Ladies, are you ready to take your sexual journey into your own hands? No pun intended! Ethical porn may just be what you need to build confidence in your sexual wellness endeavors.
Sexual wellness and porn, you ask? Yes, porn! As with any taboo subject, there are many misconceptions around the word “porn” alone. There’s a negative stigma that floats around the idea of watching porn, and when you look into what the mainstream industry is consistently producing, those thoughts are often validated. However 90% of people watch porn, and porn was ranked the #1 resource to learn about sex, yet 60% of women remain dissatisfied with their sex lives. This means one thing: people are watching porn but it’s not helping them have great sex. Porn can be more than fantasy, but also a tool to learn from. That’s where afterglow wants to step in.
afterglow’s mission is simple: to help more people have great sex. Founder and CEO Lilly Sparks built the membership-based community and sexual educational website to merge porn and sexual wellness. Afterglow hosts a content library of videos, exercises, and articles that guide users into deeper intimacy with themselves or their partners. Sparks set out to create porn that showcases the sex she really wants to have. Which is hot, realistic and relatable.
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Sexual wellness is the fastest growing sector in the wellness category. Statista estimates the market size of the sexual wellness market to reach $37.2 billion dollars by 2023. “Watching porn is highly connected to self-love and orgasms, which have been proven to be good for our physical & mental health and to even make us better partners,” Sparks shares. But lack of information might just be the biggest barrier between people and their sexual wellness.
Women have been taught that the pursuit and exploration of pleasure is lewd. Certified sex coach Gigi Engle shares that the disconnect sits with society’s majority attitude towards human sexuality. We all have it, but there’s often nowhere to turn for proper education. We work with what we have access to, which is porn. That said, “we have to have conversations that speak to our ability to center safety and pleasure; and normalizing sex work as a consumer-driven industry where neither consumer nor provider should hold shame,” licensed clinical Psychotherapist and performer Jet Setting Jasmine chimes in.
Your relationship with porn is yours, but the first step of working toward self love is to learn about your body and understand what makes you feel good. Which is why afterglow’s mission goes beyond producing porn— they’ve built an incredible online universe where erotic films are made by women, for everyone's enjoyment. As afterglow puts it, “where experiencing guided masturbations and learning partner exercises are as normal as reading the morning paper.”
Their content stands out because it shows the reality of having sex. “[On afterglow] Watching porn can be a great way to explore fantasies, learn about what turns us on, and prioritizes our pleasure. It can even make us better partners, depending on how we consume it,” they encourage.
In order to do this though, Lilly and her team still have to face the challenges of running a porn company head on. As a disruptive brand builder, she’s helping shift the adult media paradigm by breaking down the unfair and taboo stigma and working through censorship (ever see the 🌽emoji on social media?).
“The porn industry has more female executives running the show than Fortune 500 companies do. The adult industry has seen a huge shift in the past 20 years with many old industry vets retiring or selling their companies and being replaced by young up-and-comers — many of whom are women. There’s Bree Mills, the Chief Creative Officer at AdultTime, Erika Lust, a pioneer of feminist porn, and Kelly Holland at Penthouse Global Media. There’s Shine Louise Houston at PinkLabel.tv,” Sparks adds. afterglow is following the lead with their mission to create a space that is both positive adult media and contributes to sexual wellness.
Convinced to ditch mainstream for content that’s made just for you? Sign up now for afterglow’s guided masturbations, partner exercises, and even behind-the-scenes content. You pay for what you want to watch and cater the content to your desires. Creating an account is easy as 1, 2, 3, with monthly fees at levels that work best for you. Content creators to the site also get a free month to make sure it is a space they feel comfortable contributing to. As for you, if you’re ready to log on, cozy up to an exciting evening of putting your wants and needs first. It’s afterglow’s hope that you’ll feel more confident in telling your partners what you want and need—and of course, loving yourself.