Many people would argue that porn performers have a dream job. Getting paid to have sex—what could be better than that? These actors and actresses spend their lifetimes selling their content, but have you ever wondered what’s actually going through a performer’s mind while shooting a scene?
Recently, VICE Australia interviewed four popular performers to figure out what exactly is running through their brain while filming.
As it turns out, some thoughts are positive. One female performer, Blake Wilde, describes how it’s easy to “get too caught up in the sex” and forget that you need to be focusing on making a good scene—an exaggerated performance, in other words. And another female performer, Jesse Lee Pierce, said she thinks the majority of the time her orgasms are genuine, not acted out.
Even so, what we see more than anything are often mundane thoughts about what they’re going to do after work, when they should change the scene up, or just general thoughts of insecurity. Not exactly the most exciting, right?
“I’m rarely turned on when I’m shooting”
Take it from Blake, who said her thoughts range from how to make the scene look better, to what she’s going to get for dinner after work or if she has beer at home, even claiming “It’s just another day at the office… it’s not a huge big sexual excitement for me.”
Jesse Lee Pierce even described her insecurities that stem from the men she’s working with being paid to have sex with her, questioning, “Do they actually like what’s happening, or are they faking it? Are they attracted to me at all? Have they had Viagra today?”
Unfortunately, Jesse’s insecurities seem to be answered by one male performer, Jake Shy, who upon being asked if he still gets turned on, replied with, “That’s a hard one. It’s not a turn on like you’re watching porn. When I’m looking down, I’m not thinking ‘she’s so hot.’”
Trying not to be turned on during sex and not thinking about the person you’re with sounds a little bit backwards, right?
And despite Jesse discussing her genuine orgasms, she mentions that it usually isn’t derived from the scene itself, even if it’s an exaggerated fantasy in and of itself that she’s acting out:
“To be honest, I think that’s probably most of the time when I’ve orgasmed—when I’ve turned to whatever fantasy is in my mind… With a little imagination, I can eventually get there.”
Similarly to this, one performer, Madison, describes the routine of her scenes, describing the typical layout, saying, “People don’t like hearing it, but I’m rarely turned on while shooting, so I sing songs to myself that make me feel sexy so I can tap into that side of things. They are also great for timing my movements: one song sung means I can change positions, five songs sung means I can close the scene.”
Seeing means not believing what’s happening
Throughout all these performers comments about what they’re thinking about, one thing is made clear: what you’re seeing is far, far from reality.
Porn’s goal is to sell the idea that these performers are out-of-their-minds turned on, when in reality, they’re doing what they do best: performing. Faking it. Acting. To the performers, it’s work, and work has routine and a certain level of mundaneness, and it definitely has daydreaming.
And while that may not sound all that bad, consider this: millions of people are buying a completely fabricated fantasy, and measuring their own real-life relationships against something that even porn performers aren’t turned on by. Porn is considered the gold standard of sex, but the reality is, the sex performers are having isn’t even that good. It’s not even arousal-worthy, for many who are paid to make acrobatic and extreme acts look like it’s blowing their minds.
Ultimately, this may be because a porn set is much less intimate than being physical with someone they love, but often times, it’s because it’s a painful, humiliating, uncomfortable experience that they can’t wait to be done with.
The reality is, what you’re seeing in pornography is a complete facade. This is obvious, we know, but it’s worth talking about.
The fact is, we shouldn’t be learning about sex and intimacy from people who are having mostly fake orgasms. Porn is designed to grab your attention—the scenes are shot in eye-grabbing ways, the performers are airbrushed and shots are edited to look unrealistically perfect, and despite what it appears, the performers are doing exactly that: performing.
There’s a reason we say porn is full of lies—because it is.
Sex is a natural, normal, and healthy thing for couples who are both ready to take that step. Porn distorts that reality and opens up a potential world of unfair comparison where there are no mistakes or imperfections, violence is often the goal, and there’s no sign of the many breaks and takes required to shoot a scene, making it appear seamless no matter how long the film.
In each video, given that it looks like every person is in uncontrollable ecstasy with everything being done to them—it’s no wonder porn changes the sexual tastes and expectations of its consumers and harms their sex lives in reality.
Let’s drop the facade and fight for real love by ditching pornography.
