Porn. It’s a weird and awkward topic. Even the word is uncomfortable to say out loud. It is one of those things that is rarely discussed in public, yet seemingly enjoyed by many in private. Porn is a bizarre phenomenon because it’s completely fake. The portrayal of enjoyment is a lie, the bodies are not real, and more often than not, the sex itself is a complete misrepresentation of real life. Yet despite this, it’s watched by the majority of the UK. A study revealed that “over half of women (55 per cent) watch videos with sexual content on their own at least once a month – with a further 40 per cent admitting to switching it on weekly.” If this is the reality, that effectively porn is watched about as regularly as Downton Abbey, then why is it such a taboo subject to bring up? Why are people so ashamed of admitting they watch it?
Of course the biggest issue surrounding porn is its links to sexual violence. Porn provides a complete misrepresentation of sex for young males which leads to serious consequences of how they go on to treat women in the bedroom, and indeed in everyday life. The most accessible porn sites seem to only show videos where the woman is completely submissive whilst the man is always the one being pleasured. In the vast majority of porn videos, the man comes on the woman’s face at the end. It is an unnervingly ‘standard procedure’ in porn and something which is seriously damaging for young males. We will end up with a generation of young men who will think that this is acceptable for every girl they have woman with. Even worse, we will end up with a generation of young women who will think that they will have to submit to this even if they don’t want to. These issues are no secret though. There have been many documentaries and articles that expose the dark side to pornography and why it can be so damaging, proving that a lot needs to change in the industry.
With all of this in mind, UBTV Features department decided to carry out a social experiment. We filmed Bristol students watching porn with their friends. It was a pretty exposing environment filming them in the cold light of day in the student’s union. We had no real aims for the film, only that we wanted to observe into how students would react when watching porn out of the comfort of their own homes (beds). It was interesting to see that most appeared extremely disgusted by what they were watching. It definitely made you realise how grotesque and ridiculous a lot of the videos can be. In fact, the three of us filming it felt pretty nauseous by the end of the day. What the film makes obviously clear is that porn is definitely still a serious elephant in the room, even amongst the ‘liberal minded’ Bristol students.