GUTS READERS SHARE WHAT THEY LOVE AND HATE ABOUT PORN
In the leadup to our third issue, we launched an anonymous sex survey. We wanted to hear from you about your experiences with sex, your thoughts and feelings and your best stories. And you told us! We’re so grateful for all the incredible, honest answers we’ve received, please keep them coming. The survey is still up and running, and there’s lots of time left to submit. Check out the whole series here.
We wanted to preserve your voices and the spirit of your answers, so we haven’t edited any of the responses.
Here’s the question:
Do you like porn? What was the first porn you ever saw and enjoyed? How does it fit into your sex life?
- I prefer when the characters are speaking languages I don’t understand, it helps to suspend my disbelief somehow. The hottest English-speaking porn I ever saw was some queer porn made by ppl in Australia. The characters are scrappy enough for me to relate to them and
my favourite moment was watching two girls fuck one another in a shed – and one girl had either a dead leaf or a twig stuck to her ass in scene and the “real” factor of it all just sent me over the edge.
- I write porn. So the first porn I experience that I also enjoyed, was something I wrote for my own enjoyment.
The first video porn I ever saw and enjoyed with “Because I Want You To Watch” – a nominee for the Feminist Porn Awards in 2013. Fabulous queer femme getting herself off while wearing really tall cotton socks and a shaggy faux-fur coat. It was the first time I’d see “myself” in porn that I hadn’t created.
- No, degrades women
- I have never watched porn in the traditional sense but I do like movies that are rated R and have explicit sexual content. I’ve never felt the need to watch porn, I get turned on all on my own and if I want arousing TV I prefer it to also have an emotionally engaging plot.
- No. I used to watch it and get off, but most of it is so incredibly violent that I ended up feeling terrible about the world. I have never actually enjoyed porn, and now I have serious concerns about the ethics of its production. The last time I tried to watch porn with a partner, we were investigating queer and alternative porn. But it sucked.
Watching a beautiful video of some slugs have sex was actually much more of a turn-on, no lie.
However, I have really enjoyed lesbian erotic photography and erotic fanfiction, and sometimes I write my own. It’s a private activity and a springboard for my fantasies.
- I like porn but i get more turned on by written porn rather than video. I have had sex on cam with boyfriends as well…its a turn on to be watched by other people
- The old swedish errotica with John Holms and Seka lol. The idea of satisfying a woman and being satified as a woman is the biggest turn on to me.
- The first porn I saw that I remember enjoying was a gangbang scene. I was probably around 14 or 15 when I watched it. I had it opened and remember feeling really turned on but I closed the browser because I felt embarrassed…but then I gave in and watched and masturbated. Years later and I use porn to masturbate probably about 70% of the time. Sometimes I’ll watch with my partner while we FaceTime (we’re doing long distance), and the times that we’re together we’ll occasionally watch it when we’re having sex. Porn also influences my fantasies, and helps me figure out what new or different things I want to try.
- i’ll bet there’s cool porn out there, but i’m not going look for it. I used to be into porn because I thought it was “real”, like “wow, these people are really enjoying this” but time passes and the realization dawns that it’s complicated.
- NO. I think Porn is wrong and should be illegal for all people of all ages. I think it has done nothing but degrade women and their bodies, making them only sexual objects which are too easily objectified in our culture through movies and advertisements as it is. I think porn has led to the increased violence against women with the line of consent being too fine and thin. That line is crossed too often. I think Porn has led to much sexual addiction for men which hurts the women in thier lives and in our world even if they are single, they will still view women as objects to be used. This is wrong!
- I am a straight woman so there are more grievous porn oversights than this, but please during penetrative sex can we see the woman’s clit in contact with the guys body??
Like if she’s on top can’t she lean forward to grind on him instead of popping up and down like a pogo stick leaving her clit to enjoy the fucking fresh air?
So, I like porn with heavy clit contact I guess.
- yes. I watch it alone, never with a partner. Maybe I’m too shy or would be too jealous. I first saw porn when I was twelve, at a sleepover, on my friend’s cable. I felt lots of feelings.
- I find porn incredibly off-putting. None of the porn I’ve ever seen focused on the things that I find interesting or erotic about sex, and was very clearly Not For Me. I assume that there is porn out there that I would find hot, but I really don’t care enough to look for it.
- I don’t watch porn by myself, but I’ve watched it a few times during sex and I’ve found that to be REALLY hot.
- I do like porn and the first porn I would have watched was online and checking my dad’s browser history finding some website. I started watching straight porn and slowly branched out where I slowly but surely started watching more and more gay porn over time. Those experiences then were pretty important in me understanding what exactly my sexual identity would be and has also kind of made me maintain a very flexible idea of sex. It was also super important because of how low my sex drive is, I don’t think I would have figured that out on my own for quite a while.
- The only reason I’m not really into (straight) porn is
I’m never convinced the actresses are into it.
- I am fascinated by porn but I don’t get turned on by it. My partner enjoys watching porn occasionally and we always make sure we have a conversation about it. I don’t care if my partner watches porn but I like to be part of the experience somehow, whether its hearing what turned him on or watching it together.
- I started watching porn when I started masturbating at like 16. I sort of wish I hadn’t because sometimes I think it coloured my sexual fantasies and sort of created certain behaviours during sex (I talk a lot during sex. But then I talk a lot always). I watched mostly porn of women eating each other out, and I still find it arousing but stopped watching it because it doesn’t feel right. I know there’s consensual, more home-made porn out there, but the kind I used to watch seemed exploitative and not OK sometimes. So I stopped.
- Yup, I do.
I think the 1st one was a robin hood themed one that a plutonic friend randomly put on while I was visiting. The power dynamics between some of the characters turned me on more than I expected but I didn’t yet know I was into kink so I couldn’t have told you why at the time.
I use it to masturbate. I don’t like having it around when I’m having sex for 2 or more. I can get very distracted by visual stimulation (esp a TV) and I’d rather focus on the person(s) I’m with.
- I don’t like the aesthetics of porn in general but I know that most of my partners probably watch it and sometimes I wonder if the moves they’re using come from it. This is especially so if a number of them use the same move.
- i dont really watch porn ever, nor do i feel like it has a part in my sex life, but
i’ve always been turned on most by the porn i’ve seen that takes place between two men, which has always struck me as interesting as i am not sexually attracted to cis men
- Sort of. I am too embarrassed to have a porn site on my Visa so I stream. Unfortunately stream porn is too ‘catch-all’ and I come across way too much porn that is degrading to women and truly makes me sick to my stomach.
When sex is passionate and HD, yes. I love watching porn. Especially when they are having fun and are genuinely enjoying the experience.
The first porn I saw and enjoyed? Not sure. But throughout time I have realized how ridiculous most porn is.
- Yes, I don’t like it though. I watch it when I’m really really horny and had not have a sexual encounter in a long time
- Yes. I am a latecomer to porn. I had never watched any until a couple years ago. I like lesbian porn. It’s more gentle and I am more attracted to what I imagine happening to me.
Dicks are not that pretty visually on screen.
It fits outside of my partnered sex life as a tension valve.
- I might, if I ever saw realistic porn. Meaning straight porn without the degradation, Barbie bodies, and foot-long dongs, or queer porn in which anybody looks like they’re actually getting off. (No true lesbian would ever put fingernails that long anywhere near a crotch.)
- Guts, I would love you to put together a compilation of good porn. I watch occasionally but I never really like the pacing or the cinematography.
I don’t look very far though. I’ve thought that queer, costumey group sex porn would be fun but it’s so campy I can’t do it. Help!
