The answer to this question seems obvious to us! Of course you can be a feminist and love porn (and make porn too!). But what lies behind this rather easy answer (which concerns only our personal opinion)? A real societal question, much deeper than it seems. After all, feminism is a notion open to personal interpretation, just like our vision of what porn is. This debate even enters into the intimacy of each individual, as it concerns our relationship with sexuality. So we’re going to try and come up with an objective opinion, informed by our research among the first people involved. Sex workers.
What does it mean to be a feminist?
Basically, it’s a pretty simple definition: to be a feminist is to defend and support actions that aim, in both public and private spaces, to obtain equal conditions for women – truly equal! In short, to make male-female inequality disappear at all levels. From this point of view, any scene featuring an act of dominance on the part of a man is inherently anti-feminist or masculinist. A trait often reproached to traditional pornography…
From an individual point of view, feminism can also be seen as being a woman, free to think and do what she wants, in accordance with her principles, ideas and… pleasure! And that’s where the greatest contradiction comes in, because some women also feel pleasure when contemplating pornographic scenes where the man “dominates”. Are these women therefore non-feminists? What about pornography?
Is pornography masculinist?
Many women see pornography as masculinist, misogynistic, phallocentric… because the patterns are always repeated. Women dominated by men. We see blowjobs, gang bangs, male-dominated positions and the pleasure is centered around the man, with close-ups only on the actress, her breasts, her buttocks, her sex…
Well, we have to admit that in most cases, this judgment is pretty well-founded. In mainstream porn, most directors are men, who give their vision of women (seen by a man). Laura Mulvey, for example, speaks of male gaze, relating this vision to the film industry as a whole.
A standardized woman, where the diversity of bodies, genders and desires doesn’t exist. Add to this: abuse of consent, problems on set, pay inequalities, abusive practices… and it’s easy to understand why most women (and more and more men) don’t enjoy watching porn.
So how can you be a feminist and still enjoy watching porn? Some women have taken up the cause and started to develop their own vision of porn with very different productions: feminist pornography. But then… can a feminist even enjoy watching feminist porn?
Pornography and feminists
The birth of feminist porn
In 1970, a growing number of women considered militant feminists were revolting against violence against women and the machismo prevalent in pornographic productions.
Woman against pornography was created and promoted by Andrea Dworkin (feminist activist) and Catharine Mckinnon (lawyer). They even joined forces with religious organizations 10 years later to try and have it banned. In reaction to this vision, which they described as extremist, sex workers in the United States founded Club 90! The idea is not to ban porn, but to make it evolve in a more woman-friendly direction, so that it is also made by women for women.
This was the birth of feminist porn as we know it today.
So you think “Wow, great”, you’ve got it, the problem’s solved, there’s classic porn and, for women or the more discerning and informed, feminist porn… Well, it’s not quite that simple, because in fact every actress and director has a very different opinion on the matter. Some even feel that categorizing porn in this way is very negative for the industry’s image, that it’s just a marketing ploy…
The directors’ vision
We figured that the most relevant opinions and counter-examples would come directly from the first people involved. The feminist porn directors behind the rising wave of ethical porn. Here we have four directors, four opinions and four different stances.
Erika Lust: “Feminist porn is a way of putting people on screen. It’s also about who’s behind the camera“. Her team is 90% female, she pays close attention to working conditions and advocates porn that puts women back at the center of the narrative. She makes a strong distinction with mainstream porn, which she condemns for its abuses. She also puts things into perspective: “If you like things, that’s no reason to deprive yourself of them, but we’ve got to stop women being so hard on themselves“.
Paulita Pappel: “I find that the prejudices that circulate about the porn industry are damaging to me… They’re also damaging to society as a whole… that’s why I don’t draw a strict line between mainstream porn and feminist.” Organizer of the “Porn Film Festival in Berlin”, Paulita is one of the porn directors who considers that she makes productions that resemble her without categorizing them in one genre or another. For her, objectification is not a problem, but it doesn’t prevent her from respecting a person.
Anouchka : this director shares her vision of ethical porn as adult productions that, in the end, project the sex of Mr. and Mrs. Everybody. We’re not into scripted, cinematic or heightened desires, but rather more classic sex. For her part, she advocates porn with beautiful stories, that nothing is sequenced. She throws her actors in and doesn’t interrupt them, giving way to naturalness.
For Olympe de G, feminist porn is simply about a woman deciding to produce her own porn and telling a story that belongs to her. The script has to excite her. She emphasizes the diversity of bodies in her scenes. She’s not clearly talking about categorizing the two industries, but rather defines feminist porn quite simply: porn made by a woman, to which she adds her personal touch.
And what about the actresses?
Sex workers, although some of them wish to support their position through their profession, are very mixed on the issue. Their opinion is more personal and less influenced by the image they seek to project, like some directors accused of profiting from a marketing craze around ethical pornography.
Nikita Bellucci, an actress and director well known for her hard scenes, for example, has on two occasions given her opinion on so-called feminist pornography in interviews with media outlets such as the YouTube channel Legend, declaring: “I have the impression that feminist porn must be sex in the daddy-mommy way” or “I’m a woman and I like hard, violent sex. However, I consider myself a feminist because I’m fully aware of my pleasure and the fact that I like hard sex“.
Maria Riot, also an actress, activist and artist, declared in the documentary on feminist pornography by Arte : “this binary vision is outdated… in my early days I called my pornos ethical or feminist… the problem is that the definition of ethical varies according to the person“, she added that “if I have a relationship with someone and I like being slapped why forbid me?” Finally, she concludes with “I’m a woman, I love being slapped, I love gangbangs… what the hell!
These are just a few examples of many interventions, but they’re all very relevant, because in the end the question isn’t really about being a feminist and liking or approving of porn, but rather about being able to act within an ethical framework in which our consent is the basis of everything.
Be a feminist and watch porn?
So in the end, can you be a feminist, watch porn, and enjoy it?
For us, the answer is yes. But it’s not a question of whether what we watch is categorized as porn for women, feminist or not. The most important thing is to know what’s going on behind the camera. Is the production sound? Are the actors and actresses paid a fair and equal price? What’s the atmosphere on the set, how are the actors treated, is consent systematically the basis of all demand and practice.
These are the questions that matter. Porn is a reflection of society and therefore represents all parts of it; there are women who like hardcore, gang bang etc. and yet consider themselves feminists. Why are they feminists? Because they assume their desires and their sexuality. We sincerely believe that the most important thing is for everyone to be able to act according to their own principles, desires and consent. And for the moment, we have to admit that only so-called feminist or ethical productions are up to these challenges.