![\"Stormy](\"https:\/\/msnaughty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/stormydaniels-e1390099630402.jpg\" "\\"Stormy")
It’s a big week for feminist porn thanks to panels and awards at the two major industry shows – AEE\/AVN Awards and the XBiz 360 conference. The fact that the mainstream industry is starting to sit up and take notice of the movement suggests the message is getting out there… and I think they see a possible new market.<\/p>\n
On Friday 17th Jan AVN played host to a panel called “The Feminist Porn Mystique”<\/a> . This featured performers Jiz Lee and Nina Hartley, webmistress Angie Rowntree and directors Dana Vespoli and Stormy Daniels (pictured). Unfortunately I couldn’t be there for the event (being in Australia does make life difficult sometimes) but luckily academic Lynn Comella, who has a chapter in the Feminist Porn Book<\/a>, was live tweeting it.<\/p>\n So halfway through the session this happened:<\/p>\n Dude in the audience cannot seem to grasp the idea that sexism exists or that structural inequalities are real. #AEE<\/a> #AVN<\/a> #FeministPorn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Lynn Comella (@LynnComella) January 17, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And I think it might be fair to say that there are still a lot of people in the porn industry who feel the same way. They certainly don’t see anything wrong with the way porn is made now. But perhaps more interesting was this:<\/p>\n Stormy Daniels says she’s not comfortable with the label “feminist porn” *during* the feminist porn panel. (Awkward?) #AVN<\/a> #AEE<\/a> #AEExpo<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Lynn Comella (@LynnComella) January 17, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s a pretty strange thing to be saying when you’re *on* the panel. But then again, perhaps not. I think Stormy may have been there to represent a somewhat skeptical and increasingly defensive industry that has heard the criticism inherent in feminist porn and has got its back up.<\/p>\n I’ve encountered this defensiveness before. The ongoing emphasis on ethical production when it comes to feminist porn can be read as an assumption that other porn isn’t<\/em> made ethically. Obviously that’s not true; plenty of companies in the mainstream industry are doing the right thing by their performers. The difference is that feminist porn creators are making those ethics explicit and are including it as a label in their marketing, like organic food labelling. This is happening because of the widespread belief (and sometimes reality) that porn abuses and exploits the women involved.<\/p>\n Last week I tweeted a link to a Funny Or Die piece featuring a wish-list for porn<\/a>.* It was mostly quoting a piece by Lacey Black at MikeSouth.com but at the end the unnamed FOD authors added the following “wish”:<\/p>\n Enough of the \u201cFeminist Porn\u201d labeling.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Yes, Ms. Director, you are female, are a self-described feminist, and making porn with soft filters, harp music, and extended expository dialogue scenes to establish it\u2019s all female-positive, but let\u2019s face it: it\u2019s still porn as soon as the actors start having sex of any kind. \u00a0Yes, DO practice ethical shooting practices, treat your performers well, avoid activities that may cause injury or illness, but let\u2019s all try to think of a new term for it? \u00a0Last I checked, the term \u201cFeminism\u201d was defined as \u201cthe advocacy of women\u2019s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men\u201d. \u00a0That is a sociological\/political term, not a definition of movie shooting style! \u00a0All women viewers are individuals and have a vast variety of tastes and turn-ons. \u00a0Lumping them all together for some sort of political statement is not real helpful in diversifying the styles and genres of content that we produce and direct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Where to begin with this? There’s the conflation of feminist porn with the stereotypical idea of “harp music” porn for women. The idea that a movie shooting style can’t be feminist or try to depict a feminist gaze. Or that porn is “just porn” and can never be political or artistic. Then there’s triumphant dictionary definition and the concept that feminist porn is trying to dictate “what women want”.\u00a0 And how about the idea that feminist porn is somehow counteracting a pre-existing movement within the mainstream industry to diversify the styles and genres of porn? (And this exists… where?)<\/p>\n The level of misunderstanding is impressive. And it makes me think that this is perhaps how a lot of others in the industry view feminist porn, which is why a major studio director would feel uncomfortable with the term.<\/p>\n But when I read that quote, my immediate thought was: we’re having an impact<\/em> – enough to make people whine about the label and impose their own definitions on the term. People are getting offended by the idea of “feminist porn” because it’s making them think critically about porn in general. It’s pointing out that porn isn’t perfect and that structural inequalities DO exist… and it’s making people like the interrupting dudebro at the AVN panel want to assert that everything is fine as it is, thank you.<\/p>\n On top of that, feminist porn is getting the media and it’s also getting the audience. There’s a real desire to see a better, more inclusive type of porn. And I think we’re also showing that people who want ethical porn are also more inclined to PAY for it. Ultimately, this comes down to marketing and market forces.<\/p>\n No matter how uncomfortable it makes them, I’m looking forward to the mainstream industry embracing some of the ideals of feminist porn. Then we won’t have need for separate labels. It can just be “porn”. But that seems a way off yet.<\/p>\n Edit 29th January 2014:<\/strong> Cosmopolitan has an interview with Stoya<\/a>. The piece mainly discusses piracy but the well-known star had this to say about feminist porn:<\/p>\n \u201cThe concept of porn for women drives me insane,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018We made porn for women because you\u2019re all exactly the same and want the same things.\u2019 The concept of feminist porn as well. Feminism can be great, can be horrible. … I\u2019m just so offended by the whole idea of catering it toward women.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I really would like to take Stoya and James Deen aside and have a chat about this. In any case, here’s another example of how “feminist porn” is coming to mean only one thing in industry minds.<\/p>\n Edit: 30th January 2014: Another article about AVN at Forbes<\/a> seems to dismiss the idea of feminist porn, thanks partially to Stormy Daniels’ comment:<\/p>\n What is feminist porn? That remains unclear. Several of the panelists describe themselves as feminists; for others, a feminist porn production is more focused on \u201csexual agency\u201d and erotic authenticity, plausible story lines and diverse body types.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not entirely comfortable with the label \u2018feminist porn,\u2019\u201d Stormy announces mid-discussion. \u201cWhat does my vagina have to do with it?\u201d she asks the crowd rhetorically. \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just be a great director?\u201d<\/p>\n No one has an answer for her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n *As an aside, this wish list closely resembles my Good Porn Manifesto<\/a> post from 2006, sad that things haven’t changed much<\/p>\n # Image of Stormy Daniels\u00a0 by Glenn Frances from Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"