Erika Lust and “Corny” Porn for Women

The Good Girl from Lust FilmsIn April 2005 I wrote about a Erika Lust, a new filmmaker who’d made a short erotic film for women. In January I wrote an email to Erika asking what she’s been up to. Yesterday I received her reply.

She’s started a blog here and has made her short film The Good Girl available for free.

Erika says she’s done this because she travelled widely trying to find distribution for her film or even some decent industry contacts and instead met with a bunch of “old fashioned pimps” who were rude and unhelpful. So she decided to get her work out there through the wonder of downloading.

I can’t get the Quicktime download to work at present so I can’t give you my thoughts on the movie. It looks good, in any case, and it’s great that Erika has made it available.

Her blog is only new, and she’s already raised the ire of Tony Comstock. I myself feel the urge to comment on one of Erika’s posts, entitled I’m sooo sick of corny porn for women.

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Erika writes:

“Why does everyone think that women want erotica? How come all there is for women on the market is soooo terribly corny, tacky, gayish and outdated?

“Take my word for it, young modern women don’t want flowers and sensibility, we don’t wanna see a couple making love in front of the fireplace, we are tired of clichés, tired of seeing a poor innocent unsatisfied women who is not in touch with her own sexuality, who needs a strong and mysterious man to show her the world of pleasure.”

I’m not sure what “erotica” Erika has been looking at, but judging by the pic of a Playgirl movie, it sounds like she’s having a go at the concept of “women’s erotica” as being exclusively soft focus, plot driven, romantica. I must admit, if all I’d seen were Playgirl movies I’d be feeling grumpy too.

So here’s the thing. I’ve heard this argument before. Lots of women are frustrated that “erotica for women” has come to mean softcore stereotyping and gormless guff. Indeed, I’ve been on the receiving end of abuse from another female webmaster who decided I was sexist because I called For The Girls “porn for women”, and the site included elements of romantica. Apparently simply using the term “porn for women” upsets some people because – to them – it suggests a one dimensional definition of what women should enjoy in their porn.

Some of my thoughts (and rants) on this topic are in my old blog:
The idea of porn for women as a sexist concept
There’s just no pleasing some people
Porn for women entering a new phase

I used to occasionally try and define “what women want” to male webmasters when they asked, but I don’t do it anymore, because it’s damned impossible. The more I talk with female porn consumers, the harder it gets. Chicks like so many different things, you could spend days cataloguing their tastes. Some like the money shot, others hate it. Some want to see close-ups of genitals in their porn, others want the camera to keep it’s distance. Some women love seeing naked men, others are left cold by pictures of dicks.

Thus I’m not so sure that all young women don’t want flowers or romance, because I’ll bet some of them do. And indeed, even some of the young girlies who are into filthy hardcore as much as the next man may feel inclined to indulge in a little squishy romantic erotica every now and then.

I’ve done my share of assuming in the past. When I started out in 2000, I reckoned that most woman wanted what I wanted – and this has actually been a successful strategy up to a point. My porn has always reflected my own tastes – and they’re fairly vanilla, hetero tastes in the broader scheme of things. I’m partial to the odd spot of romance, just as I enjoy seeing well-made hardcore. If you can give me hot, realistic hardcore in front of a fireplace, giddy up. And I know that plenty of other women share my tastes because they buy my product. “Write what you know” as they say.

At the same time, I know that heaps of other women aren’t into what I offer. That’s cool. You can’t be all things to all people (although perhaps I need to build a few more smut sites to cater to different female tastes).

And while porn for women has meant softcore stuff in the past, that’s only because it’s still a relatively new concept. Yes, Candida has been making her films for 20 years, but no-one else has even tried, which has meant that Candida’s vision or women’s porn has become the standard.

Today we have Estelle Joseph, we have you, Erika, we have Anna Span, we have the Puzzy Power manifesto, we even have the female directors from Playgirl and Inpulse making their particular brand of women’s porn. Then there’s the women behind the magazines Sweet Action and Scarlet. And there’s also the internet, which has offered women a chance to explore their own tastes and sexuality in a private, accepting way. I like to think For The Girls and my other porn sites are part of this.

The point is, people are in the process of creating a new genre. What we’re seeing now is all kinds of attempts to please female lovers of porn. That, in itself, is a great thing. Not everything is going to satisfy my tastes (if you’ve read my review of Velvet Thrust, you’ll know what I mean). Even so, I’m sure there are some women out there for whom it’s perfect.

Everyone is bringing their own perspective to this game, and it seems that there’s a bit of a turf war going on here and there to establish the “true” porn for women. Often you’ll hear the phrase “At last! A women’s perspective” or “Finally! A female porn movie!” or even “Yes! The first site to offer women what they really want!” (I’ve been seeing this for at least five years now).

But when I really think about it – they’re all good. Anything that tries to cater to women and offer a female viewpoint of sex, be it film, photography, writing or art, is to be encouraged.

So, Erika, while I disagree with your viewpoint, I can see that it reflects your own tastes. And it’s a legitimate perspective that you bring to your work and that lots of other women will welcome. By all means, dispense with the fireplaces, the 80s hair and the corny romance. Create – and demand – porn that you find sexy. It’s the only way we’ll ever change the industry – and the world.

5 Replies to “Erika Lust and “Corny” Porn for Women”

  1. “Porn made by women” and “Porn for women”

    After debating with Tony Comstock and Ms Naughty about “porn made by women” and “porn for women”, I want to clarify my opinions:

    “Porn made by women”
    I don’t care if porn is made by men or women, I believe in our individual differences and I don’t beleive that our actions are defined by gender. It’s a fact that most porn has been made by men exploring their fantasies, perspectives and ideas. And I think that we need to see more female filmmakers exploring their ideas of sexuality and pornography. But of course porn made by a guy can work for women and a girl’s porn can work for men.

