This video is amazing, so thanks to Megan Andelloux, Sarah Champagne, and Alicia Gauvin from the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health! First, let me say that this video is full of a sexy retro feminist look, which I love. I should be cuddled up on the couch with them, wearing my red bandana à la Rosie the Riveter and drinking tea. They look like they’re having so much fun talking about porn. We should be best friends!
What they start talking about is really interesting. Do you feel like the porn you enjoy mirrors who you are? Would you shelf (or folder) of porn be shocking, or do you think it’s representative of you? Would you feel weird if non-judgmental people knew what kind of stuff you enjoy?
The idea of people who are “actually allowed to come the way the want with whom they want” is bang on. Whether it’s queer, or straight like what we do, that is the magic ingredient. We do need to share these “delicious moments” of sex positivity. In fact, I need to edit my tour to emphasize our sex positivity! Thanks, Youtube video!
Also, what they say about paying for porn is very very valid! Whether it’s porn that pays out their performers or helping small companies pay the bills, it is a great way to encourage sex positive porn and increase the propensity of awesome porn. Then they talk about great companies (sadly they don’t mention me, but next time?) and they talk about how these companies make you feel that it’s great to watch porn because the people in the videos are genuinely enjoying it! They even address the fact that sex positive porn shows a wide array of sexuality, so you’re less likely to feel weird if you don’t jive to one kind of sex or sensation. Yay!
Smart people talking about porn? I love it. Did this video make you happy?
This video definitely “made me happy”; thanks for sharing some great new sex-positive advocates, Camille! (Seriously, this blog is the best place to learn about other brilliant people in the erotic world. Lots of bloggers have “links” and “friends,” but you always go the extra mile to share and write about their videos or interviews or erotica excerpts and show us WHY these other people are just as cool as you!)
Porn (and our need for it in its multiplicity of forms) is such a fascinating phenomenon. When I was a kid (with no internet access), I would steal my mom’s “Victoria’s Secret” catalogues and fantasize about the lingerie models. When I turned 13, she bought me a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue with a mouthwatering Heidi Klum bodypaint feature. When I turned 15, she bought me a copy of Playboy. I didn’t find the Playboy photos half as sexy as the SI photos because the “bunnies” all seemed so fake and forced, so artificially posed and deliberately provocative. For many years I preferred non-erotic nude art to use as “porn” because it actually celebrated people’s bodies and personalities– it was “human-positive,” if not actually sex-positive.
Now? I think my porn tastes probably mirror my reality. I like watching respectful, gentle, intelligent, beautiful porn because that’s how I like to be in bed. I like watching amateurs because I’m still an amateur myself; I like watching pros (like Camille) because I want to constantly learn more. And I like watching some “extreme” guys who have huge cocks or can shoot buckets of cum because, although I love my actual body and don’t believe in the size myths, I still like to daydream about being a stallion for a day.
I have a lot of sex-positive friends (all women), but we’ve never really talked about porn or our tastes in it. Maybe this video would be a good conversation starter?
Hurray for sex-positive and PEOPLE-positive porn!
Sorry to keep yakking, but I’ve also found education to be a great sex-positive form of porn. Some of my most erotic [solo] moments have happened when I was learning something new about my body or taking a survey or having a conversation with someone about sex or embodiment. Paul Joannides, author of the incredible “Guide to Getting It On,” has some really fun sex surveys for men and women on his website (http://www.goofyfootpress.com/surveys/).
Maybe the survey part is just voyeuristic thrills, but does anybody else ever feel like good sex-ed can be erotic or pornographic?
Oooh! Surveys! I’m going to take them when I have a spare moment.
I think educational porn can be very sexy, and I think that’s why we’re seeing such a resurgence in sex-ed-inspired porn.
People-positive! That’s exactly it! I love the idea that we can just all be happy as people with the bodies we have, the sex we have and the relationships we have. There’s no need to get bogged down in judgment and disrespect.
I’m not surprised even for a second that you would ascribe to such a benevolent form of pornography, Cal. You are a gentle soul and you will make someone very, very happy some day!