The Encyclopedia Of Smut: The Eye Contact Appendix

When you get down to it, genitals and orifices get all the big roles and the eyes are just the supporting stars, but that doesn't mean that eye aren't important to pornography. They actually have a huge effect on the overall vibe that viewers get from porn, and can make a huge difference on whether or not a certain sex act feels "real" or not. So let's hear it for those weird little gushy orbs in your face!

Don't Look At Me

As hackneyed as the phrase is, eyes are a window to the soul; more to the point, we're hardwired to read into what other people are looking at as part of overall body language, and though you may be able to hold back nervous tics and awkward gestures, your eyes are too slippery to stick with your poker face. So when we watch porn, we're constantly checking what pornstars are doing with their eyes to see how they're engaging with those around them.

In your average porn scene--two people touching all over and whatnot--the best thing you can hope for is that the participants only look at each other. Not only does this establish intimacy between the participants, but it also keeps the camera's presence from being called into question. Views need voyeuristic distance in order to get pleasure from their unnoticed intrusion on a private moment. Even though we know that these people are professionals who have been paid for their time, we want to maintain the illusion that they're fucking each other for the sake of fucking each other. This is partly because we want everything in porn to seem authentic (whatever that means) and also partly because it's more fun to peep without being caught.

And then there are those moments when two pornstars are really banging the bejesus out of each other and staring deeply into each other's eyes. Sure, they have their pelvises cheated out towards the camera so we can see every second of penetration, but they're letting their bodies run on autopilot while they dive into each other's consciousness for a few stolen moments before orgasms arrive. If anything feels real in porn, this is it.

[Above: Angel Long and her men folk break the sanctity of their gangbang by looking at the camera in "One In The Pink 3"]

Break The Fourth Wall, Break A Heart

There are times when eye contact with the camera is welcome. Naturally, some people don't mind it at all whenever it happens--such is the subjective nature of pornography--but certain types of porn wouldn't be the same without it.

First and foremost is POV porn, which allows you to step into the body of a performer who is perpetually looking down at their chest and genitals while someone else does the nasty upon them. Some POV films center on a talkative stunt cock (or stunt pussy) that let's you adopt the personality of the performer, other POV films keep the stunt cock silent so you can add your own dirty thoughts and responses to whatever your scene partner is saying. The voice doesn't much matter. What does matter, however, is maintaining the unity of camera and stunt cock; too many times have we seen a stunt cock get a blowjob and move the camera down by his fellater's cheek. Either the eyes can grace the camera or they can't, you can't have both.

There is one exception to this POV/non-POV rule. It's much less jarring for a non-POV scene to cut to a brief POV interlude--as if hopping inside the mind of a performer for a moment--than it is the other way around. The issue here is that it disturbs viewers to acknowledge a new presence in the room, but it's fine for vantage points to be combined.

Secondly, there are masturbation videos and instructional videos. We can't exactly say if it's good or bad when a masturbating pornstar makes eyes at the camera (it's another one of those subjective things), but it's not unusual and it's certainly allowable, especially if the performer is trying to engage viewers and get them to masturbate along with the video, as in an instructional.

Last, you have the movies that are centered on the pornstar and her experience in porn. Think about Mason/Sam No movies for Elegant Angel: titles like "Gangbanged," "Tori Black is Pretty Filthy," and "Asa Akira is Insatiable" involve a lot of interviews with the stars, discussions about their scenes, and explorations of their growth as performers. When Tori Black looks at the camera in the middle of her first double penetration scene, it doesn't pull you out of the moment because Tori and Mason are making sure that you, the distant viewer, as part of the act of porn production, are part of this milestone in her career. For real, Tori can look at us whenever she wants.

[Above: Manuel Ferrara lets us borrow his eyes for "Raw 11"]

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What Big Eyes You Have!

We don't like to play favorites, but some people are really good at working their eyes. It's not a big deal! Some pornstars have great asses, others have great tits; these people here have great command of their eyeballs.

· Camille Crimson - We've spent a lot of time looking at her face (hope that's not creepy), and even before we knew her name, we knew we had a thing for this gorgeous lady whose bright teal eyes stand out from her red hair and lips. It doesn't matter if she's staring at her boyfriend or into the camera, because she locks you with her gaze.

· Manuel Ferrara - Despite the fact that we rarely see more than three facial expressions from Manuel (not coming, about to come, coming), his eyes are quite powerful. Something about their darkness, their brutish stoicism, and the way they never move from his partners makes them crazy appealing and gives him quite the mysterious edge.

· Stoya - As if you didn't know, Stoya is kind of a big deal in GIF form, and an amazingly huge chunk of those GIFs focus on her face. Her eyes can be playful and coquettish or smoldering and sinful, and although we should give credit to her eyebrows and cheeks for forming these expressions as well, we can tell you that we're not fixated on her brow. Also, what color are her peepers anyway? We're calling it aquamarine with honey around the pupils (central heterochromia).

· James Deen - The boy is notoriously good at bonding with the babes he bangs, and part of that is taking the time and energy to steal moments away from the camera, whisper things in his partner's ear, and look her dead in the eyes as he pounds away at her pussy.

[Above: James Deen might not be looking at Jynx Maze's eyes, but his gaze never leaves her. That's power. Via "Big Wet Asses 18"]

[At top: how we wish we were on the other end of Camille Crimson's stare, via The Art of Blowjob (theartofblowjob.com)]