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Just under a year ago I had a fantastic hour-long phone conversation with journalist Zoe Williams on the topic of feminist porn. Zoe was writing for The Guardian and seemed to be very keen on writing a balanced piece on the topic. I even sent a couple of profile pics off to their photography department. And then nothing happened. The piece didn’t appear and after a couple of months I figured it had been spiked, a victim of that newspaper’s usual anti-porn stance.<\/p>\n
So I was thrilled to discover that the piece had finally seen the light of day on November 1. Is There Such A Thing As Ethical Porn?<\/a> is a lengthy article that generally gives a positive overview of ethical, feminist porn and includes interviews with numerous porn colleagues. Front and centre is my friend Pandora Blake who runs the site Dreams Of Spanking<\/a> and she does a fantastic job of detailing what it is we’re trying to do with our porn. My hour-long interview was condensed into the following quote:<\/p>\n Ms Naughty insists that the porn she produces is not done this way: \u201cThere\u2019s this urban myth that all of the women in porn are drug addicts or abused and don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d She doesn\u2019t say this never happens, that nobody is ever on drugs; but when you look at what she makes, you\u2019ve never seen couples who look so consensual, so un-ground down by the heel of life.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make it explicit to the viewer that, no, this hasn\u2019t been produced in that way. I\u2019m going to depict them respectfully, but they\u2019re also having a say in how that depiction is going to come across. I\u2019m not going to say, \u2018Shave off your pubic hair.\u2019 I have a respect for the bodily autonomy of my performers. I\u2019m not going to say, \u2018Go and lose five kilos, you\u2019re too fat.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m fairly happy with that… and VERY happy that the Guardian gave Bright Desire an actual link on their site, which resulted in a huge spike in traffic and sales, for which I’m very grateful.<\/p>\n I was in Berlin the day the article came out so I didn’t get a chance to properly comment on it at the time. Since then a number of very useful blog posts have said pretty much what I was thinking so I want to link to those.<\/p>\n Pandora wrote briefly about the article here<\/a> but gives a full critique of what was said in this blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bacchus at Eros Blog responded<\/a> to Pandora’s quote : \u201cWhen you read them [anti-porn feminists], it\u2019s very obvious that they\u2019ve typed \u2018hardcore gonzo\u2019 into Google and watched the free stuff. They\u2019re obsessed with the worst of it” with some interesting observations of his own, worth reading.<\/p>\n Nica Noelle has a small quote avowing once again that she’s not a feminist (see previous post re this<\/a>) and creates a straw man argument about equal pay in porn, suggesting feminists aren’t discussing this. Rest assured, we are (see Pandora’s post, also this post by me<\/a>).<\/p>\n The quote that really stood out, though, is Julie Bindel’s demand that women not entertain certain fantasies:<\/p>\n \u201cPut it this way, if I had a fantasy about having a black woman on her hands and knees scrubbing my kitchen floor and saying, \u2018Yes madam, no madam\u2019, yes, I would quash it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Suffice to say, I disagree, simply because we need to recognize that sexual fantasies are fantasies<\/em> – they are mere thoughts. The problem with most anti-porn feminism is that it refuses to accept this; people like Julie assume a thought automatically results in an action. This slippery slope argument doesn’t allow for agency or reason to intervene. It casts everyone as having an almost animalistic nature, one that cannot discern imagination from reality.<\/p>\n The fact is that people often have unusual and politically incorrect fantasies, partly because it’s the taboo that turns us on. That doesn’t mean that people want to DO what they imagine. Demanding that people “quash” their secret desires is not only unfeasible (we just have to look at the Catholic church pedophilia scandals to see what happens there), it’s also tantamount to thought crime.<\/p>\n Of course, enjoying a fantasy doesn’t mean you can’t do a bit of self analysis. If you’re having race-based or other taboo fantasies it can be an interesting exercise to examine your thinking and perhaps ponder on the nature of what turns you on. This is different to feeling shame about fantasies or trying to repress them to suit a political agenda.<\/p>\n Valery North expands on this topic well and I recommend you read her blog post<\/a> about Bindel’s quote. I like this:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a belief in society that\u2019s become so ingrained that it\u2019s become a trope: good people have good sex.\u201d Bindel\u2019s remark belies a similar belief: \u201cGood people do not have dark thoughts\u201d and \u201cIf I accept I have a darker side, I cannot be a good person\u201d. And, similarly, \u201cIf you<\/i> have those thoughts or sexual fantasies, then you cannot be a good person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A few days after The Guardian article, The Telegraph weighed in with its own porn piece<\/a>. Unfortunately this one relies heavily on quotes from anti-porn activist and well-known fabricator of anecdotes\/statistics<\/a>, (see also here<\/a> and here<\/a>) Gail Dines. It also happily accepts her use of the term “gonzo” to describe degrading porn, despite the fact that it doesn’t mean that at all<\/a>. The article at least offers differing opinions from Tristan Taormino, Pandora Blake and Dr. Clarissa Smith from Porn Studies, but it doesn’t do them the courtesy of linking to their sites – even though the anti-porn groups were happily linked to.<\/p>\n Interestingly, there’s been a clarification since I last read the article. There’s the last para and the added text:<\/p>\n [Heather Brunskell-Evans co-founder of Resist Porn Culture] has sought out porn made by women but thinks it\u2019s got a long way to go. \u201cIt\u2019s still not about the eroticisation of the male body from a heterosexual woman\u2019s point of view,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d be delighted to find that if it were out there.\u201d My guess is, she\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n Clarification: Dr Brunskell-Evans has asked us to make clear that she regards all heterosexual pornography as sexualized sexism. Porn is unacceptable, in her view, in a democratic society that purports to give women equality of opportunity and value.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s rather fascinating that this person can advocate for a female erotic gaze of the male body but also declare all heterosexual porn to be sexist (so gay\/queer porn is OK then?). Hello cognitive dissonance! I’m now really tempted to offer Heather a membership to my site (hello, hot guys ahoy!) but I suspect she’d dismiss me as just another dirty pornographer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"