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In our society, where sexual education in schools often leaves out the concept of pleasure entirely, it’s no wonder that adults and teens look to the easily accessible world of online pornography for information. And while some directors and performers aim to make their films informative in nature, the vast majority of porn doesn’t even feature a condom — much less a realistic perspective on what sex looks like.
“I think porn sex compared to real-life sex is like comparing someone running in the Olympics to someone running to get into shape,” says Chelsea Poe, a porn performer and director. “There's a lot of practice and building of stamina to run a marathon, just like there is to perform in a porn scene.” It’s true — people often watch porn and think, That looks fun, without realising that being a performer in the adult industry is real work, and these people are not just having sex for pleasure.
“One common thing I hear from men is that porn must be easy,” says Christopher Zeischegg, a retired porn performer. “They don't take into account the context of the day, the production, the crew, the waiting around, the pictures performers often take before a scene (that still require a male performer to maintain an erection), the stopping and starting.”
Of course, as the consumer, you’re probably not watching porn and ruminating on the logistics and how difficult some of those positions really are — which is completely fine, as long as you’re not mistaking what you see as something you should expect from “real” sex. “In reality, porn [performers are] athletes who specialise in a specific set of physically demanding abilities rooted in sex,” Poe says. “So, while the sex acts might look like something you do in your real life, realise performers are usually fucking longer and harder than in real-life sex, because we train for this.”
It’s not that the positions themselves are unenjoyable (everyone has a personal preference); it’s more that it’s a “different kind of sex,” as Poe puts it. A lot of what makes porn sex different from real-life sex for a performer is the way a position feels and how they go about enacting it. “The unpleasantness for me usually had more to do with the surfaces we have sex on, or the temperature of the room, or who is looking over my shoulder with a camera,” Zeischegg says.
Ahead, we take a look at common positions and sex acts you may have seen in porn — and why they might not be the wisest ones to replicate.
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