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by Calico Rudasill, Sssh.com

The very first time I ever participated in something involving people being filmed, I learned something I’ve never forgotten: As soon as people know they’re on camera, they stop behaving like themselves and start acting. I’m not saying we do this consciously, necessarily, but I believe we all do it, at least to some extent.

I’m not knocking people for acting differently when they’re on camera, because I know I’m the same way. I think this is just a natural, human thing; when we know a record is being created of what we do and say, we become more self-conscious, less comfortable and inevitably, less ourselves.

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This is why I’ve always asserted there’s no such thing as “reality television,” because even on the shows which don’t stage virtually every aspect of the on-camera action (assuming there exists any reality shows which don’t), nobody behaves in a “real” way, once they know the cameras are rolling.

It’s also why I have a hard time accepting the notion of a photographer getting “honest” or “natural” reactions from people who he’s photographing half-naked as they’re actively watching porn.

This Just In: Masturbation Not Rare Among Porn Viewers

Maybe none of the subjects in Patrick Struys’ photoshoot watch porn on their own time, but statistically speaking, I think this is an unlikely possibility.

Assuming at least one of the men or women involved in the photoshoot is someone who watches porn for pleasure, I’m going to go out on a limb and say they didn’t give Struys an “honest” reaction unless they got aroused and started masturbating.

(Seriously, folks; masturbation is something a lot of people, male and female, do when they watch porn, not just me.)

To be fair, I don’t think Struys meant he was getting what would amount to a typical porn viewing reaction, not in this setting. I think what he meant by honest and natural is after a few minutes of viewing, what he was getting was the person’s natural and honest reaction to being filmed while watching porn – which is a very different thing from the reaction they’d have if they were watching alone, in the privacy of their own home (or their own taxi, or subway seat, if they’re more of a ‘high-risk’ porn viewer.)

Still, no matter how you slice it, I go back to the axiom with which I started this post: Once on camera, everybody becomes a thespian of sorts, no longer behaving or reacting the way they would outside of the camera’s presence – or outside the presence of another person, for that matter.

Porn You Choose Vs. Porn Chosen For You

Another factor in this is the subjects of Struys’ photoshoot didn’t get to choose the porn they’re watching and reacting to, because Struys created the porn loop they watched. According to the article describing the shoot Struys also “tried to make the video as inclusive as possible to every person’s sexual orientation and/or tastes.”

Since a person’s taste in porn is a very individual thing, and porn exists to cover essentially every imaginable fetish and kink, there’s no way Struys covered the full gamut of possibilities in his compilation clip. Hell, you can’t cover the full gamut of porn genres in five and a half hours, much less minutes.

Obviously, we all react very differently to images which we enjoy seeing, as opposed to those we’d just as soon never have seen. Give me five minutes of porn of my own choice to watch and I’m a happy girl. Give me five minutes of the works of Max Hardcore or Rob Black to watch, on the other hand and I’m liable to punch you in the face – or, in this context, punch you in the camera hovering in front of your face (which would probably be worse for both of us, come to think of it).

In other words, the reactions Struys captured during his shoot aren’t reactions to porn in general, or even reactions to being watched when watching porn of the viewer’s liking, but reactions to being watched while viewing that particular porn, a choice in which the viewer had no say.

Regardless, The Pics Are Great

Now that I’ve finished my nitpicking, let me be the first to acknowledge all the nits I’ve picked are irrelevant from the standpoint of enjoying the proceeds of this photographic experiment. Struys’ photos are great and hilarious, no matter what combination of factors and input led to the reactions we see, or how “natural” those reactions may be.

Just like the Buzzfeed videos showing people trying unfamiliar foods, what’s important here isn’t the details of how the shoots are set up, it’s the overall impact and impression left by the reactions. I mean, who wouldn’t love this picture as a representation of a feeling we’ve all had, at some point or another, when confronted with something at which we’d rather not be looking, ever?

The only reason I even bother to point out the discrepancy between real behavior and filmed behavior is I think it’s something we have a tendency to forget, especially when we’re in the throes of hating on a “Real Housewife” or a “Survivor” for behaving on TV in ways they’d probably never act in the absence of a camera.

(Except Simon Cowell, of course; I have little doubt he’s just as big a prick in real life.)