How To Empower Yourself Through DIY Porn

What with the recession, welfare cuts and increasing financial inequality it can be difficult to know how to make ends meet. I’ve got some advice for you which might seem controversial: empower yourself through porn.

It’s easy.

The internet, as the saying goes, is for porn. In fact the internet has not only increased access to pornography, it’s also democratized content creation in a way unprecedented in history. Aspiring filmmakers no longer need to spend thousands of pounds on expensive equipment – high definition video can be shot on a smartphone. Computer processing power allows you to edit video on a home PC, and free software is available to help you do it. Some tips:

1. Distribute: Once you have your video (or photos, if you’re old school) there are myriad tools to help you distribute them online. Many adult paysites are hosted on WordPress, the open source CMS (content management system) that bloggers will already be familiar with. If you don’t want the responsibility of running a membership site that will commit you to regular updates, you can sell your video through a managed pay-per-download service such as Clips4Sale, AdultWork, ExtraLunchMoney, SpankingLibrary or MakeLoveNotPorn. Most of these services don’t charge an up-front fee to create a merchant account. They handle the hosting and all the complicated secure credit card processing, as well as driving traffic to your store, in exchange for a cut of the proceeds — normally around 40 percent.

2. Hold On To Your Wallet: Don’t be put off by the high production values of some adult studios. It’s not compulsory. Your greatest asset is you, and all the rest is trimmings. The truth is that videos don’t have to be cinematic to be hot. I know a lot of people who explicitly seek out amateur porn rather than the more staged stuff, because it feels more authentic and more genuine.

3. Focus On Authenticity: Invite a friend to shoot you solo as you pleasure yourself and play with your body; or to film you and your partner doing what you do best. These days most people are bored of porn that feels fake. Authenticity is the word of the day, and porn featuring real couples, real intimacy and real, unscripted sex is rapidly becoming a hot ticket.

4. Only Fuck If You’re Comfortable: If you or your lover aren’t comfortable fucking on camera, you don’t even have to fuck. Something I think every human should do before they die is peruse the Clips4Sale category list, which contains every fetish under the sun — types of porn you had no idea existed. Who knew people wank to eyelash porn, balloon fetish or farting clips? Human sexuality is a brilliant, beautiful, crazily varied thing. Even if you aren’t comfortable getting your bits out on camera, with a bit of creative thinking, chances are you can still find a way to get people off.

It’s good for you.

Growing up in our sexist, racist, transphobic, advertising-saturated culture is hard. I had my share of body shame, insecurity and disordered eating as a teenager. If your body isn’t ‘perfect’ it’s easy to feel like a failure. What I’ve learned is that humans are capable of desiring every type of body under the sun, and if you publish DIY porn online you’ll find your audience — whatever you look like. I don’t care what flaws you think you have, I guarantee those exact quirks are what make you someone’s fetish. Plus!

• When you produce your own porn, you can be a model without having to get accepted by an agency. You don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, and you don’t have to put up with the language other producers might use to describe your body. You can set your own rules.
• Porn has taught me to love my own flesh. It’s provided a safe space for me to be sexual, and to explore some of my deepest, darkest fantasies. I’ve learned confidence, body pride and self-love. But porn hasn’t just given me the external validation of people telling me I’m hot (although for the spotty nerd who was bullied in school, that kind of validation still feels pretty awesome). Performing in porn has given me the sort of self-acceptance that can only come from within. It’s taught me to value my body for what it can do, how it can make me feel, as well as how it looks.
• Making DIY porn has taught me that the most appealing performances arise not from posing and pouting, but from surrendering whole-heartedly to a sexual experience. It’s taught me how to move, that poise and self-assuredness that will make heads turn whatever shape you are. Making porn has inspired me to look after my body and work to improve my strength and flexibility , which has opened the door to other enjoyable physical activities like dance and parkour.
• Above all else, when you’re your own boss, making porn is fun. There’s the performance adrenaline, the thrill of being center stage. With some fetish porn there’s a hefty endorphin kick too. When the camera’s rolling your movements and reactions will become more theatrical, more expressive — which results in better communication between you and your partner and gives them more feedback on your pleasure, leading to a better time for all.

It’s political.

For years, porn has been considered a boy’s game. The early producers, distributers and gatekeepers of the adult industry were all male, and for some this has given the genre a bad name. But porn isn’t essentially male-dominated any more than the world of fine art is; it just historically has been because patriarchy. We can fix it, and I think we have a duty to do so.

Some people are asexual and that’s fine, but most human beings have a sexuality of some sort, and we all have the right to sexual fulfillment and freedom of sexual expression.

I believe that everyone, whatever their gender, sexuality or fetish, has the right to enjoy consensually produced depictions of their fantasies if they wish. In the same way, we all — not just straight white dudes — have the right to produce the type of porn that gets us hot (with the enthusiastic consent of all participants, of course). In fact I think that those of us whose sexual tastes are beyond the imaginings of those straight white dudes have a responsibility to make our own.

Porn isn’t ‘essentially’ anything. Porn can (and will) be queer, woman-positive, trans-positive, fat-positive, age-positive and ethnically diverse. Porn can be respectful, sincere, intimate, romantic, sensual, artistic, and all the things the San Fernando valley mainstream has a reputation for not being. Porn doesn’t have to use words like ‘teen’, ‘MILF’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’, ‘bitch’, ‘chubby’, ‘ebony’ or ‘shemale’. When you’re creating your own porn, you can create your own language to define yourself. Porn is identity politics writ large.

The bottom line is that porn doesn’t have to be by men, for men. There’s no reason that porn can’t include the types of bodies that make you salivate, or all the things that get your juices flowing in the privacy of your own mind. But for porn like this to exist, someone has to make it. Perhaps that someone is you.

DIY porn might not be for everyone. Not everyone has an exhibitionist streak, enjoys dreaming up a multitude of creative scenarios, or wants to spend long hours playing with software. Some of you may work — or want to work ‚ in sensitive jobs like law or teaching, and would prefer to avoid the possibility of being outed as someone who once published sexy clips of themselves. But if you like receiving sexual attention, you like computers and you like making pretty things, I say give it a try at least once!

If you work for yourself, you’re contracted to no one and there are no expectations. You can try it and if you don’t like it just stop, chalk it up to life experience, and move on. Viewers deserve porn performers who are genuinely enjoying themselves.

Starting your own business can seem dauntingly complicated, but from camming to clip stores porn allows you to work for yourself without leaving your bedroom. And the more people do this, the more variety and diversity of porn will be available — free range porn, homegrown porn, made consensually and ethically without exploitation. If you’re picky about the porn you watch, consider getting involved and making your own; it’s the only way the status quo will change.

And let’s face it, having hot sex with your lover is a pretty great way to make money.

Read more from Pandora at PandoraBlake.com (NSFW) and follow her on Twitter.