Nothing kills my mood quicker than a genital close-up. I have no problem with people’s bodies, and I think that there’s a distinct type of beauty in a nice, solid cock, but I find it pretty difficult to find porn with hot scenarios that isn’t going to cut to a gynaecological close-up just as I’m getting to the juicy bit.
I know some people love it – most gentlemen with whom I’ve watched porn have expressed a strong desire to look not just *at* someone but *up* them, so I can see why these shots are included: they clearly please a proportion of the crowd. But they don’t please me.
To clarify: this isn’t a disgust reaction – I am not horrified by genitals. Nor am I shaming the spectacular men and women who show them off on screen, and fuck like champions for an audience of internet wankers such as myself. I’m just lamenting the fact that so many directors insist on close-cropped shots of trains going into tunnels, disembodied vulvas being rummaged at by strangers’ hands, or those same hands pulling butt-cheeks apart until all you can see is a gaping void. And these things usually happen during the climax of the scene – at just the moment when the sex is getting hottest and most furious, when the actors would be building to a moment of exquisite lust, our director cuts away from their faces and straight to parts of their body that are far less capable of expressing emotion.
What I’m saying is this: I’d like to see something super-hot that doesn’t turn into a medical documentary just as it’s getting to the good bit.
My porn wish list
I’m not saying that people who like this are wrong/evil/stupid, and that everyone should be forced to watch only porn that comes from a set-list I’ve prescribed. I’m just having a general moan about the number of times I’ve had to cut short a wank to find a video that’s got more fucking and less fanny.
Perhaps the kind of porn I like (lots of kinky, rough, angry fucking) leans more towards these gyno shots, because that’s what directors feel the audience will want. Or perhaps I’m just crap at finding good porn. So, in case any awesome pornographers are watching, or you’ve come across any videos that show shagging without an accompanying smear test, here are some things I’d love to see more of in porn:
Lots and lots of long shots of people fucking
I like watching people actually fuck. Although head and handjobs are fun to have, I find them far less fun to watch, because there isn’t nearly as much action. Jiggling tits, pounding arses, hands gripping squidgy flesh, sweat dripping from people who are really getting into it? Yes. Fumbling and rubbing? Meh.
While we’re at it, that thing that porn stars do where they push a cock into the side of their cheek? It reminds me of the standard childish symbol for ‘blow-job’ where you’d make a wanking gesture near your mouth while sticking your tongue sideways. I get why it’s more visual than other suckoff techniques, but I’ve never met a guy who has expressed a desire that I do that to his penis.
Noises
I’ve waffled on before about how noises are hot. Not fake noises – I don’t need scripted, efficient ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s. I want genuine noises – the ‘unnggh’s and ‘aaargh’s that people make when they’re fucking like they’ve really let go.
Especially – and I cannot stress this enough – from the men. Men in porn are often strangely silent, as if they’ve expressed opinions on the sex before and have been told to keep their mouths shut. Those that do talk often say things that don’t necessarily correlate to what’s happening on screen, as if the guy is just reeling off a list of accepted phrases like a politician at a press conference spouting ‘hard-working families’ over and over again with no discernible relevance.
Faces
If you’re going to give me any sort of close-up, I would like it to be of someone’s face. Ideally, because I am straight and female and pervy, the dude’s. In fact, if I’m completely honest, I have a deep and abiding preference for porn in which the women look a bit bored – in which they’re either idly or sarcastically pandering to the dude’s insatiable lust while they earn a paycheque/watch themselves in the mirror/wait for the washing machine to finish a spin cycle.
I appreciate this specific kink isn’t for everyone, but I know a hell of a lot of people who’d like to see more face. There are, of course, millions of porn videos that show faces, but my main issue with them is that they are not the faces of hot people reacting to orgasmic delight, but usually faces that are being jizzed on. Pop shots are, of course, a porn staple, so I don’t expect this to disappear any time soon, but we could do with more of the other: if you’re the one jizzing, it’s your face I want to see.
Shameless plug: if you want to read more about dirty fucking, and thoughts on porn, my book is currently ridiculously cheap on Amazon (59p in the UK, 96c in the US). I have no idea how long it’ll be on offer for, so if you want it then now’s a good time to get a copy.
