Is Porn Body representative?
Or am I watching the wrong porn?
If you ask someone to imagine the “typical” pornstar, they’ll probably describe a skinny blonde woman with fake boobs. We’ve all heard this millions of times. You’ll also read a lot in the media about how porn is not body representative and bad for people’s body confidence.
I started to think more about this topic last year, after I recorded a podcast with a body positivity activist. They claimed how porn is not body representative, but then when asking them questions about the industry, it turned out that they had never worked in it, hadn’t researched it and had never watched porn. And yet, they had a pretty strong opinion on how porn is bad for women’s body image. But then after speaking with her about the reality of the industry, her opinion changed.
It is evident that the narrative around porn and body image has become skewed. I never fully understood why this was the narrative, because as someone who used to watch a lot of porn, I saw nothing but diversity in bodies. Video choices aside, I have also attended a lot of adult industry conferences, which has an incredible amount of body positivity. I remember being very impressed with this at the first Xbiz conference that I went to. And as someone who can be self-conscious about my own weight, it was probably the first environment I’ve ever been in where I felt like I could be comfortable with myself and my body image. So frankly, this narrative about porn not being body representative is just not the case.
Why do people claim that porn is not body representative?
Well, I think that this might come from the fact that the people writing the articles either:
Don’t watch porn themselves
Have a biased towards the industry
They’re watching the wrong porn
A lot of the media or people’s views on porn often are rooted in lack of knowledge, bias, or taboo. But, when it comes to body diversity, porn is one of the few industries that is really leading the way and it’s a shame that it is not being acknowledged for doing so just because of ‘taboo’. And if you feel as though the porn you are watching is not body representative, then maybe start to think about what sites you are on, and what videos you are watching. When in doubt, you can always tweet people in the industry and ask for advice.