Reviewed by Luise Toma

Porn. Where to start when talking about porn? It’s a vast subject, a massive industry, the reason for living for the lonely or gross. One day it’s demeaning to women, the next day porn-queens are celebrated as the pioneers of emancipation. It’s a 'man-thing' to some, a 'couple-thing' to others, the antichrist to others still. But, and this is the question addressed in this documentary, how does porn affect the relationships we have? Does it affect them at all? Well, you just have to watch and see, won’t you.

The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships, interviews a range of people who know about porn: male college students; female college students; former and current employees of the porn industry from both sides of the lens; social scientists; patrons at a porn expo… the list goes on. What is important can be found in their varying opinions about porn.

Sarah Lewis—one of the excellent women interviewed for this film—makes an interesting point very early. In today’s society women without an outstanding education have three choices of employment: hospitality; retail; and the sex industry. A statement cleverly placed to counteract the cast of guys announcing that the women in porn are not forced to let themselves be gang-banged or covered in semen; they do so because they enjoy it. Just as much as the men. Hm. Another intriguing weirdness: Women claim to enjoy sex just as much as men. So why don’t they seem enjoy porn as much? Are they lying? Are they prudes? The answer lies in the cesspool that is the American porn industry. Holy mother of God, I hear you scream, they can’t be that much worse than everyone else, can they? Oh yes, they can.

To watch Price of Pleasure without feeling like a fiend and evil-doer for occasionally enjoying a little along the lines of Debbie Does Dallas, one needs to pay attention to the examples of porn movies shown in this documentary. None of it would classify as anything but extreme-hardcore-fetish to a sane person. Women are being beaten, tied up in torture positions, gagged with penises and semen, punched in the face and generally treated like someone might treat a dog who just mangled their child. However, this kind of horror film seems to have become the norm, the mainstream, in the home of the brave. Good. You need to be pretty brave to make it through this kind of thing unscathed.

And this is exactly what Price of Pleasure argues. No one makes it through unscathed. Young men are given the wrong idea about what a woman is expected to do in bed. Actually, even young women are given the wrong idea. Relationships in which the idea of sexual intercourse is based on something just stopping short of a snuff-film, how healthy and functional can they be? Is porn in fact fucking everything up?

Featuring a bonus interview with the incomparable Mister Noam Chomsky, plenty of truly disturbing images, and opinions from all the wrong sides of the track, Price of Pleasure is like a big paddle right across the balls of American Porn. While many might expect a documentary about porn to be quite funny—you know, full of crazy porn stars and dirty old men…hahahaha?—the giggles are scarce. Instead, you get truly disturbing insights into the effects, workings and consequences of the world’s biggest commodity of all time. Sex.

The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationships
(2008)

Available through the Media Education Foundation.