It was back in 2006 that I wrote my first retrospective post which means that this is the 10th time I’ve looked back at porn for women over the year. In that decade, “porn for women” has become something of an old-fashioned term, replaced by the labels feminist porn, ethical porn, queer porn, new wave porn. A lot has changed – the industry, those making porn and the internet itself. In any case, here’s another look at what’s happened in the world of female-focused erotic content.
Farewell, Candida
I want to start this retrospective with a tribute to porn for women pioneer Candida Royalle, who died on September 7 after a long battle with ovarian cancer. Candida is credited with being the first director to make erotic films for women, though they were often styled as “couples porn”. In 1984, after a short career in front of the camera, she established her company Femme Productions and proceeded to make 17 films over the next two decades. She was initially dismissed by the industry, criticized for not wanting to include external ejaculation shots and constantly told that women didn’t buy porn. She happily proved them wrong and her films are still sold today. I credit her with inspiring me to make my own female-friendly porn and hers was the template upon which I based my early work.
Candida also created a revolutionary line of vibrators, Natural Contours, that dared to ditch the typical phallic shape and were instead designed to be placed flat on the vulva – an idea that many have since adapted. Candida also fought strongly against censorship and was a founding member of Feminists for Free Expression. She was also an author and a talented vocalist.
Her death was originally reported by Annie Sprinkle in this Facebook post. It was also reported in the NY Daily News, the Daily Mail and the Independent (in a tribute written by Petra Joy). Lily Burana wrote a lovely tribute here. I wrote about it in this post. Memorials were held in San Francisco (video) and New York and were attended by many friends and fans, including the remaining members of Club 90, the feminist support group for porn actors formed in 1983 by Annie, Candida, Gloria Leonard, Veronica Hart and Veronica Vera. The group had a final reunion at last year’s Cinekink, reported here.
Candida was a shining light for us all and she will be sorely missed.
As a tribute, I uploaded the full vision of her Filmmaker in Focus session from the 2009 Berlin Porn Film Festival.
In The News
* It happened late in the year but the issue of ethics and consent loomed large as one of the major issues in the porn industry in 2015. This was due to two November tweets from porn performer Stoya alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by fellow performer and former partner James Deen. After a flurry of support for Stoya, another nine women came forward with their own stories of abuse and assault, with many naming Kink.com shoots as the location. Deen denied the allegations but he has since been dropped from several studios and writing jobs. The story played out over several weeks and inspired a great deal of commentary about rape culture, sex work stigma and the legalities of believing victims.
Deen had previously been lauded by some in the media as a “feminist porn star” and his popularity with women had been frequently reported. Amanda Hess, the journalist responsible for originally talking up his popularity in 2011 quickly wrote a piece denying that Deen was a “feminist idol”. The story caused some to question the validity of feminist porn or “nice” porn stars but more importantly it shone a light on the ethics of production in the wider porn industry. Kink.com has since released an expanded performer’s bill of rights and other companies (Bright Desire included) have also made their own ethics statements.There were a lot of articles reporting on the story. Some larger ones:
How Stoya took on James Deen and broke the porn industry’s silence (The Guardian)
Stoya, James Deen and the new shift in rape culture (Time)
Two more James Deen accusers tell all: “There was so much blood” (The Daily Beast) (Here’s a list of all the James Deen articles featured in The Daily Beast)
I wrote about the issue on Medium rather than on the blog in the hope of gaining a wider audience: How the porn industry can lift its game on consent.
* 2015 feels as though it was the year of Erika Lust. The Spanish porn director engaged in a major PR blitz for her company Lust Films and new site XConfessions.com, with Erika being interviewed, quoted or mentioned in a vast number of media articles this year. It now feels as though Erika has become THE spokeswoman for porn for women. The PR campaign began with a TEDx talk called “It’s Time To Change”, released late in 2014 and continued throughout the year.
