Bare Bodies

Porn is huge. Online video pornography⁠ (pornography: Written, visual or other kinds of media either expressly designed to elicit feelings of sexual desire and/or which people use to elicit those feelings.) , specifically, is a massively lucrativeexternal link, opens in a new tab industryexternal link, opens in a new tab that dominates large swaths of the internetexternal link, opens in a new tab. In America, as of 2008, over 90% of young men and over 60% of young women in college had encountered online porn before they turned 18external link, opens in a new tab. Given the abysmal state of school and community-based sexuality education in Americaexternal link, opens in a new tab, combined with porn’s vast online presence, it is no surprise many young people turn to porn looking for sex⁠ (sex: Different things people choose to do to actively express or enact sexuality and sexual feelings; often this involves genitals, but not always. )  education.

I’ll be exploring mainstream porn in this piece—the content that is available for free on tube sites—meaning porn that is not explicitly or intentionally feminist, queer⁠ (queer: In the context of sexuality, a broad term for sexual orientation that can describe any number of orientations which are not heterosexual. People who identify as queer may be bisexual or pansexual, gay or lesbian, questioning, asexual or more.) , or alternative. This first installment talks about the landscape of mainstream video porn in America, and the ways in which it is — or spoiler alert: isn’t — accurately representing bodies: from penis⁠ (penis: One of the two external reproductive organs of people often assigned male at birth.) size, pubic hair⁠ (pubic hair: The hair that grows around the genital and anal regions (often extending a ways up the front or back and onto the inner thighs) and usually first appears around puberty. It may vary in color, texture, length, and thickness.) , and anal douching to race, disability and gender identity⁠ (gender identity: A person’s own sense of whether and in what sense they feel they might be a man, a woman, neither, a mixture of genders, or another gender entirely.) .