The Listener: A Lesson on Educational Porn

A porn film with an actual story?!?! Porn that could be an educational tool for values about safer sex and sex positivity!?! Is there such a thing?!?!

What if masturbating gave you the power to listen in on your neighbors and hear everything with such clarity that it feels as if you were in the same room with them? What if porn could show you how sensual and sexy condom use and consent are?

If those two questions leave you feeling incredulous, then you have to watch “The Listener”, the closing  film at the Porn Film Festival – Berlin. The 69-minute-long (director Lidia Ravviso swears the 69 in there is completely coincidental) crime noir full length film opens with the protagonist, Nora, moving into a London flat that a dead aunt leaves her. Nora makes herself at home in her new digs by indulging in some delicious masturbating. But her moments of self-pleasure are quite rudely interrupted by the sound of her neighbors’s conversations coming through the walls. It’s a slightly unique kind of (self) coitus-interruptus, but Nora enjoys secretly knowing the secrets of her neighbors—even if it does get in the way of her orgasm. That is, until a murder occurs and of course, Nora hears everything.

So yes, a porn movie with an actual story long enough to qualify as a full length film. The story was in some parts kitschy and a bit comical, but also so very H O T 🔥🔥🔥

In an interview after the film, Ravviso said that an original musical score was developed for the film except for the explicit sex scenes. As Ravviso explained it, viewers are so used to watching sex scenes played out to music that she decided to keep the natural sounds people make when they are fucking or as Ravviso described it, “the breathing, the sound of flesh coming in contact with flesh…”. Now you get why the scenes were so steamy.

The Listener brought together fantasy, crime and sensuously languorous sex–both solo and partnered. My favorite was just as I was losing myself in the movie, I saw it! The unmistakable cream latex rim of a condom during the close up penetration scene. I (shamelessly) watched the movie twice because, you know, fact-checking. I mean, I just had to make sure.

During the post-screening Q&A with Ravviso and lead actor, Romeo, I asked as a final point of verification, “Was that a condom that I saw in the film and how did you come up with the decision to include it in the story?”

Ravviso said that the actors had asked to use condoms on set and she didn’t see it, in any way, distracting from the story. Romeo confirmed this and added that having such an open and collaborative relationship among the director, actors, and intimacy coaches add to making porn scenes sensual, sexy, and safer.

As an example, Romeo shared that he, the actor playing Nora (female lead), Ravviso, and the intimacy coach has discussed the possibility of adding some kink and naughtiness into the sex scene with some spanking. The Team discussed that it wouldn’t be in line with the personality of Romeo’s character and thus, unrealistic. So the Team found other ways to capture the chemistry and connection between the two actors. 

As a viewer,  I can tell you my eyes and nether regions were treated to a playful, tantilizing and sensual lesson on self-pleasure and condom use. 

Porn literacy

Porn actors, sexuality scholars, public health researchers, and pleasure activists have long been extolling the educational value of pornography. The main reason behind this is that watching porn is often the first way that people – teens especially–learn about sex. And if they see safer sex practices like condom use from the beginning of their sex education, there is a better possibility that they will see this as a normal part of sex and practice these safer sex habits in their sexual encounters throughout their lives.

Public health researcher Emily Rothman actually developed a “pornography literacy” curriculum that is being tested out in schools in the US. As Rothman described it, just as we have media literacy, we should also have pornography literacy or a set of tools for critical analysis to allow us to choose porn that is consistent with our sexual values.

Porn actor Lina Bembe is a strong advocate of porn literacy. Bembe is one of the chore performers of the Sex School Hub in Berlin which uses sexually explicit films to teach sex education. 

The Sex School Hub and The Pleasure Project have worked on several films and projects to eroticize safer sex by embracing–and not just adding or incorporating–desire, joy and happiness into sex ed. The driving force of The Pleasure Project is to develop sex education tools that emphasize the motivations behind sex and satisfaction and not just the “how – to’s” of education.

I caught up with Bembe at the PFF Berlin where she screened her film, “Imaginations” 

In this interview, Bembe calls it edu-porn and highlights how porn actors use the “educational potential of their knowledge and skills” to create films for the very purpose of serving as resources for advice on safety and techniques to satisfy a wide range of diverse sexual preferences and curiousities. 

Other porn legends like Shine Louise Houston, Jessica Drake, Tristan Taormino and Annie Sprinkle have also produced similar films. 

The growing diverse collection of edu-porn films show that porn can go beyond being “how – to“ instructional videos. From watching The Listener and knowing the kind of open collaboration among actors, directors and intimacy coordinators, I got a bit of sex ed myself. Intentionally discussing aspects of safety like condom use and consent are all underlined by respecting boundaries of performers and letting performers translate this into scenes that normalize sex positive practices into real life. 

So yes, porn with a story does exist. And so does porn with educational value. It’s all about porn literacy, my favorite aspect of which is analyzing and selecting porn that is aligned with your values. 

If you’re on a journey of exploring your sexual values and preferences, have a look at the Pleasure Principles, a set of 7 guidelines that center rights, personal boundaries, and inclusivity to foster healthy discussions about sex and pleasure and incorporating it in our life and work. The Pleasure Principles can be applied to public health programs, personal exploration, and yes, our personal relationships with ourselves and others. Because pleasure, like porn literacy is just too good to keep to ourselves. It needs to be shared. Or watched on a big screen and enjoyed in a room full of people. 

Ana P. Santos is a journalist and 2021 Pleasure Fellow under The Pleasure Project.