“It’s a ghost town.”
That’s how one Italian woman referred to Gallarate, Italy, the town near Milan where she lives. Currently under enforced quarantine, the woman — and a handful of others who spoke to Vox about life under Italian lockdown — says her city, once bustling, is deserted, quiet save for the cry of ambulances that rush back and forth between homes and hospitals.
In other places like France, Spain and now, California, the scenery is the same. As photo after photo of quarantined locations makes clear, there are very few people out and about right now.
Except the people having sex, that is.
As a developing trend in the online world of public sex videos seems to imply, there’s no time like a devastating global pandemic to fuck in public (even though it’s dangerous, selfish and fully unadvised). With cities, counties and countries all over the world in various states of quarantine — and many local governments pledging to ease up on arrests for non-violent crimes — abandoned, unpatrolled streets, balconies, movie theaters and parks are fast-becoming hospitable to brazen outdoor boning, and on a scale that would be fully impossible had coronavirus ever been contained.
The desire for public sex is, of course, nothing new. In his book Tell Me What You Want, sex researcher and Kinsey Institute fellow Justin Lehmiller found it was one of the seven most common fantasies, but the way people are having it in a coronavirus-ridden world definitely is. Now, instead of treating it as nothing more than a novel thrill to “spice things up,” some people are using it as an act of resistance against the virus-induced lockdowns that have squashed so many of the liberties we hold dear.
On Pornub, a facemasked woman doles out a “risky” blowjob in the park. On Reddit, a couple posting on r/teenbeauties has sex in a deserted movie theater before walking around, pants down and pussy out. “I guess this is a benefit of coronavirus,” the post’s title reads. Elsewhere, a couple in the Philippines breaks into an abandoned hotel and fucks in fishnet tights next to a wall where they’ve crudely spray painted “coronavirus” in white paint.
Meanwhile, in Bologna, Italy, a strange triad called Dollscult stalks the streets, sucking, fucking and shouting “DO YOU LIKE TO BE FUCKED?!?!” at each other in bold defiance of lockdown, public health and the fear that’s gripped their nation as it battles what has become the worst and most tragic coronavirus hot spot in the world.
Consisting of real-life siblings Shane, 33, and Melody, 18, and their mutual girlfriend Sissi, also 18, the three lockdown escapists bang each other in front of police stations, strip and fuck in IKEA and piss in the streets in clear view of passersby, all of which they post on Pornhub for their (mostly) adoring audience to enjoy.
Dollscult say they’ve always made public sex videos — particularly in busy stores where more people means more risk — but now that everything has closed and the streets of Italy are all but deserted, they’ve started fucking in even more flagrant locations to up the ante and be more “extreme.”
In one video, “Very Risky Public Sex In Street During Quarantine…FUCK CORONAVIRUS!!” Shane fucks Sissi on the hood of his car not 10 feet from a busy highway while Melody films.
“Guys, today it is forbidden to even go out of our homes, but we don’t give a fuck!” exclaims Shane, a metal-looking dude with guyliner and white dreads, as he pounds away at Sissi. “We fuck the coronavirus! We fuck your stupid rules! We wanna fuck wherever and whenever we want!” After Melody trades places with him for some highly conspicuous cunnilingus, Shane jumps on the hood of their cherry red Mini Cooper and bellows, “WE ARE DOLLSCULT FROM ITALY AND FUCK YOU! SUCK MY COCK CORONAVIRUS!” Later in the video, Sissi and Melody get naked, Shane gets another roadside blowjob and the three prance around half-clothed.
They’re in plain sight of the few cars and pedestrians passing by, but there’s something about the relative emptiness of the scenery and the graveness of the situation that makes their dalliances seem inconsequential. While their public group sex might enrage a fellow citizen or warrant a call to the police in happier times, their provoking visibility mid-corona panic feels more like a sink full of dirty dishes when you’re late to work than it does a scandalous offense — yeah, you see it and it’s on your radar, but right now, you’ve got bigger fish to fry. Thus, says Dollscult, no one has the time or energy to tell them to stop (though other people in Italy have been getting arrested for breaking quarantine this way).
