Can't a feminist enjoy a blowjob???
I participated in a debate about women and porn in the last Berlin PornFilmFestival together with other female filmmakers, and as usual when speaking about sex, porn, feminism, porn for women and porn by women we didn’t quite all agree on all matters. I think that it’s great to see new women entering the porn business and showing their points of view behind the cameras as creators, directors and producers. These women should be able to express their sexuality without limits, the same way as male directors have been doing for ages.
But it’s a pity that certain women devote their time and energy pulling down the work of other women, instead of focusing on empowering our different approaches and points of view. It is not the first time and it won’t be the last time that a woman disapproves how other women are obtaining power and voice in a world still dominated by men. This new female porn war is not as the pro-sex feminists against no-porn feminists war, now it’s about what is considered to be the right kind of sex for a feminist... (is there such a thing as “right” sex and “wrong” sex???)
After the debate, Petra Joy, a female porn producer, wrote in her in her Blog:
“I believe that any female filmmaker has he right to show whatever she wants in her films but we should be cautious with our content if we claim to make “feminist porn”. I would like to empower women and this is why I choose to focus on women receiving pleasure rather than just giving it, and I also prefer to show orgasms in different ways such as showing the lover’s faces, rather than ending every scene with a male cum-shot over the woman’s body. If we produce films and call them “female friendly” or “feminist” yet the actual sexual content still focuses mainly on male pleasure and copies a commercially successful mainstream porn formula, then the powerful words that should have a very deep meaning are being mocked and hijacked as a marketing gimmick. Feminism is committed to equality of the sexes, so surely “feminist porn” should show women as equals to men rather than as subservient beings. A woman receiving head, a woman fucking a guy with a strap-on, a guy tasting his own cum and also to feature female ejaculation – those techniques that show a woman in control might be “feminist porn”. If you want to show cum on a woman’s face that’s fine but don’t call it feminist.”
Isn’t it funny? We have a new fundamentalist movement going on here: the Church of the Pure Feminist Porn Producers, and they are declaring that certain sexual practices that me and other women across the world happen to like, are a sin, and that we should be expelled from their pure circle. Well, guess what? I do not want to be part of a club that tells me what it’s ok to do in my bedroom or to portrait in my films, because last time I checked that was called censorship.
Ehh, it all makes me kind of wanna quit feminism and just be a HUMAN BEING, for me this is the goal of feminism anyway. But “being a feminist” is for me as obvious as that white and black people should have the same rights.
I don’t believe that the word “feminist” can be applied on sexual practices. That’s like saying that red is a feminist color and blue isn’t or fish is feminist but not meat. According to Petra, it's feminist to suck dildos, but it's not feminist to suck cocks??? And if there's a man in the scene, he should be fucked up his butt - a man fucked up his butt is feminist, but a woman fucked up her butt is not? Come on!
I consider myself a feminist no matter my sexual activities. I believe that feminism is about equality of the sexes, about women having the same rights and possibilities as men, about women having the right to be looked upon as human beings at firsthand and not defined by what is supposed to be feminine. For me “feminist porn” is porn that shows real women and real men having real sex, not just women obedient to men reproducing classic power structures, not just objectified women, not just women giving pleasure but also receiving pleasure. It’s all about not falling into the stereotyping of characters that most porn filmmakers use, not every woman has to be a prostitute and not every man a mafia gangster. For me feminist porn should portray women’s fantasies and desires – all of them. I certainly know that a woman can be a strong feminist and still wanting to be taken strongly by a man or enjoying blowing a man’s cock or having his cum all over her face.
Erika Lust
UPDATE NOV 9: Audacia Ray has wrote a clear statement in her blog here
Posted by ERIKA LUST at 3:53 PM
17 Comments
Great statement Erika, I totally agree with you!
