I recently learned of the term "ethical gooning." Someone accused me of not doing this for animating a beefy bear removing his Dodgers shirt on IG. Anyway, watching this video prompted me to write an essay. Because why not.
Ethical Gooning: The Gray Area of Lust and Lenses
There it is—some poor guy’s well-rounded ass, jiggling in real-time, captured through the shaky, borderline-incoherent lens of someone trying (and failing) to be discreet. You can feel the nervousness of the cameraman. The shaky hands, the poorly framed shot, the awkward attempt at zooming—like a nature photographer capturing footage of a rare species but without the funding or the patience.
Welcome to the ancient art of gooning.
Except now, there’s an ethical debate attached to it.
Because this isn’t 1993, when you had to burn an image of that hot dude you saw at the mall into your biological hard drive and pray your memory didn’t corrupt by the time you got home. No, we live in a time where capturing an image is effortless. Too effortless. With the flick of a wrist and a strategically angled phone, you’ve got visual receipts of your lust. But is it right? Is it ethical?
And what the hell does that even mean in this context?
The Rise of Ethical Gooning
Let’s be clear—gooning has always existed. It just didn’t have a name.
Back in the day, we had magazines, VHS tapes, and, for the especially dedicated, a seared-in mental image of that one beefy gym teacher whose shirts were always just a little too tight. The rules were simple: if you wanted to stare at someone, you did it the old-fashioned way. You stole a glance. You relied on memory. And if you were lucky, you got a Polaroid or a hidden magazine page that wasn’t crinkled beyond recognition.
Now, in the hyper-documented age of the internet, things have changed. Gooning has evolved from personal fantasy to social currency—a game of who can share the best material, the best clip, the best angle. But along with it came the moral debate.
Some would argue that recording a stranger’s ass in public is unethical. That it’s stealing an image of someone without their consent. That it crosses some invisible line of decency.
But those same people will gleefully retweet thirst traps, share a shirtless photo of a pro wrestler, or drool over a TikTok daddy without hesitation. Because, somehow, the ethics of gooning only seem to apply when the object of desire isn’t already approved for public consumption.
And let’s not even start on AI.
AI, Gooning, and the Never-Ending Outrage Machine
The moment AI came into play, the ethical gooners got new targets.
• AI photorealism? That’s theft!
• AI stylized art? That’s disrespecting real artists!
• AI cartoon versions of people? That’s creepy!
• AI-generated men that don’t exist? That’s unnatural!
• AI bears with impossible proportions? That’s fetishization!
No matter what you create, someone will be angry about it. Meanwhile, those same people have no issue sharing real human beings without permission, provided it’s within their personal moral framework.
And this is where things get funny. Because people who are angry about “unethical gooning” don’t seem to have a problem with other forms of public recording.
Filming a cute puppy on the sidewalk? Adorable.
Recording a street performer? Encouraged.
Catching a celebrity in public? Fair game.
Taking a photo of a beefy guy in tiny shorts? Now, hold on just a second, buddy!
Why? Because gooning is taboo. Because desire is a currency we’re told we should spend in private. Because the idea of looking at someone for pleasure makes people uncomfortable—unless it’s already been socially approved.
But here's the thing: we all do it.
Even the most self-righteous social justice warrior has seen a thick construction worker wiping sweat off his brow and had a moment. Even the most militant anti-gooner has scrolled past a shirtless TikTok daddy and paused just a little too long.
The difference? Some people admit it. Some don’t.
So… Is This Video “Unethical Gooning?”
1. It’s a low-quality, shaky recording of a nameless man’s ass.
2. His face isn’t visible.
3. He was filmed in public.
Maybe. But not inherently.
If this video were of the same guy but from the front, his face clearly visible, then yeah, we’re talking about a violation of privacy. But an out-of-focus shot of someone’s rear? That’s practically the same as glancing at someone while walking behind them. The only difference is the documentation.
Hell, if this same guy were a famous fitness influencer, this video would have thousands of likes, and nobody would be tagging him to warn him that he was being ogled.
Because, again, it’s not about the act. It’s about who gets to be desired.
Final Thoughts on Ethical Gooning
1. Gooning has always existed. It just evolved with technology.
2. Ethical outrage is selective. People don’t actually care about privacy—they care about controlling who gets objectified.
3. AI makes everything worse. No matter what you create, someone will be mad about it.
4. Recording a stranger’s ass is probably not the end of the world. But maybe don’t be too obvious about it.
At the end of the day, we live in a world where thirst will always exist. Where the instinct to admire doesn’t go away just because someone made a new rule about it.
And really, when we’re all old and gray, scrolling through our archives of beautifully built men, we won’t be thinking about the ethics of that one shaky video from 2025.
We’ll just be grateful we hit record.
