May 29/05: Feminist Porn

In a review I wrote recently of White Teens Black Cocks I began by wondering what happened to the "politically correct" movement. This was really big in the mid to late-1980s, but you don't hear as much about it these days. I brought it up in that review because of how blatantly racist the site was. Don't get me wrong: I'm not offended (though I do think most of the racism is stupid). It's just that there are too many other things to find offensive in this business to waste time worrying about black guys from Detroit running around in grass skirts and shaking spears. 

But it did make me wonder.

Porn gets away with a lot of incidental offensiveness mainly, I think, because it's so obviously about transgressing sexual norms (in part by calling into question the very existence of sexual "norms"). But given that's the case, how can there be such a thing as feminist porn? The objectification, even degradation, of women is what most porn is all about. Deal with it. And please don't give me that shit about how some European erotic/nude photographer isn't creating porn but "art". Maybe it is art, but it's still art that objectifies. And it usually has some kind of an edge to it (if it doesn't then it isn't even successful as art). Gore Vidal noted some years ago "that throughout all pornography, one theme recurs: the man or woman who manages to capture another human being for use as an unwilling sexual object." In other words, some kind of rape fantasy is the very essence of porn. It's not pretty, but let's face it: You aren't paying $30 a month to appreciate art. You're looking for something that pushes your basic evolutionary buttons. You want to experience, vicariously, some kind of domination (or submission, as the case may be). It's what gets us off. Equality doesn't enter into it.

OK then, what about the leading role that more and more women are playing in the porn industry? Can a cam girl be a feminist? How about a female porn reviewer? There are quite a few of them now. And what about women who use porn? Are they gender traitors?

The question can't be answered unless you define what a feminist is, and that isn't so easy to do these days. Outside of some really basic political tenets (the right to vote, equal pay for work of equal value), I don't know of many positions on porn or any other issues that are strictly "feminist". There are even anti-abortion feminists now. The label doesn't really work any more. Instead there are "anti-porn" feminists (like Catharine MacKinnon) and "pro-sex" feminists (like Nina Hartley). And a range of opinion in-between.

Leaving aside whether one can be a feminist and make or enjoy porn (I think the answer pretty clearly is that you can, at least if you don't have too narrow a definition of feminism to begin with), I think the more interesting question is what a "feminist" porn would be like. 

Though I'm not really sure, I have a hunch that men and women do look at porn differently. I think men like porn more, perhaps (as I've seen suggested) because men are more visually oriented. But I'm not even sure about that. What I do know is that for a while now women have been making porn that is either directed at a female audience or is more positive in its portrayal of women. The former has never been all that popular (relatively speaking), suggesting either that women don't like it, or that they tend to like the same things men do (or, as I suspect, that they are really more curious about exactly what it is men like, and why). In the latter camp you have, most noticeably, the two big amateur sites out of Australia: Abby Winters and Girls Out West. These sites are all about presenting women as "natural" (no make-up, no sexy clothes, no fantasy settings), and showing them having "fun." And if you want to be an affiliate . . . watch out! Here's the warning you get:

As a female owned and operated site, I insist that the models dignity is respected and they are never derogatively referred to as "sluts", "bitches", "whores" etc. Any affiliate who is found to contravene these guidelines will have their account suspended.

Needless to say, in my reviews of these sites I complied. No sluts, bitches or whores. No ma'am.

At the same time, I also admitted that, while I thought these were two truly excellent sites, with powerful distinctive visions, they didn't always work for me. I like the fantasy. And I think some women like it too. So even here what you have is less a manifesto of gender solidarity than a personal statement. "Natural" and "fun" is an aesthetic, not a political position. And on the Internet it is just one aesthetic among many.

This is the great thing that happened to porn when it came to the Internet. It diversified. It opened up new doors. MILFs were all of a sudden more popular than centerfolds. Goth chicks became chic. This diversification wasn't driven by feminism, but it did allow for the expression of various feminisms. And while these feminist porns aren't the norm, and I don't think they ever will be, they do bring something to the table that's been missing and that I'm glad to see finally being expressed.

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