Where Can I Find Porn That Isn't Misogynistic?

One of our contributors wrote this in the hope of having it published on one of the blogs that concerns itself with feminist perspectives on sexuality, but they kept being told it was too "journalistic". We're not sure why that is a bad thing, but the author gave up modifying it and has started working on a somewhat different piece with the same theme. So we are posting this version here.

A lot of us have the same problem. We love porn, but we feel like we have to check our politics at the door when we watch it. Well, there's an alternative: Feminist Porn. But where can you find it? And is any of it actually hot?

What do I mean by "Feminist Porn"? Different people have different views about that (see here and here, for example). For now, let's just think of it as porn that presents women as sexual beings equal to men: as sexual actors who are entitled to genuine sexual pleasure, including real orgasms. Feminist Porn does not have to have a plot or be "romantic", let alone "vanilla", though sometimes it does and sometimes it is. The truth is that feminist porn is as varied as the people (not always women!) who make it.

Some of the first Feminist Porn appeared in the 1980s, from Candida Royale's Femme Productions, and many of these movies are still worth watching. I have particularly fond memories of her films Christine's Secret and Three Daughters, which were revolutionary when they were first released. And, though it has been some time since Royale herself directed one, Femme is still releasing movies. Among the best is Petra Joy's film The Female Voyeur, which won the 2012 Feminist Porn Award (FPA) for Steamiest Straight Movie. Interestingly, Joy was active in the anti-porn movement in the 1980s in her native Germany but later decided that she did "not want to leave the production of sexual images completely in male hands". Like Royale, Joy has tried to create a feminine pornography. She says that she wants "to show men as object of female sexual desires", and she makes a point of working with performers who have a variety of body types.

Maybe the most successful feminist pornographer of recent years (or, at least, the most awarded), though, is Erika Lust, a Swedish filmmaker who has won the FPA for Movie of the Year three times: in 2008, for Five Hot Stories For Her; in 2011, for Life Love Lust; and in 2012, for Cabaret Desire. Lust's work is incredibly varied. Five Hot Stories, for example, includes two homosexual scenes, one with women and one with men, as well as three heterosexual scenes. In one of those, a woman videotapes herself having sex with two men and puts it on the web, as revenge for her soon to be ex-husband's affairs.

Lust's films are available at her subscription website Lust Cinema. The site also features the work of other feminist pornographers, such as the French director Ovidie, whose film Infidelity won the 2013 FPA for Movie of the Year. Several of the films mentioned below are also available at Lust Cinema. So, if there is one place someone interested in feminist porn should check out, that would be it.

All of the films I've mentioned so far are very "artsy": the kind of thing you might expect to see at an art house cinema, except for all the sex. That's not a bad thing, by any means, but what if you want to watch something a little less serious?

In 2010, the mainstream studio New Sensations introduced their Romance Series, which includes both dramas and comedies about romantic relationships. The first really great movie in the series was James Avalon's A Little Part of Me, which won the 2011 FPA for Steamiest Romantic Movie. Many of the films released since then are absolutely terrific, too, including the very funny Love Is a Dangerous Game and the adorable Dear Abby, both directed by Eddie Powell. The 2012 release Torn, co-directed by Powell and Jacky St James, won several awards.

More recently, New Sensations has released two movies in a new "Swingers" series that are focused on, yes, swinging. The second of these, Friends With Benefits, directed by the legendary Paul Thomas, won the 2013 FPA for Steamiest Straight Movie. New Sensations have also joined the Fifty Shades craze with a bondage-themed, but still female-friendly movie, The Submission of Emma Marx. The reviewer for Hot Movies for Her called it her "all-time favorite porn flick", and she's seen a few. The other movies in the "Erotic Stories" series, The Temptation of Eve and The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, are also terrific. Sociologist of porn Chautelle Tibbals wrote in her review of the latter that "[t]here are no words to describe" it and that it brought her to "tears that only come when something impacts you so significantly you’re almost bewildered".

The stories in these movies are not always "deep", but they are at least engaging. And the acting is, if not Oscar worthy, at least good enough not to be distracting. But the sex is what makes them special. It is, for the most part, convincing, in a way that porn sex rarely is. Where it is appropriate to the story, for example, there will be kissing and tenderness. Most importantly, in the best scenes, the performers are genuinely enjoying themselves, and the women are having genuine orgasms.