    I do care, however, about the quality of the product and the values transmitted. If porn offends women… or men for that matter, if it reproduces ridiculous stereotypes and stupid assumptions about gender and sexuality I get upset. And the way I see it, most porn do.

    “Porn for women”
    We are all individuals with personal tastes. Every woman wants porn that satisfies her particular taste. Some want what I call “corn-porn”, and some want hardcore, others fetish or gay porn, and some may not want to watch porn at all. This is all fine by me! But what I wanted to say in my post I am sooo sick of corny erotica for women! was: I haven’t been able to find almost any porn on the market today that I personally enjoy. I want something with a more modern touch, a kind of “Sex and the City” explicit porn. And from my discussion with other women of my generation, I know many feel the same way. My problem with corny erotica, or corn-porn isn’t its existence, but that it’s the only thing labelled “for women” on the market.

    So is my porn only for women? Of course not! But I decided to call my porn “porn for women” so girls who never really liked the products the porn industry offered would easily see that this is a product at first hand aimed at them, created for them specifically.

    So do I discriminate men? I don’t think so. The porn we’ve seen for years have been targeting a male audience at first hand. The male has been the norm even if the industry told us their porn is for everybody, and the same goes for Society in general. But even if porn at first hand has been targeting a male audience, some women do like it, and some men don’t. The same goes for my short film “The Good Girl”, it’s made for women, however some love it, some don’t, and some men find it fabulous, while to others its just crap.

    So, Mr. Comstock and Ms. Naughty, even if we disagree on some standpoints, it seems like we all want the same: More sexy smart films for sexy smart people. More original creative female and male viewpoints of sex, erotism and pornography, be it film, photography, writing or art. Porn that we find innovative, fun, original, challenging and that shows great fucking sex!

    Love,

    Erika Lust
    http://www.erikalust.com

  2. Thanks so much for your comment Erika! This conversation has been engaging and interesting. I should have said before that I admire and applaud what you’re doing.

    Regarding porn that’s a bit more “Sex and the City” and modern – this is what I believe Estelle has tried to achieve with her City of Flesh series. She made comments similar to yours regarding her frustration with porn and the way it wasn’t satisfying her personally.

    I’ve also seen similar comments at the Smart Girl’s Porn Club. Your viewpoint is shared by a lot of women.

    In any case – the more the merrier!

  3. Dear Ms. Naughty,
    I’m a scholar working on a book on porn by women, in particular how some women have responded to degrading/discriminating pornography not by rejecting porn per se but by grabbing the business by its balls, so to speak, in order to re-vision pornography, changing it both as an industry and as a genre. I’m especially interested in those productions that successfully establish more room—a larger playfield—for women as well as men and ultimately a whole plethora of genders and sexual identities to establish/create/perform their sexual identities/practices.

    As I’ve been researching this topic, it seems to me the creative challenges are less daunting than getting into the ‘boys only’ club/market, getting investors and distributors. Erika Lust’s experiences, as narrated on her blog, seem representative of what other women before her have experienced (from Candida Royalle to Anna Span). Her solution of posting her indie porn for free (while requesting donations) is an interesting one. The Internet seems to open up new possibilities, with pages such as your own and Erika’s and other sites that offer porn and erotica that cater to women.

    Internet has become its own ‘genre,’ it seems, in addition to film, video, pictures, paintings, photographs, novels, and short stories (e.g. like the material offered on your commercial adult that offer edited material). I realize the threat of censorship cause most women to create sites anonymously, but as the links on various sites keep routing me back to the same handful or so number of sites, I’m wondering just how big the online ‘market’ is. In other words, I’m wondering if it’s smaller than it might appear—is there really a flurry of porn online by a mass of women for women?— or if the frequent re-routing to the same sites is an indication of an international sisterhood on the net with women supporting each other by advertising for each other.

    I’d appreciate a response, preferably directly to my email as well so we could communicate further ‘in private.’ I’m looking at several of the directors you’ve referred to recently, e.g. American Candida Royalle, British Anna Span, Danish Puzzy Power, Erika Lust, and also Danish Kira Eggers, British JoyBear, American Maria Beatty, Estelle Joseph and others.

    I’d love to hear from you! You can check out my project here:
    http://www.stolaf.edu/people/sabo/
    http://www.skk.uio.no/forskning/forskersider/forskerside_sabo.html

    best,
    Anne

  4. My reply to this Spanish person:

    OK, I don’t speak Spanish but the garbled Babelfish translation seems to indicate that you don’t think well of me (or Erika Lust for that matter). You think that I’m afraid, somehow. Indeed, I get the feeling that you’re one of those people who think that my version of porn for women is “stereotypical” or “too softcore” or something like that.

    If we’re going to make assumptions, I think I’ll assume that you haven’t properly read what I write. You won’t have read the countless words I’ve written on this topic, or my standard response to these people who seem to be offended because I am making my own brand of porn that quite a substantial number of women pay for and enjoy. Perhaps you don’t even speak English. I don’t know. Whatever. I do know that your assumptions about me and what I do are wrong.

    Congratulations on your blog. I’m glad you’re working to offer women your own brand of porn and your opinions on what good porn should be. The more this happens, the better porn becomes for everyone. And the sooner the women in this industry stop attacking each other the better things will become.

Comments are closed.