Let's talk about porn

From the dark side of pornography to a new feminine approach to the porn industry by Helena Vanesa Moreno Solano

Porn is becoming the main source of affective sexual education for our young people. Directors like Erika Lust are struggling to bring a non-misogynistic approach to the porn industry.

The average age for the first contact with porn is lowering thanks to the ease of access to mobile technology. According to a recent study of the “Network Youth and Social Inclusion” and the University of Balear Islands, the first viewing of pornography is now at the age of eight - for both boys and girls - this is because the porn sneaks from the Internet as soon as there is access to technology in a very aggressive fashion.

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We are seeing how this new pornography, more macho and vexatious, is being the main source of affective sexual education for our young people: 80% of them say that they did not receive education or that it was insufficient,” said the president of the Network Youth and Social Inclusion, Carlos Rosón. Pornography reinforces very marked stereotypes: it tells us what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, reinforcing behaviour patterns; it tells us which are the ideal bodies and which is the correct sexuality. All of these aspects, among others, greatly influence the sexual behaviour patterns of today’s adolescents. In porn, the typical preferences vary considerably between men and women. Men generally like strong porn, with scenes of anal sex, oral sex, group sex, of a man with many women, and lesbian sex. Women prefer soft pornography and group sex, of one woman with multiple men. Evolutionary psychologists explain it this way: In the short term, the mating strategies between men and women differ substantially, since the goals that are sought are very different. Essentially, women are not interested in having shortterm matings, but men are. For women, pregnancy is very expensive in health, energy resources and future life. The female mind evolved for a

situation that is no longer valid: mating led to pregnancy; and women continue to value situations with the biases that this situation, valid in the past, imposed. So the woman is still interested, in general, because there will always be exceptions, mating with strong, healthy mates, capable of protecting, capable of investing time and resources in them and in the offspring. Women are not interested in quantity but in quality. For the male, the investment is minimal: some sperm. Men, speaking in a biological way, are interested in fathering as many descendants as possible. Pornographic films made by men are in accordance with their biological strategy, satisfying the urges predicted by evolutionary psychology.

The dark side of pornography As an actress myself, I have been curious to learn about the point of view of the pornographic actresses working in porn movies directed by men. I have questions such as: How do they feel? What is behind what the cameras show? Are they satisfied with the scenes they perform? In the movies, the actresses smile and say they are having fun, but their testimonies affirm that behind the scenes there is humiliation and degradation everywhere. Maybe pornography isn’t completely bad. However, with the way it has evolved in recent years it has turned into something completely sadistic and violent, especially for actresses who are tricked into entering the industry. Although there are more and more feminist works that care about the well-being of their actresses, the mainstream is increasingly more macho and brutal with their actresses, transforming the way people think about sex.

The following testimonies are taken from different interviews that were carried out with ex-actresses from the porn industry.

“One movie had the most terrifying, depressing, and brutal scene I have ever made. I have tried to remove it from my memory due to the severe abuse I received during filming. The actor had a natural hatred against women, in the sense that he has always been more brutal than is required. I agreed to do the scene, thinking I was going to hit my head only once. If you notice, he wore a solid gold ring the entire time and kept hitting me with it. I stopped the scene in half because it hurt too much”

— Regan

“Like most pornstars, I told this lie; It was one of my favorite things to say when asked if I would like to do a particular scene. “I only do what I like! I wouldn’t do something if I didn’t like it!” (He said it with a false smile and I laughed) What a lie! I did what I had to do to “work” in porn. I did what I knew would help me gain “fame” in the industry”

— Alexa

“It was the most horrible, shameful and degrading thing. I had to film an interactive DVD, which takes hours and hours of filming, while I had a 104 degree fever (Fahrenheit). I was crying and I wanted to leave but my agent wouldn’t let me. He said he couldn’t let me falter. I also did a scene where I was put in with an actor who was on my “no list.” I wanted to please them, so I did. He stepped on my head ... I was scared and started screaming. They stopped filming and sent me home with a reduced pay because they had only a little of the shot and not the whole scene.”

