HuffPost Live recently hosted a roundtable discussion on whether a woman’s relationship with her parents can be a driving factor in her decision to work in the adult film industry.
During this discussion, plus-sized adult film actress Kelly Shibari agreed that her relationship with her mother played a role in her decision, but disagreed with the idea that this relationship made her turn to pornography.
Shibari explained that sex is much less taboo in Japan and, according to Shibari, people pick up strange fetishes simply because they’ve run out of things to do. At the same time, people are encouraged to embrace adulthood and make decisions for themselves. In this way, Shibari argued that her decision to become a porn star was not similar to the others in the discussion who turned to pornography out of rebellion or to prove a point to their parents. To her mother (whom Shibari asked permission before entering the porn industry), Shibari was simply taking control of her life as an adult, not because of some emotional or psychological void:
I was raised to behave like an adult, so even my current tenure in porn is full of me still making decisions. I don’t do every scene that is asked of me. I don’t do every sex act that’s asked of me. In my case, because I do a lot of plus-size porn, I don’t do things that perpetuate a negative stereotype with large women. I’ve turned down scenes where I’ve been asked to eat while having sex.”
And these strange fetishes Shibari’s talking about? We’re not completely sure what she’s referring to, but given the recent outbreak of eyeball licking amongst Japanese youth, we’re not sure we want to know.
To watch the entire HuffPost Live discussion, click here.
