Money, power and sex are the three pillars of modern life, so it’s no surprise that the porn industry and society at large plays on this relationship like a dog with a bone. The adult industry’s explosion after a fractured sexual revolution in the late 70s and early 80s gave rise to big businesses with even bigger wallets, and a core audience was identified: the straight male who will pay hard cash to get his jollies. “During the 80s the porn industry became institutionalised and big production companies were cashing in on female sexuality,” Dian explains. “Unrealistic standards for women became the norm and it became the bloated industry it is today.” Porn and erotica helps assist a fantasy, so the more you want to be the man with his head in two girls’ crotches, the more money you’ll pay (at least before the internet that is). [...]
The commander of the gaze is unequivocally male even if there’s no man in sight. For Dian, faux lesbian sex is straight male fantasy without the phallic panic of couple-led porn. “Men will explain it to you in different ways,” she says. “Some don’t want another man there because it’s competition, and others will tell you it’s the idea that these women are so sexually excited they will do it with each other and if he walked into the room they would just leap on him. I don’t think they’re really seeing them as lesbian girls but as opportunistic and sexually liberal women who will do anything.”
According to Dian, studies have shown that men aren’t really interested in real, loving sex acts between lesbian-identified women, therefore the power lies within ambiguity. On top of this, woman-on-woman porn is also one of the most popular genres for straight females, perhaps because this elusion of adventure is scrambled up with conflicting social scripts. A distortion of constructed sexual binaries creates a meta-narrative about identity politics in a larger sense; sex becomes so muddled that we’re not sure exactly what or who gets us wet (or hard). “It’s all a manipulation of desire,” adds Dian, “and there is a lot of power in this.”
No comments:
Post a Comment