— Jessi

These women couldn’t leave the industry or refuse to participate because they needed the money. It is a dark industry that, except for some few safe havens, takes advantage of women, using them as objects that can be brutalized, discarded and replaced without a second thought.

Women in the porn industry The feminine taste in pornography has also been a matter of study, and curiosity, for academics, scientists and activists. Famous activist and director of porn for women, the Swedish Erika Lust made her career in Barcelona with a production company that sells her tapes through her website and by sending her films by mail. Even last year, she released her first erotic book “The Song of Nora”, and, according to her, despite the eco-

A look behind the scenes at the world of ethical porn

© Erika Lust https://www.ismorbo.com/erika-lust-una-mirada-tras-las-camaras-al-mundo-del-porno-etico-y-feminista/

Erika Lust on the set of one of her movies

© Erika Lust https://loveartnotpeople.org/2019/05/02/erika-lust-y-el-porno-feminista/

nomic crisis affecting Europe (especially Spain), its market continues to grow, to the point that she has not been able to shoot for more than a year as she is busy commercializing her feature and short films. Lust was a pornstar, and, according to her, in her movies, women truly enjoy themselves. Various men and women intervene, all voluntarily participating, both giving and receiving pleasure as sexual equals, where there is no domination. The camera not only focuses on the genitals, as is customary, because she thinks that pleasure is a matter of the whole body. In addition, Lust goes against the stereotypes of the films filmed by men, in which the actors are “superiorly” gifted in their sexual features: huge penises, muscular stomachs, huge breasts, round buttocks, beautiful and hairless bodies. In her films, on the other hand, there is pubic hair and bodies without surgeries, normal breasts, small buttocks, ordinary and pleasant people. For Jessica Drake, not all women want to watch soft porn, some want to see something stronger. In general, these directors have blogs and consultation pages where they constantly research what women want and hope to find in this world. Erika Lust, Stormy Daniels, Jessica Drake, Angie Rowntree, and Anna Frolicme are trying to change the meaning of porn. They want it to stop being associated with the dirty, the sticky and the shameful, and to be associated with beauty, hedonism and the knowledge of sexuality. They do not want more stereotypes, and they reject the machismo and degrading treatment that is given to women in porn movies made by men. Their proposals are more about a modelling of the erotic, where the woman is presented in another light, in greater intimacy, and in relationships of mutual pleasure. They want women to discover their sexual and sensual potential by watching movies. Between pornography and eroticism there is a void that they seek to fill.

Pornography for women also has festivals that highlight the best annual productions, especially in Europe, such as the Barcelona Erotic Film Festival. Erika Lust declares herself a feminist and ensures that she wants to see porn where women are not treated as objects. She has been joined by other female directors such as Jennifer Lyon Bell, Anne Span or Annie Sprinkle, who was a prostitute and is now a sex educator. She has a famous phrase: “I do not say no to porn, I say yes to porn well done.” Women are not being used to watching porn also has deeper reasons than is evident. There is an abundance of material that they consider offensive and misogynistic. While these productions are everywhere on the web for free, the porn considered ‘feminist’, made from the work of directors sharing these concerns, is not available for free. American feminist Catharine MacKinnon wrote in her book ‘Sexuality’ that: ‘Erotic dominance defines the imperatives of masculinity; eroticized submission defines femininity. Being the object of sexual use is an essential part of the content of sex for women.” The lack of great supply and the taboos with which women have grown with around their sexuality discourages this market. And that is precisely the fight, apparently incipient according to the numbers, of women against conventional pornography, and the slow growth of a community that prefers eroticism and equality in sexual relations.

A day shooting erotic cinema with Erika Lust

© Erika Lust https://www.yorokobu.es/horny-beasts-erika-lust/