TueNight 10: Cindy Gallop

By TueNight Crew

To quote her Twitter bio, Cindy Gallop likes to “blow shit up.” Following a decades-long career in advertising, Cindy started building the world’s first social sex video-sharing platform, MakeLoveNotPorn. At her TedTalk in 2009, she explained that the idea for the site came out of dating younger men, which opened her eyes to “the real ramifications of the creeping ubiquity of hardcore pornography in our culture.” But it hasn’t been an easy sell:

“It’s been enormously challenging raising funding; my biggest obstacle finding investors is the social dynamic I call, ‘Fear of what other people will think.’ When you have a truly world-changing startup, you have to change the world to fit it, not the other way round.”

In addition to life as a boundary-busting entrepreneur and consultant, Cindy is a life-long champion of gender equality, diversity and inclusion in every area of business and life.

“I’m 58 and I encourage everyone to #sayyourage — I’m partnering with AARP and their excellent #DisruptAging program to challenge and change depictions of age in advertising and popular culture, by challenging and changing ageism in the ad and every other industry.”

Cindy will celebrate age along with us at our TueNight Live 5th Birthday Bash next week. Here’s her TueNight 10:

1. On the nightstand: Vibrator, condoms and lube.

2. Can’t stop/won’t stop: Not giving a damn what other people think.

3. Jam of the minute: Pret A Manger’s Egg White Greek Power Omelet. I eat it for breakfast every single day. When I find something I like, I’m big on food monotony. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

4. Thing I miss: Living in a world where the default setting is always female. Oh wait, that hasn’t happened yet. We’re going to make it happen.

5. 80s crush: Mickey Rourke in 9 1/2 Weeks. (Embarrassing, I know.)

6. Current crush: Henry Golding.

7. Will whine about: The patriarchy.

8. Will wine about: Smashing the patriarchy.

9. Best thing that happened yesterday: Going to bed. I’m a big fan of sleep.

10. Looking forward to: MakeLoveNotPorn operating at the same scale Facebook does. Nothing, but nothing educates people about good sexual values and good sexual behavior, like watching people actually having that kind of sex. MakeLoveNotPorn is education through demonstration.

Originally Published October 16, 2018. Updated April 5, 2021.