A few examples:
What a girl wants: the rise of porn for women (The Telegraph)
Feminist porn director Erika Lust tells us the secret to pleasing women (Metro)
Porn needn’t be smutty: feminist erotica director Erika Lust (Hindustan Times)
Feminist porn director Erika Lust on why the industry needs to change (Marie Claire)
On the set of a feminist porn film (The Independent)
* On February 11 the film version of Fifty Shades Of Grey was released with all the accompanying controversy, criticism and fan orgasms. Despite negative reviews it eventually took in over $570 million worldwide. Some tried to block its release: a petition by the “National Center on Sexual Exploitation” (Morality in Media) calling for the film to be boycotted because it celebrated sexual violence gained 53,000 signatures. The Australian Christian Lobby successfully prevented the film from being screened in an open air cinema in Adelaide.
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There was also a great deal of criticism from the BDSM and feminist community, the former decrying the film’s dodgy representation of kink, the latter pointing out that it depicts a dysfunctional, controlling relationship and glorifies abuse.
* Feminist porn directors received some great media coverage this year. Jennifer Lyon Bell, promoting her film Silver Shoes, featured in the Buzzfeed piece Why we should be watching more feminist porn. Australian porn directors Zahra Stardust and Gala Vanting were featured in the Vice piece Australia has a thriving art porn industry and its run by women. Gala also featured in profiles at ABC and Claude. Former Dusk worker and performer Yvette Luhrs features in a Telegraph piece Feminist porn: will men ever buy it?
More articles (including some that mention me)
The Best Feminist Porn Directors To Check Out If You Like Your Smut Served With A Side Of Ethics & Empowerment (Bustle)
6 Empowering Things Feminist Pornographers Can Teach Us About Sex (Mic)
How To Find Ethical Porn (Deadspin)
What Is The Best Porn Site For Women? 9 Bustle Readers Share Their Favorite Sexy Sites And Videos (Bustle)
Why you should pay for feminist porn (Bitch Media)
Why women are turning to Tumblr for their secret porn fix (The Telegraph)
Statistics and Research
* In November the results of The Porn Project, a large online survey of women’s porn habits, were released. Created by photographer and online TV presenter Amanda de Cadenet in collaboration with Marie Claire magazine, the survey polled over 3000 people, 91% of whom were female. I wrote about the results here. Some highlights: most women watched porn alone to quickly achieve an orgasm and 90% did so via the internet, on smartphones (62%). Most felt porn didn’t have a negative effect on their lives but many felt concerned about ethical production. Alas, this concern doesn’t extend to actually paying for it: while three quarters of women watched porn via free sites, only 2% paid for it (and naturally this makes baby Jesus cry).
* In January the Irish Independent reported on a survey of over 1000 internet users which found 56% of Irish porn viewers were female. This is a significantly higher figure than the standard 30% that often appears in these types of polls. While the Irish media were keen to draw negative conclusions, the survey mostly found that Irish people were OK with porn. My post on the way the stats were presented is here.
* The headlines read “women are never straight”, though the research wasn’t that clear cut. Notorious sex academic Prof J. Michael Bailey teamed up with Dr. Meredith Chivers to look at what kind of porn turned women on. Their results, released in November, found that women were aroused by watching a variety of sexual situations and were often turned on by lesbian porn, even though they identified as heterosexual. This echoes similar research conducted by Bailey back in 2002.
* In the wake of the Fifty Shades of Grey film in February, a small study revealed that the book had inspired women to seek out porn. Though only 28 women were interviewed, researchers found that curiosity about Fifty Shades had led women to explore erotic fiction and online porn, having become aware that porn for women does exist. Aside from discovering feminist porn, the women had also found communities to discuss their desires.
* A University of Western Ontario study found in September that those who watch porn are more likely to have feminist views. According to “Is pornography really about making hate to women?”, published in The Journal Of Sex Research, people who had watched an adult film at least once in the past year had more egalatarian ideas about women in positions of power than those who hadn’t.
