What if we took away the stigma around porn? Would it still be controversial? Arousing? Would it make watching sex scenes with your parents less awkward? (Okay, probably not the latter). Brooklyn-based sex educators Ayesha Hussain and Lola Jean are unpacking these complex questions with Pass The Porn, a collaborative multimedia production debuting at House Of Yes on July 30 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The cinematic social experiment combines porn cinema and sex education in a sophisticated slumber-party setting. It will feature everything from a curated screening of inclusive pornography and discussion, to a choreographed interpretive dance threesome, and nostalgic party games like Truth or Dare.
This isn’t Hussain’s first foray when it comes to exploring porn as an educational platform. Since launching pop-up porn cinema The Violet in November 2017, she’s hosted workshops from Miami to San Francisco showcasing sex positive and ethical porn. By facilitating education and broader cultural conversations through her events, she hopes to destigmatize the viewing of porn and propagate empathy between people around sex.
“I use the porn to show people that we all have a shared experience with pornography, but we’re all doing it in isolation,” she says. “The goal with all of my events is to eradicate rape culture and non-consent culture by giving people the language and the comfortability to talk about sex, and through doing that, discover more about themselves and each other.”
Jean has been a supporter of Hussain’s work with The Violet since the beginning and is no stranger to producing unusual events herself (you might recall her setting the “Squirting World Record” in Bushwick earlier this year). When she reached out to Hussain with the idea for Pass The Porn, it turned out that the two were already thinking the same thing.
“Lola basically described to me the same idea that I had been thinking for [Pass The Porn], so we decided that it definitely had to be done…we were like ‘okay, what did we do as kids during sleepovers?’ and how do we bring that playfulness and joy and light to this event that can often be very heavy,” Hussain says. “Sex can be really daunting for people and we wanted to keep a connection between the lightness and curiosity and openness of being a child when you’re an adult.”
Without giving away too many spoilers, the evening will kick off with a screening of diverse porn scenes followed by a panel discussion — though it’s the interpretative dance threesome that might be the most compelling part of the whole experience.
“We really want all of our events to be semi-multidisciplinary and be able to showcase all of the people that we know in our community….we thought it would be really fun to have dancers mimic a pillow fight that moves into all of these different threesome positions, so people can see real life examples of how you might go about a threesome,” says Hussain.
You get the picture. This is going to be a slumber party like you’ve never experienced (but if this sounds like your average Tuesday, you know where to find me). After it premieres in Bushwick, Pass The Porn will pop up in LA later this summer and is set to go international later this year. Get your tickets to Tuesday’s event here.
Cover image courtesy of The Violet.
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