Dalbert Pringle
You know, if I were to actually take (at face value) what was being shown to me here in this "kink propaganda" documentary - Then I would be under the clear impression that the only people, today, who were into "kink" were the young, fit, level-headed, and beautiful people of the world. And, nowhere in this subculture (that specializes in BDSM) could any old, dumpy, psychos be found, anywhere.I mean - Hello!!?? - Like, let's get real about this, folks.... Considering how many nutters that there are out there who are strictly into conventional sexual practices - Surely the offbeat world of BDSM has its fair share of unhinged eccentrics as well.... No!? Anyway - I thought it was pretty suspicious that when the viewer was taken on a walking tour of Kink.com's headquarters in San Francisco - The room called "The Abattoir" (where cutting and blood-letting happens) was completely ignored and we never got to see what went on in there. No, we didn't.As expected - The people at Kink.com showed us exactly what they wanted us to see in order to demonstrate just how safe and sane their whole operation was - And, with that - Hopefully entice us all to take a walk-on-the-wild-side, real soon.... Yeah! - For a good, hefty fee, of course.Well - Since pain is not my pleasure - I will have to be the first (but surely not the last) to pass on their 'welcoming" invitation.... And - How about you???
Steve Pulaski
Christina Voros's Kink is an important documentary and one of the most significant films to profile the porn industry that I have yet to see. Rarely has a porn documentary been able to truly humanize an incredibly popular, albeit far-from-mainstream, genre of pornography, the performers who freely partake in the genre, the interworkings and ethics revolving around the genre, and, finally, the exhausted ideas of porn actively degrading and oppressing women. Here's a film that takes a topic for those who are squeamish and makes it so digestible that even they should be able to pause for a moment and listen to what the film has to say.Kink profiles the website kink.com, one of the most successful and lucrative porn sites currently on the web. Kink specializes in three different kinds of fetish pornography: bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism including, but certainly not limited to, the use of cast-iron chains, leather suits, whips, industrial machines with long vibrators and dildos attached to an extended metal pole, and ropes. The website was started by a man named Peter Acworth in his college dormitory and has since become the leading provider in fetish entertainment since the inception of internet pornography. Before this, bondage - often referred to by the acronym BDSM - was largely segregated to the same magazines that glamorized other social taboos, such as swinging and interracial sex.As an avid fan and viewer of pornography, I will admit that porn, no matter what site you frequent, is largely the same: same positions, same penetration, same actors with similar looks, and same story lines. All of this is true unless you visit the fetish websites (most of which are not for me). Fetish pornography's purpose is to explore the deepest taboos and sexual pleasures people didn't know they had; to leave all inhibitions at the door and explore the darker, more sinister side of human sexuality. Kink follows numerous art directors, film directors, and set designers as they recruit famous porn stars, such as Mr. Marcus, Phoenix Marie, and Francesca Le, to their website and inform them of the kind of sex scenes they are famous for. One particular scene involves casting director Maitresse Madeline showing a group of first-timers what BDSM entails. She explains how it's not pornography, so the only penis-fondling can be in a manner that's teasing or looks to be rather painful. "So you're going to beat me up?," the male talent bluntly asks Madeline. "No, we're going to make love to your butthole," Madeline boldly replies.Kink.com has a strict code of conduct they pride themselves on in order to churn out not only the best content, but also the most ethical. Van Darkholme, one of the website's regular directors, states how he has always been about finding the person's reaction and not the porn star's. When Kink.com is filming its talent, they want the moans, grunts, and screams of the person and not the fake orgasms and noises common in pornography.Some will inevitably ask, even after watching the documentary, why would people allow themselves to be degraded and tossed around like pieces of meat for the sake of pornography? For starters, Kink.com doesn't force or trick any of its members into being a part of their pornography. They firmly state that this content isn't for everyone, and they reiterate the fact that if people want to be sexually free they should have an outlet or a means be so. Several actors talk about a "euphoric state" the body enters when undergoing some of the treatment Kink.com has in store for them, where, often during orgasm, several human chemicals, such as dopamine and adrenaline, are released to give one's body a "natural high," sending them into a complete, almost out-of-this-world trance. The fact that something like that can bring a human being to such an other-worldly state is amazing and Kink is sure to emphasize the importance of not only the liberation of one's body and mind, but their entire sexual state of mind.Inevitably, as the employees know all too well, there will still be the critics of the website and BDSM who say it does nothing but further objectify and degrade women like the pornographic industry has done since its inception. One Kink.com director brings up a fantastic point when addressing this; he states that it's difficult for people to understand that there are a group of women that need a sort of constant protection, yet there are also a group of women who lust after the attention and glitz the porn industry provides them. And, ultimately, if the porn is performed by consenting adults who understand the terms and want to partake in the sexual acts for entertainment and monetary compensation, why shouldn't they have the freedom to do so? If that still doesn't get you on board with the fetish movement, he goes on to state, he simply requests those people to admit that while the industry isn't for you, in particular, it is for someone out there.Kink is not only a terrific documentary but a seriously important one because it finally addresses many of the issues that porn documentaries continue to dance around (coming up with a response to the numerous allegations of degrading and oppressing women), in addition to shedding light on one of the entertainment form's most successful genres since its inception on the internet. It shows the humans behind the scenes of your average fetish porn shoot, and how, for pornography that can be described as some of the most inhumane, it might be one of the most humane.
Christine Beatty
I understand that filmmakers are often forced to walk a line between the reality of the subject matter and entertaining an audience, so I can sympathize with the rubbernecking feel of the coverage, however it didn't really provide a real context for all of the kinky sex we were seeing beyond some talking heads who, after a while came across more like they were rationalizing rather than explaining.SPOILER, PERHAPS: Those interviews may have come off differently were it not for the final interview with a female employee. At first she came off like she was fine with what she did, but then became overwrought and tearful, talking about her work "disgracing" her family and describing everyone who worked for Kink as though they were broken toys. This emotional interview undid all of the thoughtful insights of earlier interviews and made them seem somehow false. That one emotional outburst undid everything that preceded it. Its placement at the very end seems suspect, as if it was what the filmmakers wanted the viewer to take away.
jake_fantom
This dreary self-portrait of a nasty little industry trading in sadomasochistic pornography would have us believe that the desire to abuse, degrade, and physically harm other human beings (both men and women) is a wonderful and creative form of sexual expression. The talking heads that espouse this wisdom conveniently happen to be the very people who are making money from selling realistic depictions of hardcore sexual abuse online. There are a few revealing scenes in the film -- one in which monthly revenues are discussed (they are revealed to be surprisingly small, which leads me to believe that the audience for this type of entertainment is similarly small); another in which an honest model shares her real thoughts about the work she is doing. But for those few glimpses of reality, the rest of this is just a voyeuristic look at actual hardcore scenes being filmed, with the usual portentous claptrap being spouted on the soundtrack about how "into it" the models are, just dying for a good hard beating, the lot of them. If you opt to watch this ugly piece of work for the voyeuristic aspects of it, I suggest you do so with your remote in one hand and your thumb poised above the fast forward button. Sex doesn't get any more boring than this. In fact, this really isn't sex at all, and the poor souls who think it is would be better served by therapy than by a film celebrating misogyny, authored by ghouls who profit from its distribution.
