Another year has flown and once again we’ve seen plenty of highs (and some lows) in the world of porn for women. 2008 saw more acknowledgement of women as consumers of adult material although things haven’t changed as much as I’d like.
I would say that the standout for this year has been the huge growth in the visibility and availability of authentic lesbian erotica such as The Crash Pad Series and Good Dyke Porn. And the world of sex toys has finally grown up and started offering women quality choices.
In The News
* The big porn for women event was the demise of Playgirl magazine, which announced its closure in August. Plenty of media scuttlebutt followed, including inside stories from the women who worked at the magazine, claiming they’d be stifled by the men in upper management.
* Oprah drew attention to porn for women again this year with her show “237 Reasons To Have Sex”. The show included the assertion that “in the $12 billion adult entertainment industry, $1 out of every $4 is spent by a woman.”
* The Sex and the City film gave media pundits everywhere an excuse to once again talk about women embracing sex toys and porn. I could do without it, to be honest.
* In Texas a court overturned the ban on sex toys
* Heidi Fleiss made headlines by opening an “eco friendly” brothel for women in Nevada
New Adult Movies for Straight Women
2008 didn’t match the previous year for female-friendly film releases, although there were still plenty of new titles to keep us interested.
* In March Petra Joy released her third film Feeling It! which I confess was my favourite film of the year. She also released an R-rated compilation called Sensual Seduction.
* Erika Lust released her erotic documentary Barcelona Sex Project. I was honoured to interview Erika and also post some behind the scenes pics on the blog.
* Comstock Films finally released the long awaited Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless to much gushiness from me and other reviewers.
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* Tristan Taormino released Chemistry 4 (and I got very distracted by the video equipment) and the latest in her instructional series, the Expert Guide To Positions.
* Inpulse Pictures released Intense Desires.
* Tina Tyler continued her male masturbation odyssey with Handyman 5 6 and 7.
* Playgirl kept churning ’em out, releasing a new movie every month, all year (complete list). This year they also hired the lovely Jamye Waxman as a director on a number of vignettes.
* Innocent Pictures’ 2007 feature All About Anna went platinum in Europe and has been nominated for a bunch of AVN awards.
Authentic Lesbian And Queer Porn Hits Its Stride
2008 saw lesbians really emerge from the shadows and embrace porn in distinctly visible ways.
* Shine Louise Houston extended her creative vision with the launch of The Crash Pad website, based on the hugely successful film of the same name. She then released 3 separate Crash Pad Series DVDs. Her latest film, Champion, is due for release early in the new year.
* Bren Ryder’s Good Dyke Porn has also gone gangbusters and received a special Golden Beaver Feminist Porn Award to boot.
* Trans Entities by Morty Diamond wowed audiences at numerous festivals around the world and received rave reviews as well as two awards in Toronto.
Books and Their Covers
There were an enormous number of erotica books released over the last year. Erotic fiction for women is booming, it seems.
* Rachel Kramer Bussell proved herself the queen of erotic publishing with her regular In The Flesh reading series and her editorship of vast number of short story anthologies. This year I reviewed Dirty Girls and her oral sex themed Tasting Her.
* Violet Blue again edited Best Women’s Erotica for 2009 and I’m pleased to say one of my stories is featured in the anthology.
* Erika Lust released a book called X For Women in both English and Spanish. The book discusses porn from a woman’s perspective.
* Two erotic fiction authors have made waves this year by questioning the ongoing sexism of erotic book covers. Namely, the fact that they all feature near-naked women. Their blog questions the persistence of the male gaze, even when the books are aimed at straight women.
Awards and Shows
* The 3rd Annual Feminist Porn Awards held in Toronto were a success once again. The ceremony featured screenings of nominated films and a range of live acts. The award for Best Film went to Erika Lust’s Five Hot Stories for Her while queer films dominated a lot of the other cateogories.
Naturally the media reports of the awards prompted much debate on the feminist boards with the usual assertions that porn can never be feminist yada yada yada.
* The 2008 AVN Awards were something of a disappointment when it came to female-friendly porn. While plenty of good films were nominated, few made it to the podium. Candida Royalle’s Aphrodite Superstar picked up a gong for Best Music and that was it. Same ol’ same ol’.
* The Venus Trade Show and e-Line awards in Berlin saw Petra Joy awarded for Pioneering Achievements in Porn for Women and Erika Lust taking out Best Erotic Documentary for the Barcelona Sex Project. Interestingly, Erika has since claimed that the Berlin awards are a commercial transaction with the organisers making up categories as they go along.
