Credit: Getty
People
Here’s why Jada Pinkett Smith’s honest discussion about porn is so important
By Lauren Geall
6 years ago
The actress spoke honestly about having an “unhealthy relationship” with porn on her hit Facebook series Red Table Talk
There are many reasons why we love Jada Pinkett Smith. She’s campaigned for diversity in the entertainment industry, has spoken honestly about female pleasure and orgasms, and rocks one of the best pixie cuts in Hollywood.
And now, she’s given us yet another thing to add to that list.
Speaking on her hit Facebook series Red Table Talk, Pinkett Smith admitted that she had harboured an “unhealthy relationship” with porn before she met her partner Will Smith.
“If I was still on my porn game, I’d be able to show you some good porn,” Pinkett Smith says at the beginning of the episode, in response to her daughter’s comment that she’s okay with artistic, “expensive-looking” porn.
“Back in the day I had a little porn addiction,” she explains, “but I wasn’t in a relationship when I had a porn addiction, believe it or not, thank goodness.”
However, as the trio – made up of Pinkett Smith’s mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones and daughter Willow Smith – sit down to begin the episode, Pinkett Smith addresses her word choice.
“I actually feel like I was using ‘addiction’ a little lightly,” she admits. “And maybe I’ll say now that I had an unhealthy relationship to porn at one point in my life where I was trying to practice abstinence.”
The discussion didn’t end there, either; Willow went on to ask her Mum whether she thought her “fixation” came from an “emotional” place.
“It did,” Pinkett Smith responds.
“It was actually like filling an emptiness – at least you think it is,” she explains. “But it’s actually not.”
Credit: Getty
Throughout the discussion, which focuses on the effects of pornography on relationships, Pinkett Smith also talks about how porn can lead to “false expectations” when it comes to sex, but acknowledges that there is a negative stigma around enjoying porn – and that that shouldn’t be the case.
While porn may not be a popular topic of discussion amongst close family members, we love this conversation for its honest exploration of female sexuality and how candid the women are about the matter.
Whatever your opinion on porn may be – we can all agree that seeing three generations sit down and talk about such a taboo subject so clearly and logically is pretty refreshing.
And it’s about time too. According to recent research, more than a third of women watch porn at least once a week – with another 30% saying they do so a few times a month.
And in the UK, the number of women visiting PornHub in 2017 rose by 15% - meaning that almost a quarter of the website’s visitors are now female.
Images: Getty
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