Porn could be so good. It could be so simple. There's lots of sexy people in this world having hot sex just for the fun of it. Find some people who already do hot things together, pay them to sign model releases, and point a camera at them. Hooray, you've made porn!
Unfortunately, most porn doesn't seem to work this way. I think the fundamental problem with porn is that it didn't evolve out of the sex world, but out of the film world. As a result, porn producers generally cast performers as individuals rather than as couples (or groups), and they contrive scenarios rather than capturing scenarios that already happen. I've seen porn casting calls; they ask if you're willing to have anal sex, not if you enjoy anal sex. (For a variety of reasons, 98% of them fucked up, anal pays more.) Most porn seems to be desperately--often unsuccessfully--attempting to manufacture sexiness when there's so much sexiness in the world already.
I don't think it's inherently wrong to pay someone to have sex, but when pay is the only reason they're agreeing to the sex, a can of worms pops open. And it only gets wormier when there's a stigma attached that performing in porn marks someone for life as... um, a porn performer, but for some reason that's icky and bad. I'm not going to claim that all porn performers are drug addicts or trafficked women or whatever--for some of them it's conscious iconoclasm and for many more it's just a job--but they're definitely at risk of financial exploitation and sexual coercion. I'm not ready to declare that conventionally made porn is always wrong, but it's... wormy.
And frankly, it's often just ugly. When people are having sex that doesn't turn them on with partners whom they're not attracted to, it shows. Not only is it no fun to watch, but it's the worst role model imaginable. When you watch porn and you're not experienced in real sex, it's easy to come away with the impression that sex isn't supposed to feel good, that hollow moans and joyless pounding are how normal people do it.
The last time I had sex with Rowdy, he pulled my hair, bit me hard enough to leave a bruise, held me down while he fucked me... and at the end we were kissing and giggling. I wish I could see something like this in porn. What I'd like to see isn't sweet soft sex necessarily, but sex with humanity, sex where people are being rough because they both get off on it.
Some "amateur" porn already fits what I'd like porn to be, and things like RedTube and alt-porn are advancing that as well. Not always as well as I'd like it--the porn producer idea of "amateur porn" often seems to be "amateur women"--but there's definitely real sex getting put on video out there. But you know who really does this well? Comstock Films. What they do isn't just amateur porn but documentary porn, and it's awesome.
I don't think people consume porn like movies. It's a running joke that you don't watch it for the story and you often don't even watch it the whole way though. So why is porn made like movies? If porn doesn't need plots or drama (and based on the few "dramatic" porn films I've seen, it really, really doesn't), then porn doesn't need actors. It just needs fuckers. And people already do that for fun.
This is SPOT ON. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the reasons I've gone into making my own porn/fetish videos. I want to make something awesome and real that shows everyone involved having a great sexy time while also showing off how the awesomeness of the fetish that I'm filming. Although I do like sometimes to watch a low budget story based softcore porn on Cinamax, but it mostly gets MST3Ked.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Can't tell you how many times I've said almost the exact same thing in conversations.
ReplyDeleteIf porn doesn't need plots or drama (and based on the few "dramatic" porn films I've seen, it really, really doesn't), then porn doesn't need actors. It just needs fuckers. And people already do that for fun.
ReplyDeleteYES. I would be more than happy to just watch people fuck without any plot or context - as long as they genuinely enjoyed it. But of the limited porn I've seen, nobody ever seemed to have any chemistry or fun together...and that's kind of turned me off the whole idea.
I mean, I'd love to watch hot couples get it on in theory...but my standards are very, very specific and I'd have to wade thorough a lot of depressing shit to find anything I liked.
As it happens, I have a boyfriend who's my physical ideal and I'm fairly monogamy-minded so usually I just use him for wank material. If I were single, though, I'd be in dire straits. :P
Dr. SlashBlight - Is any of your stuff publicly available yet? I'd love to see you at work. :)
ReplyDeleteIf porn doesn't need plots or drama (and based on the few "dramatic" porn films I've seen, it really, really doesn't)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Pirates? It came out a few years after the first Pirates of the Caribbean to capitalize on the whole sexy pirate thing. It's feature length and actually has a special effect or two in a scene where some pirate ships (?) fight. It's hilarious and absolutely perfect for watching with friends and making fun of. Weird as a porn format, though.
