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Lea DeLaria Writing Erotica for YouP*rn isn’t Liberating Lesbians

Lea DeLaria as Big Boo in Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

Great. Lea DeLaria, who played hilarious butch Big Boo on Orange is the New Black, is writing erotica for YouPorn. Instead of critiquing a platform that profits on and contributes to the fetishization of lesbians – as well as rape, misogyny, pedophilia and sex trafficking – Lea is hellbent on perpetuating it. Nothing says sexual liberation quite like entertaining those who profit from our oppression!

“From the second I walked out onto the stage as “That Fucking Dyke” to the moment Big Boo MacGyvered a screwdriver into a dildo, my career has always been about butch visibility and getting laid … not necessarily in that order,” said DeLaria, on the porn site. “Let’s face it, I’m here to put the sex back in homosexuality.”  

As if male porn-watchers give a shit about your passion for butch visibility!

Butch lesbians already cop the stereotype that they’re “men,” which is objectively false. “Butch visibility” is incompatible with helping perpetuate porn sites that actively erase lesbianism by purporting it as a lil snack for male gratification. “Lesbian” was the most searched for porn category in 2018. Let’s not pretend like Lea’s erotica empowers lesbian sexuality and that’s why it’s ethical.

Not to mention that the main profit stream on YouPorn, actual pornography, is inherently problematic because genuine, enthusiastic consent can never be bought. It’s not like the women in uploaded homemade videos are even getting paid, anyway, let alone know that an intimate moment with their partner was uploaded for the world to see! Butch lesbians are women and, therefore, cop the ramifications of porn’s contribution to sex-based oppression. Why doesn’t Lea care?

Just like reclaiming “queer,” as some progressive stance, rather than a straight-endorsed move based on self-hatred, Lea has no issue equating homosexuality and its sexual practices with pornographic fetish. A central homophobic belief under heteronormative society is that we’re warped, especially sexually, so Lea’s putting nothing back in homosexuality. She’s merely behaving as a handmaiden to already cemented, extremely backwards, ideas about homosexuality’s supposed deviancy. 

Lesbianism is often only understood through the male gaze because everything is about male desire, haven’t you heard? Why do you think men intervene and “take over” in pornographic depictions of lesbian sex? Why do you think we get told we “haven’t had good sex with a man yet,” and that’s why we’re lesbian? Why do you think men froth and pant over us, despite our level of attractiveness to them, as if we’re a promised banquet that he merely has to conquer some heroic challenge in order to win?

A real lesbian writing real lesbian erotica for these perverted, homophobic freaks, is like a zoo animal doing tricks for the entertainment of a packed audience pants-wetting with Hunger Games-style laughter. Lesbianism isn’t a circus but, according to Lea, “putting the sex back in homosexuality” means opening a window for men to watch; for them to fap over our exhibitionist display. Houston, we have a problem: humans can only conceive of “sexy” when we’re conforming to, and performing for, homophobic, misogynistic industries, ideologies and institutions. I’m not one for saying “humanity is dead,” but it sure is tempting right about now.

In an interview with GO Magazine, who were surprised Lea only discovered porn at 18 – as if it should be normal for minors to stumble upon it – the actress discusses how she believes “dyke culture” has become “sanitized and sexless”:

When I came into the dyke community in the 80s, when it became more prominently known in the queer community in the 80s, everything about it was so political. It was so– you know, aggressive. It was so feminist, that they just forgot that the reason we’re here is because we don’t fuck men. Then in the 90s, we became very aggressive sexually. We really got back into that. And then, as the turn of the century has happened, and we’ve become more politicized as a queer community, I think it’s happened to lesbians again, where they’ve just lost the, you know, the thing. Yes, you know, this is the thing. This is why society hates you. Right? Yeah, it’s because you’re fucking women. So let’s have less conversation about how to spell ‘woman’ and more about fucking women.”

I’m all for putting the sex back into lesbianism, as it is so often sanitized as gals just bein’ pals – especially when men can’t jack off to it. But the idea that sex has to be violent and pornographic to even be sexual, to validate the lesbian community is sexed-up enough, is just sad to me. This is another problem with lesbians reclaiming queer: it informs all of our choices. Taking pride in our supposed “deviance,” to the point that we’re having sex with strangers on film, simulating rape, and being hung from meat hooks, isn’t rebellious. It conforms to the violent depictions of sex located absolutely everywhere today. 

Sex doesn’t exist in a vacuum. What we do to our bodies and other people’s bodies during sex is real, not just fantasy. What happens in porn is real too; the “actresses” are not characters on an erotic television show. They’re real people. Women internalize the male gaze, we objectify ourselves and other women as a result, and the sort of sexuality Lea campaigns for merely celebrates that.

There is nothing wrong with strap-ons, tops and bottoms (outside of violence), sensuality and experimentation. But a lesbian writing erotica for pimps, at a site built on corruption, isn’t revolutionary. The idea that critiquing YouPorn and Lea DeLaria writing erotica for it is “vanilla” or “anti-sex” really puts into perspective how normalized pornography and harmful sex practices are. It puts into perspective how many lesbians can only conceive of a healthy, liberated sex life if it is at the expense of rationality and respect.

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