21 Comments
Totally agree with ALL of this!
Weird, until very recently I would have agreed on the close-ups thing. I didn’t like it AT ALL. Boring, more than anything else. But, recently…I’ve found myself quite liking some close-ups. Ususally where the porn is of a decent quality anyway. So there’s not prolongued periods of just close-ups.
There was one shot of a cock twitching at orgasm recently that really got me. And another where the guy really took his time when he entered the girl that I loved (the lady had a very beautiful punani, I had punani envy).
One of my absolute favourite genres of porn is orgasm compilations. Like, in particular shot of girls *actually* coming, and going through the writhing/spasming/gasping thing that tends to mean someone’s having a really good time. <a href= "http://fantasti.cc/videos/permalink/xhamster/The-Single-Greatest-Orgasm-Video-Ever-Created-Vol.5/8544481/" title="In example."
There's really nothing hotter than someone girl or boy in the midst of that :D
There is a strong body of feminists who openly stand against the porn industry and accept that it is based entirely on male violence against women. Porn, an industry created by men for the enjoyment of men using women as orifices to pound or assault. Porn, an industry with many categories, rape, incest, forced, teen, public humiliation, gang
bang. Porn, an industry that uses women trafficked and forced onto the sex slave industry to increase profits now welcome women viewers because they care that women are sexual? Any person who can be duped into thinking the porn industry is anything other that an industry that prostitutes, undermines and destroys women personally and politically for the pleasure of men is not
thinking straight.
Hi MistyJane – it’s probably stating the massively obvious to say that I disagree. I have nothing in principle against porn, or indeed prostitution (which seems to also factor into your response, unless I’ve read it wrong?). Selling sex (whether on or off-camera) is a form of work as legitimate as any other, and if men or women choose to do it then that’s great.
What I *do* object to is people being trafficked, sold, or coerced into doing something against their will. However, I object to these because I object to anything that essentially constitutes coercion/rape/trafficking, whether it’s sex-related or not. Yes, there are aspects of the porn industry which are incredibly damaging to the people who take part (although I would contend that it is not just women who are hurt by this – although they make up the majority of performers). But that doesn’t mean that the entire industry is sick and wrong, or indeed that porn itself is sick and wrong.
A lot of my favourite porn is homemade – videos that couples or groups have done without a team of camera operators/directors/etc behind them. Where do you stand on that? Your comment seems pretty unswervingly against all forms of porn.
Anyway, I won’t ramble on here – others have written far more eloquently than I have on the ethics of porn (edited to add: you might want to check out this blog post by Pandora Blake on fairtrade porn: http://pandorablake.com/blog/2011/06/defining-fairtrade-porn/). I just wanted to explain where I’m coming from, although I suspect we might be so opposed on this that we have no common ground porn-wise.
As far as prostitution goes; you seem to have confused treating members’ of the sex industry with respect and protecting their rights (which of course, should be paramount) with simplifying prostitution as ‘great’. Which it isn’t. Anyone who has had extensive experience within it would know this to be the case. It smacks of detached Guardian-rhetoric which is as patronising and offensive as the alternative. I want you to know where I’m coming from here – I thought your piece on the brothel raids in Soho was wonderful and an important point to make. But it’s undermined by things like this. And I thought it was a given that you weren’t referring to amateur pornography in this article, as the very things you’re requesting require a cameraman.
Anyway, I’m sorry. Just so sick of feminist blogs refusing to admit pornography’s a massive problem.
Don’t be sorry! I appreciate you letting me know, and it’s definitely a debate worth having. I think the way you’ve summed it up is a bit binary for my views. I don’t think prostitution is ‘great’, just that it’s a job like any other. Actually I think it’s much more of a scale: it’s not just ‘great’ or ‘abhorrent’. Likewise with porn. Although some’s abhorrent and some is great, there is a lot that falls into a grey area in the middle and here I think we could benefit with much more clarity on the workings of individual production houses, and far more information on where videos have come from, etc. I also don’t think that homemade porn is *necessarily* fine or perfect either – again it depends on individual pieces (revenge videos posted online without one person’s consent, for instance, would show up as homemade and is obviously abhorrent).
