BERLIN — CBS News aired a segment this weekend interviewing porn studies scholar Madita Oeming as part of their “Speaking Frankly: Porn” series.
Oeming, who teaches cultural studies courses on the adult industry and adult content at Universität Paderborn in Berlin, Germany, was interviewed by CBS News’ Anne-Marie Green.
“The internet basically changed everything about pornography,” Oeming explained, clarifying that how you experience those changes depends on your point of view. While some producers say “that the internet killed porn,” she said, for many performers “the internet offers many new ways of monetizing porn and of uploading their own content, and controlling their own content.”
The piece was unusual in that mainstream outlets often propagate myths about the industry without interviewing experts or stakeholders with actual knowledge of the current state of the business.
Oeming patiently explained to Green that the perception that porn only displays “one body type,” specifically thin, busty young women with fully shaved genitalia, is a “porn myth.” In fact, Oeming said, “there is such a diversity of bodies in porn today,” and “some of them have shaved heads but actually body hair in other areas, you can see they have tattoos, they have very small breasts, they have natural breasts.”
Critics, Oeming said, seem “stuck in the very ‘80s image of the porn star with the giant enhanced breasts and the very fake tanned body and so on.”
Oeming also told Green that porn is one of the few places where one can see queer sexualities frankly represented and that, despite War on Porn propaganda from religiously motivated lobbies and Sex Worker Exclusionary Liberals and Radical Feminists (SWELs and SWERFs), it can “absolutely be empowering to women.”
“We always hear the same alarmist voices in public discourse, so I‘m trying to use my privilege to help create a counter narrative, a shame-free and fact-based conversation about porn,” Oeming told XBIZ from Berlin.
"Even for just writing about and teaching porn I‘m confronted with a lot of stigma and it’s so much worse for everyone actually working in the industry. Stigma comes from a place of fear and misconception which is why we need education on every level so badly."
“I‘m overwhelmed by the kind responses I‘ve received from the porn community,” Oeming added. “In many ways, the performers and producers are my teachers and I‘m glad to be able to give something back to them by using the platform I‘m given to raise their voices and concerns.”
For the full CBS News interview with Dr. Madita Oeming, click here.