I recently watched Portrait of Seduction (1976), starring Vicky Lyon, Monique Cardin, and the one and only Jon Martin, and I quickly understood why Jon himself referred to it as his favorite film. In it, he plays a funny, lovable, but also forceful artist who seduces his young step-mother. With both actresses–Monique Cardin plays his girlfriend–he demonstrates chemistry, and the sex is hot: it’s playful, looks enjoyable, and in Jon we see an animalistic energy that keeps us and the women aroused. The film felt to me like it was made for women. It wasn’t overly focused on penetration; the vast majority of the film shows women enjoying pleasure (at the hands of Jon Martin).

If you aren’t familiar with his work, you might be wondering, what is so special about Jon Martin? One of my favorite Golden Age actors, he appears in A Thousand and One Erotic Nights, Every Woman Has A Fantasy, Mai Lin vs. Serena, Oriental Hawaii, The Ribald Tales of Canterbury, N*u*r*s*e*s of the 407th, (all of which, I wholeheartedly recommend) and some 285 other adult films. He’s under 6 feet tall. He’s muscular but thin. He has a boyish appearance. And a reasonable sized, 6-inch or so cock. Above all, he was trained as an actor first. He kind of fell into porn.

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, porn then and now suffers from an over-emphasis on cock-size to the detriment of all else. Men are chosen for their one asset; often, they can’t act, can’t eat pussy, and don’t build chemistry with the women on set. That’s not Jon. He gets those pussies wet. I wish more men in porn were like him.

Why are penises in porn so often huge? Conceivably, just as men (and women) can love all shapes and sizes of breasts, we could also enjoy a wide variety of sizes and shapes when it comes to penises. I love a penis with a hook in it, and personally would preference girth over length, but, if you only watched modern-day porn, you might think these penises don’t exist. Why? Sadly, men are obsessed with dick size, so society is too. It doesn’t help that most porn directors are men. (I’m ready coach! Tap me in!).

Mr. Honey believes that there is another factor at play as well. When porn changed from full length films to individual clips, skipping the writing and acting and chemistry and buildup, the act of sex was also reduced to the act of penetration. When a scene is only going to show a penis entering a vagina or a blowjob, all of a sudden how that cock looks on camera is exceedingly important. Fair point. As Jon himself put it in his interview with The Rialto Report, “Also, the business had changed so much by the late 80s. Now it was all video, no scripts, miniscule budgets, just wall-to-wall sex. Anybody that could afford to buy a video camera could make a film. There were a lot of bad movies being made.”

Anyway, Portrait of Seduction shows what happens when a lead is chosen for his charisma and chemistry with the other actors. The movie is fun to watch! And it’s arousing at the same time. I have two additional points about this film that, to me, demonstrate that it was made for women.

1. The story is about a woman, from her perspective

Much like Her Last Fling, Portrait of Seduction is the story of a woman’s sexual evolution. It starts with a sex scene that demonstrates she is not enjoying sex with her husband, not being appreciated in her wholeness by him, and, as a result, unhappy in her marriage. The film leads to a critical moment and choice for her: does she stay with this man, who does not please her, sexually or otherwise? Or does she decide she can live better and deserves to live better and leave?

By following her story, we as the viewer get to ride her emotions. Each sex scene is more than the sex, it’s potentially changing her life. It’s not just that she receives pleasure in Jon Martin’s hands that she’s never felt before, she is enjoying life for the first time in a long time, maybe ever. We root for her. The sex is more pleasurable to watch because it has an emotional, self-actualizing component.

2) You’ll see a lot of cunnilingus

Cunnilingus does not film well. It’s tough! Especially good cunnilingus because the man’s face (which is likely an asset) is buried, no genitalia can be seen, and so the scene must rely on the woman’s facial expressions, the positioning of her body, etc. Unlike a blowjob, where we get to see the penis becoming more and more engorged and then the fluid rush out of it, there are no such camera-worthy moments for cunnilingus. For this reason, cunnilingus in porn is often skipped or, if shown, the methods displayed are those that would not be employed in good sex like painting the fence or over-emphasis on fingers and pulling motions.

To do cunnilingus anyway, despite it not filming well, to me, demonstrates a director, set and crew that sincerely care about and prioritize women’s pleasure. They know that a woman who has received good cunnilingus behaves differently than one who is strictly acting, that her pussy (and therefore the resulting sex) will prove more pleasurable for her and the male lead. It’s heartening to see, and it pays off. The sex in this film is top tier. You can feel the passion! In this way, it does what a movie is supposed to do–you forget they are acting. Again, credit to Jon Martin, for possessing the skills of both an actor and a good lover and making this possible. Give it a watch! You can find it on Adult DVD Empire.

What else can I say? That I have the utmost gratitude for Jon, for this film, for the very existence of Golden Age pornography? For films made for women, and couples? Yes. To me, that all this exists in recent history is a reason to believe it is possible again today. Like my childhood heroes–Dominique Dawes, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr.–who taught me to believe more is possible, to dream and do and take action on what small minds call impossible but big minds call the inevitable, the actors of this era deserve hero-status too. Thank you.

With love and gratitude, hoping you too believe more is possible, at least for you,

Honey