So yes – there are issues with porn, huge issues with porn, and I don’t want to belittle any of them, or imply that they’re few and far between. *But* I also don’t think that porn is bad in principle, or that all porn is unethical in practise.
Sorry, I’m rambling on a bit – there’s more than enough in this debate for a full post, so I’ll have a think and see if I can put this more coherently.
Hi there MistyJane, you’re discourse has a problem. Namely it ignores a large part of the porn industry. (Well, it ignores a number of parts, but for the purpose of this argument, I’ll focus just on one part that you ignore.)
Porn produced by and for gay men. No women involved. Such porn cannot and is not part of “an industry that prostitutes, undermines and destroys women personally and politically”, because no women are involved. Do you have a problem with such porn? If not, why not? If so, why so? You’re argument falls apart because it doesn’t take into account that porn is far more than heterosexual porn with a male audience. There are probably as many types of porn as there are sexualities, and that includes straight, gay, bi, poly, a, etc. (Though I don’t know what asexual porn would look like.) That includes homemade records made by wholly consenting adults in the privacy of their own bedrooms, and then shared with other wholly consenting adults, whether via the Internet, or via handing out video tapes at a swingers club.
My problem with “feminists” like yourself, is that you take away agency. You ignore that consent, full, and with complete knowledge, is possible, and that sometimes women (and men) do things because they want to, and perhaps, because they think that the money is worth it. You ignore the porn that is not bad, and that doesn’t include trafficking, mistreatment, etc. You, moreover, ignore that people have kinks. That some people fantasise about being raped, or raping. You ignore that it’s perfectly possible to have consensual safe porn, showing a fantasy rape, where it is made clear by the actors before and after, that the whole thing was scripted. (Whether such a thing exists, I’m not sure, but it is theoretically possible, and, if it did exist, I could not fault it for existing. It’s the sort of thing that happens in BSDM films.)
Just because part of (or even the majority of) an industry is bad, doesn’t mean the whole industry is bad. Bittorrent is used for sharing recently released movies, hit albums, and expensive software. However, it’s also used for sharing Linux distros, and other material that the copyright owners want people to share far and wide. My hammer can be used to hit nails, or to hit people. I don’t use it to hit people.
Things aren’t all black and white.
—-
Oooh, I just typed too much. As for faces, I prefer female faces mostly (partly because when I see male faces, they look contrived). I prefer not to seem them being ‘jizzed on’, which is unfortunate for me, as there seems to be a lot of porn with that as the ending…
Misty Jane, you’ve bought into the idea that women being sexual and expressing their sexuality (such as most porn stars choose to do) is defined by men’s desires; that the *only* reason a woman could possibly WANT to be pounded, fucked, gang-banged, “raped,” or otherwise “humiliated” is because she’s been coerced. And *that’s* misogynistic.
To say that a woman who expresses herself outside a vanilla, monogamous private sexual interlude must somehow have been forced into it is short sighted and biased. Any woman — any feminist woman — can tell you that she has the right to choose how she expresses herself sexually because she really is an equal. If she gives consent, then it’s ok. Period. And if you say that the only reason a woman does any of those things you listed above is for a man’s pleasure/need/bottom line only, then we really and truly are fucked.
Supporting women and every shade of their sexuality (even if it’s something you’d rather die first than do yourself) will begin to change the dialogue about porn and the reasons’ women do it. Is it really so hard to believe that there are women who want to wield their bodies on the world for pleasure or money or whatever simply because they dig it and get off on it??
You don’t have to do it to be able to say, “Hmm, well, if she consents, I guess she’s got the right.”
Don’t call yourself a feminist if you’re going to shut out a woman’s right to express her sexuality in any way she chooses.
Okay, I’ll just ignore all the drug addiction, extremely high suicide rates, ubiquity and widespread exploitation and put it all down to ‘expressing their sexuality’. Done, thanks.
I was including male performers in my original comments as well, btw.
“Those that do talk often say things that don’t necessarily correlate to what’s happening on screen, as if the guy is just reeling off a list of accepted phrases like a politician at a press conference spouting ‘hard-working families’ over and over again with no discernible relevance.”
I now want to see porn films where the participants recite political speeches as they fuck.
