Culture

Cindy Gallop’s book, Make Love Not Porn, available for free today through the TED Books App

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“I date younger men,” Cindy Gallop boldly proclaimed at TED2009. “When I have sex with younger men, I encounter very directly and personally the real ramifications of the creeping ubiquity of hardcore pornography in our culture. … There is an entire generation growing up that believes that what you see in hardcore pornography is the way that you have sex.”

When she spoke at TED2009, Gallop unveiled her website MakeLoveNotPorn.com, a forum for discussion on the topic of real sex. (Read a Q&A with Gallop on the TED Blog from shortly after the launch.) Now, Gallop has launched the next evolution of — MakeLoveNotPorn.tv, a YouTube for real, unperformed sex. Contributors pay $5 to post a video of themselves having sex, and get paid as users shell out $5 a piece to watch their videos. Currently, there are 13 videos on the site and, as The New York Times describes them, “Compared with the harsh lens of mainstream pornography, the videos come across as sweet, earnest, languid, playful and deeply human.” So far, more than 19,000 people have signed up for the site.

To celebrate the launch of MakeLoveNotPorn.tv, Gallop is offering her brilliant TED Book for free through the TED Books app all day today. Head to the iTunes store to download the app or, if you already have it on your iPhone or iPad, pick Gallop’s book off the app shelf to enjoy the free gift, packed with extra photos and videos.