What Adult Movies Have Taught Me !!

I always had this notion that geniuses don’t watch porn but this idea of mine shattered when I observed during my MBA days that many typical intelligent guys were also fond of watching porn while holding books of managerial economics! Equally shocking was the fact for me that well known personalities have depicted sex in all its grotesque form galore and still they are considered indispensable academically and otherwise for their intellectual integrity and sheer talent. Vladimir Nabokov, D.H.Lawrence, Vatsayayan and Marquis de Sade are few of them who come to mind immediately.

In present times, porn has been mainstreamed and credit goes to Suuny Leones and James Deens and actors like them. Majority of people have at least some level of exposure to porn materials in their life time. I have heard how it is distracting and few have even grown addicted wasting their time and cursing those who make and act in such movies. All this cursing has never stopped us to avail this guilty pleasure once in a while. The more conservative a country is, more they consume this forbidden fruit. Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries appear in the list. All religious repressions, it seems, get manifested in devouring as much porn as possible although discreetly and furtively. With time, people have grown tedious to watching same stuff and onus is on such moviemakers to keep renovating and presenting fresh lot on a daily basis. This cannot be possible without the efforts of the actors involved. Every grunts and thrusts counts as they say!

Personal lives of these actors are least explored and kept under wraps under the pseudonyms such as Sunny, Pistol, Stryker and the like. How ironic it sounds that they expose everything and become part of our filthy fantasy but we don’t know them in true sense of knowing someone:  How they joined this profession? What their family thinks about being in this industry or does their family even know! What their take is on companionship? Are they going to get married, are they in relationship or have they ever been in relationship? Do they perform out of pleasure, compulsion or fame or all combined! Do they subscribe to any particular political ideology and economic system (Recall “no bush campaign” by some actresses where they shaved off their pubic hair to register their protest against George W. Bush!)?

Let us accept that actors of these movies get exposed to risky behavior/profession. Unsurprisingly, many have contracted STDs and have met untimely death. Can we see a parallel between their life and those of soldiers! Professionalism has taken a toll on their sexuality but they have met the professional demands nonetheless. Of course perks of porn have made them swing both ways and be at giving and receiving ends in equally graceful manner.

Porn is a gendered commodity. It is a generally accepted belief that it is largely a viewing experience than a reading one. However studies have established that men like watching and women like reading.  It has helped “Fifty Shades of Grey” gain a cult status among women.  Men are from Mars and women are from Venus because among many things, their porn experience differs. Very few males would like to pleasure themselves to the beauty of printed words if they have access to some nasty videos. It seems that decision to turn this erotic novel into a movie has been taken because Men cannot be kept out of the experience of reading it.

Many countries including India have been understandably hypocritical towards this issue. In India, watching or possessing porn material is legal but distribution, publication or production of such material is illegal. Does it not sound a bit irrational? One cannot possess porn until someone produces or distributes. So, it means that one can watch only foreign produced materials distributed by a foreigner. It runs contrary to the ethics of “Make in India” campaign, does it not?

I don’t know how porn has influenced me but I would remain indebted to it for making me know many new terms hitherto unheard of for me like BDSM, sadomasochism, etc. It has played a part in my spiritual awakening and I respect those actors who are literally bending over backwards (and forwards) to cater to our senses! Over the years, they have spread their outreach and captured the imagination of uncommon segments. This explains why James Deen is a heartthrob among teenage girls!