A step away, we're a step away, that's what makes it all okay
February 7, 2020 9:42 AM   Subscribe

Porn plots: They ain’t great. Be it horny schoolteachers, suspiciously sexy pool cleaners, or conveniently biologically unrelated step-siblings, it’s always really just been a means to a generally messy end. This latter subgenre—often referred to as “fauxcest” (get it?)—is particular having its “moment” within the industry, as they say. It’s a particularly ridiculous premise, so it’s somewhat comforting that at least some porn people behind the scenes realize this. How else would you explain a sing-along music video for “A Step Away,” the uncomfortably good single about step-sibling love affairs courtesy of Brazzers? As one YouTube commenter pointed out—it’s somehow already a better musical than Cats.

The latest entry in their Porn Logic series—videos which, judging by their other censored YouTube clips, appear far more self-aware and genuinely amusing than they ever need be—contains an honest-to-god musical number from actors Lacy Lennon and Quinton James that’s really, truly not half bad. Like, seriously. They’ve got pleasant harmonies and everything. There’s no nudity, but plenty of skin, so we’ll label it NSFW for safety’s sake.

Previously
posted by Carillon (28 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite


 
"As one YouTube commenter pointed out—it’s somehow already a better musical than Cats."

That's not a high bar.
posted by SansPoint at 9:48 AM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]


I love people.
posted by Melismata at 9:52 AM on February 7, 2020 [4 favorites]


I love people.

Hopefully only ones you share a house and parents with, but are somehow not related to.
posted by Mayor West at 10:02 AM on February 7, 2020 [27 favorites]


Weirdest Disney song ever.
posted by Vesihiisi at 10:29 AM on February 7, 2020




Every time someone mentions plot in porn, I hear "lemon-stealing whores" in my head...
posted by tavella at 10:54 AM on February 7, 2020 [9 favorites]


C’mon, y’all are singing and dancing right in front of my salad?
posted by en forme de poire at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2020 [5 favorites]


Getting involved with your unrelated step sibling is a plot point in both Clueless and the last season of Veep. It's just a normal thing that happens to normal people!
posted by jeoc at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]


So does this mean the porn version of Game of Thrones was tamer than the original?
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 12:39 PM on February 7, 2020 [9 favorites]


It's just a normal thing that happens to normal people

One of my friends in high school was dating another friend. Both lived with divorced parents. Through their dating, their parents met and, eventually tied the knot, immediately making my friends often-naked-in-the-same-bed step-sibs. They...um...had fun with it.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:25 PM on February 7, 2020 [14 favorites]


And non-hentai anime, too! Marmalade Boy.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


Genre-defining Heather Graham vehicle Say It Isn't So.

She's such a great comic actor.
posted by j_curiouser at 1:41 PM on February 7, 2020


From the comments: "That's the first time I've watched a Brazzers video all the way through and didn't skip around the certain parts of the video."
posted by kirkaracha at 3:13 PM on February 7, 2020 [1 favorite]


I believe this trend is about intimacy and consensual transgression.

In many other genres, the film is about the bodies and the organs, and the "genre" is focused on those bodies. Teen, asian, blonde, threesome - these are all descriptors of the flesh on the screen.

Other genres about relationships - cheating, non-con fantasy, etc. - can transgressive but not positive. Not delightful. There's a dark, stressful, tension side to those areas. And frankly, while I understand non-con fantasy and role play can be very healthy for some, I can't help but feel it might be a step in the wrong direction for others.

So, I believe the "Step fantasy" genre allows some people to have relationship tension, and consensual transgression. Some of the more popular production studios create moments of tenderness, giggling, small talk, and domesticity that I would say are unheard of outside the genre.