Emma - I saw the first fifteen minutes of Pirates, said "it goes on like this for two more hours?" and that was the extent of my Pirates experience.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be fun to make fun of, but as entertainment in its own right, it didn't come close to working for me.
Have you ever watched any of Tristan Taormino's porn films? She does hire porn performers (unlike Comstock films) but her whole Chemistry series is built around this idea...it's like the reality show of porn--a bunch of performers in a house for a few days, shooting whatever scenes and sex acts they want with whoever they want. Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big fan of her Rough Sex series, which shows the performers talking about their fantasies and negotiating scenes (though not everyone in these has the most awesome negotiation skills) before the scenes themselves are shown.
Artemisia - I've read her book "Opening Up" (very legitimizing and open-minded but kinda bland treatment of polyamory and other non-monogamous lifestyles), but I haven't watched her films. I'll check them out.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. The lack of real chemistry and laughter in most porn is a real turn-off for me. Comstock films are the only ones I own on DVD, despite having to order them from overseas...
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned in your post on ugly porn the not-cheaply-bought virtues of Kink.com, and while I'm glad Kink.com exists, it's still a website created for men. I'm interested in female domination, and I'm a lady, and all I get are pictures of trussed up bitch-faced dominatrixes that alienate me. All the sets are clearly meant for the submissive male audience, not the dominant female audience. It stinks of the male gaze :(
ReplyDeleteI've vowed to become my own pornographer though, and once I can afford the camera I'm saving up for, I'll gladly add my porn-point-of-view to the discussion.
Celine - Kink.com kind of straddles the line between "porn by kinksters, for kinksters" and "commercial porn producer." I think they're more thoughtful and responsible than most commercial porn producers, but by no means free of a lot of their problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't get into gaze in this post, but 99% of porn (including most amateur porn) strikes me as incredibly male-gazey. The classic shot is a woman's entire body and a man's dick. Maybe part of his hip. It's no wonder that straight porn isn't much fun for heterosexual women.
Holly: Yeah! And when there is a dude, he is an UGLY dude. I don't want to look at ugly dudes in my wank material. :(
ReplyDeleteWhile I do very much enjoy non-scripted porn and the "just fucking", I don't think the problem with a lot of live-action porn is that it's cinematic -- I think the problem is that it's poorly made, for money, for men (or for the people we expect men to be). The scenarios for the most part don't interest me and the acting is poor. But I do like scenarios, just as much as I like the "just fucking". I like a story, even a minimal one like, "Coworker is asleep, boss wakes him up with handjob."
ReplyDeleteWhen scripted and cinematic porn hits my kinks, and the actors are doing a good job, and all the technical and artistic details are getting it right, then it's happy wank time. But since it so often doesn't do any of those things, I much prefer to watch some guy masturbate in front of his webcam. Because it's really, really hard to get that wrong.
i must recommend everything by shine louise houston (pink and white productions, most famously the excellent Crash Pad series, which has just the right amount of plot--there is an apartment, where you take people, and people bone there. it is awesome). people having the sex they like with the people they like fucking (queer sex with people who do not look like mainstream models or porn performers but WITH decent lighting/cameras/etc)...it's nice stuff.
ReplyDeleteThose UGLY dudes in het porn are mainly UGLY because of their UGLY approach to sex.
ReplyDeleteThat kind of porn is basically about UGLY dudes using female orifices. And the women attached to the orifices being used, pretending to enjoy it.
Just stopped by to say Hooray for Holly! and her in-your-face, feminist, sex-friendly blogposts.
I may not agree with or relate to everything you write, but damn it, you make me think about it!
