Shailene Woodley Explains Her "Beef With Porn"

Shailene Woodley has *thoughts* on how people think about sex, particularly in America. During a Sept. 24 episode of the She MD podcast, the Three Women actor explained why she takes issue with the way porn portrays sex — particularly because “it’s not real.”

“In America, sex is like bacon hanging in front of a dog. It’s right there and you want it, and they’re like, ‘Here’s porn. Here’s a billboard. Here’s this idealized female body. Here’s the male body that everyone should be attracted to,’” Woodley said. “It’s right in front of our faces, and it smells good but we can’t ever get it cause it’s actually just not real.”

Woodley, who lived in Europe for 10 years, continued, “The way that sex is presented on the surface in this country is so fabricated, and it’s such a performance instead of true intimacy and vulnerability and connection.” She added, “To me, that’s what we all desire. And hopefully, if we’re lucky, find people to dance that dance with.”

Woodley added that exploring different nuances to sexuality was important in creating Three Women. “[Sexuality is] something that needs to be handled with a lot of care and it’s just not. It doesn’t mean it has to be some deep sacred thing every time,” she said. “But I do think there is a massive lack of conversation when it comes to the care that I wish would be more involved when it comes to sexuality.”

According to Woodley, a past partner helped her gain this perspective on sex and connection. “I’m a very sexual person. I always have been, and I was very lucky in my life, as a young person [who was] discovering myself and my body, to have a partner at the time who loved to dance. I always call it a dance,” she said. “We’re exchanging energy. Sometime the dance is a really fast tango, and sometimes it’s a really slow groove.”

Woodley sees porn as a poor imitation of the real potential in a sexual connection. “If people knew what was possible with sex, they would look at porn and go, ‘Oh God, this is like junk food. Really? This is what we’re being sold when all of these other things are possible?’”

She added, “Pleasure is so important, and we just rip each other off of it because I think we don’t necessarily even know what’s possible, and that’s my big beef with porn. I’m like, ‘You’re selling everybody McDonald’s when you could have, like, ‘Whoa, that’s much better quality.’”