15 MINS with CINDY GALLOP

With a reputation for expressing views and opinions that won’t get discussed or picked up in mainstream media, she is taking on everything; from misogyny in the workplace to promoting good sexual values against the problematic issues of the hardcore porn industry.

This is exactly what MakeLoveNotPorn was created to do. Described as ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.’, it is a social sextech platform designed to promote good sexual behaviour and good sexual values. Launching at TED just over fifteen years ago, Cindy has managed to raise approximately $4million towards the mission of inspiring ‘the Social Sex Revolution’, and is on the brink of being able to launch The MakeLoveNotPorn Academy, a platform where young people all over the world will be able to access good sex education.

As if all that isn’t enough, she is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld, a co-action software launched in beta (also at TED) that has subsequently been written up and taught as a Harvard Business School case study. Dedicated to corporate social responsibility, it enables brands to implement a progressive business model of shared values, shared action and shared profit.

Cindy is a huge supporter of Gillian’s and what we are building in an effort to inspire all people (and especially women) around the world to have agency over their lives, whether in the bedroom or boardroom. In the midst of her bustling schedule between London and Manhattan we got Cindy’s 15 minute view on freedom, fantasy and more.

Q: You have built an illustrious career in advertising into a lifelong mission to change the world in your own way. What's the change you want to see/ create in the next 5 to 10 years?

The change I want to create at a macro-global level in the next 10 years is the change I have been creating at a micro-level for the past 11 years with MakeLoveNotPorn: To help end rape culture globally. MakeLoveNotPorn helps end rape culture by doing something very simple that, nevertheless, nobody else on the internet is doing. MakeLoveNotPorn shows you how wonderful great, consensual, communicative sex is in the real world - we eroticize consent.

MakeLoveNotPorn role models good sexual values and good sexual behavior. And - the key point - MakeLoveNotPorn makes all of this ASPIRATIONAL, versus what you see in porn and popular culture. We have 11 years of proof of concept at a bootstrapped level. The only thing holding us back is the only thing holding all female founders back: Lack of access to capital.

When we find investors who get it, share the same vision and values, and believe in doing good and making money simultaneously, then we can make that change happen.

Q: The media industry has a big role to play in how society thinks, feels and acts. How do you think its representation of female desire and fantasy needs to evolve?

The answer is very simple: FUND WOMEN. Fund the female lens. When you support, hire, pay, fund and greenlight women writers; women directors; women producers; women showrunners; women studio/network heads - you will see representations of female desire and fantasy in the media industry you've never seen before, and the world will be a far better place for it.

Q: Media often uses desire and fantasy for titillation, levity, fun or humour. Whilst it can be all those things, it feels like it can also be a key to understanding our sense of self, personal power and agency. Would you agree? If so, how does that thinking inform what you do?

Desire and fantasy are extremely self-empowering expressions of personal agency. The tragedy is that many women do not allow themselves to give free rein to do either. At MakeLoveNotPorn we hold the mirror up to the wonderful sex we have in the real world, to inspire everyone to express themselves through both - like the woman who left a comment saying, "I felt more empowered in my own sexual agency after watching this video - thank you for this gift."

Importantly, we enable women–and men–to desire and fantasise about the things they can see on MakeLoveNotPorn that they won't see anywhere else: Real world connection, intimacy, love, born of mutual trust, respect and open, honest communication.

Q: If you could sum up your experience of reading 'WANT' in one word, what would it be?

Universal.

Q: Who would you gift a copy to?

Every woman who has, for whatever reason, never felt able to articulate her own desires to herself.