This is why I greatly prefer fetish porn... it's easy to tell when the performers are into it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from having watched a few (and as few as they have been, it's mind-searingly too many) strap-on porn flicks, there's a huge problem with quality of worksmanship.
ReplyDeleteThe harnesses are crappy, the dildos are the shitty rubber ones, etc.
That's entirely on top of the gender-reversal boring crap which has the men making fake orgasm noises for half an hour and the women thrusting with silent, mechanical apathy.
Also, for what it's worth, Taormino is awesome in person; she gives good presentations and good advice. :)
Aaron - There also tends to be the "penetration = dominance" thing in those videos, where the woman has to be a GRR DOMINATRIX to wear a strap-on, and the guy has to be acting like it's super submissive and humiliating and terrible to get his prostate worked. Not a lot of "actually, it feels pretty good for both of us" strap-on sex.
ReplyDeleteFeeling more than a little uncomfortable with the discussion of "ugly" pornstars. Kind of implying that there's an objective "ugly" and that some people just can't qualify as attractive. I'm not in any way saying that everyone should be attracted to everyone, but I wish more people would realize that attractiveness is not objective.
ReplyDelete(I love the rest of this post/discussion, though!)
I actually do want plot in my porn... which is why nearly all the porn I consume (and all the porn I create) is in written form. yay smutty fanfic!
ReplyDeleteAnon - I agree (and kind of regret talking about it in the old post), but I think deBeauxOs is talking about ugly attitudes, not ugly bodies.
ReplyDeleteOr I hope so?
I do think it's worth pointing out, however, when female porn performers have clearly been cast for their looks, and the males have... not. If the women looked like any old person, and the men looked like any old person, that'd be cool. But looks and gender do enter into it when all the men look like any old person and all the women are conventionally attractive. I don't mean to insult the male performers, but it is a sign that the porn is being shot to appeal to the heterosexual male gaze.
The hottest thing I ever viewed from Kink.com was a 3-part feature for Behind Kink that was an educational and demonstration video for strap-on sex. The actresses actually talked about such revolutionary things like what's comfortable for them! And discussing the sex they have in their private lives! It is almost like watching women with personalities having sex they enjoy is more erotic that watching unconvincing actors and actresses play out a script!
ReplyDeleteThe nerd in me also found joy watching two hot women discuss the logistics of different strap-on harnesses, angle of penetration, amount of lube, towel placement, etc...
Oh, and I just read Holly's reply to Aaron, and agree with it x10. This is the reason "Men in Pain" is not a big part of my porn consumption! They tend to downplay the "this is kinky and exciting and fun!" angle and overplay the "I am brutal dominatrix and you are worthless!" angle.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 4:05: As the original bringer-up of the ugly-dudes-in-porn issue... oops, sorry. I didn't mean to suggest that the body type conventionally used in porn is objectively unattractive, or unattractive to everyone. Just that it's not hot to me or to most of the women I know, and that they were clearly not attempting to cast for attractiveness-to-people-who-like-dudes at all. (Instead, they were attempting to cast for Big Dick. I must say, personally, I prefer Medium Dick, as it is far more likely to be comfortable.)
ReplyDelete@Holly and Ozymandias - I get what you're saying and I totally agree with it. It's just so hard to have a discussion about the levels of conventional attractiveness in porn but avoiding the ideas of objective attractiveness or ugliness.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing a lot of thinking about lookism, can you tell?
(Btw, Ozymandias - I love your blog too!)
porn? ick. and I used to sell the stuff online. I've seen more porn than most people will in lifetime. it has nothing to do with actual fucking. which I am a fan of.
ReplyDeletenow written erotica? hell yeah. but then, in written erotica, everyone is enjoying themselves. women are getting off, men are getting off, there's never that glassy look in the actress' eyes as she mentally balances her checkbook . . . if porn could produce that level of honest enthusiasm, sure.
also, re: ugly guys: the men are chosen because they can get an erection on demand and keep it up for hours of stop and start sex, and of course it has to be huge. so looks aren't the deciding factor there.
