NEW YORK — Porn filmmaker and feminist Erika Lust, who founded Lust Films more than 11 years ago, has penned a piece on virtual reality and pornography for Fortune magazine.
Lust says in the piece published today that she’s sure consumers will jump on the trend and become glued to virtual reality porn. She even admits that her company will soon start shooting its own experiments for devices like the Oculus Rift.
But she cautions that porn filmmakers need to figure a way to make their productions more engaging.
“There’s no sense of interaction,” she wrote. “You can’t touch, grab, feel — it’s almost like a complete third-person experience. Alien.”
The virtual reality porn content currently out in the market is “still far from a transformative and enjoyable experience,” she says, noting that filmmakers could help their productions in a big way by making them more woman-friendly.
“As with all aspects of the mainstream porn industry, when virtual reality technology is used by the usual people, it creates the same repetitive, boring adult content we’ve seen for years,” she wrote. “It’s still just mechanical sex made by men, for men: gynecological shots, fake orgasms, tacky costumes and settings and zero narrative.
"There’s no heat, no passion, no context. It suffocates any chance to create a story. And from what I’ve seen so far in VR clips or scenes, we are still far from a transformative and enjoyable experience.”
Lust says that she would like to see VR porn that’s closer to what’s available in the gaming world and help teach and inspire, rather than create a “zombie nation of VR porn slaves.”
“That industry has been far more creative and successful in their use of VR, allowing players to get fully involved in their fantasy of being an army cadet or Lara Croft,” she wrote. “But the VR porn I’ve seen thus far sets off alarm bell that new technology will turn us into porn-consuming zombie junkies, sitting next to our lovers in the same bed, but not ever speaking to or touching one another. Of course, I’m sure increased interaction will be the next step for VR porn, but will people use it spice up — not replace — their human relationships? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
To read Lust’s article on VR porn, click here.