My pornographic journey started many years ago during my college years. I can still recall how my hands would shake at the thought of viewing the newest Sapphic Erotica or Viv Thomas update as I booted up my trusty Windows XP PC.

I first started with simple erotic stills and soft lesbian porn. It was a soft entry point that revealed the artistry and beauty inherent in pornographic film. As time went on, my interest and understanding of porn expanded. 

While I still adore those glamcore beginnings, my pornographic tastes are much more diverse today. From gonzo gangbangs to Hegre’s solo masturbation studies, I’ve come to appreciate most genres, and that’s made me a much more pornographically mature fan. 

Developing a diversified porno palette has been one of the most valuable tools I’ve fashioned, allowing me to take a deeper and more thoughtful dive into adult. It’s given me a variety of references and comparisons on which to base my writing. But it also keeps me dialed in and engaged in this ever-changing art.

Some people are surprised that I spend upwards of six to eight hours viewing porn. Doesn’t porn get boring after a while? Don’t you want to see something or do something different? But that’s an oversimplification.

Porn is not merely porn. No, porn is a diverse film ecosystem of fashion, arthouse, comedy, horror, sci-fi, and countless other genres. That they are sexually explicit in nature is the only thing that unites these disparate genres together as porn. Porn is just as diverse as mainstream film and television. Perhaps even more so, as porn adds a music-like element through sexual performance.

For me, porn is a vastly different experience from one film to the next. They all have different stories, styles, cinematography, and fashion. When I go from one porn film to another, I don’t see it in such simple terms as a sex film. I see a unique artistic expression that’s worthy of consideration and contemplation. 

Then there’s the sexual diversity. In over fifteen years of professionally writing about porn, I’ve never seen two identical sexual performances. That’s part of the magic of sex: it’s never the same experience. Anything from setting, to call time, to cast and crew, directorial vision, and more influences the way sex unfolds. 

Just look at the difference between how a Bellesa House scene unfolds as opposed to a Bang production. At Bellesa, the crew is minimally involved, shooting it more like a nature documentary. Whereas Bang revolves around carefully planned positions and angles. You’ve got freestyle sex on the one hand and a carefully choreographed dance on the other. The result is a wildly different product, and that’s what keeps it interesting. 

Consider, too, that porn is always evolving. Look back at the XXX of the past few decades: it’s a completely different experience. Take Digital Playground’s classic Pirates. It was a glamorous, big-budget movie with surprisingly short blips of sex scenes. And that was typical of adult filmmaking of the time. That’s quite a shift from the gritty all-sex gonzo productions of the early 2000s. 

Porn is not just porn. It’s an expansive multi-genre entertainment and art medium. It’s beautiful, diverse, and inspiring, And it’s something worth taking a deep dive into. Next time you set aside some time for porn, try expanding your selections beyond your go-to sites or genres. It just might give you something worth thinking about.