A common criticism of mainstream porn is that it’s unrealistic. Detractors argue that everything from the clichéd storylines to the fake orgasms combine to create depictions of sex which are void of intimacy at best, and downright harmful at worst.
It’s true that porn has its problems. Fetishization and violence (although research shows this is decreasing) are still regular fixtures on “tube” sites — the free, largely unregulated sites like Pornhub and Xtube. Those sites also frequently feature pirated content. But the industry is largely changing for the better as platforms, creators, and studios merge with the social media movement.
In 2009, entrepreneur Cindy Gallop launched MakeLoveNotPorn, a video site filled with crowdsourced “real world” sex scenes. The idea came from her discovery that, in lieu of comprehensive sex education, young men in particular were using porn as an instruction manual. Lovers were literally trying to fuck like porn stars — and unsurprisingly, the results were disastrous.
Gallop concluded that cultural anxieties around sex and pleasure were doing us all a…
