Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, feminism and sex in general
The newspapers seem to have gone into a gurgling meltdown this week over the upcoming Sex and The City Movie. Which prompts me to rant. Me and Sex and The City were not friends. It pissed me off. I think I only managed to watch a couple of episodes before I gave up in frustration. Sure, it was nice to have a show that talked so openly about sex, but Read More …
On October 20, 2003 an article called “The Porn Myth” by Naomi Wolf appeared in NYMag. The article suggests that porn desensitises men to real women and thus ruins relationships. She says that women now have to compete with a porn star aesthetic: Now you have to offer—or flirtatiously suggest—the lesbian scene, the ejaculate-in-the-face scene. Being naked is not enough; you have to be buff, be tan with no tan Read More …
I’ve now watched Erika Lust’s debut film Five Hot Stories For Her and I have to say I’m very impressed. This film won movie of the year at the Feminist Porn Awards and I think it deserved it. Certainly this film now shares a spot on my “all time favourites” list. Five Hot Stories For Her is a pretty good title. This movie has consists of five individual short films, Read More …
Surfing around today I was slightly startled to discover that women’s porn sites have been the subject of a very serious academic paper. Women’s Porno: The heterosexual female gaze in porn sites “for women” by Terrie Schauer is an 18 page article first published in the journal Sexuality and Culture two years ago. Here’s the abstract: The article deals with a number of Internet sites claiming to specialize in providing Read More …
April 14 is Cake and Cunnilingus Day, now in its third year. Yes, I made it up. I decided to reject the stupid masculinist idea of “steak and a blowjob day” by creating my own silly girly holiday. Does it help the cause of feminism? I’m buggered if I know. Anyway, it’s two months after the gushy sentamentality of Valentine’s Day and it’s a good day to simply indulge in Read More …
Following last weekend’s Feminist Porn Awards, there’s been the inevitable debate about whether feminist porn can even exist. Violet Blue’s SFGate column discusses the idea and at the time of writing there are no less than 806 comments. I have only read the first 6… it’s too nice a day to even consider going through the rest. There’s also a high-falutin’ discussion at Finally Feminism 101. This one is interesting Read More …
The London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, hosted by the BFI, featured a special selection of female-focused and produced erotica. Under the banner “Female Fantasies”, the festival screened a number of erotic shorts by female filmmakers, including Petra Joy. From festival website: A new wave of feminist pornographers explore authentic onscreen sexuality with humour, edge, and style. Celebrating bisexual and lesbian women’s fantasies, they are not afraid to cross genre Read More …
Good For Her’s 3rd Annual Feminist Porn Awards have been announced following a ceremony held in Toronto on Saturday night. The list of winners: Boundary Breaker of the Year Buck Angel Smutty Schoolteacher of the Year (Educational Title) Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Oral Sex Part 1 Cunnilingus and Part 2 Fellatio | Tristan Taormino; Vivid Ed Hottest Dyke Film Crash Pad Series Volume 1 | Shine Louise Houston; Pink Read More …
No, that title doesn’t mean your usual girl-girl, long fingernail stuff. I’m talking about real life lesbians, making porn that reflects their sexuality. Today I stumbled on a rather extensive academic essay entitled The Politics Of Lesbian Pornography. The author looks at the contrast between anti-porn feminism and the work of lesbian filmmakers such as SIR and Fatale Video. The essay seems to date from about 2001. I skimmed through Read More …
I told myself I wasn’t going to write about the Porn for Women book anymore because I’m sick of feeding their first page Google ranking while my blog languishes in purgatory for this particular term. But I can’t help it. Today I found the Chronicle Books blog which has a number of posts by the authors of “that book.” One asks women to submit “fantasies” for future books. Readers have Read More …
Violet Blue’s SF column this week, Ugly Violet, and her subsequent blog post has really struck a chord with me. She writes about the way comment trolls dismiss women because of their appearance and the body image issues women have in our culture. This is a conversation we need to be having and one I considered writing about a while ago. I must admit, I never got around to doing Read More …
Every now and again I search Google news for the term “porn for women” just in case someone has mentioned women’s erotica in the news. It’s popping up rather heavily at the moment but, unfortunately, the subject isn’t about porn. The cause of all the fuss is that damn Porn For Women book which features clothed men doing housework, combined with captions like “That’s OK honey, I’ll do the dishes.” Read More …
On the weekend I watched Petra Joy’s latest film “Feeling It” and I’m ready to announce that it’s the greatest porn for women movie EVER. Yes, yes, I know that’s what I said about her last film, Female Fantasies, but this is a NEW one. And I don’t think I’ve got enough rampant adjectives to describe how fantastic I think this movie is. It’s lush, it’s sensual, it’s raunchy, it’s Read More …
I got a bit of a surprise when I visited Good For Her and discovered that they’ve moved the date for the feminist porn awards forward by two months. Which is why I haven’t mentioned anything about this year’s awards before this. Unfortunately my friend Chanelle Gallant has left the store so I’m a bit out of the loop now. Anyway, the 2008 Feminist Porn Awards will be announced on Read More …
The recent Cinekink erotic film festival in New York featured a panel discussion called “Women Behind The Lens” featuring Candida Royalle, Audacia Ray and Julie Simone. There’s a video of the whole discussion here. I haven’t watched it yet because I just don’t have the time today but it’s there if you’re interested. Audacia has blogged about her participation here. Both she and Cory Silverberg question the validity of the Read More …