Cindy Gallop: Make Love Not Porn

@philonous You're exactly right

I find the presentation to be very interesting because what Cindy Gallop is doing is trying to do is to inform her audience not only on the effectiveness of traditional sex education (based on facts and information rather than cultural myths) but also trying to demystify the pornographic sex in order to make it more realistic (and intimate) form. Pornography, I agree, is the idealization of sex in the form of a very logical sequence of sexual acts that is almost formulaic (almost like how Hollywood uses their formulas to create cliche plots) and fixed, and she is trying to show that real sex does not necessarily have to be like that. I'm glad that Cindy Gallop is trying to encourage her audience not to be ashamed of sex but to embrance it and understand it for what it really is rather than depending on the cultural prejudices and myths from Hardcore Pornography and Puritanical morality.

I am not impressed by your having sex with younger men to discover the ramifications of porn. Women need to raise their daughters to refuse sex w/men who demand porn-like behavior. Passivity is the reason we see women being abused and it is taught by our society and by other women. It does have one worldview...and it's totally masculine...and it has to be refuted! Don't let it in your home, put your teen's computer where you can see it an buy internet blocking devices, and avoid filling your mind with such filth. Don't follow the people on Twitter, as this speaker advises; don't invite sin.

Hi Cindy, I just wanted to say I thoroughly enjoyed and agreed with your speech. I've never heard these issues addressed so directly and with such obvious real world knowledge. I too regularly read TFLN and find it most enlightening as well as entertaining. It has been my greatest insight into US youth culture (for context, i'm 32 and from Ireland). I've also overheard some very young children having some very shocking conversations and am well aware of the pervasive influence of hard core pornography. With respect to your opinions on the scale and importance of the issue of youth and porn I couldn't agree more. I work in the world of business and IT so have no real or scientific knowledge on this matter. However I used to discuss it with my girlfriend who is a sociologist and we thought this was a huge topic in need of serious and immediate attention. It blows my mind to think of how young people could cope with the influx of images, stereotypes and standards set by porn. I also heard you briefly mention your other website, which I am intending to have a thorough look at as soon as possible. It is in a space I have great interest in as I'm currently working on a site called mad.net - for Make A Difference Network. I've written a brief overview of my reasons for doing so at richardwhatever.com and would be very keen to hear your thoughts and experiences with ifwerantheworld.com offline from this comments section. Regardless of my project, I just wanted to say thank you for getting up there and bringing a good cold dose of reality to the audience. Well done! Richard Brown

@wtfox Thank you so much for your feedback - and for your appreciation of my outfit

Cindy, I found your talk to be reassuring, enlightening and inspiring. @actionman: I found your comment to be very interesting. I assume you are not a part of GenY. I am, though am cautious to add that of course, just because I am a part of it can not act as a representative. As Cindy says, it's about personal choice. You definitely make some valid and interesting arguments, however, I find a few of the things you say, especially in regards to women, very disturbing. Though the 'pornstars' (specifically female) on gagmycock.com may have CHOSEN to appear in the videos, the trickle down effect to the 7 year olds is what we should be worried about. Yes, it might be 'funny' because they are laughing all the way to the bank but think about the young girls who later end up being the sexual partners of these 7 year olds. They watch the same hardcore porn and learn that this is how men are supposed to treat them, or are inexperienced and thus do not know that there is another way. Yes there are girls who say no, but the majority do not, or retain a negative first experience of sex. Yes, porn can be, and is enjoyable to watch, but it is dangerous when viewed without prior education. The fact is, GenY IS desensitised to porn, since it is undeniable that society has become hypersexualised. Look at True Blood, look at Sex and the City, look at Terry Richardson's editorials in the pages of Vogue and Rolling Stone magazine, look at Perez Hilton.com and you will see that the damage is already done (society and attitudes change as time passes, the sexualisation of modern society is not something I necessarily lament) Cindy is all about education and re-education. She is a beacon of hope in a sea of misinformation. I find it difficult to see how she is creating more problems. As a young woman exposed to hardcore porn from a relatively young age (certainly before my first sexual experience) I have experienced the normalisation of sexual behaviour that I have been extremely uncomfortable with. Only entering adulthood and into a relationship with a man who respects me have I been able to truly understand what I like and what I don't, not what I'm supposed to like and what I'm not. Can I also add that Cindy can dress however she wants. I love her jacket, glitterball and all.

Cindy, thank you for daring to be authentic!

Cmu - thank you so much for your response, I really appreciate hearing that

hairyotter I literally joined this website just so I could respond to your statement, "Can she even remember what it is like to be a child? What child cares about anything she is talking about?" I'm a 16 yr old female and I do care about what Ms. Gallop is talking about I can't speak for teenagers and children everywhere but when I stumbled upon this video it interested me. I later visited the website for Make Love Not Porn and found that of great interest too. I feel like she is, in fact, relating to my generation and has a grasp on what we are thinking. I showed a couple of friends this video as well and they all agreed that Ms. Gallop does know what she is talking about.

Two thoughts came to mind: 1: what the hell am I watching, shortly followed by 2: a joke about baking foil and cooking time, but by the end I thought it was both brave and interesting. Thanks.