Through Her/ Their Eyes Part V: Decolonizing Desire. Naked Protest

Decolonizing Desire. Naked Protest: Porn, Persona and the Politics of the Unseen

Editor’s Note: 

Part V of this series celebrates the erotic imagination beyond binaries. They weren’t just naked. They were loud, radical, worshipped, banned, burned, and immortalized. 

Meet the mothers, muses, and misfits of a new erotic canon—where porn is protest, desire is divine, and the gaze is finally ours. While the algorithm may punish, pixelate, or shadowban—the flesh never lies. 

This is how eroticism gets rewritten—not by looking politely, but by staring back. Because, sometimes, the most erotic image… is the one that was never allowed to exist. 

 (Taylor Swift and the AI fake nudes - the harassment that could happen to anyone. Illustration by Natalie Peeples for Axios)

Amanda Lepore - Model, Singer, Performance Artist, on becoming what you want to be – interview for The Creative Independent 2017

The Erotic Rebels and the Post-Porn Manifesto

I. Porn is Protest. Pleasure is Power.

Tamara de Lempicka - Portrait of Nana de Herrera, 1929. The Model, 1925. Portrait of Marjorie Ferry, 1932, via Mara Marietta Culture Blog

“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don’t apply to those who live on the fringe.”— Tamara de Lempicka

Tamara de Lempicka, Myrto, 1929 [colorized from b&w], via Mara Marietta Culture Blog

Art and erotica have always been entangled in the politics of presence. From the powdered boudoirs of Versailles to the avatars of OnlyFans, the question has never been simply “what is erotic?” but for whom? Who gets to be desired, who gets to be divine, and who gets deleted?

Draw This, Selfies series, Blue-Tinted Erotic BIC Drawings by Spanish hyperrealist artist Juan Francisco Casas. Credits  Scene360

Nude on bed, Spain - Kim Weston Photography Collection, 2014

Mia Khalifa stars in Aries' two latest projects - HIGHXTAR a portrait photo book and brand’s new AW23 campaign

This is not just a story about sex. It’s a story about who is allowed to feel good—and who is punished for it. This is not just about being seen. It’s about seeing—with eyes that glitter, sting, and dare to undress the system itself.

Today’s erotic revolutionaries aren’t just flashing skin; they’re rewriting scripts. They’re turning the lens back on the viewer. From underground performers and porn provocateurs to AI clones and fat femme dancers, this new erotic canon doesn’t just challenge the system—it seduces it, bites it, and spits it out.

Jean-Pierre Villafañe artwork featured in the exhibition Outside and Aching at ATM Gallery in New York City, 2022  /

Jean-Pierre Villafañe, Playtime (2024). Photo by Andy Romer for ArtNet. Courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett

II. The Politics of Who Gets to Be Wanted

Behind every pixel of porn, every pose, every shadowbanned nipple, is a centuries-old erotic hierarchy. Colonial power, white supremacy, gender policing, fatphobia, transphobia, ableism—desire has always been weaponized.

Eroticism becomes a battlefield. A litmus test for respectability. A mirror reflecting back the limits of freedom.

“Who gets to be desirable? Whose pleasure gets protected, and whose gets pathologized?”

From Black bodies to disabled bodies, trans flesh to femme fatales in larger sizes, the story of erotica is a story of exclusion. These bodies were erased, censored, or fetishized beyond recognition.

Mil Besos book cover and Rossy de Palma as Andalusian Flamenco performer photographed by Ruvén Afanador, via PHOTOGRAPHER Magazine

Please Don’t Ask Me Questions, model Mina shot by photographer Roberto Roto. Credits Traaaw Magazine, screenshot

But today, a new generation of artists, sex workers, performers, and creators is reclaiming desire on their own terms. From flamenco dancers unleashing ancestral rage to Afrofuturist porn collectives and Indigenous kink rituals, this is not just about reclaiming sex—it’s about reclaiming history.

As the 93-year-old artist Martha Edelheit reminds us:

“Eroticism is sensual, nonviolent, consensual, warm, inviting, witty. It digresses, teases, arouses, without harming.”  

Martha Edelheit, “Tattooed Lady” (1962), oil on canvas. Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody via Eric Firestone Gallery (© the artist / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Read the complete article in Premium and discover many more sensual insights and artworks.

Click HERE for the first part of the author's journey through the Eroticon universe

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