BOSTON/CHICAGO—The oldest BDSM commerce site online, Wasteland.com, and the oldest continuously operating gay sexuality brand in America, the Bijou Theatre in Chicago, have announced the launch of TribalMale.com, the first subscription site to feature gay BDSM classics owned by the Bijou Theatre and Bijou Video.
Founded in 1969 by GayVN Lifetime Achievement award winner Steven Toushin, Bijou has been in continuous operation since then as a sex-positive gay erotica resource for local Chicago men and others seeking classic gay erotic video via mail order worldwide. The depth and authenticity of the content available within TribalMale.com—from the videos, consumer lifestyle reference information and even rare gay hardcore erotic audio recordings—will make the site irresistible to men who enjoy the world of BDSM and other fetish play with a focus on masculinity, the partners said in an announcement issued Monday.
Steven Toushin commented on Bijou’s process of expansion into digital commerce and distribution, and why the decision was made to work with Wasteland, which will operate and manage TribalMale.com through its SpiceCash affiliate program.
“My partner and I spoke about potential affiliate network/pay site operations outsource partners for a dedicated gay BDSM subscription site featuring our material,” Toushin said. “Colin and Wasteland.com were a solid fit. Their company has been successful in digital BDSM since the mid 1990s and were able to complement our content resources well, including the established niche affiliate network SpiceCash.com."
Wasteland President Colin Rowntree said for almost 15 years he’d been looking to add gay-centric content to the Wasteland experience and had not found any suitable classic and edgy resources with the right content, until he was introduced to Bijou and Steven Toushin.
“It was apparent from the start that Bijou’s library of classic gay porn titles, including many that cater to a gay male interest in BDSM and fetish play, would mesh well with our experience in the creation and promotion of specialty paysites for a combined venture,” Rowntree said.
“The gay fetish and BDSM markets seem open for a new site that will celebrate authentic BDSM content, consistent with the quality standards required by Wasteland,” he added. “After being introduced to Steven—and the history of Bijou and its content library—we were happily shocked. The classic and masculine flavor of Bijou’s BDSM videos and audio stories were what we needed to make TribalMale.com a reality, and offer up a solid gay BDSM site addition to SpiceCash for our affiliates.”
Rowntree elaborated on the type of content included on TribalMale.com, which breaks down into three main categories: S&M, Arthouse/Grindhouse and Levi/Leather/Americana.
“Arthouse/Grindhouse is a genre that was produced in the 1980s with large budgets, scripts and a whole artistic flair going on, like that found in the Centurians of Rome series,” said Rowntree. “Levi/Leather and Americana are classic tales of bikers, truck drivers, construction workers and all of the archetypes found in the Village People, but brought together in clever and often campy films.”
Centurians of Rome, he added, is claimed to be one of the most expensive gay films of its time (nearly $100,000 to produce), and was reportedly financed from a 1980 theft of almost $2 million by a Brink’s security guard.
“Lloyd’s of London, an insurer of Brink’s, thus became one of the co-owners of the film on a technicality,” he said. “And yes, we know, ‘Centurians’ is misspelled … that’s how Hand-in-Hand named it, so we kept it!”
The wealth of content available on TribalMale.com is in keeping with the extraordinary life of the man who founded Bijou. Toushin’s 2007 GayVN Award for Lifetime Acheivement and his 1989 Reuben Sturman Award, as warranted as they are, only hint at the place he holds in the industry, not just as a purveyor and protector of classic content, nor even as a 40-year fixture in Chicago's gay scene, but just as iconically as a tireless activist in the service of unfettered sexual expression.
“[Toushin] has been a defendant in the United States justice system continuously from 1969 until the present,” reads his Wikipedia page. “He has defended himself and his companies in twenty-one obscenity cases including two federal obscenity trials; and has suffered thirty-five personal arrests and over 200 busts to his businesses.” Even these facts provide just the barest outline of a life lived fearlessly and honestly in the First Amendment trenches by a man who also happens to still operate the oldest gay adult theater and sex club in the United States.
TribalMale.com is available for affiliate promotion exclusively as part of the SpiceCash.com affiliate network.
For more information or to set up promotions for TribalMale.com with your gay/male erotica fetish and BDSM traffic, visit http://www.spicecash.com or contact [email protected].
