I think it was Anais Nin who said, “During the first 15 minutes of watching a porn film, I want to have sex right away. After the first 15 minutes, I never want to have sex again.”
Sure, seeing naked people doing the nasty can be exciting–for a while. Then it starts to get repititious and (here’s the rub (no pun)) distant. Sex really needs some sort of emotional attachment for it to be more than just a bodily function.
“In most of the porno photographs I have seen, if the position the people are in
permits it, the woman almost invariably is looking directly into the camera. The
men are usually somewhat more focused on the task at hand.”
If you are really interested in theoretical studies of this sort of thing, check out Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in “Screen”, Autumn of 1975, V 16 no 3 pp 6-18 (reprinted somewhere more recently, though) and Steve Neale’s followup from the 80’s “Masculinity as Spectacle” (I don’t have a more complete citation for that, sorry). both deal with the way different genders are or are not accounted for in the way film is conceived (a bit of psychoanalysis here-- Laconian mirrors, blah blah) in that film isn’t set up so that females can “suture” themselves in. (excuse any sloppy use of jargon here)
{{I’ve seen Playgirl and it did nothing for me (so much nothing, in fact, I started a thread about it in MPSIMS). Actually, it did do something–it made me laugh. Hard.}}
I’ve picked up one issue of Playgirl and doubt that I’ll pick up another one. It didn’t make me laugh, it made me wince. I was hoping to find something erotic, something that would turn me on (hey, when you’re on Paxil, you need all the help you can get) but all I found was stuff that seemed to be written by men (with female pseudonyms, of course) of how a woman could enjoy sex. My sexual tastes are not THAT prudish, but I didn’t enjoy any of the articles, and I found only two guys in that whole mag remotely attractive.
As for cybersex…yeah, I am married, but I have an online boyfriend. Yes, the boyfriend knows I’m fat, he doesn’t care. Yes, he’s over a thousand miles away (probably a good thing, too). My husband doesn’t mind a bit, as he is HAPPY when I’m in the mood. He’d probably draw the line at a RL boyfriend, though. But don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it with a compatible partner.
And this one’s for Mark: I’ve only read the one issue, as I said…but nearly every guy pictured had love handles, at least. Some had a slight pot. NONE of the models were in danger of me dragging them behind any available shrub. I have had that reaction to some guys…so I think the answer is “Women aren’t turned on by porn because they aren’t turned on by the guys in it.” I have no doubt that if Michael Keaton or Gary Oldman were in a porn film, my husband would be setting it up to run every night, so he could enjoy the side-effects. But their attractiveness is not just their looks, it’s their mannerisms.
Lynn the Packrat
Lynn:
There is a lot of erotica that is made by women, for women. Though some would say it highlights romance rather than hardcore and that in itself perpetuates the myth that women are docile, non-secual creatures, proponents of it find it more in tune to what turns them on. If you wish to explore this further, you might wish to go in that direction.
On another note, an on-line boyfriend? Who cybers with you? Wow… That’s a tough one for me to reconcile personally, but if it works for you and your husband, I shan’t judge you other than to say I am surprised this works well for you and your husband. I think for most people, it would not. But more power to ya!
Yer pal,
Satan
I saw my first porno last night! Whoo hoo!
Well, I kinda did. Bri and I ordered it off the Spice Channel, but there was some bizarre sound problem–there was this cheesy muzak in the background the entire time. At first we thought it was a movie, but then, people were talking–and there was no sound (except the cheesy music). We thought it was maybe a really long intro, but then we turned on the closed captioning–AND IT WORKED! (Who the hell closed-captions pornos?_ Every now and then, the captions would say “Music fades” “Music begins”–nope, it was there all along! (I personally liked the caption “Climactic moans.”) So at least we could see the ridiculous dialogue. What was really bizarre is the elevator music continued after the movie was over, playing overtop the commercials, etc. It was really annoying.
But I saw a porno! 
It wasn’t really arousing–there was one okay-looking guy, but he was waxed clean and it looked just strange. The women mostly had nice bods, but the lead was scary-skinny. And the sex–dammit, the sex didn’t even look real. No dick shots! What’s up with that? And only a couple pussy shots, but they weren’t during the sex. All the bouncing didn’t look very impressive–in fact, in one scenario, I could tell he wasn’t even in her because I could see his member bouncing around ever now and then. What a dumb porno. Oh, sorry, that’s redundant.
There was only one penis shot, and I think it was an accident–and it was hilarious! The guy was down on her, and in a long shot you could see in the corner of the picture that the guy was completely shaved and completely FLACCID. Just a dumb porno. With no sound. And no money shots. Damn.
So we’re renting a “real” porno tonight. Par-tay! Oh, and there were actually a few scenes that were a little arousing to me. But for the most part, My First Porno was a waste. Ah, well. Try, try again!
I used to think the world was against me. Now I know better. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.
Lynn Bodoni; re: remark about the guys you saw in the mag having love handles.
Get a better grade of magazine next time or rent a flick. Most of the guys and the gals I watch are not out of shape.
By the way, the BEST way to watch a porn is with the sound off. The corny music and bad lines along with lousy acting – (speaking parts) drive me nuts. Plus, if the chick plays with a toy the BUZZZZZZZZZZ gets too friggin’ loud.