* And about those damned Pornhub statistics… In July massive tube site Pornhub released a set of statistics about their site visitors, with the focus on women. Their stats showed that the top three search terms for female-identified users of the site were lesbian, threesome and squirt. The search term “man eating pussy” had had a 500% increase in the last year and cunnilingus-based terms were overwhelmingly used more by women than men. The categories Lesbian, Gay and Big Dick were favoured by women and (surprise!) they tended to visit the “For Women” category more often them men. Pornhub has just released a 2015 “Year in Review” set of stats that back up the July findings.
It goes without saying that these stats are problematic due to the fact that they’re unverified, released by a tube site that uses pirated content and they’re based on Google Analytics data. There’s also much to be said about why women behave the way they do on Pornhub. I wrote a post in 2014 pointing out that it’s not exactly the most female-friendly site and that influences decision making. Still, all of this didn’t stop the media from happily reporting on the statistics without really analyzing the issue. Jezebel tried, suggesting that the hot guys and lack of sexism in gay porn was why women were into it. The Hindustan Times also went to the trouble of actually asking women about their viewing preferences: Why Indian women watch porn. But plenty of other articles just went with the “OMG women actually like porn!!!” schtick.
Awards, Festivals, Events
* 2015 saw the 10th edition of the Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto, along with the announcement that – sadly – it is now on hiatus indefinitely. I wasn’t able to attend this year, though I did watch and liveblog the event online (also, I won! See below). The event was run over three days and as usual included a public porn screening and the awards themselves, along with several other special events including a book signing by Jiz Lee and an evening with special guest Erika Lust.
Several weeks before the awards night the event encountered controversy in the form of a boycott by Kitty Stryker and Courtney Trouble and this threw something of a shadow over the event. Stryker was interviewed by Cosmopolitan and The Daily Dot published a critical piece in the aftermath. With cracks appearing in the feminist porn community (the Feminist Porn Conference also didn’t happen this year), it will be interesting to see if the movement can maintain its previous momentum.
In any case, here’s my list of the winners. Impressive alt/mainstream feature Marriage 2.0 won Movie of the Year, Ovidie won Best Director for Pulsion and my friend Morgana Muses was named Heartthrob of the Year.
* The Berlin Porn Film Festival celebrated it’s 10th year in late October 2015 with a massive five-day festival packed full of alternative visions of sex on film. This year saw a theme of sex and disability, with a number of features, documentaries and shorts focusing on how people with a disability navigate sexuality in a world that insists they are asexual. The festival also celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a midnight screening on the original 35mm film. I had two films featured this year and as usual made a mini documentary about it – blog post and video is here.
The winners and presenters of the PorYes awards (that’s me being hugged by Buck Angel… lucky me)
* In the week before the BPFF, Berlin sex salon Sexclusivitäten held its biannual PorYes European Feminist Porn Awards. These awards are given to individuals for their body of work and aim to showcase both feminist porn directors and performers. This year the five nominees/winners were Jennifer Lyon Bell, Gala Vanting, Buck Angel, Goodyn Green and Jiz Lee. I attended the ceremony, which featured clips and interviews with each of the winners.
* Cinekink held its 12th annual film festival in New York in February to record-breaking crowds. Awards went to Marriage 2.0 for Best Narrative Feature and Back Issues: The Hustler Story for Best Documentary.
* January saw the annual mainstream porn industry award shows and conventions. The AVN awards stuck to the mainstream script this year so there wasn’t much to report. Xbiz once again gave out a Feminist Porn Release of the Year award. It went to San Francisco Lesbians, directed by Courtney Trouble in collaboration with mainstream lesbian company Pink Velvet. Jacky St James received a Director of the Year – Body of Work, a recognition of her high quality, female friendly films. Alternative site of the year went to Sssh.com, a paysite for straight women that’s been online since 2002. It was nice to see women’s erotica finally awarded in this way and I congratulate Angie Rowntree on her success in getting acknowledgement for her work and for porn for women.
