Sex Sells: The Pornhub 1st Annual
Film Fest
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Pornhub had its first annual Porn film festival offered way more than I believe most of their viewers expected. When the title of a film festival includes Porn, the typical person thinks of sex as it is seen in naughty pop-ups or the 1-800 ads during the wee hours of the morning. Instead, From my first impressions, I was curious as to what kind of crowd this sort of event would attract. Of course more than just your neighborhood pervert or horny teen are frequent visitors of porn sites but this was a film festival, so I hoped to find some sort of highly sexual intellectuals lurking about. I did anticipate that at some point there would be a room full of people watching hard pounding sex. But as I entered into the smoking lounge area, the room held around 50-60 people, most of which held a drink or a cigarette in either hand (as the room would suggest). It wasn’t until I walked into the room in which the films were being shown, that I was a bit taken aback at how many more folks filled the room. I would say that there were damn near 100 people filling the benches and walls watching the films and so my experience began.
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My night started off watching a short film titled “Internal Body Shots” by Jasco Viefhues. The film explored the experiences of four individuals from throughout North America and Europe with their sexuality, bodies and how their bodies have been viewed by others throughout the world. I found this film to be captivating because it took a deeper look into the very basic idea that sex is not the same everywhere, for everyone and with every BODY. We don’t just have sex with our genitals but with our entire bodies and those bodies come with experiences, stereotypes and stigmas that are placed on us by our societies. The Black Body, the Trans Body, the Intersex Body, the Gender fluid Body and the Body that exists as genderless are all still sexual bodies that experience sex differently and that is important to talk about when mentioning sex on any platform. The audience seemed captivated, not so much by the nudity of the folks on screen but listening to the stories of their bodies. I felt that the film reminded viewers that we are more than the act of heavy breathing, orgasms and arousal.
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The following film entitled “My Girls” was a short of different men breastfeeding from another man’s chest. This film in particular tickled me because of the unease that came over the room. Many viewers whispered comments to their neighbors, fidgeted in their seats or simply walked out of the room. I took this as an opportunity to get some comments from folks. The person sitting next to me appeared to have a very different opinion about the scenes. He stated that he was fascinated by the discomfort. He then went on to say “porn is art” in reference to how many sculptures and paintings sometimes make their viewers uneasy, most times, that is the point. The depiction of a man doing to another man an act that is meant to be between a mother nourishing her child can be understandably disturbing. But the crowd seemed to be buzzing more with the sexual identity of the parties involved. Were they gay? Is the guy breast feeding considered a cub or a bear? (referring to his slightly chubby and hairy tummy). Even the masses who flocked to see porn in all of its glory, were uneasy with what they could not place into one of their many boxes.
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