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Pandora Blake: Well, I got a notification yesterday saying that Pete Johnson, [the chief executive] of ATVOD, has joined my site. I've got data tracking installed so I could see what scenes they were looking at. They picked two videos which didn't have behind-the-scenes footage, which is where I usually show enthusiastic consent by the performers. I thought, Shit, that's bad luck! Then they looked at two nude photo-sets, which weren't even kinky, and haven't logged in since then.So what will their next move be?
If they decide I'm producing a VoD site and what I'm doing doesn't comply with the regulations, they'll send me a letter saying, "You have not registered with us, which means you are operating illegally." Then, if I say, "No, because as soon as I register with you, you have a right to control what I publish," I'll have to challenge their contention that I'm operating a VoD service and appeal to Ofcom. I'll get in touch with the lawyers at Backlash and just do whatever they tell me!I'm definitely a target.What pisses you off most about the new law?
It's sexist and it marginalizes already marginalized sexualities. ATVOD have said it's not their fault; that they just copied and pasted the BBFC regulations, but this is really disingenuous—to apply those decades-old regulations to a completely new medium.
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I think a predilection to BDSM—humiliation pain, power play—is fairly universal. There are people in every society who are inclined to eroticize feelings of fear, embarrassment, pain sensations, or domination and submission. But what activities you find sexy depends on what you're exposed to in your formative years, so it's very cultural.Spanking is in our recent cultural heritage. I grew up reading Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, and Dickens, and they're full of references to getting a hard thrashing with a belt. I was fascinated; it just absolutely ticked all my boxes.At what point did it become a sexual fascination?
I don't know if that's a clear line you can draw. It always turned me on. I don't know if I was getting wet when I was six years old, because my body wasn't at that stage of development—but it was a secret, hot, shivery, private, guilty kind of feeling. I knew I could never tell anyone about it because I thought I was the only one on the planet.Female sexual submission to male dominance is the more common trope. Does this need some un-picking?
It's so hard to get clean data on this, but look at the sex industry: There are far more women working as professional dominants than professional submissives. It's the same in porn. Femdom is a huge industry.
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That's why I think diversity of representation in porn is so important; to give people more options of what could be sexy and to open their minds to things they haven't seen before. I've got chubby models, hairy bears, big girls, and non-binary people on my site, and lots of my mostly–straight male audience has written to me and said, "I didn't know I was going to find that sexy, but I did!" You can totally broaden people's horizons and sexualities.
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There's an incredible intimacy in making yourself vulnerable. You're going on a secret adventure together—like you're running away in the middle of the night and not telling anyone where you're going. You're getting into trouble and climbing over fences, and you might get caught, but it's exciting.It's like if one of you is holding a rope and the other one is climbing up a tower, then the person holding the rope is responsible for the safety of the other person; you're playing different roles but you're both on the same adventure.The new law implies that BDSM porn doesn't have its shit together when it comes to consent. This clearly isn't the case, but what are your wider thoughts on consent?
Consent is important not just for BDSM play, but with all sex and, in fact, with all physical interaction. Whether it's being tickled by your dad when you're nine when you're actually uncomfortable about it, or messing around in the pool with your male friends and they keep splashing you when you've said to stop.We need a language for talking about how we respect each other's personal boundaries and how we police our own boundaries. For all interactions, not just sex. This is something we fail at across the board, and a failure to have conversations about consent in sex is a symptom.Go here to sponsor Blake here (perks include free website subscription, personalized spanking fiction, and a copy of her latest film).Follow Frankie Mullin on Twitter.