Jada Pinkett Smith Admits ‘Sex Strike’ Drove Her to Watch ‘Profoundly Disturbed’ Porn

“It was actually filling an emptiness.”

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith revealed Monday that she once went on her own personal sex strike, and that it led her to develop an “unhealthy relationship to porn.”

Smith made the confession on her Facebook Watch talk show “Red Table Talk,” which she hosts with daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris. Speaking backstage at the start of the show, Jada Pinkett Smith, 47, said she had a “little porn addition” before she married actor Will Smith, her husband of 22 years.

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“I actually feel like I was using maybe ‘addiction’ a little lightly, and maybe I will say now that I had an unhealthy relationship to porn at one point in my life that I was trying to practice abstinence,” Smith said when the women got on set.

She described some of the video, which she presumably utilized to pleasure herself, as “profoundly disturbed.”

Asked by Willow Smith, 18, if she thought her pornography “fixation” had emotional roots, Pinkett Smith answered in the affirmative.

“It did. It was actually filling an emptiness, at least you think it is, but it’s actually not,” she said.

The women went on to criticize the “unrealistic expectations” pornography creates for men.

“I can definitely see with men how a woman should always be willing and ready; he should be able to have sex however he wants, in any positions, anywhere,” Pinkett Smith said. “You should enjoy it no matter what, and it shouldn’t just be joy but just like exhilaration, just like ecstatic. In pornography, they’re never tired. There’s never a no. So I can definitely see how that could create an unrealistic expectation.”

Everyone agreed that “artistic” and “sensual” porn about “lovemaking” is preferable to sex videos about “abuse” and “aggression.”

But Pinkett Smith pushed back against women who want porn to be totally “eradicated,” saying she had “heard lots of women say that it has helped them break their inhibitions in regards to sex, which I do feel as though a lot of women have that to do deal with.”

“And let me tell you something. I don’t really think we know culturally what women like in regards to sex, because women have not be allowed to explore in the same way as men,” she continued. “We’re just getting to the point where we’re even giving ourselves the opportunity to explore, so we need years of that before we even know.”

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Willow Smith suggested the patriarchy was to blame, saying: “That structure that will label a woman a ‘slut’ and a ‘ho’ when she expresses her sexuality, and you know, finds joy in sexual pleasure, that’s the same structure that is upholding this porn industry.”

“You better talk about it, little girl,” said Banfield-Norris, who repeatedly expressed concern with how familiar her granddaughter appeared with sex and porn.

Although “Red Table Talk” regularly touts women’s empowerment, it has at times caused controversy by defying feminist orthodoxy. Earlier this month, Ayesha Curry faced feminist backlash after she admitted on the show that she is insecure about all the women who throw themselves at her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, and wishes she got more attention from men.

Last year, Pinkett Smith said that she identifies as a “womanist” rather than a feminist because she sees the movement as “focused on, really, middle class white women.” In the same episode, she said that “blond hair on white women just triggers me.”

Similar racial divisions helped sink the #SexStrike campaign launched last week by actress and feminist activist Alyssa Milano in response to a wave of state restrictions on abortion.

Sunday’s episode of “Red Table Talk” ended with an interview with a married couple who Pinkett Smith said was “sharing their story to warn others about the dangers of pornography.”

The husband, Gary Johnson, identified himself as a porn addict, and confessed that his problem had nearly ruined their marriage. Although Johnson said he’s been “clean” for three years, his wife said that she still hesitates to cuddle with him for fear he will try to have sex with her.

Apparently, this was an unrealistic expectation on his part.

“So we’re still working on it,” Johnson said.

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Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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