* Petra Joy also made waves at The Erotica trade show in London, conducting workshops for women who want to make their own porn and attracting a lot of media interest in her work.
Surveys and Statistics
A quick look at some of the damned lies and statistics that emerged this year.
* The Porn Report, the result of several years of research and surveys into people’s use of porn in Australia, found that most Aussies don’t have an issue with consensual legal porn and – gasp – women like it too. 17% of those interviewed were women and the authors found that women were more likely to watch a DVD and to view it with a partner.
* A book called The Sex Lives of Australian Women says that 1 in 4 Aussie chicks will look at porn at least once a month.
* A survey of over 14,000 Israeli women found that 71% consider themselves to be liberal and daring in bed and half of them say they enjoy watching erotic materials including films, websites and books. 37% specifically said they liked pornography.
* A survey of Swedish “yummy mummy” mothers found that 28% of them enjoyed online porn – and they had rather raunchy sex lives to boot.
* According to the headlines on one lot of research, women aren’t turned on by naked men. The study did find, however, that women do get turned on by images of sensuality and graphic images of sex – no matter what gender the participants in the photos were.
* A survey found that given the choice between the internet or sex, women would rather have the web.
The Spectre Of Censorship
This issue, more than any other this year, has dominated the writing in my blog (check out the censorship category). Governments want to control and censor the internet, and they’re using the spectre of child porn to do it.
* In January 2008 the Australian government announced plans to introduce a mandatory ISP filter in the name of “protecting the children.” Senator Stephen Conroy immediately pissed opponents off by saying that “If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.” In October news of the filter hit the mainstream and those opposing it got their act into gear. There’s since been protests, petitions, heaps of cash raised and plenty of online commentary. Aussies are finally standing up for their right to free speech! The filter is still having money thrown at it, the battle will continue into 2009.
* An Australian bloke was charged with importing porn into Australia after customs police tracked his mail. The told media that “the DVDs featured abhorrent sexual practices including bondage”, a quote that gives a concise view of exactly how backward Australia’s censorship laws are.
* In Britain the law banning “extreme porn” was passed, even though most lawyers and police have no idea how to define what’s illegal. Plenty of women from the BDSM community spoke out against the law and its infringement on their liberty.
* Tony Comstock discovered that Google’s Safe Search considers the word “penis” to be “safe” but “clitoris” is beyond the pale. Obviously it’s a word that will corrupt your children.
* This year saw numerous examples of how concern about child abuse has stepped over a boundary into very shady legal territory, leading to numerous prosecutions for thought crime. Prosecutions have occurred over written material and cartoons. In all cases the material was offensive but no children were involved or harmed in any way.
Meanwhile the Bill Henson saga in Australia raised many hackles over the definition of art, porn and whether police should be raiding photography galleries. And Wikipedia was banned in the UK for a short time thanks to a 30 year old Scorpions album cover. It’s a complicated issue, of course, but it seems to me like hysteria is starting to replace rationality when it comes to the problem of child porn.
Highlights from Ms Naughty and For The Girls
* For The Girls turned 5 in June and our annual short story competition was another big success. We featured interviews this year with Erika Lust, Tina Tyler and the lovely indie porn queens Trixie Fontaine and Kat Vixen. And we also got a fabulous new tour.
* In March I attended Sexpo in Brisbane and had quite a good time (including being publicly tied up by the guys from the Hellfire club).
* In October I attended the Berlin Porn Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The full report appears at For The Girls but there’s a shorter video and post here.
Some of my longer posts:
The Ugly Conundrum – a discussion of how the word “ugly” is often a weapon
Porn for Women – The Backlash – a look at why some people don’t like the “pfw” phrase and why it’s still important
The sex film to end all sex films – A look at Last Tango In Paris and how mainstream films rarely portray explicit sex in a positive light.
Housework and childcare as porn – more musings on the “Porn for Women” book and its sequels
Naomi Wolf has definitely lost it – My response to Wolf’s defense of the veil – and the way her “Porn Myth” article keeps getting recycled.
It’s been a big year for me and I probably didn’t post as much as I should have. But there it is, the rundown for 2008. Porn for women is still moving forward and people are starting to respect female creators of sexually explicit material and to understand that offering something different from the mainstream is a good thing.
Here’s to a fabulous 2009.