I have just finished viewing the two documentaries on feminist women in porn and find myself still having conflicted feelings on the industry. While it was great to see such strong, intelligent, and independent women speaking about their experiences both in front of and behind the cameras over the course of their careers, I am still disheartened by the high level of misogyny and violence against females in porn, like the women featured in the films. However, I believe that what they consider the “extreme” in porn isn’t actually the extreme at all, but instead is the vast majority of pornography. The women featured acknowledged it was only after their careers as adult film stars concluded that they ventured into producer or director roles. I think it’s unfortunate that it is only at this point that they participate in feminist porn, though many argue they were feminists in every film, whether the film itself would be considered feminist or not.
The statistic that 1 in 3 viewers of pornography are female is a fact thrown around in many of the posts and films we’ve read and viewed. I’m curious, then, why feminist porn isn’t as successful as it has the potential to be. I wonder what percentage of those women consciously seek out feminist porn. I’m guessing it’s not over 50%.Why would women viewers be interested in promoting non-feminist porn? Do they not realize it’s out there for consumption? Do they not care? Are they not interested? The women profiled in both documentaries insisted that it is up to the female viewers to make feminist porn more prosperous, since the bottom line of the pornography industry is money.
Throughout the blogs, the complexities and controversies of the pornography issue are shown. I was surprised by how long the “porn wars” have lasted, even within this 3rd wave of feminism. Unfortunately, after reading Levy, CAKE, and now bloggers like Ms. Naughty, I will not be surprised if the “war” continues for many years to come. Will feminists from both sides ever reach a consensus?
2 comments:
Laura-
While we watched the documentaries, I found myself wondering how possible it really is for feminist porn makers to make truly feminist porn when the constraints surrounding their work are no different (or perhaps even stronger) than the constraints surrounding mainstream porn makers. "Hot and Bothered" mentioned the need for funding and the fact that many feminist porn makers have to compromise to get their work made at all (the example of Tristan Taratino going to get funding for her anal sex film is pretty indicative of this I think). While I agreed with many of the women's goals, I'm not sure if many of them reached them. Another issue is that our definitions of how porn should look are built upon models created by and for men...none of the porn we saw in the documentaries seemed fully able to break free of this.
It's clear to me that feminists can make porn, but can they ever truly make feminist porn?
Laura,
"Why would women viewers be interested in promoting non-feminist porn? Do they not realize it’s out there for consumption? Do they not care? Are they not interested?"
To answer these questions, in my own opinion, I bet most of these women (1 in 3 women) that are watching porn do not consider themselves feminists. I have a feeling that most of the women who do watch porn fall into Levy's category of the female chauvinist pig.
But also I do agree that these women probably have no idea feminist porn is out there. I have talked to a lot of my friends about porn lately (hmmm I wonder why) and many of them were very surprised to here that there is feminist porn out there.
I think it is a very hard concept to grasp because of the stigma put on mainstream porn. This is probably an issue that feminist porn makers deal with everyday. They probably have to justify themselves quite a bit which I can imagine is quite frustrating.
I still find myself in the gray zone on the porn issue. Although, after watching the women made porn in class I do understand and feel a lot better about it. It was very different than other porns I have seen.
It was also very interesting to look at all the debates among feminist porn or "porn for women" (however they classify their porn) in the blogosphere.
I think it is especially interesting how the debate can become such a critical and analytical debate. I find it almost amusing but I'm also glad because porn should be talked about in this way. It should be looked at in an analytical way by educated individuals. I think this debating actually benefits the porn makers in some way.
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