Breaking the Myths of Hardcore Pornography
Illustration by Jordan Whitney Martin
Started in 2009 by Cindy Gallop, Makelovenotporn.com has been growing in popularity ever since. Seeking to educate porn viewers about what actually happens in the bedroom, it has had over one hundred thousand users since January 2013 and is one of the most visited alternative sex websites.
Gallop, an English advertising consultant, was prompted to create the site when she started to recognize the impact the porn industry’s manufactured sexual situations had on her own experiences with young men.
“In an era where hardcore porn is more freely and widely available on the Internet than ever before,” said Gallop at the 2009 TEDtalks conferences in Long Beach, California, “there is an entire generation growing up that believes that what you see in hardcore pornography is the way that you have sex.”
According to Gallop, porn is pervasive among youth because “we live in a puritanical, double-standards culture, where people believe that teen abstinence will actually work, where parents are too embarrassed to have conversations about sex with their children. … So it’s not surprising that hardcore pornography, de facto, has become sex education.”
Makelovenotporn.com is dedicated to educating porn viewers about the reality of sex, which is not necessarily reflected in harcore porn.
As Gallop herself puts it, the site is intended to “inspire and stimulate open, healthy conversations about sex and pornography in order to inspire and stimulate more open, healthy and thoroughly enjoyable sexual relationships.”
The site is interactive and informative. The homepage features a series of slides called “porn myths” that make clear that hardcore porn activities are not always the norm in an actual sexual encounter. However, Makelovenotporn.com is not an anti-porn website; Gallop even states she likes porn and watches it regularly. Rather, the website intends to educate its users in a sex positive way and allow them to realize that the activities seen in hardcore porn may not be the activities his or her sexual partner would want to engage in.
The website is very user-based and user-friendly. Anyone can create a free account to comment, submit suggestions, and upload their own videos. Its sister website, Makelovenotporn.tv, has a selection of different real-life, real-world lovemaking videos uploaded by users. These reflect a variety of styles and tastes and include both LGBTQ and straight sex. The members form a very diverse group; some are porn stars or retired porn stars who love the site and its mission, others are simply couples who film themselves for other users to see and enjoy. Gallop hopes these videos that depict real sexual situations will gain popularity on the Internet and come to replace the fictional images produced by the porn industry.
Makelovenotporn.com is an important sex positive, education source that will hopefully continue to gain popularity and promote healthy and enjoyable sexual relationships.
