I recently had some interesting correspondence with writer Tracy Clark-Flory.
Back in March, Clark-Flory posed the following query: “I’m looking into the possibility of a story on women over the age of 60 in porn. I noticed that Erika Lust recently did a film featuring senior sex, Bree Mills just launched Age & Beauty, and Jessica Drake has a senior sex film in the works. I also noted several ‘granny’-related AVN nominees this year. Is this something you’ve seen on the rise?”
To which I responded — not exactly.
Here’s what I said:
Aside from the examples you gave (though, to be clear, Joan and jessica’s is one of Wicked’s adult sex ed films — awesome, but not conventional content per se), the “granny” stuff you are referring to is generally shock and awe, unconventional pairings content (young stud with senior woman) not really intended to be an erotic showcase (or even fuckfest — content has variable tenors, ya know) that happens to feature bodies in their 50s or beyond…
[Aside: If you want to learn more about what an “adult sex ed film” is, check out this piece I wrote about the genre for Playboy, reprinted in full here my site.]
…and even though Bree’s and Erika’s efforts are excellent, I feel like both those pieces are currently, at best, sort of teaser forays to see if there is a market.
They (Bree and Erika, as directors) may well love the content they are creating in this bracket, but they also need to see if it has a foothold. Like the Netflix model that she so loves, Bree especially seems to do these “tester” series projects to see if they take hold. There’s nothing wrong with that IMO, it’s just not evidence of a big push or a super demand *at this moment.*
There was even one producer/director a while back (maybe a year ago..?) that put out a call for performers over age 50. I don’t think they got any serious takers for performers, and the project didn’t get past the call for talent stage if memory serves.
Clark-Flory is an awesome journalist though, and she still took the time to visit the set of the aforementioned senior-focused adult sex ed project. She then came back earlier this month with a few questions.
TCF: Is it accurate, as I’ve heard some say, that the women performers in MILF films are typically in their late 20s or early 30s?
DrCT: The sassy, sarcastic comment made often in the industry is that performers are “MILFs when they are 26” — obviously MILF categorization is almost totally arbitrary though. Women who are not mothers are cast as MILFs (and women well younger than 26 can obviously mother and be mothers in various ways), various performers resist and/or accept MILF status in different ways, etc.
I think the MILF attribution is an amalgamation of actual age (as well as age in porn years), stage in career, nature of career, and acceptance of MILF as a label… and probably some other factors too.
TCF: Would you say that MILF porn is the most popular “older woman” genre of the moment?
DrCT: I hesitate to draw “most popular” lines. If fauxcest involving step-mothers is considered a partially overlapping (not all fauxcest involves step moms) type of MILF content, maybe. But there is a whole catalogue of “mature” (think vixen, hot widow, and stepmoms too) content that’s popular that is not necessarily MILFy in a conventional sense.
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On the basis of all this and certainly much more, Clark-Flory wrote a great, long form piece about “Porn That Takes Senior Sex Seriously” for Jezebel. You can read her entire piece right here. Enjoy!
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