Kansas City

With the film, I aim to talk about the psychology of my generation in this new digital culture and how it directly affects relationships. Despite this, I not only want to talk about parasociality in this context, I want to talk about porn addiction— an uncomfortable topic for sure, but something that needs to be discussed if we want to preserve intersexual respect between the women and men of today, especially in regards to the youth of our society. In an interview with Kris Taylor, an academic of psychology with a focus on porn and sex addiction, he begged the question of whether the promise of connectivity between influencers and audiences in digital, sexual spaces, promising a sort of relationship, is better or worse for these typically male members of the audience— that young men are often showcased this two-dimensional image of what women should be and act like, and how that skewed perspective offered can mess with the heads of young men, making it difficult for them to flourish and find meaningful relationships with women in the future.
A concern with my film was the prevention of further exploitation of sex workers. In my research and discussions with influencer Margot May and OnlyFans creator Dignan Madigan, I had the goal of ultimately showcasing that we should absolutely not villainize online pornographic creators, as they are not the reason, nor is it their responsibility, for men who fall victim to sexual depravity. In fact, they are often victims of parasociality of their fans. The porn industry, in a way, thrives off the overconsumption and desensitisation of consumers and the mistreatment of creators. In my efforts to prevent further exploitation, I chose not to utilize pornographic visuals and instead relied on audio.
I want to approach this idea head-on while at the same time approaching this circumstance sympathetically, as these situations tend to occur out of anxiety towards romantic and sexual relationships; the internet tends to showcase bad examples of how to participate in these relationships. I spent a lot of time being mad at my ex-boyfriend due to his porn addiction. What I know now, and what has helped me heal, is understanding that men aren’t “bad” by any circumstance in these situations; they are just set up for failure.
Kansas City is a story about how the misuse and misinterpretation of women and sex perpetuated by a patriarchal digital space can affect the psyche of young men and their relationships with the ones that they hold dear.