Halle Berry and sex therapist Emily Morse have weighed in on the ways porn can influence sex in real relationships, with the actor explaining what she’s told her partner not to do.
While porn is widely consumed, many people acknowledge that a lot of what’s shown on screen doesn’t reflect how sex typically looks or feels in real life.
That gap can still affect expectations. In a recent campaign carried out by LADbible, 60 percent of people who said they’ve watched porn at some point also admitted it’s influenced what they anticipate from real-life sex. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why Berry—and plenty of other women—have mixed feelings about its impact.
Speaking about it on the Sex with Emily podcast, Berry said: “Men often mimic what they see in porn [and] that’s another thing I get to say to my guy — don’t do what you see in porn.”
Berry recently confirmed she’s engaged to musician Van Hunt, after several years together.
Morse also shared her perspective on what she’s seen become more common, saying: “She’s getting spit on. I’m getting choked, and I’m like, did we consent to this? Like, what the hell?”
Berry added that if she felt a partner was trying to recreate a porn scene during sex, it would be an immediate dealbreaker for her.
In another part of the discussion, the Oscar-winning actor opened up about a boundary she says she won’t cross anymore: pretending to orgasm.
“I don’t do that anymore,” Berry insisted. “We had to get there so that he felt good about bringing us to orgasm. We had to say that we did it so that he would feel good about himself. Because what is that doing? That’s putting his needs before our own.”
She continued: “I’m like, ‘No, I come first like you come first to you.’ We both deserve to have this be a mutually enjoyable experience, so we both can roll over and go to sleep because we feel good — not one snoring and the other one looking at the ceiling, going, ‘What the hell?'”
Good for you, girl.
Earlier research from 2019 suggests Berry isn’t the only one who has felt pressured to fake it at some point. The study reported that 59 percent of women said they’d done so at least once.
The results spanned a wide age range, with participants between 18 and 94 years old.