Feminist Porn Wars
With a few notable exceptions, this sex blog generally stays away from the feminist porn wars, which always strike me as being in the nature of unhappy negotiations over the way political correctness ought to be defined by and among its most cutting-edge advocates and devotees.
Still, the wars continue, whether I blog about them or not. Case in point: this account from Audacia Ray, about some flack she took for allowing oppressive patriarchal semen to touch women’s bodies in a porn movie she made:
I was on a panel called “Good Porn for Good Girls� that featured some female porn directors. When I first found out about the panel, I was a little apprehensive - the idea of me being a good girl is kind of funny (to say the least), and it’s also annoying that despite the fact that I’ve never called The Bi Apple “porn for women,� other people enthusiastically slap that label on it. I’m a woman, and a self-identified feminist. Ergo, my porn must be for women.
Really, I find this tiresome - I made The Bi Apple for people who want to see a slightly different vision of sexual interaction, people who are queer or pansexual or just plain curious about people and bodies and fucking. Women are of course invited - but so is everyone.
…
Anyway … the panel quickly devolved into an argument about blowjobs. A few audience members questioned the prevalence of blowjobs in Erika Lust’s films and the extent to which giving a blowjob is a feminist act. Erika quickly said that she personally likes giving blowjobs, which is why they are in her films so much, and she personally is a feminist, so do the math. It definitely seemed like the crowd didn’t buy this explanation.
I’ve seen this happen too when people ask “Why do the men in your movie ejaculate on the women’s bodies?� and my answer “I asked the female performers where they wanted the cum, so it’s all up to them where it’s deposited� is often greeted with skepticism. This kind of skepticism is the stuff of “false consciousness� - or the belief that if only we (being Erika, me, and female porn performers who like getting cum on them) were radicalized to better understand our oppression, we would know that cocksucking and money shots are Bad For Women.
First off, what they are saying is “bad for women” depends upon the perspective of who i saying. That being said, I am male, yet I prefer lesbian films, I prefer dominatrix films, and I prefer the wonderfully imaginitive softcore porn that has a *gasp* story. So I guess that makes me a feminist male, of a sort. I have noticed, that the male dominated porn industry keeps getting a smaller and smaller throne, as people are seeing there is a wide range of flavors emerging from other sources, mainly the women of porn.
I understand that porn is supposed to serve a purpose, but the object of that purpose has been redefined through time. It is unfortunate that some of the feminists have gone from being about women’s rights, to becoming so Dianic that they have become anti-male.
Final bit, and on a lighter note…
money shots…personally, with inflation, and everything, the money shots in a 20-30 dollar dvd, are probably only worth 2 cents for the quality and style invested for the poor guy to “do his business for the money”. Now a real money shot? Well, how about around the head, between the breasts, under the legs, and back up between the lips, nothing but tongue.
What is and what is not feminist is precisely whatever the grand ranging vista of females say that it is. It is not about narrowing the choices of women, but about broadening them. If anything, (Purely being the devil’s advocate here, and taking an opposing position to my own statement), feminism is heterosexual activity, because the majority of females claim to be hetero. People who relate feminism with the hatred of or the exclusion of men, are harming the very gender they claim to champion, and obviously have an agenda that takes a deviating path to true feminism. If even a small percentage of women enjoy contact with semen, it is a feminist activity that they have a right to enjoy if they want to. If it was true that only a small faction of women enjoyed porn, that would still make it a feminist activity.
In my experience, it has always been the repressed females who shy away from giving head, and the more self-actualized are the ones who truely enjoy it.
Ugh, fanatical feminism at its finest. “Men can’t tell you what to do, but as I woman, I totally can.” Lovely.
I don’t know what the debate is. Considering feminism is supposed to be about choice, it bothers me that some feminists run around yelling about how a woman giving her SO a blow job is somehow degrading.
I like giving oral sex. I don’t feel degraded or oppressed. If anything, I feel more empowered because I have most of the control in that situation.
Well, how about around the head, between the breasts, under the legs, and back up between the lips, nothing but tongue.
Cum, even in movies doesn’t bounce and these guys are no Michael Jordan.
“Off the satellite, of the empire state building, though the window, off the rafters, off the wall, nothing but net.
I never thought I’d think of old McDonald’s commercials reading a blog about sex.
I think real feminism is about breaking down walls and replacing them with new ideas.
You can’t JUST break down walls. I you did the feminist identity would be a reactionary pile of rubble.
I think feminist literary style deconstruction of porn imagery is a wall that has already been broken for a lot of people who are feminists and like porn.
Lots of us have been running back and forth over the previous site of that wall building a sex positive identity and having fun.
People are rebuilding on the site, just like Audacia Ray, but some individuas who havn’t been paying close attention say. “Wait! What about that wall! Someone needs to do something about that wall!”
I think at this point, it is more likely a personal wall than a fixture of society.
Looks like I’m joining the conversation a little late. I need to visit eros blog more often!
It seems like this is an issue of sex positivity.
I think one’s sexual preferences (or non-preferences as the case may be) has less to do with feminist identity, and more to do with a generalization of cultural sexism. Women who enjoy giving head should not be held to the same double standard as in the past, for women who enjoy sex.
There are open-minded feminists (both making their own porn, and buying and watching porn) who are sex positive. Feminist pornographers are making conscious decisions in their films.
*Audacia Ray * Shine Louise Houston * Tristan Taormino*
I love me some sex-positive feminist porn!
Jiz Lee