By M.Christian
YNOT – We in the sex biz may think we know all there is to know about sex and eroticism, but even the most jaded adult industry veteran still has a lot to learn — and Midori, sex educator and author, is just the person to teach us.
More importantly, Midori is a model of how to run not just an informed sexuality enterprise but also how to run a smart business. YNOT.com sat down with her to chat about everything from sex ed to where sex and business may be going on the future.
YNOT.com: In your opinion, how has sexuality changed over the past few years — or has it not changed?
Midori: Immediate gratification has become more intensely immediate as we become faster and more voracious consumers of all forms of entertainment and media. We don’t want to wait for porn or hook-ups anymore.
In the realm of sex toys, there’s been a giant surge in design, functionality and quality. Gone are the days where all we could choose from were shabbily constructed, ugly skin-tone toys made of toxic material and packed in lurid, cornball porno photos. The most competitive sector of retail sex toys now jockeys for customer attention using the same production and marketing strategies used by the luxury cars and personal electronics industries.
For activities, I find there’s a big growth in interest and awareness about consensual kink, SM and polyamory across much of the general public. This is reflected in the general media depiction of pervs, as well. Once kinksters were relegated to the realm of psychos and serial killers, but now it’s a common plotline in romantic comedies. More and more mainstream education venues are asking me to teach the sort of kink classes that they would have never considered a decade ago.
Do you see improvement in how people see what is commonly called “alternative sexuality?”
Yes. First of all, fewer and fewer people are freaked out about alternative sexuality. Colleges routinely offer alt.sex student clubs on campus, just about every women-friendly sexuality boutique offers classes, books and toys cover a wide range of things previously considered sacrilege, and mainstream dating sites don’t bat an eye at members listing their alternative appetites.
The increase in discussion about consent around this growth of interest has been heartening to me. I hope this means more people are exploring their sexual selves with greater agency, authenticity and empowerment. In the bigger picture, I hope this will also lead to people being less judgmental, fearful and prejudicial about people with erotic appetites different from their own.
You’re known for rope bondage. What else have you been exploring and teaching?
My current focus and passion is the weekend education format. The weekend intensive programs have been extremely fulfilling for me, as I’m able to create the most effective, intimate and relevant personal erotic growth program for small groups in this format. Currently I facilitate ForteFemme: Women’s Dominance Weekend Intensive, Rope Bondage Dojo®, and Passionate Bonds for Effective D/s Relationships. I’m also creating a couple’s erotic reawakening retreat. I will be unveiling that soon! Somewhere in between all that, I continue to write erotic fiction, commentary about sexual cultures and how-tos while tweeting and Facebooking like the media addict I am….
My teaching tours have been taking me far and wide. Among other classes, I teach one of the best and funniest blowjob classes around. Women flock to it, so the venues are nuts for this and other classes of mine. This has me flying all over the place. Right now I’m teaching in London after a month-long teaching tour in Australia for Uber Services. Shortly I head off to Ottawa, Toronto, Saint Louis and Tokyo. I would have jet lag if I actually had a stable time zone to identify with.
As ever, I’m volunteering for AIDS Life/Cycle and raising funds to fight HIV. The economy sucks, so the fundraising has been anemic. But I keep trying. You can find out more about that on my HIV/AIDS fundraising page.
I’m also part of the Bang4TheBuck.org team. We are a group of five women who throw an amazing women-only naughty strip and sex party once a year in Seattle to raise funds for and awareness about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. All the profit goesto HIV, STI and women’s health organizations. I’m in charge of gathering the donation items for the raffle and silent auction. The next one is Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. Not surprisingly, the booty has been a bit lighter this year. If anyone has toys, services or products to donate, we will totally pimp your company to this group of 300 lusty women!
Do you think the business of adult entertainment is getting better, or have things been slipping?
For the past few years I’ve been focusing on researching and exploring the sexual subcultures of Japan, so sadly I have to confess to a deep ignorance about the current state of American adult entertainment. But I can tell you that the Japanese sexual underground and its commercial entertainment are utterly fascinating! I’ve been talking about it quite a bit in my presentation “Pink Japan.”
One thing I have noticed in the U.S., however, is the change in the romance novel genre. Historically I’m not a romance reader, but recently I picked up some copies and have been utterly, delightfully shocked. Oh my gawd. They’re hot, steamy and smutty! They’re explicit, too. This isn’t our mom’s bodice-ripper anymore. I think some of my stories can now fully sit among these hot tamales.The surge in tablets and e-readers is making hot romance novels accessible for more women and men, allowing them to read them anywhere without modesty concerns.
While this isn’t directly about the adult entertainment industry, there’s a trend in general media that I think is worth paying attention to. I have noticed a huge increase in media on the sexualization of the male body and objectification of masculine eros. More TV shows and movies are displaying serious beefcake and downplaying female T&A. In Cowboys and Aliens, for example, the camera lingered on Daniel Craig’s chaps-clad, tight butt cheeks and naked, ripped pecks while featuring the fighting abilities of Olivia Wilde — but not her bod. These shows and movies are selling hot, and I believe that reflects a sign of a smart business decision around actual consumer desire and behavior.
