“To fetishize, as a verb, is to make something the object of a sexual fetish,” Wright explains. “In no way is saying what turns you on personally inherently fetishization.” “I really dislike the fact that this TikTok user got called out in such a negative way,” says sex and relationship therapist Rachel Wright, MA, LMFT. Kirah’s video went viral and currently hosts over 35,000 comments and an alarming number of death threats. “So when I posted it I was expecting the same response since I thought society was moving more toward -positivity than slut-shaming.” “I was really surprised that it blew up because I’d told my best friend that I watch gay porn and she didn’t think much of it,” she explains. “At first the responses were agreeing with what I said, but after about four hours, they got really nasty,” she tells InsideHook. It was a seemingly harmless observation (and typical TikTok fodder) that turned controversial when a rush of gay men accused Kirah of fetishizing the gay male community. This was made abundantly clear earlier this year when TikTok user posted a video with with the text: “When I realized gay male p**n turns me on more than straight p**n.” You know how tons of straight men enjoy watching lesbian porn and nobody bats an eye? The same doesn’t seem to apply to women who watch gay porn.
