Everyone Is Grotesque and No One Is Turned On
Male pornography is primarily visual, focused on specific body parts and actions, and relatively devoid of narrative or relationship complexity. Such pornography has never been successfully marketed to women, whose pornography, or “erotica,” has traditionally taken the form of romance novels. In the romance novel, sex is always subordinated to rela
... See moreMichael J. Bader • Arousal
I’ve literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can’t anymore. I don’t know that we are actually human at this point, those of us w
... See moreGillian Flynn • Gone Girl: A Novel
refracting the ways watching porn screens is a form of touch in which the affective power of the image works directly on the body.
Shaka McGlotten • Virtual Intimacies: Media, Affect, and Queer Sociality
What is called beauty in the digital age is actually porn—an instant gratification of the senses that erases intimacy.
Andrew Sweeny • Beauty
holding the lens squarely on the physical act of sex—sex as a performance—is a decidedly unerotic approach. It is too narrow an angle. To me, it seems that James is overwhelmed by the whole prospect of being sexual with his wife: claiming desire, eroticizing her, feeling free to express the bawdiness of his lust with her.
Esther Perel • Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