I noticed that Petra Joy's film FEMALE FANTASIES was nominated together with your FIVE HOT STORIES FOR HER in VENUS Belin. You got the award, so maybe she is upset about that. Nobody likes to loose!
hi erika,
i liked your post, i believe that you should be able to portray whatever sexual practices you wish in your films. but when i think about your scenes i realize that your actually showing a lot of the activities that Petra calls "feminist porn":
"- A woman receiving head, a woman fucking a guy with a strap-on, a guy tasting his own cum and also to feature female ejaculation – those techniques that show a woman in control might be “feminist porn”."
your female protagonists recieves head. ok there is no guy being fuked with a strap-on but even better a man being fucked by another man (and sucked by the way... should a man blowed by another man be considered feminist ? :). regarding a guy tasting his own cum, you show this twice, once explicit and in another scene a man shows that he is not afraid of giving the girl a kiss even if she has cum on her face. about women in control all of your female protagonists seems to be in control, even the one that is not in a dominating position during the sex is clearly the one in charge. ok there is no female ejaculation, but the women are having orgasms even if they don't spray, and it's the orgasm's that counts not the spraying.
i think you did a good job with your film and i definitely consider it to be feminist porn!
please don't quit on feminism, feminism need women like you to stand up for our rights, otherwise we will get extinguished.
I think that as long as the women in a porn video are portrayed as having as much fun as the men, then that porn is significantly more feminist than regular porn. Whatever label you or someone viewing it assigns to it, that is feminist porn.
After watching the trailer for 5 Hot Stories for Women, my friends and I can't wait to see the full movie. It looks like the best porn movie of the year!
Greetings,
I completely agree with you. But unfortunately for us and our ilk, the Andrea Dworkins of the world have allies in both left-feministm and neo-conservatism. Dworkin + Religious Right: strange bedfellows, indeed (pun intended).
I would argue that to deny women a place in pornography is to be complicit in promulgating traditional patriarchal "values," i.e., to "keep women proper and in their place." Is not sexual libertarianism a spit in the face of these quaint "values?" I, for one, would argue that it is nothing short of total war on a patriarchy that was thought to be abandoned years ago, but remains in place thanks to many feminists' irritating case of Stockholm Syndrome.
He encontrado tu blog de casualidad y me parece genial, no solo por lo que dices, sino como lo dices! Sinceramente soy un chico gay, pero me encanta el porno y cuando descubrí The Good Girl me encantó la forma de dirigirla pero... Five histories for her me ha parecido mucho mejor.
tienes mucha razón en tu artículo, en especial en el último parrafo, lo comparto al 100%, y sin lugar a duda una mujer puede disfrutar muchisimo de una polla o que se corran en su cara, sin necesidad de parecer una puta!
besis
I just happened to see this by accident, the statement made.
And heres my 2cents on the matter.
As a guy i don't mind a feministic view on porn and they should be there as an option for people that want that.
What struck me was that some of the things youve included is by far not part of a "normal" sexual film. I say if you want to include blowjobs etc. Put it in, But your also mentioning obvious homosexual acts.
I mean women doing anal on men and men on men action is part of different world.
how many men can say they enjoy anal pleasure except for the gay world? and licking their own semen?
And lastly your the film maker, noone can come and tell you what to do. You belive your makeing a film with feministic values. Then you are.
randomperson: I understand your distaste for "women on men" scenes, but I don't agree with your conclusion that this is an necessarily an indication of homosexual tendencies on the part of the male. In anal penetration (i.e., penetration of a MALE), the prostate is stimulated, which often results in orgasm. Whether or not such behavior is NORMAL is not for you or me to decide; that is, it can only be called "normal" in relation to social norms.
Homosexual anal sex is a homosexual act. This is a tautology and the denial of this is a logical contradiction. However, homosexual sex is NOT necessarily indicative of one's own sexuality one way or another (there are many performers in homosexual films who are not homosexual themselves, for instance). Conversely, one can be a lifelong virgin and still be homosexual if one is attracted to individuals of the same sex, even if one never acts on one's desire.
Personally, I tend to lean toward a Kinseyan interpretation of sexuality, so I don't really subscribe to a "black and white" interpretation of sexuality, but for the sake of argument, I have adopted this position.
To answer your question:
Of course.
I am no antifeminist, only because I enjoy blowjobs or golden showers. It is the way HOW this is portrayed (in porn). I dont like degrading, mysoginistic treatment, insultings, a primitive language, hate in porn. Most normal porn movies have all of these elements, more or less. Ive only liked our dutch teen porn movies by Video Art Holland, who showed, that porn movies can be fun, joy, lust and dont need to degrade and humiliate girls. Real good porn movies should interest both, women and men. Its not important, if these are called "couple friendly" or "feminist". It depends on the point of view.
I agree with Caroline-NL. It's not about WHAT is done, but HOW it is done.
Feminist porn is porn that make people free to do whatever they want. It is also porn where there is no power imbalance.
Or if there is power imbalance, it exists in the form of play, in a safe space, in an environment of respect (like BDSM).
