A Conversation With Ruby Day (Part Two)

Being judged by mere appearance is something beautiful people often fall victim to. Especially if their life is much more exciting than everybody else’s is. And what are you talking about with somebody who has made a big part of her private life public and documented it on her award-winning web site? In part two of this three-part interview Ruby Day reflects her insights into pornography.

Mason Squelch: What do you think: is there a difference between pornography and sex in front of a camera?

Ruby Day:  That’s such a grey line these days.  It’s hard to tell, I’ve seen some pornography that looks no different than sex in front of a camera and I’ve seen sex in front of a camera that’s better than some pornography.  For me sex in front of a camera denotes a couple making home movies, raw and amateur, but it also is a description of an act.  Pornography means the depiction of sexual acts meant to stimulate sexual excitement or the production of such. In this way they are very similar.

MS: So what can we see on your website? It’s a diary, there are staged scenes, pictorials that could be appearing in fashion magazines… Is it porn, sex, something else, or a bit of everything?

RD:  I chuckle a bit to myself hearing you ask this question because it’s a question I am asked frequently.  It’s a bit of everything, art, porn, sexuality, expression, editorial, fantasy.  It’s a multi dynamic visual representation of human sexuality.  Not just my own but those of the people who participate on the site with me.

MS: Does pornography always need an audience?

RD:  Pornography should always have an audience.

MS: What’s your preferred audience? Who are the people you’re addressing?

RD:  My prefered audience is adult humans; male, female, lesbian, couples, heterosexual, bisexual, multisexual.  It’s anyone who wants to explore their sexual side or see what other’s sexuxality is.

MS: Did that change over time?

RD: No, since the beginning I have always geared to a non-discriminatory gender audience.

MS: Is there still mystery in pornography or does it answer all questions?

RD:  There is still mystery in pornography but not all pornography answers questions.  In the states most pornography is for entertainment and pleasure purposes.  Very rarely will you find porn that answers questions.

MS: Where would you locate your kind of pornography? It’s certainly not just ‘entertainment’, referring to your earlier statement about the emotional and spiritual meaning of sex?

RD:  I mostly seek out avant garde films from the independent film and art communities worldwide as well as European porn from France and Germany.  On occasion I watch Hentai from Japan and high class erotica from the US.

MS: Are you observing current trends in arthouse cinema which is making use of seemingly pornographic scenes? Another blurred line?

RD: Absolutely but I’m also seeing more suggestion of it in mainstream films and television.  What deciphers the difference is the filming and editing styles used in each.  One tends to lean itself towards art while the other well, sometimes it’s more than lacking in substance.  The lines are definitely being blurred but I enjoy seeing the evolution of social acceptability of sex.