is for Orgasm.  The moment that reveals most clearly that the real subject of modern pornography is not sex but a prurient examination of the sculptural perfection of spectacular physiques is the eccentric way in which orgasm is represented.  Astonishingly, what industry insiders call the "money shot" seldom occurs during intercourse, from friction with another body, but is relegated to separate scenes in which the actors suddenly stop having sex altogether so that one man can bring himself to orgasm through masturbation as the other simply sits back and watches, offering feeble words of halfhearted support and encouragement, like a midwife presiding over a difficult birth.  Instead of having simultaneous orgasms, the actors politely take turns. Thus, paradoxically, at the very moment when the two lovers should be conjoined, merging in mutual satisfaction, they are most alone, withdrawn, and independent.  The cum shot provides a metaphor for the pathology of modern pornography, which is highly solipsistic and resistent to the whole idea of merging.  Contemporary pornography is at war with its very subject, sex, an act that involves a type of communion anathema to films more preoccupied with the appearance of lovely specimens than with the quality of their interaction with each other.