Ms Naughty Porn for Women Blog

Archive for July, 2009

Reuters reports that HBO are creating a half-hour television series about an old-school feminist who starts a porn magazine for women. The concept will examine all the feminism versus “raunch culture” ideas and will star Diane Keaton in the lead role (and as executive producer).

“We’ve came a long way since the Kinsey report; women are more sexual now,” said Noxon, referring to Alfred Kinsey’s controversial 1953 report “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.”

Added Parouse: “There seems to be a new evolution of what women are sexually. Women are acting more like men sexually.”

Sounds like a bit of fun. Chances are we won’t get to see it in Australia. Ah well, there’s always downloading.

Meanwhile, Violet Blue’s Oprah article continues to cause ripples. The Examiner has an opinion piece here and here.

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I should have blogged about this on the weekend but I was busy with a festival. In any case, the mainstream media are on the trail of women and porn again, thanks to this article by Violet Blue on CNN. Today it featured on the front page with a resulting surge in interest.

The piece gives a positive overview of the statistics and the reasons why more women are watching porn. Her mention of Tony Comstock’s films have given his sales a huge boost (you know, one day I’m going to have a film that Violet mentions in her articles as well. One day…)

Violet has also written about the article on her blog.

Despite the fact that the piece is a win for balanced stories about porn in the mainstream media, there is one glaring problem with CNN’s page – it happily provides a link to anti-porn crusaders Pure Life Ministries but does not link to either Maria Beatty’s site or to Comstock Films. No doubt this is due to some “NSFW” link policy but the question needs to be asked: why link to Pure Life at all? The article only mentions it in passing. Surely it would be better not to link to anyone if you can’t be balanced with your linking policy?

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Over the past few weeks I’ve been in contact with Suraya Singh who is the editor of the newly launched Filament magazine for women. She’s been on a PR blitz that’s seen her receive excellent coverage in mainstream media and across the web.

When I first found out about the magazine I must admit to being a little skeptical about its chances, mainly because it’s a print magazine. Already it has encountered a number of difficulties from printers and distributors because of the magazine’s cover and content. In this interview, Suraya reveals her reasons behind that particular decision.

I was happy to receive a copy of the first edition and I’m very impressed with the whole concept, partly because I can see it’s a revival of the ideas and philosophy of my old favourite mag/employer, Australian Women’s Forum. I applaud the fact that Filament doesn’t want to make you feel bad about your body by featuring diets or fashion or cosmetics. It’s great to see something that’s about stimulating the mind – and the nether regions! The photography is artistic and moody. Some of the guys were definitely not to my taste but that’s just me.

So without further rambling, here’s the interview:

What do you hope to achieve with the mag?
When I stopped reading mainstream women’s magazines, I stopped having body image issues, but why should an entire media format be off limits to women who want to feel good about themselves? I want Filament to provide a genuine alternative for women – to be sexual without your own body necessarily being the subject of that.

I also hope that Filament will present a genuine challenge to the magazine industry, and the erotic market generally. Women have been put in the ‘too hard’ basket for too long, and the market needs to start taking catering to the female gaze seriously. We’re not gay men in skirts, nor are we merely the wives and girlfriends of the heterosexual male market – erotica producers who want to cater to women have to start by seeing us as women.

Why did you choose print?
I wanted to offer a true alternative to other women’s magazine, and offering the hot shirtless men that were literally in amongst challenging articles was important – like 70s Playboy, but for women. If Filament was just photography, or the articles were shorter and chattier, we almost certainly would have gone for web.

What problems have you encountered getting the mag up and running?
We did everything on a budget of basically zero, so everyone involved is giving their time for free, which has its own problems – you can’t pay people to get it done within a particular timeframe, nor can you pay for photographic environments or anything like that. The fact that Filament turned out better quality than a lot of fully professional publications is a huge credit to everyone who gave their time.

Photographing for the female gaze is uniquely difficult because we’re really inventing a new style of photography – there’s no one’s work you can look at and say that’s a perfect example. Getting photography that works on this score is always a challenge.

