IN DECEMBER, WHEN TUMBLR pulled
down all “adult content” from the site –
beloved by a sex-positive and largely
female community for its erotic art and
suggestive GIFs – it took a mere two months
for the site’s traffic to plummet by almost a
third. Chance The Rapper even tweeted his
anger at the ban. But it’s hardly surprising:
as we shift from “hook-up culture” to a “sex
recession” (research shows young people
are having less sex than generations before
them), it would follow we’re looking to take
things into our own hands, so to speak.
Globally, porn is estimated to make up
a third of all web traffic and every fourth
search, but it’s easy to feel disenfranchised
by much of the content on free, mainstream
sites (such as Pornhub and Redtube), which
has traditionally been made for men. In her
2014 TEDx talk, “It’s Time For Porn To
Change”, feminist adult-filmmaker Erika Lust
lamented the often clichéd discourse: “She’s
giving him a blowjob. Why? Because this
nice guy came to her rescue when her car
broke down.” Post-#MeToo, the values we
hold dear around Hollywood blockbustersand their stars should also apply to what
we consume by the dim light of a screen.
Enter the notion of “ethical porn”, a
movement about respecting performers’
rights and working conditions, depicting
diversity and more realistic sex. (Lauded as
industry leaders are Lustery, XConfessions,
Bright Desire and Make Love Not Porn.)
However, ethical porn isn’t necessarily
about policing people’s interests and
sexuality. As Lust puts it, “the sex can stay
dirty, but the values have to be clean”.
Launched at the end of last year – and
having recently raised almost $8 million in
seed funding – is Dipsea, an app-based
platform for erotic audio stories that’s
making ethical porn more mainstream.
Dipsea taps into the importance of a
narrative when it comes to female pleasure
(research shows 90 per cent of women use
mental framing and scenario conjuring
when masturbating solo). Available via an
illustrated app on iOS (and soon Android)
and sorted into themes such as “quickies”,
“queer stories” and “relax and unwind”, it’s
romance literature for the podcast era, at a
time when self-love is considered self-care.
While the female pleasure boom that’s
happened over the last few years has seen
myriad products – from chic, discreet
vibrators to organic, fair-trade lube – come
to the fore, Dipsea’s founders, San
Francisco-based Gina Gutierrez and FayeKeegan found the content lacking. “Most
of the innovation and investment in female
pleasure focused on the body rather than
the brain,” says Gutierrez. The pair are
excited about audio being “a really
exciting medium for the next generation of
women’s erotica,” and Gutierrez adds
that, “it avoids the complicated questions
that come up with visual porn... like what
weird Airbnb they’re filming in, or whether
she’s feeling authentic pleasure.”
Being a female-founded company with
a majority of female employees, they say,
“means we’re tuned into the details that
women are listening for: enthusiastic
consent, communication in bed, safe sex,
and realistic, natural sounding pleasure.
[Dipsea’s] stories include context, explore
characters and celebrate human
connection beyond just the act of sex itself.”
The company’s subscription model
(about $13 per month for unlimited
content), along with funding they’ve
garnered, will be used to expand the types
of stories available and the platforms
they’re available on. It’s also committed to
ethical practices around hiring and paying
a diverse network of producers, freelance
writers and voice actors. So whether it’s
by seeking out something a little less
mainstream, or paying for your pleasure,
there’s no shortage of ways to get off
without the guilt. ELIFEPHOTOGRAPHY BY
ASHLEY ARMITAGEWHE RE
DO
YOU
GET
OFF?
A NEW WAVE OF
“WOKE”, FEMALE-FRIENDLY
PORN IS AT THE TIP OF
OUR FINGERSWORDS BY
ELLE McCLURE