No other film
industry is as contentious or worthy of debate as the pornography business,
which depicts sexual acts, real or performed, to ease the world of sexual
frustration. Its existence has been questioned by the religious community,
politicians and the general public. Porn exists in its form today not only due
to the huge demand that it sees fit to supply to but partly because it is
protected by freedom of expression. In the United States and the United Kingdom
especially, any group can express themselves freely in so far as the messages
they express do not carry a high chance of inciting violence. Pornography steps
on the edge in terms of freedom of expression legislation, as some label it as
an industry which promotes sexual, domestic and general violence towards women.
Porn has stood the tests and generally isn’t deemed to incite violence.
It seems the majority of the supply of
porn is aimed at gratifying males rather than females, take a look at these
recent porn search keywords from around the globe which illuminates the
dominance of the male consumer.
Keywords
such as ‘hentai’, ‘milf’, ‘pov’ (point of view of male pornstars), ‘massage’
and ‘anal’ all feature pornography where females pleasure males and not
necessarily the other way round. This is not just in a few countries but
prevalent around the world where internet and pornography are allowed. This is
significant in that the sexual needs of men are assumed to be higher in value
or they could just be easier to satisfy. Either way, females are left not only
with a limited supply of pornography for them to use but also feel as they are
being objectified by most of the pornographic world.
Many
feminist and women’s rights groups have fought legally and culturally against
the objectification of women in porn. Few have succeeded in changing
legislation to restrict pornography, the most powerful change however occurred
in 2009 which witnessed a prosecution right against extreme pornography.
Extreme pornography is any image or film which is deemed pornographic and
contains content which shows humans in a life threatening situation or in any
position which puts them at a risk for serious injury. Feminists, rightfully,
are still left dissatisfied with the pornographic industry with its degrading
and male orientated content. Some have taken a different approach by taking
matters into their hands and creating a market for female porn, this has given
rise to the feminist pornographic movement.
Erika Lust (Erika Hallqvist ) is a feminist porn director and producer
from Sweden who works in Barcelona. She has been at the fore front of this
movement in recent years and aims to provide great cinematic content with high
quality film and exciting plots to please the female and male community. This
is what Erika has to say about regular pornography:
‘At the University of Lund,
even though I was studying, thinking and reading about porn, I didn’t actually
like any of the porn that I saw,” she remembers. “The first time I saw a porn
film, I had the same reaction that many women have – while I was aroused by
some of the images, for the most part I found it unsatisfying. The audiovisual
quality was awful. I didn’t identify with anything that I saw. The women did
not look like they were enjoying themselves, and the sexual situations were
totally ridiculous. We’re modern women! Not slutty Sharons, horny teens,
desperate housewives, hot nurses, and nymphomaniac hookers, always looking to
service pimps, multi-millionaires or macho sex machines. Not always looking to
please rather than be pleased. I wanted to know: where was my lifestyle, my
values, my sexuality?’ – Erika Lust (http://erikalust.com/about/)
I have had a unique
experience in that I have worked as a male performer for Erika Lust during my
year abroad in Barcelona studying physics. I starred in two films of her
Xconfessions project which entails performers acting out confessions and
fantasies written in by people from around the world. From my experience I can
say that working with a top feminist director really changed my views of
feminist porn. I once thought it was being made in pure spite against males
however the movement is really focused on creating realistic, intimate and high
quality cinema. It is more of an artistic movement than simply providing quick
and ‘not thought out’ content to serve sexual arousal. Erika Lust and similar
companies are flourishing culturally and financially as they are forging a
whole new market for themselves and women especially are putting their faith
and money into companies which can fulfil their unique sexual demands.
Most men, like I
once did, assume that feminist porn would not fit their sexual demands at all.
However they could be in slight error there, as the porn produced by feminist
companies does not lack natural attractive females, sexual passion and many
other things which males find instinctively arousing. Maybe the reason for the
dismay of males might be due to the fact, that for years, they have been
subjected to a superficial and fake pornographic world in which silicon breasts
trump naturally voluptuous women and unrealistic female roles become a
subconscious desire in the real world.
Ethically feminist
porn promotes natural and equal sexuality; it does not encourage the gross
humiliation of either gender. It really is the future for porn as it not only
keeps the industry alive (the demand will never go as we are humans) but it
also serves as a cure for the patriarchal, male serving and simply ‘crappy’
productions of regular porn.