Page 74 - Marie Claire Australia (January 2020)
P. 74
SEX
how its super-immersiveness Like many women of my era,
could really allow your imagination my pornographic imagination
to run wild.” was shaped by the oeuvre of author
The “seminal” inspiration, however, Jilly Cooper, renowned for her
came from Keegan reading the book tantalising tales about horsey,
A Billion Wicked Thoughts, an upper-class Brits (think showjumping
investigation by neuroscientists into and bedhopping). Web porn, on the
sex-related terms entered into internet other hand, is my antithesis of erotic,
search engines – the idea being that involving – in my limited experience
people were far more likely to be – videos of hard-faced actresses, who
honest with the internet than with I’m sure are drugged or trafficked or
a researcher with a clipboard. This both, usually having degradations
showed what Gutierrez calls “a heaped upon them.
psychological abyss between the sexes”, ABOVE Dipsea co-founder Such thoughts, Gutierrez explains,
revealing that while men searched for Gina Gutierrez saw a market typically impede female arousal, since
gap for “aural” sex.
“graphic, visual stimulation, women our desire tends to be “responsive”,
preferred stories, preferred more signifying “this idea of diving into depending on multifarious factors:
chemistry and connection”. a sea – that moment when you feel such as mood, room temperature and
Women were desperate, the friends exhilarated”, Dipsea – which sits on my whether our partners have done the
concluded, for female-friendly “sexy phone next to my Woolworths app – washing-up. Hence Dipsea’s emphasis,
short stories”. So they wrote a handful, today contains more than 100 stories, as in Tulum, on creating atmosphere,
found some voice actors and – with each between five and 20 minutes with the sound of waves crashing on
Keegan in the role of sound engineer long. There are searchable themes, the shore and all the descriptions of
and Gutierrez as director – recorded including group sex and dominance. hotel fittings, which bored me silly
them in Keegan’s kitchen. Three new stories are added each but obviously work for some.
They uploaded six stories onto a week, which you can listen to as In contrast, male desire is more
website, alerted 200 acquaintances much as you like for $13.99 a month. “spontaneous; so if men see something
and overnight found the site had In the depths of a so-called “sex that’s a turn-on, then out of the blue
registered 1200 unique visits. recession” (American research shows they’re like, ‘I’m horny,’” says Gutierrez.
Convinced they were on to a winner, that in the ’90s the average adult had It’s a fascinating theory, but
the pair then spent some frenzied sex 62 times a year, according to Cindy Gallop,
months creating and recording more but in 2014 the figure UNTIL NOW, a British former advertising
stories. They now employ a team of was down to 54), THE PORN executive who now runs
freelancers with a range of sexualities perhaps Dipsea is just INDUSTRY HAS Make Love Not Porn, a
and erotic proclivities – “to understand what we need to start crowdfunded website of
the experiences of as many people as the juices flowing again. DONE LITTLE TO videos of people having
possible” – not to mention voice actors Gutierrez concedes that WIN THE CASH what she calls “real-world”
“from all over the world, who can work some women will be OF WOMEN sex, “It’s f***bollocks – and
remotely”. Named in honour of a using the site as a you can quote me on that”.
San Francisco walking trail, as well as masturbation aid (there are “The presumption that women are
“guided masturbation” clips to tell not turned on by visual porn is part
you what to do), but claims that many of a huge body of received wisdom
will be listening – through headphones that operates around sex because
AUDIO PORN PICK S during the evening commute – “to help we all feel shame telling the truth,
transition your frenetic work brain so it’s much easier to default to the
when you don’t even want to engage stereotyped version of femininity
with the idea of having sex with your [where] women only like porn with
partner. It’s those shifts that women narrative and emotion and white
have a hard time with, but a sexy curtains fluttering gently in the
story can really help with that.” breeze,” she tells me. “Well, I know
As with anyone selling sex to just as many women [as men] who
Dipsea, Fangasm, women, Gutierrez uses words such as like hardcore and violent porn.”
dipseastories.com fangasmpodcast.com “empowerment” to describe Dipsea’s This isn’t just anecdotal: there’s
“mission”. But justificatory waffle aside, plenty of research to support this.
it’s extraordinary that when the Fifty One study, for example, employing
Shades of Grey trilogy has sold more thermal imaging to monitor rising
than 150 million copies (in general, temperatures in genitalia, showed
erotic fiction is the biggest driver of the that both men and women took more
publishing world), the porn industry or less exactly the same time – 10
has so far done so little to win the cash minutes – to reach peak sexual
Ferly, Quinn,
linktr.ee/weareferly tryquinn.com of 49.6 per cent of the population. arousal. But Gallop argues that