The success of the Romance Series led other studios to follow suit. Wicked Pictures started releasing story-based movies in their Wicked Passions series in 2011. Overall, these are not quite as good, but Love Blossoms, directed by Barrett Blade, and Love and Loss, directed by Stormy Daniels, are both excellent. The last scene in the former, when two long-time friends finally realize their love for each other, might even be described as beautiful. There is a similar series from Smash Pictures, too, the movies being directed by Jim Powers. Both Broken Hearts and Diary of Love are worth watching, even if they are a bit corny, and they've gotten into the Fifty Shades business, too, with their Bound By Desire series.

One of my all-time favorites is Voilá, which was the first movie directed by B Skow for Girlfriends Films, which had previously released only lesbian porn of an authentic sort. The story revolves around the bisexuality of one of the female characters and the unintended consequences of a threesome. The threesome is so well done that it is actually possible to believe that "Liz" is finally realizing her fantasy. The follow-up, Paint, is almost as good, and I particularly enjoyed What Do You Want Me To Say? which tells the story of a couple who can't stop cheating on each other and what they decide to do about it. Be warned, though, that many of B Skow's more recent films have reverted to pretty run of the mill porn.

I'm focusing here on heterosexual feminist porn, since that is actually harder to find than feminist lesbian porn, but if you and yours would enjoy watching women make love to other women, then Girlfriends Films is one good choice. Similar material is available from Sweetheart Video, which was founded by director Nica Noelle in 2008 to present "Real Lovemaking, Real Orgasms" rather than the fakery that passes for "girl on girl" porn elsewhere. And if you want something a little artsy, then check out the wonderful movies from Jincey Lumpkin's Juicy Pink Box, which were awarded FPAs in 2011 and 2012 for Hottest Lesbian Vignette.

Noelle founded Sweet Sinner in 2009 as a heterosexual version of Sweetheart Video. These movies do tell stories, but the plot is usually quite minimal, existing only to provide a frame for the sex. And it's how the sex is presented that makes these films special. Noelle often lets her performers choose with whom they work. She then gets them together, lets them do what they want, and films the action. The sex is extremely realistic, and there is almost always genuine attraction, and passion, between the performers. If you watch just one of these, make it Don Juan's Therapist. The first scene is tender and romantic, yet still red hot. The second is passionate and intense. And let there be no doubt about the "Real Orgasms" part. One almost feels sorry for the men. The women out-orgasm them by about five to one.

Noelle left Sweet Sinner in 2011 to found Hard Candy Films, and their releases have a similar feel. Direction at Sweet Sinner itself has since been taken over by James Avalon. His films are somewhat more polished, but the overall approach is much the same. If I have a criticism of these movies, it is that the story often detracts from the sex. Very often, the plot involves people cheating on each other, seducing their neighbors for fun or profit, and generally acting badly. It does not add to my enjoyment of a sex scene if I know that the characters are in the process of ruining their lives. But the way the sex is shot is just so good, you have to wonder why all porn isn't shot that way.

So there is a lot out there, and there is no way I can cover all of it. But I cannot end without mentioning the groundbreaking work of sex educator and activist Tristan Taormino, who has won a Feminist Porn Award every year they have been given except one. Taormino first became famous for her book The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women, published in 1998, which had the temerity to suggest some women might actually enjoy such a thing. The book was made into two films, the second of which was directed by Taormino herself. She has since directed many more many educational films for Vivid-Ed. These films are both educational and hot, as performers demonstrate how to put Taormino's advice into practice.

Taormino has also made more conventional porn. For her Chemistry series, she brings a group of porn stars together for two days and then just films what happens, with no script and no direction. Her Rough Sex movies are a great example of how un-vanilla feminist porn can be. Each scene begins with an interview with the performers, who discuss their interest in rough sex. Taormino then films them having exactly the kind of sex they have just described, and it gets very rough indeed. What makes it different is that you know, as you watch it, that, even with all the biting, slapping, name-calling, and who knows what else, the performers are doing what they want to do.

And, as Audacia Ray once said, that is really what matters in the end: authenticity. It's always fun to watch people do things they enjoy doing. But if what they are doing is having sex, then it's even more fun to watch.