Page 75 - Marie Claire Australia (January 2020)

In contrast, it’s very easy to
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEANDRO CRESPI/STOCKSY.COM; WINNI WINTERMEYER/THE TIMES MAGAZINE/NEWS LICENSING; GETTY IMAGES.
society doesn’t want to acknowledge
such facts “because that doesn’t fit
in with the patriarchal ‘nice girls
don’t’ mythology”.
So what about my argument that
watching young people with dead eyes
gang banging is not, at least for me
personally, an aphrodisiac? The
problem, Gallop explains, is that I’m
looking for porn in the wrong places.
“We all watch porn but we don’t
talk about it, so it tends to exist in a
shadowy universe, with no socially
acceptable navigation and curation,”
she says. “It’s OK to come into the
office and stand by the water cooler
and say, ‘I’m bored of the restaurants
I’m eating in. Can anyone recommend
a new one?’ But you can’t say, ‘I’m
bored of the porn I’m watching.
Who can recommend new porn?’
I have female queer friends making
innovative, disruptive porn that I
guarantee you’d love. The problem
is no-one can find it.”
download the well-financed Dipsea.
“Audio start-ups are more palatable
to investors than what I’m doing, as
they’re not actually showing anything,
which makes everyone feel a whole
lot more comfortable,” Gallop sighs.
Sex columnist Suzi Godson is more
sympathetic to Gutierrez’s arguments.
“Text and audio work for women
because they can be the central
character,” she says. “When they’re
looking at an Amazonian big-breasted
blonde, there’s always more of a
disconnect. It’s hard to visualise
yourself in the story.”
My disconnect to Dipsea is that
I’m a good decade older than its “sweet
spot” audience: women aged between
25 and 35. Unlike them, I rarely
have the necessary privacy (even
with headphones on, I can’t imagine
listening to Show Me What To Do with
teenagers barging in demanding their
tops be ironed). Nor, sadly, do many
of the stories – flatmate romps and
hikers’ woodland frolics – resonate
with my experiences. Currently,
Dipsea’s most popular serial is Hot
Vinyasa, in which Laura and Mark,
a former marine, get bendy during
yoga class. “I mean, that’s a hyper-
relatable experience. We all know what
it’s like to be in this hot, steamy room,
seeing someone taking their shirt off
and thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a really
attractive person,’” Gutierrez enthuses.
If only I did, but never mind,
Gutierrez promises me Dipsea plans
to add content for women in their
40s, 50s and 60s.
Then there’s the question of
accents. I tell her that a survey
of millennials asked to test-drive
the app for a UK newspaper mainly
liked the idea, but were put off by the
transatlantic nature of it all. “I would
never say ‘nasty girl’ while having sex,”
was the reaction of one 34-year-old
man. “Maybe it’s an American thing.”
I contemplate Hot Vinyasa retold
by an upper-crust British guy or Aussie
jackaroo, and ask Gutierrez if going
“AUDIO WORKS international is on the cards. “We’re
FOR WOMEN AS going to be adding as many accents
THEY CAN BE as possible,” she promises.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching
THE CENTRAL Outlander or reading Riders by Jilly
CHARACTER” Cooper. I just hope Audible’s software
– Suzi Godson, lets me jump straight to the bit where
sex columnist they romp in a bed of leaves.
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