There are many splendors that Berlin has thus offered me in my short time here already: excellent coffee, compassionate friends, helpful strangers, bike lanes, an efficient subway system, and now a feminist porn movie awards event.
The various criteria needed to be included in the award ceremony was pretty enormous. Here were the criteria:
- A sex-positive attitude, no de-humanising or misogynistic portrayals
- Roles in collusion with those involved/no crossing of personal borders
- Ethical work conditions/safe sex is encouraged
- Those involved will be shown in relation to one another – eye, skin, hand, and body contact, energy exchange
- Emotions and declarations of love are encouraged, doable, and showable
- Diverse camera settings, light and shadow games
- Variations of sexual practices in joyful transitions, not an achievement test, broadening of the stereotypically portrayed spectrum
- A variety of body types, ages, genders, sexual orientations and ethnic backgrounds
- Authentic sound recordings or music
- No gender-stereotypical amplified dubbing of moaning
- Portrayal of lust and pleasure, focus on female lust and its diversity
- No schematic portrayals of the “sexual curve” – that is to say no straight zoom in on the male ejaculation, no emphasis of the male cum shot
- Orgasms are not the only goal
- Women are significantly involved in the production of the film as producers, directors, or camerawomen
Is that a lot? Yes. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. Just reading the list of criteria alone was enough to get you thinking about the flaws in mainstream porn, and how much more interesting, sexy, and inclusive it could be with more of these criteria applied. Granted, having LITERALLY ALL of these criteria would be a bit overwhelming, and a different kind of Feminist Porn.
One of my favorite short films that was shown was by Emilie Jouvet, and is available with some of her other films on her website. I’ll post it here though, and hopefully I don’t have to tell you this is NSFW, ja?
Although the premise is a bit absurd to most people, I think it gets the message across very clearly: you can be both safe and sexy. I don’t think I’m the only one who thought that the film was incredibly sexy, which absolutely proves that you don’t need to give into societal pressure regarding safe sex. If you haven’t talked with a partner about getting tested, it’s always better to be safe. But I digress. The point is that this film not only sends a very positive message, but has good music, good cinematography, and a variety of body types and ethnic backgrounds, on top of being sexy as hell.
It’s difficult to articulate, but I am of the strong opinion that when porn changes, society changes just a little bit. Most people watch porn, whether a little or a lot, and are berated with the same, unrealistic expectations: huge cock, deep-throating forever, lots of moaning, always orgasming, lots of make-up and squirting, etc. Along with the unrealistic sexual expectations come harmful stereotypes of porn as well, such as a complete disregard for safe sex. Yes, part of it is fantasy, and condoms/dental dams/etc. aren’t usually part of the fantasy, but showing people that it’s not only OK, but fucking awesome to put on a condom with your mouth is important.
If you’re interested in reading up more about feminist porn, here are a bunch of links to get you started:
- How I Became A Feminist Porn Star
- What Does Egalitarian Porn Look Like
- I.K.U.
- Autostraddle Feminist Porn Search
- Crash Pad Series
Don’t let the conversation stop there though! Shoot me an e-mail and let’s chat about feminist porn!
Edit:
The internet is wonderful, and literally the day I posted this, I found this video.