After Porn Ends - The SSL Review
This doc is about as straight forward as it can get. It's a series of interviews with former stars cut together with occasional clips and B-roll. I actually thought it would be a really crappy sex-umentary, you know one of those HBO "documentaries" that have something to do with sex, but it really just seems like it was created to be a main-stream way for people to see lots of T&A. I really only watched this movie to see if I needed to review it, but turns out it was really an alright doc. It kept my attention, and it wasn't too heavy handed or anything. It even focuses on some really famous stars like Mary Carey, Asia Carrera, and Randy West, if that means anything to you.
As you might expect, there is discussion about how porn, whether you're in it for good or crappy reasons, doesn't just go away. There is clearly a problem with being stigmatized - particularly for the ladies. This doc doesn't go too deep into anything. There's no nuanced discussions of our cultural relationship to porn or anything. It's largely these stars telling you their story from their point of view, but I think the opportunity to see these stars in a different light and to hear the things they have to say is at times quite poignant. I imagine for different people the poignant parts would come at different times, but I think if you have any interest in porn or our sexual culture, this could be an worthwhile watch.
The SSL Review part comes when Tyffany Million, an ex porn star now living in the southwest and happily working as a PI and bounty hunter, is talking about her time in porn.
What you do in porn films is not sex. I mean, I know you're being penetrated, but it's like this you know (puts finger in mouth). It's like this (puts finger of one hand into hole made by fingers of the other) and, that's what it feels like. It's just something occupying um, a chasm in your body, really. It's like this (puts finger in nose). It's like this (puts finger in ear) - that's what it might as well be. There's no emotion there. There's no feeling, um you know... uh you know I gotta tell you a funny little story. I would have so many fans come up to me at autograph signings whatever and tell me that I was their favorite porn star because all the other girls were faking it, and I was the one that they knew, man, that I was for real; and (in a man's voice) "I can tell when a woman's fakin' it." And I'd be laughing (cuts to a close up of her face in a porn where she's obviously looking the man she's having sex with right in the eye and saying, "Watch my face, yeah," and then she makes this great realistic O face and "comes" with earthy grunts) cause I'd be like, psh, I'm the biggest damn faker you ever met, man I'm good - that's why I get paid the big bucks (laughs).
I mean, I say it all the time here - that women in porn fake like 99% of the time, and I know people know this, but it's just not explicitly talked about much, and even though people do know it, I think it's easy to forget when it's not convenient. In other words, I actually don't think a lot of people really truly know that female porn stars, not just ones that sound fake, but all female porn stars fake orgasms in the movies. Tyffany Million's here to remind you, and just to drive home the point, I'd like to contrast her words with something a male porn star, Randy West said.
I used to say it's like borrowing somebody's body to masturbate with. Excuse me, if you're not busy, do you mind if I jerk off in your pussy with my dick? Uh, it's kinda like that, which it's not bad, I mean, ya know - better than real jerkin' off...He, like our ladies, feels like porn is different from "real" sex. However, unlike our ladies, he equates porn to masturbation, a physically orgasmic activity, and not to something like someone sticking a finger in an ear. So, yes, for both ladies and gentlemen porn doesn't seem like real sex. There's people watching. One has to worry about angles and lighting and different takes. Plus there's not certain emotional qualities that would exist if this were one on one romantically inclined sex, but for men they at least get the physical release involved with sex.
I just think this is a really good reminder that when we are watching porn, we are watching something that is orgasmic for men, but not orgasmic for women. Also, I want to point out that I think Tyffany Million seems like a pretty cool lady. She gets props from me for being interesting and for taking the opportunity to outright say that she (and we can assume from her words, other female porn stars) don't orgasm in porn. It may seem like no biggie to say, but it is.
I'll give this doc 4 vulvas. The only real discussion of orgasm in here was pretty good at reflecting the realities of how men vs. women experience (or don't experience) orgasm while making porn. That in itself is fairly progressive, and the movie makers chose to put those parts of the interviews in. Even if progressive involvement in the Orgasm Equality Movement wasn't their motive, I still appreciate it.
(!) (!) (!) (!)