Oh, celebrities. Sometimes we know why you’re famous, sometimes we have no clue at all. Sometimes you provide great and inspirational acting performances or delightful music to pleasure our ears and souls. Sometimes you talk about the insanity of your life on Youtube. Regardless the reason for your notoriety, you hold a place on the biggest pedestal in the world: fame. And that perch can be one of tremendous influence.
As we continue to strive for a more sex positive and accepting world, the role of celebrities can be a tremendous one. If even one famous person speaks out on a sex-related topic, that discussion starts taking place in the general populace. This is necessarily the best way to instigate social change, but it can be really effective.
Take, for instance, the tremendous role the film Philadelphia had at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the United States. That movie and the role superstar Tom Hanks played in it, did so much to change the attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS. It was the first instance of a humanized, mass-market portrayal of people with HIV and AIDS.
Hermione speaks up
Currently, someone who has taken up sex-related causes, most recently the type of pornography being presented to the mainstream is Emma Watson. The former Hermione Granger of Harry Potter fame has been speaking out on the deplorable state of current porn and hoping for better representations of sex for mass consumption. Watson doesn’t always get things right, but she does lend her voice to an issue of great importance to her.
In reading through this selection of funny, witty and encouraging celebrity sex quotes, I am glad to see many celebrities, from the past and the present, lending their voices to open discussions of sex, sexuality and potential difficulties with sex in society. Again, they’ve got the platform and they are using it!
One of the most significant and useful ways celebrities can speak about sex is through humour. Jokes and satire can be some of the most inventive and effective means to bring an issue to light. It could easily be argued that comedians are the philosophical orators of our time, with a viral video or cutting tweet getting more traction than a researched book or magazine article. We live in a time of the quick and deliberate, and sometimes just a quick blast can make a huge difference.
Who are they to say?
Of course, there remains two big questions about celebrity involvement in sexual discussion: are they really qualified to discuss sex meaningfully and can their influence do more harm than good? Well, both of this can be true. Nobody would take an athlete seriously if they were to begin a discussion on the complexities of space travel biomechanics, so why should an actress' take on the current state of porn be considered valid? And what happens if a celebrity with a wide following propagates incorrect or scandalous thoughts, pawning them off as fact or valid information?
Both of these instances are where the world of sex educators and bloggers comes in. Just as celebrities have the opportunity of a wide audience, nobody is louder than the internet as a whole. When Ronda Rousey spread misinformed information about lube, the sex community roared back to shut that crap down. The internet is a great system of check and balances. So, who said what to who now?
Jon Pressick is the sex community's international gadabout and Cherry Banana's writer in residence. An award-winning sex writer and blogger, Jon is the editor of the critically-acclaimed Best Sex Writing of the Year, Volume 1. He is a frequent contributor to Cherry Banana with a range of sex-related content and his writing has appeared in numerous magazines and books, as well as all across the Internet. Jon is also a co-host and producer of the long-running sex radio show Sex City. You can keep up with his many sex-related articles here at Cherry Banana or at his own blog, Sex in Words.
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