Candida Royalle

the interview with Olivia de Court

Part Three

CANDIDA: No. No, of course not. It's a very funny, simple answer. It's a witty answer, but I, I think it's way oversimplified. I think that really, it's the way we look for these simple answers when there's a lot of complexity, it’s a reflection of the fact that women's sexuality itself is much more complex and layered than men's. I can see where, yes, to a degree, men are programmed to respond to very simple stimuli.

Again, it's a primal need for women to be much more selective in who they allow to impregnate them. Men just can drop their seed everywhere, just flash a pretty body in front of a man, he gets turned on. It's not going to do it for women. But that doesn't mean we're not visual. It just means that we need a little bit more than just a pretty face or a handsome, athletic body.

Women are visual. There have been several studies where women were shown erotic visual images while hooked up to electrodes that monitor their sexual response. When researchers questioned them afterwards, they would say that they I didn't really find it sexually appealing. Meanwhile, they were physically responding. So, a lot of it is social conditioning; they feel guilt, they shouldn't be responding because of being told that they're not visual. Sometimes they're not comfortable with what they're responding to. But if you start to create material particularly for women, visual stimuli, you will see women responding. It's just been a matter of catching up with that and creating visuals that are stimulating to women. Beyond that, it's also that women want more. Don't just parade a bunch of guys in front of me. There's more complexity to, more levels.

What I try to do with my movies is, first and foremost, to give it a sense of context. Give the sex a context. I think that it's more interesting for women, and for some men, too. And, I certainly try to show sexuality rather than just athletic performances. It's the kind of visuals you're creating; it’s giving it a context; it's layering it with the kinds of things that make us more interested in seeing the sex. Overall it is, I think, more pleasing, more interesting.

Olivia : Actually, I was more put off by the dialogue in male porn films, not so much by the raunchy dialogue, that’s sometimes stimulating, actually. What I found creepy, is there is a tone of disdain, and sometimes hate in the voices of some of the men. As a veteran of the Adult Entertainment Industry, why do you think that some men find the sort of contempt for who they're fucking such a turn-on. What do you think it is?

CANDIDA: I have a particular theory about that. Individually, who knows what could have happened in their lives? They might have had this deep-seated anger toward women. I think, sometimes, what we're seeing is, well, there is not a lot of discussion around the effects of the negative culture on men's sexuality. I think we all just kind of assume that men are very sexual and, because they're allowed to develop their sexual impulses, they have no guilt or shame. Women are the only ones who are brought up with the messages of guilt and shame.

But I think that there's a lot more going on with men that we don't talk about. One of these things is that the reason behind men being very critical of women, cruel to women, is the whole phenomenon of boys taking up with the bad girls at school and calling them tramps and nymphos. I mean, why do young men all have sex with the neighborhood slut and then proceed to put her down for it? I think it's because of their own guilt and shame about their sexuality. We think that men are just sexual animals. We have to forgive them because they just can't help themselves.

They've got this sexual impulse and the whole story of the Virgin Mary ... well, she's, THE female icon in Christian society. Why? Because she's untouched by a man. She's unsullied; she's clean. But, if she had been made love to by a man, had sex with a man, had him in her, his tongue in her, she would no longer be revered in that way. She would be dirty. What are they (men) internalizing? What are little boys internalizing? Doesn't it say to them that there is a part of you that we accept but we find it dirty and unclean, shameful? There is a lot of stuff being said, to young men, young boys, that we don't really think about the implications There is a whole layer of guilt and shame around their sexuality that we don't talk about.

One of the ways I think they cope with it is always by blaming the women, which can be seen historically. You know, "the devil made me do it; she made me do it." The she-devil. When a woman’s raped, it's her fault; she brought this out in a man. So when boys or men do these things, rather than turn the anger and disgust onto themselves, they blame it on the woman, the girl, who brought it out. "Well, she's a slut, she's a tramp, a whore. She let me do this, so she's really disgusting. She is gonna pay for this, not me." That is what I think we’re seeing.

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