Pornumentaries and Sexploitation
11
showing the existence of an increasingly consolidated target audience. Real Sex:
Pornucopia, for instance, is solely devoted to the pornographic industry. One
episode showed an in-depth interview with an artificially enhanced super-pom
star, Katie Morgan; the actress did most of the interview naked, sitting on a
chair, and the program was generously sprinkled with segments from her fulllength features, yet another way to indirectly let the viewer enjoy the
pornographic experience.
For a more romantic, poetically oriented audience, there is Kim
Cattrall: Sexual Intelligence, which, as the title indicates, tackles the subject of
explicit sex in a more sophisticated manner and with a healthy dose of
metaphysical concepts in order to ease the sensitive soul into the expression of
his/her primordial instincts. Most of Cattrall’s narrative is empty of real meaning
other than, as the poet would put it, "Sex is natural, sex is good, not everybody
does it but everybody should.” One senses here the need to reconcile a feminine
audience with the possibility of sexual expression and the choice of Kim Cattrall
is far from being innocent. As Samantha in Sex and the City, she embodied the
epitome of the sexually-active, economically-independent modem woman who
is not afraid of externalizing her desire and is absolutely not frustrated. The
entire series was indeed based on the concept of sexual expression, already
included in the title, and the only narrative tension these familiar soap-type plots
could offer was based upon the expression of sexuality, which was enough in
itself to justify the very existence of the show. Indeed, except discussing shoes
and penis sizes, the four main characters of Sex and the City truly have nothing
to say. But in a cultural landscape where explicit sexual expression has been
confined to the shady side, any representation of sex, however shallow and
insipid it may be, is always welcome.11 Incidentally, we again find the same
condescending tone from the interviewees in Sexual Intelligence as we observed
in Real Sex; actually speaking of sex in an open manner is obviously a feat no
one should ignore.
At the other end of the spectrum, for those who prefer to get as close as
possible to the real thing, we find shows and features such as Taxi Cab
Confessions and Pimps Up, Hoes Down. The former presents supposedly
spontaneous, candid conversations between a taxi cab driver and his
customer(s); it goes without saying that the interaction is almost invariably
centered around more or less original sexual activities. Often, we simply witness
a fairly vulgar, uninteresting interaction, both in tone and choice of words;
however, the show functions thanks to the notion of reality TV which allows the
viewers to get a close look at the gutter without getting their feet dirty. Pimps
Up, Hoes Down is arguably one of the most repugnant cases of sexploitation,
for, under the pretext of an objective, informative documentary, we are
introduced to the wonderful world of pimping and prostitution. The financial, as
well as moral, misery of fellow human beings bec