Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, feminism and sex in general
Good porn, bad porn, new developments in the industry, gossip
It’s a bit much really. Just weeks after coming home from a holiday in France I’m about to fly back to Europe to attend the Berlin Porn Film Festival. It’s costing me way too much money and I’m not looking forward to another 23 hours on a plane but I felt like I’d be missing an important opportunity if I didn’t go. My short film The Thought Of Her is Read More …
In February I met Dr Clarissa Smith who told me about the massive research project into porn that she was undertaking with collegues Feona Attwood and Martin Barker. Not long after they put out the call for porn users to participate in their survey which aimed to look at porn use in a non-judgemental way. They received 5,490 responses to their questionaire and a heap of extended emails. They’re currently Read More …
I’d like to thank ethicist Leslie Cannold for writing this on her blog today. It’s an excerpt from a longer essay called Pornography’s Effects: The Need for Solid Evidence by Ronald Weitzer. You can read the full thing here. The essay, published in the journal Violence Against Women, points out that a lot of the rhetoric of Gail Dines and other anti-porn campaigners is not backed up by any solid Read More …
There’s a logical fallacy called “cherry picking” which is essentially this: you come up with a hypothesis. You then seek out data to back your assertions. You ignore any contradictory evidence and only use the stuff that supports your theory. Then you write a book about it. Cue the articles in major newspapers and interviews on TV. Suddenly, your delightful theory is accepted uncritically as fact. Thus, we come to Read More …
Last Friday I heard that anti-porn author Gail Dines was going to appear on the ABC’s interactive program Q&A. As the public is invited to submit questions, I thought I’d add mine. It went something like: Gail Dines dismisses feminist porn by saying it’s not different enough from mainstream porn. What kind of sexually explicit material would be OK by her personal feminist standards? I signed it as “Louise Lush” Read More …
Gail Dines is doing the rounds and she’s back in Australia promoting censorship of porn, saying that “there is no room for porn in a just society.” The response to that is a whole other blog post (although I have 2 comments on that story). Today Joel Tozer, a freelance writer, offers his reply to Dines’ piece here. And while it’s mostly OK, I’ve got a problem with his basic Read More …
A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed (in my Louise Lush filmmaking persona) by Alyssa McDonald and the end result was published today in the SMH: Feminist Porn Faces Hardcore Critics. I had a decent chat with Alyssa and showed her my film which she enjoyed. I think the end result isn’t too bad, although I wish she’d included some of the other things I’d said. I also have Read More …
Not a bad little video.
The Guardian likes to attract clicks by including articles about porn but often the articles are negative in tone and rely on the arguments of anti-porn feminists like Gail Dines. Thankfully they’ve taken a step in the right direction by offering a story on porn for women and including comments by Erika Lust, Anna Span and Petra Joy. Aside from talking about women’s porn like it’s a new thing, the Read More …
The other day I saw an ad for a porn site that I found rather disturbing. It was a looped flash video ad that featured a couple having very rough sex. The woman was “fish hooked” (had a finger in her mouth, dragging her head back at a painful angle), a penis was rubbed roughly on her face, she was choked and slapped. She also didn’t seem to be enjoying Read More …
It’s becoming increasingly apparent in the debates surrounding porn that statistics are being used like weapons. At the recent Cambridge debate, data, or the lack thereof, was an important factor in how points were presented. And dodgy statistics and studies about porn seem to be everywhere. Now we have a chance to help create some unbiased research into the topic of how people use porn. Pornography Research Online wants to Read More …
Lady Porn Day. There are so many things I could write about porn for women* and women’s enjoyment of porn. And there’s so much I’ve already written; the landing page of my blog has a whole bunch of posts that I recommend you read. What I want to do here is talk about the future of women’s porn because perhaps Lady Porn Day is a marker of sorts. It feels Read More …
On the 17th of February, the Cambridge University Union Society hosted a debate entitled This House Believes Pornography Does A Good Public Service. On the “for” side were feminist porn filmmaker Anna Span, sex educator and therapist Jessi Fischer (The Sexademic) and porn actor Johnny Anglais. On the “against” side were anti-porn feminist Gail Dines, child psychologist Richard Woolfson and Shelly Lubben, ex prostitute and porn actress, now an evangelical Read More …
Well folks, I did it. I successfully gave my presentation “Girly Smut: A History Of Porn For Women” at the Erotic Screen and Sound Conference on the 17th. While I was pleased that my voice didn’t get quavery, I did end up turning it into a bit of a shambles because I went waaaay over time. I knew the talk was 22 minutes to begin with but I thought I’d Read More …
Another year has whizzed by and it’s time to do another rundown of all things porn for women in 2010. This year the adult industry has again endured tough times in the face of ever-increasing free content and the dismal global economy. Nonetheless, erotic content for women continues to grow and become more popular. There’s been a real attempt by many in the industry to try and cater to women, Read More …