Vixens + Visionaries: Female erotic directors revolutionizing porn

Toronto adult retailer Good for Her is sponsoring a gala evening celebrating the work of female porn directors on June 1. Vixens + Visionaries aims to showcase female friendly and women-driven erotica.

Candida Royalle will be the special guest along with her protege Abiola Abrams as well as anal queen Tristan Taormino, Dana Dane from Eroktavision, Angela Phong from lesbian-focused Pornograflics and Jen Bowers who runs SMUT Magazine (a Canadian pansexual journal).

Aside from a few lectures and discussions and a burlesque performance, the evening will see the presentation of the first ever Feminist Porn Awards.

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You know, I get the tiniest suspicion that For The Girls hasn’t been nominated for anything. It probably doesn’t qualify as “cutting edge” porn, at least in some circles. Ah well. If I was in Toronto, I’d go. It sounds interesting. But living in Australia means I’m out of the loop with these kinds of things, something that I occasionally find frustrating. Nonetheless, I hope to report back on who won what and how it all went.

Update 31 May 2006 – The Toronto Star has featured a well-written piece on this event. A few quotes:

“What makes porn feminist for me is women being involved in its creation. It has to be a woman-driven effort that shows real women’s pleasure.” – Lorraine Hewitt from Good for Her

“It was such a big step for women to look,” Candida Royalle says. “We are visual, we love beauty, we love things done well. We love good-looking men and women.”

“Getting rid of [porn] entirely is unlikely, so why not make sure that there is porn that not only pleases a female audience, but also demonstrates to the rest of the porn industry how women should be treated and depicted in their films?” – Megan McChesney, author of the article.

“We’re not hosting a debate about porn because — as bad as most of it is — it has a right to exist. We want to make sure there’s more fun, women-friendly porn out there.” – Chanelle Gallant, manager of Good for Her

Update June 1 – Eye Weekly has this article on the awards – called the “Emma Awards” after feminist Emma Goldman. Apparently Good For Her manager Chanelle Grant came up with the idea. “Good porn is a human right,” Gallant says. “I think we deserve to have good sexual images that make us feel good about ourselves and about sex.”