RP12: Make Love Not Porn is ‘Every VC’s Wet Dream’

By David Knight |

By David Knight at re:publica

Cindy Gallop really knows how to keep an audience’s rapt attention – and her tales of ‘casually’ dating numerous young men in their 20s at the age of 52 is just a part of that. There was certainly no doubt that her no-holds-barred talk on her Make Love Not Porn (MLNP) project was one of the highlights of day one at re:publica.

The ethos behind MLNP is that too many young people nowadays believe that real-life sex mirrors its porn equivalent, and marketing and brandbuilding guru Gallop is on a mission to get more people to talk openly about this issue.

Porn is more freely available now than it has ever been before, with kids accessing hardcore material at increasingly younger ages – around 8 is the average, Gallop said. That means they grow up thinking that what they see on the screen is how lovers act in reality.

And it’s not just men it affects: Gallop believes this is also a problem among women.

She said: “Hardcore porn has become by default the sex education of today, and that is not a good thing.”

MLNP began life as a website three years ago, with its creator wanting to keep the content lighthearted and entertaining to avoid the “kiss of death” appearance of being educational. Perhaps surprisingly, she and MLNP are not by any means opposed to the porn industry as a whole, and Gallop said: “MLNP is not anti-porn; the issue I am tackling is the compete lack in our society of open and healthy dialogue around sex and porn which would then allow people to bring a real world mind set to the viewing of what is in effect artificial entertainment.”

She aims to boil the subject down to a simple conversation, and spoke of how she has responded to the vast majority of comments under the YouTube video of her speech at Ted 2009 when she launched MLNP, including the abusive ones.

The ten worst trolls she actually invited to discuss the matter further through private messaging rather than in the public comments – and reported surprising results. One turned out to be a 28-year-old virgin from Eastern Europe who completely changed his tune from one of abuse to one of interest when talking to Gallop privately – he was frustrated at his inability to meet girls. A few expert pieces of advice later and he had found himself a girlfriend.

Indeed, the strength of the responses from him and others like him merely shows how personal this subject is, Gallop argued. And one common perception taken by some when she talks about her project is, she said, false: “I have never hit on a younger man in my life; I don’t have to, they come after me… I only date utterly lovely younger men.” She is, she said, her own research lab.

She also revealed that people in the porn industry were extremely supportive of her efforts and wanted to help her “do with Make Love Not Porn in the 21st century what Hugh Hefner actually managed with Playboy in the 20th – legitimise it, bring it out into the public domain.”

To that extent, she is launching MLNP.tv in the summer. It’s currently in stealth beta, and Gallop remained very tightlipped about what exactly the service would entail, but she did reveal that it would be user-driven: “I’m not going to do it, you guys are!”

It’s a fascinating project, no doubt – especially given the potential to reinvigorate an industry which Gallop claimed is tanking: “I should be every VC’s wet dream, literally.” This is an opportunity, she continued, to disrupt a sector worth billions in a way that is socially beneficial and potentially very lucrative.

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The Make Love Not Porn talk was a change of pace from the previous speech on re:publica‘s biggest stage by Mark Kaigwa on how technology in Africa is changing the globe. Entitled Silicon Savanna, it was just as fascinating as what followed but in a rather different way.

Kenyan-based Kaigwa revealed how mobile technology can make huge differences in a continent where mobile phone use is massively more widespread than home internet.

The bigger idea behind the talk, he said, was that “Africa isn’t this hopeless continent; that Africa’s woes aren’t the only side of the coin.”

For a start, Kaigwa pointed out the frequency with which coups happened in African countries between 1960 and 1970, and how they were largely accepted by one and all – whereas now, many politicians need to be on Twitter to be successful and therefore must open themselves up to a much higher level of scrutiny.

Finally, Kaigwa urged those listening: “As you’re thinking, creating, tweeting, investing in the next level of business on this side of the globe, you cannot forget the southern hemisphere; more importantly, you can’t forget Africa.”

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You can also check out these awesome pictures from re:publica on Sammlr courtesy of the guys at keksbox.