Introduction
Lesbian porn has been debated by feminists in a political sense to be a way for women to give affection to one another in a way that only women can understand. In a sense, sex between two women is argued by feminists in support of lesbianism to be a way of expressing sexuality in a more equal way (Segal, 1993, p. 94). Much closer to the topic at hand the portrayal of sexuality in lesbian pornography is increasingly receiving attention in sex studies where lesbian porn has been criticized for misrepresenting lesbian sexual interaction. In fact, sex in lesbian porn is misconstrued and misrepresentative of actual incidences of sexual intercourse by real lesbians. Zimmerman (2013) presents arguments of real life lesbians in reaction to watching lesbian pornography; the lesbians point out that the lesbian porn is not made by actual lesbians. They refer to certain sexual acts in lesbian porn that does not correspond to real life lesbian sexual experiences.
Among the raised concerns is the fact that lesbian porn includes extremities such as fingering with all the five fingers of one hand or the entire hand that they note does not provide pleasure. Similarly, penetration achieved through the insertion of objects such as stiletto shoes in the vagina were found to be a misrepresentation of pleasure in lesbian porn by actual lesbians. The issue of faked orgasms during sexual intercourse by lesbians in porn videos was also brought up where the lesbians attested to the fact that they could tell that the lesbians in the pornography video were faking their orgasms. The expose presents two fundamental conclusions; first that lesbian porn is not made by real lesbians and secondly, that the lesbian porn is not meant for lesbians since it does not appeal to lesbians (Real Lesbians React to Fake Lesbian Porn Made for Straight Men, 2013).
This paper examines the current trend in regard to the fake portrayals of lesbian sexuality in lesbian pornography. It discusses the factors behind this continuous drive to make fake pornography and the resultant effect of these on the society especially on the effects of the misrepresentations on the sexuality of both straight and lesbian individuals.
Faux Lesbian Pornography
Lesbian pornography as mentioned in the introduction section above has a long standing strife with feminists who are conservative as well as liberal about women’s sexuality. Henderson (2013, pp. 1-2) observes that lesbian porn continues to receive much appreciation in Australia with growing criticism in equal measure. In essence, the imagery of lesbian porn is growing into a form of art and expressionism that is changing modes of making lesbian porn. On the lower side, there are developments in the lesbian porn industry that present challenges especially on the misrepresentations that the lesbian porn advance. The misrepresentations are often creations that are not say ‘lesbian’ in nature and are tailored to serve the needs of audiences other than actual lesbians.
Newman (2004, p. 8) presents various elements for lesbian sexual desire that are representative of actual real lesbians. An examination of these facts reveals that the lesbian porn is often a misinterpretation of lesbian sexual pleasure with the main aim of producing a porn product that can be consumed by straight male audiences who are inclined on sexual fetishes that are based on fantasies of lesbian sex. Eventually, the product of lesbian porn often is a misrepresentation of actual lesbian sexual experiences.
Most women show their distastefulness of lesbian porn because it is misrepresentative of the desires, and the pleasure that women especial lesbians derives from sex. Lesbian porn presents inconsistencies in the duration that it takes a woman to orgasm as well as the actual sexual acts that essentially amount to pleasure during sex among lesbians (Thobald, 2004).
Lynsey (2009) notes that lesbian pornography has lost various aspects that are crucial for sexual fulfillment of women especially in regard to lesbian sexuality. Of particular concern to Lindsay are the fake nails and fake lesbians that are staged to act out a lesbian sexual intercourse scene. She observes that sexual scenes with long nails in actual sense are heart retching to watch and as such audiences would rather switch off or fast forward. This is because the scene is unbearable to watch since sharp objects present danger of bruising the vagina despite the fact that the open wounds created present a danger of spreading sexually transmitted diseases more readily.
The portrayal of lesbian couples having sex in porn movies is normally meant to paint a picture of lesbians being different from the conventional heterosexual couples. This arouses interest to view lesbian porn with the expectation of getting a sneak peek into the secret sexual activity between women. This is against a backdrop of facts and evidence that presents results that suggest that gay couples, lesbian couples, and straight couples share similarities in their life experiences including their sexual experiences. The only difference analysts propose the fact that, in gay and lesbian couples, the two are from the same sex. Hence, there is a great resemblance in sexual challenges in regard to both homosexual and heterosexual couples (Dailey, 2014). Notwithstanding, lesbian porn continues to make sex between two women a fantasy for straight men who consume the porn for the mere desire of lusting for sex with women heightened by the experience of viewing lesbians having sex.
