Porno for everyone!

I am working on a story involving pornography, and I keep coming across what seems like an addage that professes "women aren't as visually stimulated as men." What is this supposed to mean? That women aren't as visually inclined as men? That women find watching sex repulsive? While those statements are up in the air, I propose another theory.




First off, we know that there are generally equal amounts of men and women who claim to learn and think visually, and that visual thinkers compose a good majority of the population. It has since been illustrated that more women think photographically, and more men think spatially (a very obscure term that I am not going to try to explain, but click here.)

It is also a popular, err.. concept (myth) that women just don't find watching sex a turn-on. They may be more into erotic literature, or actual physical foreplay, as opposed to racy images. This just seems odd. Who would rather read the script of a film than watch the movie? I mean, you can't argue with an hour and a half of foreplay, but who's that lucky? So either, women are forced to go it without arousal, or watch porn. But why do some women insist on going without it?

Porn, though paying and treating its female stars well, is a male-centric business. The top dogs are male. The viewers are predominantly male. People who care enough to critique porn (excluding feminists and the violence debate) are male. Even the camera angles are largley shot from over the male's shoulder, or focusing on a female's face.

So rarely do we get lengthy erotic close-ups of men's chiseled bodies, beads of sweat dangling off their luxurious curves. We rarely get to see a guy's face during orgasm, usually only the ensuing gooey mess, which we are more than acquainted with already. You never see movies shot from a girl's POV (unless it's sapphic in nature). It's the 21st century, it's well-known that women like sex. And since women are just as visually inclined as men, isn't it time to rethink the underlying issues in why women don't like pornography?

I love to watch porn, oftentimes just for a laugh. But I do have to search through extensive bins of raunchy material (a lot of which still degrades women), to find anything I like. I'm not about to boycott the porn biz because there's a few skanks exploiting women. In fact, the exact opposite needs to happen if women want to see porn change. We argue, well if there was more women-friendly content, we would watch it. But if we showed we were a marketable force in the first place, then someone might cater to us. And it has been happening more lately.

In the same way the radicals embraced words like "bitch" in the 70's, we need to embrace porn. Be classy, if that's you. You don't have to shout to the world you watch porn, or say write about it in your blog. But if you're with someone you trust, don't be shy in suggesting to watch a little porn as part of your foreplay. That is still totally respectful and tasteful. It might ultimately help you find out what you like and don't like, and give you more insight into who you are as a person. Knowing yourself intimately is part of knowing yourself all over. Getting in touch with your sexual desires can only boost your self-esteem and possibly lead to some hotter nights (alone... or not.) Go porno!


-- the golden girl