Make Love Not Porn Celebrates “Real World Everything”
In a culture that makes it impossible to talk openly and honestly about sex and privileges male-dominated views on sexuality, porn becomes the default sex education. Women and men are left without real models for body parts, intimacy and relationship dynamics in the bedroom. How might we reimagine the landscape of human sexuality with “education through demonstration” and put our money where our mouth is?
Cindy Gallop, Founder of Make Love Not Porn
In episode 25, we go bold with the legendary Cindy Gallop to explore new aspirational models for human sexuality, body positivity and social justice in the sextech industry. While her background spans 30 years in brand-building, marketing and advertising (having started up BBH in New York and named Advertising Woman of the Year), she founded social sextech platform Make Love Not Porn to promote good sexual behavior and good sexual values, which she launched at TED 2009. Her other software IfWeRantheWorld is now taught as a Harvard Business School case study to enable brands to implement the business model of the future -- Shared Values + Shared Action = Shared Profit.
As the world’s first ever human-curated and crowdsourced social sex video sharing platform, Make Love Not Porn (MLNP) celebrates not just the most private part of our lives (sex), but essentially -- everything. Real world everything to do with body parts, intimacy and relationship dynamics in the bedroom. Nothing feels more powerfully supportive to body positivity than real humans watching other real humans (Make Love Not Porn-stars) have sex. According to Cindy, “people want us before even knowing we exist.” In this pandemic alone, website traffic has nearly tripled, while the last 9 years has seen 100% organic growth. MLNP has seen positive universal acceptance and been recommended to couples by sex therapists. In an age where the average age of a child coming across hard core porn is 6-8 years old, parents have also weighed in with the significance of how this platform could help socialize and normalize sex for their children to develop healthy, happy and loving sexual relationships. All that to say, MLNP has the potential to completely reimagine the landscape of human sexuality with “education through demonstration.”
“We are democratizing access to income, and helping people get through their financially challenging times. That’s the definition of a socially beneficial business that goes good and makes money simultaneously.”
As a champion of diversity, gender equality and social justice in white male-dominated tech and advertising industries, Cindy embodies that it is completely possible to live a very different life and still be extraordinarily happy. In fact, the lockdown is the perfect opportunity to re-actualize everything, since all bets (of what’s considered status quo) are off.
In this dynamic conversation, we cover:
The journey from advertising legend to sex tech founder of Make Love Not Porn
The emotionally moving impact MLNP has had on human sexuality, relationships, intimacy and love
How Make Love Not Porn-stars model aspirational culture and the importance of creating a “how-to” platform for real world sex
The 3 biggest barriers to becoming the next Facebook for social sex
The hurdles female-founded sex tech startups face (compared to male-founded startups in the same category)
What sex tech is and why we haven’t even begun to see the enormous potential for this trillion dollar category
Cindy’s favorite female-founded sex tech startups (plus the rich diversity present)