I think you're kind of overlooking the fact that sex that you want to have in real life is not the kind of sex that looks particularly good on camera. If you've got all the scratching and holding down and roughhousing, nobody can see your tits, and it's conventional wisdom that nobody wants to watch an hour of sex where you only see 25% of the chick's body.
ReplyDeleteI was reading down this thinking BUT WAIT TONY COMSTOCK!! but you have, thankfully, discovered him. I'd also add Shine Louise Houston.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. Mostly, I asked a friend for some "regular" movies and turns out I got that and a hidden folder full of porn stuff! And I did not realise that there could be something "hidden" in my hard disk and gave it to a whole bunch of friends. Sigh! There is a lot of stigma attached to porn. And thought I don't mind watching it, I don't like to be advertising or sharing porn.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's another story. Mainly, hidden or no.. porn cannot be ignored. And I got to watching it. I noticed precisely what you talk about here, Holly. It looks so much like a punishment. And seriously I cannot imagine women are to "do" so much (definitely with so much gagging) and men only fuck! It seems like its entertainment for men alone. I like to watch heterosexual porn. Even in there.. it is 3 to 1, men to women! Arrgh! Its like there are many men and 3 "holes", not a woman! And the movies are soo crappy. Such a disappointment!
Just figured I'd pop by to recommend queerporn.tv
ReplyDelete"I think you're kind of overlooking the fact that sex that you want to have in real life is not the kind of sex that looks particularly good on camera.
ReplyDeleteTell that to Tristan Taormino! :)
The best porn I've ever seen was a short clip of two ladies having sex with a strap on in a shower stall, and for some reason (whether it was the water, or the angle was wrong, or the harness was too loose) the dildo kept slipping out at awkward moments. They kept going, but both of them were oh-so-clearly trying really hard to keep from laughing. Otherwise, unremarkable, but their giggling changed it from "Two People Having Sex" into "Two people (who may or may not be allergic to peanut butter, like Monty Python or own lime green pantyhose) having sex", and that's hot.
ReplyDeleteYou can really see the casting preferences if you watch gay porn. Sometimes the scene will open and it's instantly obvious who's going to be actually having sex and who is just cast as filler characters. There will be three muscley guys with a lot of gel in their hair and generic tattoos wearing football padding, and the coach is a completely off-the-street looking guy. Predictably, he disappears in about 30 seconds so the football players can have sex. In straight porn, the guys who look like that are in the sex scenes anyway!
ReplyDeleteAnd @Holly, Pirates does indeed go on like that for 2 more hours. I'm not sure who the audience is supposed to be, since I agree with you - I just don't need that much pirate sex.
There's also the whole Real Lesbian Porn genre
ReplyDeleteIncluding the Crashpad series for example
Anyway- I Feel Myself is a great project, solo though :)
Thank you for the post
I own Taramino's Expert Guide to Female Orgasms not because I need the 45 minute presentation on female orgasms included (which is also awesome!) but because I want the focus to be on the ladies and their pleasure. The women chose their own partners, the interviews before to scenes show their comfort with each other, and the sex is super super super hot. Super hot.
ReplyDeleteY'all have perfectly articulated why I tend to stick to photographic/hand-drawn porn, as opposed to porn videos. I can't tell if a photo is faking it so much, and drawn porn eliminates this bizarro idea that the man should be generally unattrative with a huge dick. (Well, except for the "lol giant cocks" porn, but those tend to be so crazily exaggerated that they cease to arouse me and just amuse me.)
ReplyDeleteWhat bugs me about porn, though, is the idea that only young women (18-25 or so) are acceptable, whereas a lot of male porn stars stay in the business until 40. There are rare exceptions, but it almost makes it seem like older women can't or shouldn't enjoy sex. (Men? We all know men enjoy sex forever, because blah blah Mars Venus GENDERS ARE DIFFERENT.)