The characters in lesbian porn as well are more often than not fake lesbians or rather straight women who are acting out lesbian roles in a porn recording. The women in the lesbian scenes, therefore, put up a show that is meant for audiences rather than actual lesbians. In most instances, the audiences targeted are straight men who have sexual fetishes and fantasies about lesbian sex. Lesbian porn does not take into consideration that the sex among lesbian couples is not as rough and aggressive as it is portrayed in lesbian porn. For this reason the pornographic scenes are meant for audiences who share appeal for such sexual fetishes other than actual lesbians (Lynsey, 2009).
Similar sentiments are advanced about specific lesbian video recordings where criticism has majorly been directed towards the misrepresentation of lesbian sex in lesbian porn. In the short film ‘Blue is the Warmest color’ lesbian sex is enacted by seemingly obvious two straight women who engage in somewhat rough sex changing positions ever other second with very rough use of hands on the vaginal area. The ten minute film was termed to have degenerated into something that can be compared to an infomercial for a kitchen appliance. An analysis of the scene from commentaries of real lesbians reveals that the porn film is not representative of lesbian sexual experiences and, therefore, does not serve to fulfill lesbians’ needs for pornography. In the end, the discussion concluded that such lesbian porn is neither made by lesbians, nor it meant to be consumed by lesbians. Hence, the misrepresentation of lesbian sex is meant to satisfy audiences rather than actual lesbians since they aren’t even acted by real lesbians (HUFFPOST GAY VOICES, 2013).
Moreover, the roughness of the sexual scenes as presented in this paper's introduction where for instance lesbians are seen having violent sex employing the use of objects such as stiletto shoes for penetration is a total misrepresentation of lesbian sex in deriving pleasure from one another during real lesbian sex. In actual sense, such sexual acts present a danger of harming rather than providing pleasure. Therefore, lesbian sex portrayed in this way not only harms the actors who display such sexual atrocities in the most inhumane nature, but also falsify the pleasure that is derived from these acts where more often than not it harms rather than providing pleasure. Hence for this reason lesbian porn presents a danger where imitation of such violent and dangerous scenes could result to grievous injuries (Gail, 2007).
Another issue that is a misrepresentation of lesbian sex in lesbian porn is the duration that it takes a woman to orgasm. Studies developed note that only between 7-20% of women do attain actual orgasm through penetration. In this minority, most are porn stars due to the display that they provide the viewer with. Majorly, the central aim of pornography is the pleasure of the viewer, to achieve this they make the viewer feel in control of the sexual interaction by giving maximum view of the vagina and the penis during penetration. The same goes for lesbian pornography where the element of mystery and intuition that is characteristic of sexually explicit films that conceal the vagina during penetration is lost. Lesbian Porn shows women pleasuring themselves using their fingers to attain orgasm. This notion is a misleading and misconstrued lie since scientific facts denote that the average woman takes longer reach the sensation of orgasmic feeling as compared to the seconds that it takes in lesbian porn to finger each other to orgasm (Lynsey, 2009).
Lesbian porn similarly, portrays purportedly lesbian characters deriving pleasure from sucking and licking sex toys such as dildos. According to Lynsey (2009) this is not only misleading but as well unconvincing in believability that sexual pleasure can be attained from licking a plastic object such as a dildo. Further, lesbian pornography often portrays lesbians as primarily satisfying each other with some tongue action, the technique employed in licking the clitoris is, however, relative to individuals and does not apply all lesbians. Hence, the fact that lesbian porn focusses emphasis on the fact that lesbians primarily get sexual pleasure from each other by licking each other’s vaginas to orgasm is as well misconstrued and misleading.
Effects of Lesbian Porn on the Society
Pornography is attributed to present several positive and negative effects on the viewers or consumers of such pornography. Lesbian porn does not fall and short of the effects that conventional porn presents for society. According to Mckee (2007 p. 88), there are general positive and negative outcomes of watching pornography. The positives are that first; consumers become less repressed about sex. Secondly, they become more open minded about other people’s sexuality. Pornography also provides pleasure to the consumers. Similarly; it also gives insightful tips for consumers on how to improve their sex life despite making consumers more attentive to their partners’ sexual desires.
