porn

Blush: Porn Data

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If you are on the internet, your activity is tracked.

Image from qz.com.

Porn sites are no exception. You don’t even have to be logged into an account, and your selections, pauses, fast forwards, and screenshots are saved and put into a data mining engine.

If you do have an account, they use this data to give you better options that suit your tastes.

Fortunately for the privacy of its clients, the data collected is not sold to third parties, at least not from MindGeek, the primary company that owns most of the porn (and other sites) on the internet.

You can read more about how the data is collected and what they do with it here.

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

Blush: Teen Vogue and Anal Sex

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In case you weren’t aware, Teen Vogue has been stepping up on it’s hard-hitting, serious, and factual articles (seeing as the press, both print and video, is having difficulty with some of those concepts).

Teen Vogue

One of the things that Teen Vogue has started doing is de-stigmatizing and de-sensationalizing sex. They are doing this through education, something that I think is fantastic. Not to point fingers at specific magazines, but for the most part, they sensationalize (for the lack of a better word) heterosexual sex. Knowing how to “please a man” isn’t the sort of sexual education I would like for my daughter to experience.

Which is why I think Teen Vogue is doing a great job of providing educational articles.

Despite what some parents might think, teens have access to a lot of sexual content. Not all porn has to be paid for, and both video and photos are available through the internet. Literotica is also relatively easy to get access to.

To be clear: I have zero problem with the above. My problem is when teens ONLY have access to the above.

Porn and literotica are not usually the most educational of sources (there are exceptions, I’m sure). They go for flashy, titillating, and evocative. They don’t mention the mundane, like protection, safety, lubrication, stretching, or even the emotions that come through being intimate with another person.

So to have an accessible magazine write educational articles about sex is a really good thing, in my opinion.

Here is Teen Vogue’s most recent article about Anal Sex. It’s causing a lot of controversy among certain groups. Apparently they think that reading an article about how to have anal sex properly might give teens the idea to actually do it. Sure, it might. But I bet they probably already had the idea before they read it…and now they know how to do it safely.

I’ve read mysteries where they describe how the murderer killed someone and where their mistake was so that they ended up getting caught. It doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and kill. (I promise you, I will not kill anyone.) On a less serious note, I’ve also read a lot of articles on how to make cute kids crafts. I’m really not sure I’ll ever do them.

In other words, just because you’ve read something, doesn’t mean you’re going to do it!

Another reason why I think it’s a really good idea to have articles like this is because the sexual education that teens are getting (especially in the US) is abstinence only. This means that they have no idea how to protect themselves, or even safely have sex. Combine that with the outdated patriarchal idea of vaginal virginity, and you get kids who will try anything and everything but PiV intercourse. Cue crude but hilarious (and very much Not Safe For Work) Garfunkel and Oates video The Loophole.

If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.

Blush: Porn

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The oldest recorded video porn was a homemade video in 1925 (they’d have to be super rich to have been able to afford a video camera back then!) of a couple on a picnic that evolves into sex outdoors. There is no sound.

The first playboy centerfold was Marilyn Monroe in December 1953 (happy 63rd anniversary, Playboy!).

Image from a wordpress blog.
Image from this wordpress blog.

Pornography, as defined by Oxford Dictionary, is printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement. Both of the above examples fit in this category.

But over the years, as people got desensitized to sex, pornography has had to become more and more explicit to draw the same reaction from its consumers. It has also become rather unrealistic. Just as our standards of beauty have morphed into an unattainable figure of unreasonable proportions due to photo-manipulation, pornographic videos have evolved into feats of stamina, strength, and extreme situations that are unlikely to happen or be achieved in real life. (Although I won’t completely discount some situations from happening. I don’t like absolutes.)

This leads to certain expectations in the youth who consume the porn that is accessible to them. Expectations that, unless they are unique, will fall flat in the face of reality.

What we should try to disseminate is the information that pornography is like an action movie.

In an action movie, the hero faces off against numerous villains all at once. The hero defeats them against all odds, due in part because of bad planning of the main villain, poor decision making skills of the lackeys, and/or sheer dumb luck on the part of the hero. What happens in an action movie is not likely to happen in real life. It’s designed to look cool, moves the plot forward, and (usually) has a happy ending with the hero triumphant.

Porn is very similar – it’s designed for looks, move the “plot” forward, and has a “happy ending”, but it is very unlikely to happen in real life. Porn is scripted, and every scene you see in a movie has been done to death, so the actors are acting their enjoyment (for the most part). Most of the positions are picked because it gives a good angle for the camera, not because they are comfortable or enjoyable for the actors.

While pornographic movies, erotic novels, and nude photos are great in whatever moderation you choose, just remember not to treat them as reality.

I hope you have a very Happy New Year!