Every Monday, The CSPH takes a look at a book or film focusing on an aspect of sexuality. This week we are featuring Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry, Vol 1.
Tristan Taormino is a sex educator who produces sex education and pornographic films. The premise of Chemistry is that seven awesome porn stars—Dana DeArmond, Jack Lawrence, Kurt Lockwood, Marie Luv, Mr. Marcus, Mika Tan, and Taryn Thomas—are placed in a house together for thirty-six hours without any scripts.
Between the sex scenes, the stars are interviewed, enabling the viewer to get to know the stars’ personality from more than just the reality porn. Mika Tan for example, has a very bubbly, adorable, and energetic personality throughout both the interviews and sex scenes.
Chemistry is, at least for me, one of the best examples of feminist pornography. The actors all have their own agency: they are choosing who they are having sex with, where they are having sex, and how they are having sex. Both the male and female actors are also shown expressing genuine pleasure. Throughout the interviews, everyone gives off the impression of being sex-positive. During the film, toys are used, from strap-ons to butt plugs. Also, lube is used quite often, and shown rather than being snuck in.
For camera work, there are both perv cameras (held by the actors themselves), and a slightly more distant professional camera crew. This film never shies away from what it is: a documentary of some porn stars living together for a few days. So occasionally you will see a microphone, or the camera crew relocating themselves. Included on the DVD are quite a lot of bonus materials, including sex scenes that didn’t make it into the main film, more interviews, and behind the scenes footage.
Most of the film content is heterosexual in nature; however, there are some threesome scenes with two females who are genuinely enjoying each other. As for some specific actions, the film includes anal, double-penetration, facials, pegging, and rimming.
All in all, I would highly recommend this to anyone who is curious about porn stars, is curious about how they work with one another, or who wants to watch a completely titillating film.
This was one of the first porn films I ever watched with my husband. We were both charmed by how funny Mika Tan was; she was always making little quips during the action. I was sad to hear of the involvement of Mr. Marcus in the recent porn industry syphilis outbreak.