I hope folks will see this less as a "look at these perverts" and more as a "I wonder what need this is filling, for it to have gotten so popular?"
posted by rebent at 4:56 PM on February 7, 2020 [20 favorites]


Not quite sure, but for the moment I'm putting this in the same playlist as Garfunkel and Oates' The Loophole - because sometimes you've gotta think outside the Box.
posted by bartleby at 5:09 PM on February 7, 2020 [3 favorites]


It's not my cup of tea, but the video is really cute and has way higher production values than I heretofore expected of, well, porn. I'm glad they're having fun with it.
posted by which_chick at 5:24 PM on February 7, 2020


My theory has always been that it provides transgression to those who need it, even in the title or whatever, while fading to the background for those who don't care. Which sounds on a similar vein to your theory rebent.
posted by Carillon at 5:58 PM on February 7, 2020 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I think rebent is correct.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:51 PM on February 7, 2020


Rebent, I see what you did there.

Also, good theory, thank you.
posted by Jacen at 7:41 PM on February 7, 2020


I hope folks will see this less as a "look at these perverts" and more as a "I wonder what need this is filling, for it to have gotten so popular?"

There's something I think needs to be added here. I can't deny the idea that there's probably a legitimate "fauxcest moment" going on for the reasons that you stated, but in the era of tube sites a good part of this almost certainly is algorithm/analytics feedback loops.

So my theory is, a bunch of high production value fauxcest videos got made, and they got a lot of views. If you ignore the plot, it's just well made porn, right? So, people who would be attracted to that scene if it was a generic porn scene (i.e. without the step fantasy titling) watched those videos, but in addition, so did people with a specific thing for step fantasy who might otherwise NOT have sought out those videos. So the total audience for those videos were higher than they would have been without the theming.

(This hinges on the assumption that fewer people would actively avoid the video because of its step fantasy elements than would actively watch it because of them.)

Higher-than-usual viewer numbers are observed by the algorithms, which causes more fauxcest videos to be recommended to the "generic" viewers who originally ended up watching these videos for their other genre tags (e.g. "busty" and "milf" might be common for stepmom-stepson vids). Through analytics, those numbers are also observed by porn producers, who then have an incentive to produce more of them. And these two things feed into each other. Not long after, you're looking at a fauxcest boom.

It's a bit sad for folks for whom the step fantasy plots are an active turn-off. They'll have porn that would otherwise be up their alley (based on the other genre tags) ruined by the fauxcest elements.
posted by jklaiho at 5:38 AM on February 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


OK, that video is hilarious. It is hard to believe I have to tip my hat to Brazzers.
posted by Ber at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


It's apparently part of a series; here's their "A Lonely MILF on Christmas", starring Kagney Linn Karter as Mrs. Claus.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:40 AM on February 8, 2020


When sex is no longer forbidden, you gotta create some other excuse to forbid the fruit and make it sweeter.
posted by straight at 10:06 AM on February 8, 2020


The fact that your username is just your given, unchosen surname makes this approach maximum possible eponystericalitynessocity.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:13 AM on February 8, 2020


Mein dispatcher says there is something wrong with deine kabel.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:47 PM on February 8, 2020


So my theory is, [..]

No, it's because one of the Brazzers founders is into incest. That's it. That's why this fad exists.
posted by ryanrs at 9:56 PM on February 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


i kinda want to blame some of this on a certain author of a dragons-and-incest novel series, you know, the series that was turned into an hbo series that was very popular and then all the sudden very unpopular, and which featured one family that regularly had sex with their siblings, another family with siblings who had sex on the down-low, a tyrannical patriarch on the edge of the world who whiled away his time by raping his daughters, a key couple that turned out to be nephew and aunt, etc etc.

also i recall seeing, perhaps on this very site, an analysis that grouped together incest videos with a particular type of housekeeper/nanny/babysitter video and described this genre as “inside-the-house” porn, and said that these sorts of video particularly resonate with the corners of the 4chan/incel/neet demographic that doesn’t leave their house much, and that has no social relationships whatsoever with women aside from the women who live in the same house as them or who are paid to do work there.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:10 PM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Given the genre, they probably already had the set.
posted by Gelatin at 3:27 AM on February 11, 2020


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