That would be an incredibly challenging wank.
Doubly so if the participants are actual politicians.
Couldn’t agree more. I think some of the hottest porn is the Beautiful Agony site that just shows the face of women getting themselves off. And the audio available at reddit gonewildaudio and literotica is good to hear people having fun.
Yep, I was just about to recommend Beautiful Agony too. They do have men as well as women, by the way. :)
Hi
I’m a feminist pornographer and I share your gripes. I love seeing people’s faces when they orgasm, it’s the most interesting part. I am also very easily bored by genital closeups if they are shown too long. But I do still like them. They can still give an animalistic lust to a scene and I will make an effort to include them in my films. But I won’t have 5 minutes of it. Yawn.
The most recent scene that I’ve made for BrightDesire.com is a real life couple and it includes my first “facial” cumshot. Previously I’ve had mostly internal money shots. This one is so different, though. The camera isn’t on her face or his cock. We had two cameras and one is a closeup of his face as he comes and the other is a full body shot so you can see all the glorious jerks and shivers he has. I LOVE this scene. I should also add, Jade has multiple orgasms before this.
They also giggle their way through most of the scene. They’re so cute!
Anyway, you’re not alone. :)
Also MistyJane, you need to step away from some of your black and white thinking. SOME pornography is a problem, yes. But writing the whole thing off is just as problematic. The people I work with are all willing, happy participants and I think they’d be very insulted that you called them “dupes”. My suggestion is that you actually try talking to people in the porn industry rather than making generalizations from on high.
I love long shots in porn and if you want to see some good action, check out some of the scenes of Lexi Belle and James Deen. He actually growls whilst fucking her. Even as a dude, I think that’s fucking awesome.
100% agree. Genital shots are boring (except as brief establishers), facial shots are interesting, especially when they show something other than exquisite boredom (as is too often the case). I enjoy blowjob videos for this reason: they can hardly avoid showing a woman’s face close up and personal! I often skip the routine on-the-face money shot, though: it’s tedious and static, as well as offputting. I often find myself hoping to see a woman’s face either at the moment of orgasm or at the moment of first penetration, and usually being disappointed.
Aren’t we glossing over the fact that a sizeable chunk of porn is acting?
Avid, sexual acting, sure. But you know, acting. Performance of someone’s made up story…
Of course, some porn isn’t made up stories at all. Genuine hot sexyness. The kind GOTN might make to share with us, if we were lucky. ;)
And some of it is documentary evidence of a crime. That’s the truly bad bit. Sex isn’t an excuse for being a bastard. :/
I am an average male not into high flouting philosophical analysis of the performance of porn actors or state of the porn industry and its sociological impact three generations from now. I watch it often and sometimes with my wife. When a heterosexual couple is fucking they are not trying to make fire with a stick being rubbed on a soft piece of flesh. I don’t mind close ups of the genitalia but I want to hear two people enjoying and all of the facial expressions that come from the exercise. Thinking of exercise of both kinds (in bed and out side) neither gender is getting enough. The moment I see certain things like tattoos or body piercing in intimate areas I assume she is a professional working girl. When the camera stays put and two people are just trying to pleasure each other that is magic for me. There aren’t enough of those videos around.
http://advizortoall.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20porn
I’m not sure how to make that link work, but I’ve written a few times about my grips about porn and go off with what Lee says, that it’s acting. usually very bad acting. My biggest complaint is with the production values. i know that most porn has to be made very very cheaply because most of it is stolen and given away free by Tube sites so the producers don’t make much money per film, but GEEZ, can you spend a few minutes on sets, continuity, a little bit of a script?
Buy a microphone that works, a tripod that actually holds still, and tell the actors not to constantly look out of the scene for direction. It’s fucking, not Shakespeare, but still, let’s pretend to care.
And please, if you’ve set up a premise, stick with it. I love/hate the MILF/Virgin scenes where the virgin, after the 1st kiss, suddenly turns into a Lesbian queen with toys, whips, and that knowing look.
And, yes, I’d much rather see the faces of the actors when they are having fun, cumming, laughing, etc, than a cock/vagina piston scene that goes on forever. BORING. OK, it’s late, I have to stop now. :-)