Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of talking with Jake Hall for their article on how some adult content creators provide sex education. You can read that article here on Lustery: Porn Subscriptions Are Educational, Actually. I’m delighted to be in the article alongside others who are doing amazing work!
(I’ve talked with Jake before, about genital saline infusion, for an article on Giddy! If you haven’t read that one, you can find it here: Why Are People Injecting Saline Into Their Junk?)
Curious to hear more from me about porn as education?
Of course, it wouldn’t be possible for all of my conversation with Jake to be included in the finished article, so if you’d like to know more about my goals when it comes to education & the backstory of this very blog, keep reading!
“How long had you been making adult content when people started asking you for advice / education, and were you surprised?”
That happened in the reverse order! When I started selling videos, I’d already been participating in forums dedicated to urethral sounding and cervix play, and sharing the occasional photo. Sounding is less common and less well understood in people with vulvas, so people often asked for advice, and I’m a big ol’ nerd who wants people to enjoy their bodies in as many ways as possible, so I was happy to answer.
“What are the most common questions you get?”
I get a lot of questions about how to start with urethral sounding & how to stretch urethras, what cervix penetration feels like (in particular, whether it’s painful to me), and whether what I’m doing is safe. I’ve also been surprised at how many people ask about how I remove superglue from my skin or seem to be utterly convinced that it’s extremely dangerous- in my mind, that’s one of the lower-risk things I do. The majority of posts I’ve written for my blog have been directly prompted by questions, and being able to send a link to information instead of writing out all my thoughts again allows me to answer a lot more people’s questions.
“Studies consistently show that people look to porn / adult content for sex education — does this surprise you?”
I’m not surprised by people looking to adult content for education about sex, but I am a little sad about it. My suspicion is that part of what’s at play is cultural shame about sex creating a situation where curiosity about sex & genitals is perceived as inherently salacious. I think even people who are in the habit of (for example) looking things up on wikipedia are less likely to do so when what they’re wondering about is sexual in nature, because there’s this idea that it would be pervy to do so.
“Do you see sex workers offering sex education services / creating educational content often, or do you think it’s still pretty niche?”
I think there are challenges to creating content that both educates and arouses. For many buyers, the appeal of porn is about the fantasy presented, so fully realistic content isn’t as desirable. I’ve certainly felt a need to balance these competing interests myself, and I do have some clips which depict a fantasy rather than aiming for accuracy, so my compromise has been to make sure my video description discusses what’s happening in those cases as fantasy. I know of many adult content creators who embed educational messages in their videos, such as deliberately showing lube application, but in my experience this is typically kept low-key and unobtrusive.
Creating sex education content that doesn’t have the goal of being arousing has a major challenge, in that sex workers often aren’t directly paid for this content. Because of this, I primarily see sex workers offering sex education in more casual ways, like twitter threads. I do get inquiries from a lot of people who want one on one conversation (rather than a blog post or twitter thread to read) about how to try the kinks they see me engaging in, and so I offer paid chat on NiteFlirt. Still, though, most of my education-focused work is unpaid, and my impression is that it’s the same story for most of my peers.
One area that seems to be an exception, where there’s a lot of potential to highlight an educational message in arousing content, is in medical fetish porn. Many of my own clips demonstrate or discuss how-to info about medical play, and many medical fetish clips are a rich source of anatomy information. My friend Candy Luxe has a video where she sees a cervix for the first time, when she and her co-star take turns trying a speculum on one another, that showcases a spirit of lighthearted exploration and silliness that I think we need much more of in sex education! If anything is going to break down shame, I think it’s playfulness.
What are you curious to learn about my body or my kinks?
One of my favorite ways to offer arguably educational content is when I receive custom video orders which involve describing what something feels like as it happens, or explaining what I’m doing as I do it. If there’s something you’ve wished I would talk you through, take a look at the information here about ordering custom videos!
You’re also always welcome to leave a comment suggesting future topics for blog posts! I love knowing what people are interested in reading more about.
If you don’t want to wait for me to write a blog post, we could also talk on NiteFlirt, either on the phone or through the chat system!