Today porn can be bought to suit any tastes – from barely legal (Actually the actresses are well over 21 but look 16) to homosexual to lesbian to old folks (UGH! GROSS! NO-NO-NO-NO!) to ‘Plumpers’.
Plus there are series of animated cartoons available to cover most tastes. (It’s astonishing what they can do with Anime and Disney.) Beware of some of the web porn sites because they can snare you in a loop that screws up the new browser something fierce! Plus, some will dump a cookie or two on your hard drive that takes up quite a bit of space and is a pain in the ass to remove.
Try Pornquest. It’s absolutely free. There is a pay section, but it’s not pushed on you and they have a huge gallery of free pix and stuff. Ummm. You might just want to ‘gird your loins’ and brace yourself when you visit the amateur galleries. Some of them are shocking – in that you get to see a whole lot more than you wanted and wonder how they got the nerve up to send in pictures in the first place.
Mark
“Think of it as Evolution in action.”
Well, I saw a “real” porno Saturday night. Verdict: BOR-ING! And just plain bad…beyond bad, infact. Pitiful is more like it.
It was a lame collection of scenarios; one was with “Wendy Whoppers,” a petit young thing who chose to deform her body so that her breasts were freakin’ balloons. It was grotsque, really; her breasts were inflated so tight that her nipples were difficult to find. If they ever became erect is beyond me. There’s not enough loose skin there to become erect. It was a freak show. My boyfriend agreed: “I couldn’t be less aroused by a porno than this.”
The others were just ho-hum boring, interrupted by a few funny moments. The best was when the director freakin’ talked to the actor on camera to tell him to move his hand–and then later, this girl was screeching and moaning; repositioned, closed her mouth–but magically kept on screaming and moaning. I know pornos aren’t exactly art, and that dialogue/sound/etc. is more an after thought than anything, but sheezo.
Like the Playgirls, the pornos did nothing for me. Just people fucking. Whatever. BOR-ING… I’d say porn is pretty much a guy thing.
But I’m still going to find Debbie Does Dallas and rent the Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee tape.
I used to think the world was against me. Now I know better. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.
I’ve never seen the Pamela/Tommy video, but I have seen stills from it. That cannot be real!
Uh, I’m referring to his, not hers, of course. We all know that hers weren’t real at that point. I’m not even sure they’re real now.
“That’s entertainment!” —Vlad the Impaler
God on high! Is EVERYTHING going to turn into a fat thread now?!? I came in here for the low down on porno and we’re back to THAT issue again! :o (She shrugs and then gets to the good stuff, drooling with glee!)
I do have a video porno collection. It runs from very tame, more romantic to just about as wild as it can get! With as many people as you can cram into a camera angle! Some of it is so bad I just laugh but some of it is very, very good. But my favorite in the world is the written word. I have an erotica collection that might put most to shame. Everything from classic Victorian to on-line chat sessions of mine and others. I no longer cyber but I used to and kept most of it. Always fun to trip down some of those memory lanes!
I would have to say that I prefer to read. I’d rather picture the faces and movements of the body myself. And yes, I like to write it too. Satan made a great point about erotica written for women by women. They have their own line of books called Black Lace. It is not tame by any standard but it always involves a certain amount of romance. It’s not just random couplings but the people have a reason for coming together besides just the primal urge.
There is another line of books called Blue Moon which is mainly S/M-bondage-discipline type erotica. It’s a line of books that if you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. It gets old because the dominate is always the male. And the plot line is always the same. I wouldn’t recommend this line to even someone I hated. But the Black Lace books I’d recommend to both men and women; if you like sexy characters and want to up your libido, these are the books to buy.
So I guess my answer is yes. Women like this stuff too! I don’t know about girls or chicks though, they may be into something else! 
Best!
Byz
>^,^<
KITTEN
Please tell your pants it’s not polite to point.
I’ve always liked the white hose on women I’ve slept with. The type which comes up about midway on the thighs. No gater belts though. I’ve always thought they look cheap. I’ve loved the dark eyeliner and colored eyeshadow. One girlfriend became allergic to the stuff and couldn’t wear it anymore,which was a bit of a letdown. I thought she looked sooooo cute with it on.
Mark
“Think of it as Evolution in action.”
Little off-topic:
Of those of you who cruise Internet porno sites, have you ever noticed the vast number of circular references; i.e., one site links to another that links back to the first?
What’s worse is that some of them use scripts to autoload little side windows which then autoload others that autoload others, etc., until there’s an infinite loop going on opening dozens of browser windows. I have to disconnect my phone line to kill the newer windows, then kill the parent windows…
<small>(in Cartman’s voice): </small>and after all this, I still haven’t seen any free porno!
The infinite loop problem is a known security hole in Javascript. To prevent it from happening, you can turn Javascript off in your browser’s options screen.
Just got back from this porn show in Vegas (really), where I had a realization about why porn stars look the way they do…you know, that really stylized look with the fake boobs, fake jewelry, shoes & stockings on all the time, bleached hair, excessively tan skin, etc. See, there were a couple of actual porn stars there, & they didn’t look real at all, & I think maybe the fakeness is part of the appeal. Like, they AREN’T real women. They never get PMS or clean the cat litter box or go to the grocery store. I mean, picture Tiffany Towers cleaning her bathroom. I sure can’t.