Basically feminist porn is respectful porn. It's not at all about reversing the roles, where women are now taking the role of the oppressor.
I posted this in Audacia Ray's blogs as well after reading what you both had to say, so I'd like to see if I get any different responses here.
I think you're right about a lot of things, but I cant understand how getting cummed straight on the face isn't anything but degrading to a girl... It makes me grimace just to watch.
First off, I've NEVER seen or heard of a girl ejaculating on a MALE'S face. I only see the guys shooting cum at the girl's face in all those thousands of porn videos. So that makes it pretty obvious to me that its not exactly equal treatment, and it definitely doesn't look respectful towards the girl at all. It also really makes the girl look ridiculously stupid and trashy, as if she was really that ignorant to what was going on and had absolutely no dignity and demand for more respectful treatment.
I seriously want to know how could it be even remotely enjoyable to get on your knees and let some guy aim his cock at you, and squirt until your face is dripping with slimy cum? It looks like one of the most demeaning things you could do to a woman.
Do these girls just IGNORE the fact thats it looks extremely degrading and try to act sexy anyway with their cum plastered faces? I think someone should take a photo of them while this is happening and show them later how dumb they appear.
And do feminists honestly think this is fair and honorable treatment of women in porn films?
I hope not... If anyone dared to suggest giving me cum facial, I would promptly smack some reality across their face. Its disappointing to see so many other women act exactly the way we don't want to be portrayed: stupid, ignorant, and unable to possess enough dignity and respect for themselves. Watching the trashy way they can behave just for money or loads of attention almost makes me ashamed to be someone from this sex.
Come on! I'm sure we can all do A LOT better than that.
we bulls get our vitamins from face sitting
I´m agree with U Erika, I feel that women are inflatable dolls in porn movies.
I can´t assume men finishing their sexual acts with a masturbation over a pretty girl... As if there had nobody else.
Personally, I never jerk my cock if I have e girl in front of me... That´s a foolish onanism game.
In fact, I have enought proofs to say that all porn actors are gays, specially those who have a big dick... Fck them.
Fabián, from Barcelona
Conozco poco de tu trabajo, cosa que pienso solucionar en breve, porque me ha llamado la atención que te guste la magnífica 'Things we lost in the fire' y odies 'Infiltrados', ese mala copia plano por plano de la gran película china 'Infernal affairs' con Jack Nicholson sobreactuado en su papel de machito. En cambio qué grande Benicio del Toro y, qué pedazo de actriz Halle Berry. Ha sido un placer coincidir así con alguien.
Feliz Navidad
Mm... Arden, I get that you feel it looks ugly, but for the sake of the argument, I did see this same discussion on another forum. A woman wrote in response to someone saying this was "degrading" by replying that "it's not a degradation, but a celebration." That is, this was her sharing something joyful with her husband. Granted, and I agree, that's not what we see happening in a lot of porn--too little of it, in fact!--but it doesn't have to be a horrible, disgusting thing, any more than sex itself is. I guess I would say that if feminism becomes separatism, and anything male is considered intrinsically disgusting or un-feminist, we have to define what we want feminism to mean. Is it equal rights and an end to violence against women? Then I'm all for it, and I don't see that it has to exclude male sexuality. Is it separatism? Then I think it is doomed to bitter failure. We are all worth something, men and women, and we should all be included in the world. I say feminist film-making should include any activity that isn't degrading to women, and I bet many women would include blowjobs in that.
(Oh, to clarify--when I say "too little of it, in fact," that means that too little porn seems to be such a celebration, and too much of it does seem to be crass and ugly--but that has to do with the disinterested way that the directors and actors shoot it, without any concern for the actual joy that should be part of it.)
This is an odd argument as I think you're saying pretty much the same thing as Petra. I agree with her completely. There are far too many movies portraying a submissive type of relationship. There's a need for fresh, realistic and human point of view on sexuality, and that's a direction where women producers should be leading. You see too many awful stuff in porn and I tend to believe women get turned on by them because, without any other option, they ended up associating them with their own pleasure, even though they clearly taylored to suit a domineering male need, devoided of emotion. I guess that's not what women really like, but more what they were thaught to like. I don't find anything particularily sexy in having a woman all covered in semen. Equality in sex would be recieving an equal amount of pleasure as your partner, and as long as he doesn't get covered in goo or pee or any other bodily secretion, I don't see why a woman would ;)
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