The negative effects of pornography are that; first, porn makes viewers objectify people where in most instances women become the object of desire and mistreatment by men. Secondly, is that viewing porn makes one have unrealistic sexual expectations which bring up relationship problems especially when sexual partners cannot get satisfaction in comparison to their expectations from viewing pornography. Similarly, pornography has been proven to be addictive to consumers making them dependent which influence their sexuality (Mckee, 2007, p. 88).
Lesbian porn involves misrepresentations of the lesbian sex that often present negative outcomes in the society. The effects of these misleading notions on society has been that people make desperate attempts to enact the pornographic acts that they view on lesbian pornography that are actual misrepresentations of sexual experiences in real life. More importantly, the misrepresentation of lesbian sexuality is misleading since lesbian porn in actual sense is made for straight men that have sexual fetishes that cannot merely be fulfilled by watching regular lesbian sex. In addition, the misconception is driven by the fact that not actual lesbians are used in making lesbian pornography. This makes lesbian porn illegitimate due to the unrealistic nature with which it misrepresents actual lesbian sexual encounters (Lynsey, 2009). For this reasons the negative effect that lesbian porn presents is the creation sexual expectations that are unrealistic and misrepresentative of lesbian sexual experiences in real life (Mckee, 2007).
Similarly, these expectations prop up instances where sexual partners demand unrealistic sexual desires that they end up harming their partners during sexual intercourse. For instance, the use of objects such as long nails to finger the vagina during sex could cause hemorrhage of the tender vaginal parts. Likewise, the use of rough sexual objects such as stiletto shoe tips during sex for penetration also present a danger where such objects may harm the tender lining of the vagina. More importantly, the effects of these are that the armature trials may result into injuries that may present severe consequences for those who attempt to imitate lesbian porn of this nature. This is despite that fact that wounds created during such intercourse present higher chances of spreading and acquiring sexually transmitted diseases (Gail, 2007).
Conclusion
The premise that lesbian porn is advancement by women in expressing their sexuality has been a topic of discussion that continues to receive criticism as much as it receives support by feminist groups and other factions, as well. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the dynamics in the lesbian porn that are particular focused on the misconceptions that lesbian porn advances on audiences (Segal, 1993). Foremost, the paper finds that the lesbian porn is often acted by straight women who are forced to enact sexual scenes that are representative of sexual experiences between lesbians. More often than not the actors do not know what it takes to pleasure lesbians. This becomes apparent where the sexual encounter between the women in the pornographic display somewhat engage in sexual acts that are not conventionally related to lesbian sexual experiences. Examples provided include lesbians using long manicured nails to finger the vagina that lesbians as well as women in general argue does not present any sensation of pleasure, but rather pain that is associated with injuries that can be caused by such sharp objects when inserted in the vagina. Further, the use of extreme sexual objects such as stiletto shoes to achieve penetration during lesbian sex was also presented as an example of misrepresentation of lesbian pleasure. Moreover, these sexual misrepresentations present dangers that range from injuries to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (Gail, 2007).
Misrepresentations in lesbian porn present effects on society that is arguably positive and negative. Whereas the positive effect of lesbian porn in general is advancing acceptability of sexuality, the discussion to a large extent finds that the negatives outweigh the positives. This is because; lesbian pornography is for niche audiences that in actual sense do not serve to address the needs of lesbians. In essence, lesbian pornography is used to pleasure straight men that have fetishes for sexual fulfillment by watching lesbians in action. The resultant effect has been that sexual partner’s place pressure on their spouses to perform sexual acts as those portrayed in lesbian porn. Disappointments set in where the sexual partner fails to meet the expectations as portrayed in lesbian films. Further, the sexual acts in lesbian porn do not derive any pleasure for instance sucking on dildos which present some dis-connect between actual sexual experiences and expectations as portrayed in lesbian porn (Mckee, 2007). The discussion is a detailed review of the fallacies that are advanced through lesbian porn that sets out to distinguish real life lesbian sex from that portrayed in lesbian pornography.
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