person who become famous for his performances, and as such it is impossible to dicvide him from his pornstar background and his approach to the life in general. Although I’m far from judging him on this basis, and I generally don’t have anything against porn and porn industry (I just don’t enjoy it, although I aprecciate its influence on modern audiovisual techniques development), I just don’t consider it a form of art.
Loren Cameron on the other hand is an artist. His photographs, although some of them feature naked models and naked himself as well, are far from being “sexy”. His art brings up the questions about sexuality, gender, life, love and identity, and is not intended to give a boner, which is the reason I enjoy it and find it important, as well as doing a good work towards creating the awareness of transsexual people among those not interested/involved in extreme porn/body mod/whatever. I suspect that If my mother would see Buck on TV in one of his typical performances, she would change the channell immediately. On the other hand, I remember watching a documentary, featuring Loren with her, and we both found it a briliant piece of work. And that is the reason I would prefer to see him here.
I’m confused as to why the big change if BME News is not updated with “news” stories daily. A casual reader would observe this as down time when actually, modblog is updated daily. Just an observation. I myself have just bookmarked the modblog page and go straight there due to the lack of updates on the “news” site. Thereby leaving me in the dark if there is an update. Oh the confusion. Am I right? 😛
I’m confused as to why the big change if BME News is not updated with “news” stories daily. A casual reader would observe this as down time when actually, modblog is updated daily. Just an observation. I myself have just bookmarked the modblog page and go straight there due to the lack of updates on the “news” site. Thereby leaving me in the dark if there is an update. Oh the confusion. Am I right? 😛
I’ll try to write faster for you, MountainGirl.
BMEnews has existed for years. The “big change” was cleaning up a VERY confusing layout. While I’m sure Jordan would love to update this every day- it’s just not possible. Modblog is updated every day, of course. A picture here, a video there. Not researched articles that take some of us a while to write. Take that extra four seconds- a shorter time than it took you to write this post, and put the RSS feeds in your browser. It’ll tell you when a new piece comes up. Then you can thank the writers instead of complaining that we don’t write fast enough.
I’ll try to write faster for you, MountainGirl.
BMEnews has existed for years. The “big change” was cleaning up a VERY confusing layout. While I’m sure Jordan would love to update this every day- it’s just not possible. Modblog is updated every day, of course. A picture here, a video there. Not researched articles that take some of us a while to write. Take that extra four seconds- a shorter time than it took you to write this post, and put the RSS feeds in your browser. It’ll tell you when a new piece comes up. Then you can thank the writers instead of complaining that we don’t write fast enough.
I met him at the AEE show in 07. His booth was right behind ours at the convention. Very nice guy, and very accommodating to his fans. I’m glad to see his success in the biz.
I met him at the AEE show in 07. His booth was right behind ours at the convention. Very nice guy, and very accommodating to his fans. I’m glad to see his success in the biz.
It was an observation, not a complaint. I would think critiques from those who consume your product (whatever that product may be) would be the most efficient way of making your product better. I’m sure it is more beneficial than alienating and being snarky to those who do critique it.
It was an observation, not a complaint. I would think critiques from those who consume your product (whatever that product may be) would be the most efficient way of making your product better. I’m sure it is more beneficial than alienating and being snarky to those who do critique it.
Amazing article, amazing guy.
I’ve deleted my rant, suffice to say if you read that article and still don’t get it, I pity you “laser”.
Amazing article, amazing guy.
I’ve deleted my rant, suffice to say if you read that article and still don’t get it, I pity you “laser”.
Thank you for updating modblog with an announcement for the new article! 🙂
Thank you for updating modblog with an announcement for the new article! 🙂
Buck Angel?
Whewwwwwwwww <3.
Man is a Pioneer, and goddamn, everyone loves a sexy Trail Blazer.
Makes me less nervous about possibly getting a Sex Change.
Buck Angel?
Whewwwwwwwww <3.
Man is a Pioneer, and goddamn, everyone loves a sexy Trail Blazer.
Makes me less nervous about possibly getting a Sex Change.
Fantastic posy dude! I loved to read it and I promise I will bookmark your blog , well done!
Fantastic posy dude! I loved to read it and I promise I will bookmark your blog , well done!
We create words to put people and things into categories, and then come to believe that nature, God, or the Great Pumpkin designed nature that way and that everything must fit into these categories. Yes, sex is a spectrum and those with a modicum of intelligence come to understand this eventually if their minds have not been poisoned by simplistic religious leaders who want the universe their way. I take my hat off to this brave man and his family who didn’t cast him out for being different. To show where I am coming from, I’m a normal heterosexual male with a wife and three grown kids who are “normal” as far as know.
We create words to put people and things into categories, and then come to believe that nature, God, or the Great Pumpkin designed nature that way and that everything must fit into these categories. Yes, sex is a spectrum and those with a modicum of intelligence come to understand this eventually if their minds have not been poisoned by simplistic religious leaders who want the universe their way. I take my hat off to this brave man and his family who didn’t cast him out for being different. To show where I am coming from, I’m a normal heterosexual male with a wife and three grown kids who are “normal” as far as know.