not okay for women to watch porn for pure personal pleasure?

In "Do women enjoy porn?" posted by new porn maker Erika Lust in her blog this week, Lust refers to an interview the Daily Bed Post did recently with women on the street, asking if they enjoy porn. Writes Lust: "Most women say they do watch porn and most of them do to have a laugh or to spice up the sex with their partner. My reaction to this is thinking that although porn is not really a taboo word anymore, the main motivation behind it is still not the one I would like it to be, which is: pure personal pleasure."

I think Lust has an interesting point here, which reminds me of the one the young female contributors to the Rosa Prosa (Pink Prose) anthology, which came out in Norway in 2006 with the subtitle “om jenter og kåthet” (about girls and horniness), were trying to make. What these women were arguing was that though women today may be more “sexually liberated” than ever before, there is still a big taboo surrounding HORNY women. Women should have sex lest they be judged prudes (but not too much; then they risk the hooker label). But to talk about feeling horny, to be frank about really WANTING sex, that somehow risks being a bit too much, as if there's something too crude, animalistic, and uncontained about female horniness. 

I agree with Lust that women should be able to express a desire to watch porn for its pure personal pleasure. But what prevents many women from doing this may just be the kind of porn they're watching. It's very likely not the kind of cinematically esthetic porn that Lust and other new porn makers today are making; it's more likely mainstream porn, perhaps glossy big production, or allegedly catering to couples, but nonetheless mainstream. And to enjoy this kind of porn, I think you have to just stand back and laugh at it a bit, because otherwise it's just too overdone, fake, stereotypical, offensive. That's not to say the film won't still arouse you. In the mid nineties, Professor Ellen Laan at the University of Amsterdam conducted a study where she had a group of women watch an episode from one of Candida Royalle's feminist porn films and a scene from a typical mainstream porn film. She found that women responded physically to both, but when interviewed afterwards, the women spoke with disgust about the mainstream porn film while they were more positive to Royalle's film.

Today we're lucky to have more feminist porn makers joining the ranks of Royalle, among them Lust. To check out some of their products, including books and films, visit my Love, Sex, Family Amazon store.   

LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY!

I am excited to present LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY, my new online resource center devoted to holistic human sexuality information. The resources I've selected reflect my own values and interests in gender equality, not only the commitment to break free from traditional gender roles and stereotypes about women’s and men's sexuality, but also in creating a new gender democratic discourse for sexuality. All resources are intended to inform and inspire.

Catering to adults who value a positive and healthy sexual life, we've also included resources that can help adults educate children and youth about their own sexuality. Check our LSF Amazon Shop and Shop Good Vibrations® Page for DVDs and books that I've gathered and personally recommend. 

LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY is currently a work in progress, but it is my hope that the site will grow to be a substantial resource for you all. In the meantime, continue checking quizzical mama and new porn by women where I write more about love, sex, and family.

Happy Valentine's Day,
Anne G. Sabo

"v-day" and new porn empowering women

Valentines day is fast approaching, and so is V-Day, which stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina. Founded on Valentines day in 1998 by Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues (1994), which is based on Ensler's interviews with more than 200 women, its mission is to end sexual violence and empower women. Every year, from February through April, performances of The Vagina Monologues and other awareness raising events take place around the world.

To counteract sexually discriminating, often violent images of women in porn, Candida Royalle founded Femme Productions in 1984. The first female producer of adult films catering to women, she was also the first adult film maker to have been invited as a member of The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists. Her films are used by therapists for their promotion of positive sexual role modeling and ideas about sex.

Today Royalle is joined by ranks of female porn producers who seek to empower women sexually with their films, and who contribute to V-Day events around the world.

At the official V-Day site you can find information about events around the world. Click here to find those near you. In the Twin Cities, events will be hosted by Augsburg College, Macalester College and University of Minnesota. Here in town, there will be a performance of The Vagina Monologues at Carleton College on February 12; and at St. Olaf College a group of "V-Men" will give a presentation on February 21, providing information on hosting a workshop to engage men in a dialogue about ending violence against women. These workshops will be the foundation for an eventual V-Men script entitled 10 Ways to Be a Man, "a collection of monologues of men's voices, ideas and experiences to end violence against women." The beneficiary for both events in town is the Hope Center, whose mission is "to create zero tolerance for sexual and domestic violence through Healing, Outreach, Prevention and Education."

prejudice prevails against porn

It's been more than a year since I last posted here. Since then, I've been busy writing my book about NEW PORN, which I submitted to a publisher in Norway last fall. Just before Christmas I heard back from my editor with praise for my writing, but with a declination to publish it, finding it too narrow of a topic. I submitted to another publisher who immediately read it with enthusiasm but who also said he didn't think there was much of a market for it.

You've got to wonder why: is it because the Norwegians are so sexually liberated that they have no need to read about feminist porn, or could it be the opposite: that prejudice prevails against pornography in Norway as I've argued here: Highbrow and Lowbrow Pornography: Prejudice Prevails Against Popular Culture.

When I conducted my research on feminist porn while on sabbatical from my position at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, serving as guest researcher at the Centre for Gender Research at University of Oslo in Norway (2005-06), pornography was still censored there. When Candida Royalle had some of her porn sent to me from the US, it was confiscated by the Norwegian customs, and not released to me until I could prove I had ordered the films for scholarly research. On Monday mornings, giggling colleagues at the Centre would ask me what porn I'd watched over the weekend, and friends and family would only hesitantly ask me about it.

During my sabbatical, the Norwegian Media Authority changed their policy for regulating porn after a half-day workshop with me, during which I presented them with the criteria I have developed to evaluate quality in porn, making it possible for Norwegian women and men to sell and purchase good new porn previously censored.

I think there's still a need for my book in Norway (as the second publisher commented in parenthesis), but the time may not be ripe for it.

I think it is here in the US, and that's why I'm now in the process of translating my manuscript. Stay tuned for updates on that.