Should You Make A Sex Tape? (Editorial)

SHOULD YOU MAKE A SEX TAPE?

For a while, EVERYONE seemed to have a sex tape.  Droves of personality-impaired D-list wanna-bes were producing grainy hotel videos that made the lackluster participants look like they needed more than a few basic lessons in creativity in bed.  Then there was the VHS craze of hiding the micro-wave-sized camera in a closet and going at it with any unknowing drunk with a hole as victim.  The reason the sex partner had to be drunk was so they wouldn't question why every light in the house had to be on while screwing.  That was before facebook where the idea of TMI really formulated into a national past-time and degraded celebrity sex tapes to "quaint" status.  Once upon a time, sex scandals could wreck a life and career, creating public embarrassment that the people involved could never live down.  Within the last few years, sex scandals ARE a career.  In this day of enough technology on your phone to ruin you life and career forever in a matter of seconds, should you jump on the sex tape band wagon?

Here are some reasons FOR and AGAINST making a home-made sex tape:

1.  You Only Live Once.

Pro:  Hey, you're young and sexy and having fun (at least that's what you tell yourself).  You want to look back at your life and enjoy the finer moments with someone who knew how to burn with passion.  Appreciating and celebrating and sharing sexuality as part of the natural human experience is a beautiful thing.

Con: You can talk a big line but a sex tape is undeniable evidence you aint all that.

2.  Why Would Anyone Care?

Pro: It is your right as a free-thinking adult to do consensual sex acts with other adults in private and record those acts any way you see fit.  It's no body's business but your own. If doing something like a sex tape is the worse thing you ever do, then good for you. If those around you will judge you for doing a sex tape, you should re-think those relationships. Before doing a sex tape yourself, ask, "What do I really think of the people who have done them?" If you have to talk yourself into it, you probably shouldn't. If you respect sex tape participants for their bravery and candor -- go for it.

Con: Really?  Can't find anything better to do?  The "Amateur Porn" market is filled to the brim with "professional amateurs" so if you think you've got something special that is going to make you rich, think again.  Unless you've got a "name" involved in your video -- someone seriously famous who has signed legal waivers -- chances are no one wants the end product.  In fact, having such material in your procession may be a detriment to you personally in the long run because you can't ask the other person for money to get rid of the video.  That's extortion.  And the other person(s) could sue you, even if the law suit is unfounded.  The most potentially embarrassing part of the whole procedure is that you insist on viewers and no one gives a damn (sort of what happened to a geeky former child television star who made porn to save his house and...nada).

3.  Get Over Yourself.

Pro:  Making a sex tape is about trust, negotiating, following through with a commitment, confronting personal issues and expressing yourself honestly (you can't fake real sex).  Sex tapes take normal sex and heightens the exhibition/voyeur aspects which can be a real turn-on to some people.  Knowing you are being watched in a safe environment may spark you to experiment, act out a fantasy or two, that you wouldn't have otherwise.  Videos give you a reason to perform.

Con: Sex tapes are as trendy as tattoos, piercing yourself, rubber bands as jewelry.  Why be as cheap and crass everyone else?  You've seen one, you've seen them all and now you have no mystery left because you've basically given the milk away without having to be responsible to the cow.  The more you do it, the less impact it has.  Truly, leave sex to the professionals.

4. Curiosity.

Pro:  You should make a sex tape ASAP because I -- like zillions of other freaks like me -- want to see it.  I don't care who's involved.  I don't care what they do.  The kinkier, the better. As long as there are naked people doing anything near acts resembling sex, count me in.

Con:  I'm not paying a dime for anything I can get for free on-line.