Ethical Porn By Selina Nguyen

Ethical porn creates this incredible space for women and AFAB folks to learn more about our

bodies, our pleasure and our sexuality. There are whole worlds to be discovered both on

and offline now with women being at the centre more than ever before, and it is paving its

own path separate to our current cultural understandings of mainstream porn.

Mainstream tube sites as we know it are most commonly created by men for men. It is rife

with poor or unsafe working conditions for performers as well as perpetuating very limited,

aggressive and disembodied views of sex and often misogynistic attitudes towards gender

and sexuality. This kind of porn coupled with a collectively poor sex education and lack of

porn literacy means that not only are many people turning towards porn for education,

they’re also learning a lot of unrealistic standards and scripts around how sex ‘should’ go.

“Women or AFAB folks should be able to orgasm in 30 seconds or on command.” “Men or

AMAB folks should last for hours and should be rock hard all the time.” “We don’t need to

talk about consent because everyone automatically knows what everyone wants.” These are

really detrimental and even dangerous narratives that we can internalise as this invisible

standard of how we compare performance and measure our sexual experiences.

Ethical porn sites like Lust Cinema and PinkLabelTV are challenging these narratives by

centring pleasure that is whole-bodied and diverse rather than solely focused on genitals,

urgency and performance. From ASMR videos to a historical time period series, they centre

authentic sexual exploration, creativity and fluidity over creating high impact videos. This

creates a significantly different consumer experience because it invites us to slow down, to

connect with our bodies and our sexual partners, and to create our own definitions of

pleasure. Many of these ethical sites also showcase more diverse categories including

sexuality after menopause, trans, pregnancy or disability and champions representation for

those who do not look like the stereotypical bodies in mainstream porn, which is most of us.

Of course there is also more regulation when it comes to safer and fairer working conditions

for performers, and incorporation of consent on and off-screen - what’s sexier than that?

Also falling under the umbrella of ethical porn, the rise of audio erotica and re-emergence of

erotic novels are building more ways for us to explore sexuality and desire. These formats

are proving particularly impactful for women because it’s a more immersive and sensory

experience. Unlike visual porn, it simultaneously relies and fuels your imagination and

psychogenic arousal, which is arousal that starts in the mind. We can play with stories about

sexy fairies that look like Jesse Williams or a sapphic enemies-to-lovers plot with Victoria

Pedretti moaning in your ears – highly recommend. There are also new genres of pre-

recorded orgasmic meditations or guided masturbation sessions, which can be really useful

for women learning more about their bodies and pleasure. It really is a whole new world.

In amongst all the moaning and groaning, ethical porn provides a space for us to come back

to ourselves. By showing us sex and pleasure in this different light, we see ourselves in a

different light. We learn how sex should be – pleasurable, embodied, fun, creative and

explorative, we learn that we can want that and that we can co-create that with our

partners.

Photographer: @samueldavidsnaps

Model: Emmalynbransgrove 

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