Xbiz has made some changes for 2016 and unfortunately Feminist Porn Release is no longer a category. It has, however, added Adult Site of the Year – For Women, the very first time that female consumers have been acknowledged in any porn award category. Bright Desire is nominated, along with For The Girls, Sssh, XConfessions and Playgirl.
* In June the WOW (Women of the World) Festival was held in Brisbane and it featured a panel on sexuality and porn. I was invited to be a speaker and had the pleasure of introducing a room full of women – including author Kathy Lette – to the joy of feminist porn. My post about it is here.
New Porn Movies, Sites and Books
* Erotic filmmaking collective Four Chambers got into serious porn film production this year, releasing one video per month and funding it with Patreon contributions. Their films are arty and diverse with a lot of close-ups. While it’s not a standard paysite, I hear it’s going very well for them.
* FrolicMe, in soft launch last year, got underway properly in February and has since launched a crowdfunding campaign for their upcoming feature films.
* Marriage 2.0 by Paul Deeb made huge waves this year, offering an adult film that aimed to be far more than just porn, complete with in-depth storyline and quality acting. I rather liked it.
* Love Hard by Gala Vanting and Aven Frey is an amazing documentary that looks in depth at the lifestyle of people who love BDSM. It offers an honest glimpse into the emotions and motivations within the kink community.
* Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex: Plus Size directed by Jessica Drake and Kelly Shibari offers a how-to erotic guide for larger people. It won several awards this year.
* The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee by Jacky St. James showed how the mainstream can succeed in offering female-friendly porn films.
* In October editor, performer and activist Jiz Lee launched Coming Out Like A Porn Star, a collection of essays by adult performers, directors and industry workers. The book discusses the stigma of sex work and the challenges faced by performers when it comes to revealing their occupation to family, friends and in everyday interactions.
* 2015 saw trouble at erotica publisher Cleis Press and the unfortunate end of the long running Best Women’s Erotica series. A change of ownership at Cleis led to people not being paid and a mass exodus of employees. Long-time editor Violet Blue details her issues with the company in this blog post. The 2015 edition of BWE did arrive in January. It has been replaced with a new series called Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussell.
Edit/Correction: Rachel has contacted me and pointed out that Best Women’s Erotica Of The Year IS a continuation of the Best Women’s Erotica series begun under Marcy Sheiner in 2000, it just has a different name and different volume numbers.
Censorship and Discrimination
* Last year the UK introduced draconian censorship laws that targeted “extreme porn”. 2015 saw them bring down the hammer on one of my good friends, Pandora Blake. Having very publicly spoken out against the laws (on Newsnight, at WOW, in various news articles), her site Dreams of Spanking was subsequently targeted by ATVOD, the privately-owned company that does the government’s censorship for them. In August she was forced to close her site, a high-profile casualty of a law that seems to especially discriminate against women and small businesses. Read Pandora’s extended breakdown of what happened here.
* In December Violet Blue wrote a superb essay detailing the financial discrimination faced by those within the adult industry. Credit card companies, banks and services like Paypal regularly refuse accounts to “high risk” customers because they work in porn. US court cases have since found this to be discriminatory. Now a class action has been launched to challenge this discrimination. Naturally we’re all are keen for the banks to change their rules and we’ll see what happens in the coming year.
* Late December saw the Australian senate quietly move to create an inqury into “Harm being done to children through access to pornography on the internet” (link). The Australian Sex Party points out that the terms of this inquiry aren’t based on any evidence and look like they’re seeking an excuse to impose a UK-style internet porn filter on the country. The closing date for submissions is 10th March this year. Looks like I have some research and writing to do.
Ms. Naughty in 2015
It’s been another huge year for me, one full of filming, travelling and a nice haul of awards. In January BrightDesire.com was nominated for both an XBiz and an AVN award (in the Best Alternative Website categories), though I didn’t win. In February my short film Tease received an Honorable Mention at Cinekink New York. Things got even better when Bright Desire won Honored Website at the 2015 Feminist Porn Awards in April. I was also very happy to share an award with Pandora Blake for our film Instructed, which won Best BDSM Scene.
