“To fuck you must have imagination”
Postporn and functional diversity*

by Andrea García-Santesmases

Desvelada | A feminist and anti-ableist look at contemporary representations of the body, gender, (dis)ability and sexuality, by Andrea García-Santesmases

I am quoting Majo to title this article, one of the protagonists of the first story of the documentary Yes, we fuck! It tells the experience of a group of people who attend a post-porn workshop for the first time. But, first of all … what is this post-porn thing? It’s a critical movement breaking with conventional porn because it’s considered sexist, ableist, racist … and boring.

The post-porn movement advocates for generating other types of representations in which bodies and practices are visible outside the normative sexual scheme. Come on, a post-porn video will not follow the sleepy script of “muscle guy + busty aunt = facial ejaculation”. In a post-porn video cellulitis and wrinkles are not blurred with Photoshop, genitals have a conventional size, and laughter and orgasms are authentic. The fun and complicity between actors is evident, videos are recorded by activist groups who are tired of being relegated to the “bizarre” section of conventional porn. Well, what is “normal” or “freak” within the porn would have been all another article. For example, why having sex with a transsexual is considered bizarre (sic.) and a 30-year-old actress impersonating a teenage girl in a school uniform is conventionally exciting?

Back to the post-porn movement. In Barcelona, this movement doesn’t only generates dissident images, but they also organize workshops that seek to break the sexual taboos of its participants. And one of these workshops was filmed for the documentary Yes, we fuck! On that workshop we witness the meeting of two very different groups: post-porno activists in charge of the workshop and participants with functional diversity, who had had no previous contact with this movement. However, this difference is not an obstacle to the development of the workshop, but, on the contrary, it favours emotions and the excitement of discovering something totally new: people with functional diversity find a space for sexual liberation, for flowing caresses and naked bodies – in which their naked bodies are more than welcome. It’s their opportunity to present themselves as desiring and also as desirable bodies!

 [Image taken from a Post-porn and functional diversity workshop. Source: Yes, we fuck!]

Not only participants (re)discovered their sexuality in the wake of this workshop, but also the post-porn collective itself did so, by starting to think about how a deaf, mute, blind or paralyzed body can rethink eroticism. The “loss” of a sensory capacity or motor ability is socially classified as “disgrace” and people tend to think that it brings very negative repercussions in all sort of areas of the affected person, including the sexual one. However, it is well known that the person who “loses” a capacity, is capable of adapting to their condition by launching different strategies and developing new resources. Therefore it’s legit to think that something similar might happen with sexuality, right? “Couldn’t they put into practice some despised skills by the so called “able” people, that could be as satisfactory (or even more!) than the usual coupling practice?

The prosthetics that “disabled” bodies require, such as crutches or wheelchairs, are often seen as unpleasant tools, tangible evidence of “the problem” and misfortune. However, artistic groups such as Liant la Troca have been displaying for years their erotic possibilities on stage. In their performances, prostheses and orthoses are elements of play and artistic creation. In the same sense, the collective Post-Op created the project Pornortopedia in which they design sex toys for all kinds of diverse bodies. For example, one of its prototypes shows a vibrator that is activated by the remote control of an electric wheelchair. Another is a prosthesis which allows a dildo to be inserted into a static member, so that a paralyzed leg may become an active element of pleasure providing, as an example.

And the best news is these toys are not exclusive, they are designed for the enjoyment of everyone! After all, as Majo also says in the documentary “to fuck (what) you need to have is imagination”. 

*This blogpost was originally published at A Montra/ The Window website, 2016

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