Since at least 2012 the handwriting has been on the wall at Kink.com: the financial future of kinky porn does not actually feature a narrow focus on making and selling the stuff. A couple of months ago the handwriting started glowing more brightly, as the company stopped production on a couple of its most controversial sites and revamped another one to emphasize its consensual/fantasy theme. As Kink.com CEO Peter Acworth explained to Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon, he’s aiming to turn Kink into a lifestyle brand with an educational mission to “demystify alternative sexuality.”
How does a company make money in the kinky-demystification business? Peter didn’t sound entirely certain in his October interview, and I doubt he’s any more certain now. But one of the many parallel efforts is one that I quite like: a series of kink-education videos that look every bit as slick as the company’s porn, packaged under the Kink University brand:
Since August the new site has been posting weekly kink-educational videos featuring the company’s attractive models and deeply-experienced BDSM talent. Subject matter is diverse but the focus seems to be on the fundamentals of whatever kinky practice is explored. Some examples of the video tutorial titles include:
The photos illustrating this post are from Latex Fetish: Wearing, Care and Feeding. The video tutorial opens like any video class you may ever have taken: “Hello, my name is Mistress Snow Mercy and and here at Kink University I’m going to teach you the basics of how to wear and care for your latex…”
Will people pay for basic fetish education? I can’t see why not. Presented this way it’s both attractive and entertaining. Professional and explicit kink education video is not a thing there’s much of on the web, and people have a hunger to learn, especially when they are new to their kinks. Watching straight-up porn to learn an unfamiliar kink is a poor plan, because good fetish porn typically shows off fetish practice at a high expert level, what Dan Savage calls “black diamond” kinky sex. (Bad fetish porn? Let’s not even go there.) As anybody who has ever fumbled a knot in the heat of kinky passion can tell you, learning-by-doing also has limits! (Although it’s usually fun anyway.) So, yes, I think these fetish educations videos may find a market.
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