Obviously, not everyone is entertained by Dollscult’s public display of affection, or any public sex right now for that matter. “Porn is fun and all, and I’m usually not one for enforcement, but reckless stuff like this is exactly what’s making things worse everywhere,” writes one commenter in response to their rampant coronavirus fucking. “Please stop this kind of stuff. It’s selfish and dangerous.” Sixteen people liked that comment, and a couple have replied to it in agreement.
Dollscult, however, doesn’t agree. While they say their videos are being “heavily criticized by a mass of cowards barricaded in their houses and terrified by the situation,” the gleefully incestuous triad say the criticism has only made them want to fuck in public more. “At that point, we had even more fun to carry on this format in an increasingly heavier way, to satisfy our rebellious and anarchist spirit,” they say.
They’re also — big surprise — totally unafraid of the virus. Mirroring the attitudes of coronavirus dissenters, they’re certain their youth will protect them and that the whole thing isn’t only overblown, but a conspiracy to hide the government’s “economic and fraudulent purposes.” Railing each other in broad view of anyone who disagrees with them, they say, is an act of resistance and a last attempt at both humanity and independence, neither of which they’re willing to compromise despite the risk it poses to others. “We don’t give a fuck,” they say. “We hate humans.”
Molly and Marcus, the twentysomething amateur couple who fucked in the abandoned hotel and post Pornhub videos under the name SecretsofPleasure, aren’t nearly as misanthropic. They shot their public sex video back in early February when the bad news from China had just started to bleed out into the Filipino news circuit and throngs of city dwellers and travelers were still mobbing the streets around them. This — combined with the conservative and traditional attitudes most Filipinos have toward sex — only heightened the thrill and adrenaline of fucking in a time and place where it was most dangerous. “We did it for the attention,” says Marcus.
Public sex videos like these are having an interesting side effect, though. While they’re beyond concerning from a public-health standpoint and it’s hard to watch hot, young people act so flippantly at a time where behaving conservatively is the only real path to survival, they also seem to be bringing people together — rallying the horny troops across not just internet cable lines, but international borders as well.
“Let’s fight coronavirus together,” a fan writes in the comments section of their hotel video. “That’s the best way to fight any virus,” says another. In the caption, Molly thanks her viewers for watching. “Let’s destroy this virus together, love you all!” she offers, acutely aware that her beautiful, bouncing bubble butt provides a different, more life-sustaining form of entertainment for viewers who cannot leave their house to walk, let alone fuck.
Even the comments on Dollscult’s channel are, for the most part, vaguely encouraging. Viewers not only commend them for their bravery, but seem to see them as resistors — heroes who will go where few others dare to uphold some semblance of normal Italian life. “Pig, you are my companion in this time of quarantine,” someone writes in Italian (this is the English translation) on Dollscult’s police station fellatio video.
But when I ask whether they think their public boning will inspire copycats to skirt quarantine and do the same, Dollscult remains confident they’re among the only outdoor fuckers in operation. “They go around with gloves and masks and hardly do the shopping anymore,” they say of the millions of Italians who have committed to quarantine. “Now they’re so terrified that they don’t even have sex at home with each other for fear of contracting the virus!”
Molly and Marcus foresee a different trend. “I think that many people are trying to get attention and hype over this by shooting interesting videos, Vines and parodies in order to speak to our human fears,” says Marcus. “And of course now, more people will visit porn sites because they’re all at home and would like to relive their stress.” If people can get out to fuck in the middle of the deserted street, he says, they will.
But for the love of god, please don’t.
Isabelle Kohn
Isabelle Kohn is a sex and relationships journalist, educator and consultant who, for some reason, keeps writing about livestock instead. She writes features and long-form pieces for MEL, usually without the help of Clippy.
