This photo, at left, stirred up some positive reactions a few days ago in my “Mask Porn” article. Readers described it as “hot“, “horny”, and one reader even called it: “GRRRAAAGGHHH!!!”
I like the photo — I only post photos that I get into in some fashion — but I was a little surprised by the level of excitement and praise. It is hard to predict sometimes which images will really strike a chord.
What is it about this picture that makes it exciting? Obviously ripping a mask off is a turn-on, and two is better than one. Does the tongue exposure by one attacker add a sexual vibe?
You guys really seemed to enjoy that mask ripping photo, at least the guys who commented, so let’s see if more images of men tearing apart masks will inspire any of you to say: “GRRAGHH!”
This Luchador is not happy about his bloodied face — his flesh torn open and damaged by his vicious opponent. So he takes his revenge, not by damaging the other man’s face, but by ripping into his beloved mask.
He has tangled up the man’s arms to render him helpless and then untied and unlaced his mask — you can see the loose mask just itching to be torn off the rest of the way.
I wonder if some of the strong reaction to these Forced Unmasking photos has to do with the growing problem of identify theft and the lack of privacy in our modern lives. After all, wearing a mask is akin to protecting your privacy — keeping your identity and your personal business to yourself so nobody knows who you are.
Just as the masked wrestler naively expects that his hood will remain intact (it is technically illegal to unmask another wrestler), so too has modern man foolishly believed that his transactions and behaviors are secret unless he chooses to reveal them.
But sinister forces are at play in the modern world. Evil forces are always waiting to rip off your mask of anonymity — to break down your layers of secrecy and violate you.
So we watch the masked wrestler struggle to keep his mask intact and his identity safe. But he is soon forced to submit, his mask removed against his will, his privacy violated.
We feel just as helpless against the hackers and identity thieves who are relentless in their efforts to steal our secrets, drain our bank accounts, and utterly rape our good credit ratings.
Just as the masked wrestler clings to the tattered rags of flimsy fabric, desperate to keep his face hidden, so too do we attempt to install Firewalls and anti-virus software to keep our own privacy safe.
Similar to the way the wrestler’s mask is inevitably torn apart and removed, our rights to privacy been gutted. Zuckerberg has declared that privacy is no longer a social norm. Courts have ruled that law enforcement can review your tweets — they don’t even need a warrant.
The recent bombing case reminds us that our activities and movements while out in public are likely being filmed. Anything we do that may be illegal, silly, or embarrassing may be filmed or photographed by anyone and posted for the world to see. If it goes “Viral”, we could become a worldwide laughingstock.
So our feelings of compassion for the hapless Luchador, still desperately clinging to his mask and his dream of anonymity, are certainly understandable. 
So the reason, in part, that the image of a mask being removed is so titillating is the sense of violation — the removal of clothing that the wearer wants to keep. There is a feeling of danger, of dirtiness and rape, in a photo of a man being unmasked.
We feel violated in a similar way when our identity is hacked, our credit card number used by some sinister attacker. Many victims of identity theft have complained “I feel raped.” There is even a new term, “Facebook Rape“, which describes getting into someone else’s Facebook account and posting embarrassing comments on their page.
As long as these actions are happening to someone else and not to us, we can find them exciting and naughty on some level.
