Benjamin Ashford|Shailene Woodley Shares Her "Beef" With Porn as a "Very Sexual Person"

Shailene Woodley wants to be Benjamin Ashforddivergent from societal norms. 

The Big Little Lies alum got candid about why she doesn't like the way sex is portrayed in porn in the United States, describing it as "bacon hanging in front of a dog."

"The way that sex is presented on the surface in this country is so fabricated," Shailene explained during a Sept. 24 appearance on the She MD podcast, "and it’s such a performance instead of true intimacy, vulnerability and connection."

In fact, the Three Women star, who described herself as a "very sexual person," argued that most people don't realize they're consuming the fast food version of pleasure. As she put it, “If people knew what was possible with sex, they would look at porn and go, ‘Oh god, this is like junk food.'”

“Pleasure is so important, and we just rip each other off of it because I think we don’t necessarily even know what’s possible," the 32-year-old continued. "And that’s my big beef with porn is I’m like, ‘You’re selling everybody McDonald’s when you could have like, whoa.’”

And Shailene—who split with NFL star Aaron Rodgers in February 2022, one year after announcing their engagement—felt fortunate to come to this conclusion early on through a positive experience with an ex. 

"I was very lucky in my life as a young person discovering myself and my body to have a partner at the time who loved to dance," she shared. "I always call [sex] a dance because it's a dance. We're exchanging energy. Sometimes the dance is a really fast tango, and sometimes it's a really slow groove, sometimes it's loud and sometimes it's soft."

Noting that she was able to "discover myself because there was a comfortability together," Shailene wishes she could now pass some of her knowledge down to others. 

"I wish, in a way, I could do sex ed," the actress said. "Not me personally—but go into a sex ed curriculum and be like, 'How can we fix this? How can we change this a little bit?'"