'll admit that I'd never been more excited about a porn series than when I'd heard Tristan Taormino was doing a "Rough Sex" line for Vivid. Not only am I a huge fan of Tristan's "Chemistry" and educational videos, but I'm a huge fan of rough sex as well. Yes, it's true. The rougher the better for me and I have a hard time finding porn that depicts rough sex in a sexy, but non-disgusting or degrading way. That's not to mention getting guys to participate in it in my personal life, which is equally as difficult and usually results in awkward and irritated moments. But I digress...

The first video in the "Rough Sex" line features five women and five definitions of Rough Sex. Each segment on the video features a set-up where both the male and female performer explain their experience with rough sex, what their limitations are, and what they like about rough sex. What I've always admired about Tristan's videos is that she uses performers who actually enjoy what they're doing and seem to approach their roles as porn stars in an intelligent manner, rather than, "I'm just here to get paid to fuck".

In the DVD's first scene, Adrianna Nicole explains part of her attraction to rough sex is because "I enjoy intense experiences," which is exactly what attracts me to it as well. Her scene with Marco Banderas starts out as an abduction from behind as she exits the shower, and the resulting roughness includes choking, manhandling, spanking, and even some kissing (!). However, after all this the sex transforms into more routine, typical porn-y sex until Banderas pulls her hair, whips her around and shoots his load in her hair.

Satine Phoenix's scene with Derrick Pierce starts out a little slower, with a more gentle build-up involving more kissing, dirty talk, and then transforms into more roughness as the two get it on on the top of a cliff on a deserted road. Pierce plays the aggressor well and the chemistry between the two of them is undeniable. This was perhaps my favorite scene on the disc, as Satine's genuine attraction to S/M play and being manhandled really shows here and by the end, she's got the marks to prove it.

The scene with Francesca Le and Christian attempts to put the female in the aggressor role, punishing her workaholic husband who ignores her. The resulting scene is a typical Fed-Dom set up that's not very rough and a little tired out if you have any sort of background in BDSM play. It's nice to see the tables turned, however, but not a turn-on necessarily for me. The subsequent scene with Marie Luv and Julius Ceazher has the most realistic set-up and some of the more unpleasant interactions. At times I couldn't tell if Marie was experiencing pain or pleasure...or both...but it is one of the rougher scenes here.

We've all come to expect a lot from Sasha Grey nowadays and when she says she's a "pain slut" who's way more of a masochist than sadist, I was expecting a lot of hot, uber-rough sex for her scene with Danny Wylde. Instead, it's a switch scene where they spend several minutes discussing their pain boundaries while playing pool. It all seems very unsexy to me as rough sex, in my opinion, should be spontaneous and constantly push boundaries. So, as a result, Grey's scene has its moments, but sometimes it just falls flat, making me wonder if she could've, or would've, taken a lot more pain. Her orgasm is authentic, which is refreshing to see, and she seems to genuinely like being choked, but Sasha Grey I was expecting the limits to be pushed to the edge and I didn't feel that was the case here. She's still, of course, totally captivating to watch, so if you're a Sasha Grey fan, you'll be satisfied.


For all my nit-picky criticisms, I will say that Tristan's videos never disappoint, and "Rough Sex" is very well-done in many respects. The camera catches close-ups of the performer's faces as opposed to their genitals (though there are some genital close-ups for those who like that) and all of the cum shots are totally unique, as opposed to the typical on-the-face or in-the-mouth. It's actually a great release for couples who like a little rough sex in their lives or even women who want to see a porn video from a female perspective. For a rough sex junkie like me, though, I wanted to see bodies thrashing, biting, hitting, people getting thrown across the room, constant resistance, forceful gang-bangs...but perhaps I'm the sick one here.