My films also screened at festivals around the world including Pornotopia in Albuquerque, the Xposed International Queer Film Festival in Berlin, Pop Porn in Brazil, the Holy Fuck Film Festival in Amsterdam, Muestra Marrana in Mexico, Le Fete Du Slip in Switzerland, East Bay Briefs in San Francisco and of course Cinekink and the Berlin Porn Film Fest, among others.
I’ve maintained a hectic shooting and editing schedule this year to keep up with the demands of Bright Desire, which turned 3 on the 1st of December. In 2015 I shot 15 scenes and edited and uploaded 12 of those, along with a couple of mini documentaries and short films. On top of that I finished the final edit of The Fantasy Project and created the VOD section on Bright Desire to enable people to view it online. It’s also now available on Gamelink and Hotmovies.
I also revamped and relaunched Pure Cunnilingus, an AVS site I’ve been running since 2002. It’s now a small paysite.
I’ve also written a number of essays for upcoming academic journals, had a review published in the Porn Studies journal and had a chapter published in Jiz Lee’s Coming Out Like A Porn Star (here’s my review of the other essays).
I guess it’s not surprising that I haven’t blogged much again this year. Indeed, I wrote in May about having porn burnout, though shooting some amazing scenes not long after helped revive me. Two of the major pieces of writing I did this year went onto Medium in the hope of getting SFW viewers. One, on ethics and James Deen, is listed above, the other is How To Be An Anti-Porn Campaigner, which I wrote in response to anti-porn writer Laura McNally (it combines two posts from this blog).
I later encountered Laura and her usual tactics in an alleged “debate” on The Ethics Centre site about whether male porn stars could be feminist. I stuck to the topic, Laura just wrote an anti-porn rant. I want to point out, The Ethics Centre didn’t pay me for that piece but they also refused to give me a link because I make porn. Nice ethics there guys.
I also wrote about what I termed “panicdotal evidence” when it came to stories on the harm of porn. And I wrote about how Australian Women’s Forum was my revolution. But beyond that, the blog has been very parched lately. Hopefully I can fix that in 2016.
2015 has been a very successful year for me. I want to thank all the supporters of my work, especially those lovely people who actually buy my porn. I’m also grateful to the wonderful performers I’ve worked with, without whom I couldn’t make my films. Also big thanks to my spouse Luke, who has become the colour correction genius this year.
Onward and upward! Cheers.
Have I missed anything? Email me: msnaughty at msnaughty.com
Previous Retrospectives:
Porn for Women Retrospective 2014 – Pornhub stats, facesitting protests and defining “sexual stimulation” in Vimeo
Porn for Women Retrospective 2013 – James Deen, more feminist porn, Porn Studies and Eric Northman naked
Porn for Women Retrospective 2012 – Fifty Shades of Grey, romance porn, After Pornified and the growth of feminist porn
Porn for Women Retrospective 2011 – Younger women using porn, more hot movies, sites and festivals.
Porn for Women Retrospective 2010 – “Hello Ladies”, queer fun, more hot movies and anti-porn crusades.
Porn for Women Retrospective 2009 – Oprah, awards and increasing censorship
Porn for Women Retrospective 2008 – Goodbye Playgirl, more queer porn, erotica book covers, The Porn Report and more.
Porn for Women Retrospective 2007 – That housework book, Daniel Craig in togs and blowjob debates
Porn for Women Retrospective 2006 – Inaugural Feminist Porn Awards, CAKE and Ellora’s Cave
Image credits:
Stoya 2014 © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com via Wikimedia Commons
Erika Lust by Fabrizia via Wikimedia Commons
PorYes awards by the PorYes committee, via Facebook
Feminist Porn Award for Instructed by Pandora Blake