modern pornography?

today i had a moment of intellectual and emotional stimulation at the most unlikely of times, and brought on by even more unlikely of a candidate.

but before i go on, i feel an article like this needs a preface (albeit a blunt one). being male, i frequently come into contact with pornography. i don’t intend to disclose information about the frequency of this activity, but i feel comfortable saying i do not view pornography often enough for it to impact my appreciation for human sexuality. i view it often enough, though, to keep my mind at ease, as sexual tension can be a real bitch. anyway. i’ve always thought of porn as a kind of art. it provides commentary on who we are as people. the fact that sites featuring staged rapes and real life shit-eating even exist, is a powerful statement on some of the perverts in our ranks. that said, i feel i can continue.

if you view porn on a semi-regular basis, you may have heard of a website called “pornotube.”
the shallow porn-viewer grabs the lotion and tissues, rushes the computer and says “oh boy! free porn!”
but someone of a more curious nature might see something entirely different. heres what i saw.

youtube is a social website. people using videos of themselves to communicate ideas and generate conversation. many people use youtube for videoblogging, family videos, videos of friends, videos of events. its fascinating really, how much youtube has opened doors for creative communication. a forum for the exchange of ideas.

pornotube, in spite of a large amount of trash and studio pornography, is also a community. couples post videos of sexual exploits, people post photographs of themselves, people post all sorts of media directly relating to their private sex lives. exhibitionists, to some degree, i suppose. and they’re all over. different countries, states, continents. and they’re all ages. 18 right on up to the 80’s. people with a common appreciation for our nature as physical sexual beings.

there are a thousand problems anyone could have with this website, i’m sure. and i’m sure there are plenty of people not even aware of a community, or even appreciative of what they contribute to the site. and there are probably quite a few who do it all entirely for the wrong reasons.

but today i saw a video of a european couple on a train. most of the video consisted of conversation. and eventually, the conversation veered towards a sexual topic, and then to possibilities of sex on the train. i have no doubt that this video was not staged, but in fact, a legitimate documentation of two people deciding to have consensual sex in a train bathroom (if this was a studio production, then my god people, the porno business is entering its golden age). while sex on in a bathroom isn’t exactly my forte, i appreciated the very real nature of this video. it was as if one of them pulled out a camera intending to document a trip, and instead documented a short burst of passion and young love. there was nothing wrong with it. it was innocent. and that is a RARE thing to see in pornography. in fact i don’t know that i’d call it pornography at all. i saw this video and i wanted to meet this couple and have some tea. i wanted to ask about their relationship, upbringing, religious views, politics, and all that jazz.

i saw the video and i saw people. most times you see actors. objects. props.
you can read into a pornography and ask yourself “why are they doing this? do they enjoy it?”
but you never get answers, you never get people.
the reason this was different:

when the video abruptly ended, i said to myself:
“i really hope that relationship works out”
and i meant it.