Well said, Holly! Thank you for yet another insightful post.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is one of the best pornos I have ever watched:
http://www.amautalab.com/works/broadcast/independent/blindness.html
It's Swedish yarn-person porn.
Great post, really makes me think about why I like the porn that I like.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is one of the best pornos I have ever watched
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAH! I love the dude's chest hair!
I agree with most of the commentary written here, but it seems like most people are missing (or at least not talking about) the fact that porn, like most things in the world, are not about sex or film (or the other putative "things" mentioned above) but rather about money.
ReplyDeleteThe porn that gets made is the porn that the producers think will sell. And judging by the bottom line of porn companies, it seems to be working.
To "solve" this problem, you need to convince the majority of consumers that there is better porn to be had. :) I have no idea how to do that, except by making better quality porn and getting people to watch it.
"The porn that gets made is the porn that the producers think will sell. And judging by the bottom line of porn companies, it seems to be working."
ReplyDeleteIt's been a really, really shitty time for the porn industry lately, relative to historical trends, because of the endemic piracy and the internet. :)
Yeah.... the only porn I've ever seen that I qualified as "good cinema" is Handcuffs by Lust Cinema:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lustcinema.com/video/Handcuffs/
It's got a "Porn Noire" feel.
This is exactly what The Crashpad Series is all about! This is why it's awesome! Jiz Lee, one of the most amazing and awesome porn performers I know, came and talked at my school (including a porn screening and a queer sex workshop). They talked about how the sex isn't scripted. It's what the performers want to do. The camerapeople just try to capture the moment. They're often couples or fuck buddies or friends in the 'real world'. I could go on and on about the Crashpad. There are others like it, like nofauxxx and queerporn.tv.
ReplyDeletePorn is just another job to many people, just like acting, prostitution and directing. Just because there is sex involved doesn't make it any more or less 'wormy' than any other profession.
ReplyDeleteFor all the cries of 'Sexual Coercion', there shouldn't be any difference between a porn star begrudgingly doing an anal scene, than between the a poor office worker getting told he needs to work on the weekend to finish the tps reports. Both workers are being coerced into actions for the sake of money/job but both also have the option of quitting/refusing.
In the same way that no one is going to get a whip and force the office worker to do the reports, no one is going to sexually assault a porn star into doing something against their will. Fiscal pressure might lead them to choosing one course of action over the other, but all we should say then is that coercion in any form is bad. It's blinkered to simply criticise one form of coercion over the other - because both have a negative impact on the mental health of the victim.
If people don't like what they are seeing they'll use the internet to find porn more to their liking.
IDiom--
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that the product of the person working the weekend on a financial report is the numbers and/or the report, and the person who worked the weekend is invisible. A porn film is showing the people: it's not just coming back with a bunch of numbers about the sizes of different body parts, or how long the actors fucked. An Excel spreadsheet with a list of names, genders, sex acts, and number of orgasms isn't what the audience is buying: they want to see people having sex. It's a dressed-up and fictionalized process, but it's a process.
It is true that most porn is trash. As you said, it would be nice if more porn was being made based on attractive people actually enjoying sex rather than rather unattractive people pretending to be enjoying it. It does show when someone is not enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI find that while I appreciate what we used to call 'hard core' porn when I was young (oh, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth aka the 1970s) i.e. you can see all the bits and they are used realistically, I appreciate it more when there is a story behind them. Without conveying a story, a meaning, an intent, acts are just boring mechanics. I might as well be watching sports programming. ("And that's a 5.2 on the insertion from the Spanish judge...")
ReplyDeleteI want my imagination to be touched. I want to be able to put myself in that situation. I want to think "God, that's hot!" And that requires acting and direction and ideas. While the idea of watching 'real couples' together has an appeal, I don't really like 'reality TV' in any of its forms.
I want fantasy and fantasy needs art to support it.
And thanks for pointing me at Lust Cinema!
Boris Ludmenkov
Pervert and Pornographer
Match Stick: Thank you. That was ridiculously hot. Exciting well before anybody gets naked.
ReplyDelete