Distributors have also been really negative about our choice to have a man on the cover. Their view is that women don’t buy magazines with men on the cover. This may be true, but how are things ever going to change if those magazines are never distributed? So right now we’re selling Filament entirely through our website. At the end of each day I print out our order list and put them all in envelopes and send them out, which I quite enjoy actually.

Were you surprised by anything in your online research?
Most of the research we use is published academic research, but we do supplement the finer detail with primary research via our livejournal community. That type of research is pretty unscientific, but it does give us a steer in terms of what to try. For example, glasses on men got an extremely high approval rating – almost 90% of the women we asked thought men are hotter in glasses. Bondage, visually speaking, seems to polarises women – we either love it or hate it.

How do you approach your models?
These days they are approaching us more and more, but I still go up to men that I see in the park or in clubs with a Filament postcard – I suggest they check out the details on the site and if they’re keen, email me some snaps. It’s great now that it’s summer (in the northern hemisphere) as there are more lads around with their tops off. If anyone reading this knows any hot men who they’d like to see in Filament, tell them to get in touch!

What’s your vision for women’s porn?
I’d like to see all those who are producing erotic image of men for women working together to share ideas and cater effectively to different niches. One of the ‘problems’ with the heterosexual women’s erotica market is that women’s tastes are so incredibly diverse – but so are men’s: I think we should share and specialise – I don’t think there’s anything to be gained in trying to compete. I love being able to direct someone who wants something Filament can’t offer to a publication or website that offers that. So far I’ve had great conversations with Syzygy Mag, Shot with Desire and now For the Girlsabout what we do. Long may it continue.

You can get Filament here. Pic of Suraya from the Filament site.

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The other day I visited one of the local video rental shops, a store I haven’t been to in a while. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs sitting unabashedly on the drama shelves. This is a small town, after all, and sexually explicit “art films” are a bit thin on the ground. I haven’t had a chance to see Shortbus, Destricted or any of those other “mainstream” explicit films due to this general scarcity so naturally I jumped at the chance to see 9 Songs.

The film happily bills itself as “the most explicit mainstream movie ever!” The plot, such as it is, focuses on a young couple in the flush of first lust and love. We see their relationship over the course of a year as they fuck frequently and go to concerts. That’s pretty much it – nothing else happens except concert footage and sex. Winterbottom apparently wanted the audience to “fill in the blanks” of the couple’s relationship, opting to show only snippets of conversation amid a lot of fucking, letting the viewers decide what kind of characters they have and what problems they my encounter.

It’s an interesting idea and I’ve yet to decide whether it’s clever or makes for a very boring movie. Certainly I wasn’t enthralled by it (and fast forwarded most of the songs). Of course, if this was a porn film (i.e. a film made explicitly to arouse) I’d think it was fab because it shows perspectives and characters often missing from the genre.

But this is NOT, Winterbottom insists, a porn movie. This is an art film, thank you very much. And thus that makes the explicit sex far different from all the explicit sex you see in a porn movie. This is a film with morals, people, and it’s made for a more discerning class of viewer than your average wanker who likes porn.

At least, that’s the spin on it.

I personally sat there watching it and couldn’t help but fume at the hypocrisy apparent in the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) Board’s decision to give it an R rating (after an initial X rating). And I wasn’t fuming because I thought it should have been lumped in with the porn films and effectively banned from cinemas. Nope. I was angry because this film’s R rating entrenches an arbitary line that says “this is an art film, it’s OK” and “this is a yucky porn film, ban it”.

I found myself reading the OFLC appeal decision on the film, which lists in extensive detail all of the sex acts in the film like some kind of really bad sex story:

At 47 minutes 58 seconds Lisa ties Matt to the bed, she slaps his face with her open hand and puts her stiletto heel into his chest and puts her weight on her foot. She then puts her booted foot onto Matt’s legs. She undresses. At 49 minutes 45 seconds Lisa asks Matt “do my nipples feel sore to you? They are.” At 50 minutes a two-minute scene of actual sex commences. Lisa kisses Matt’s penis and pulls at his testicles. She holds his penis in her mouth (actual sex), she manipulates his penis with her hand (actual sex), her hand is shown repeatedly manipulating Matt’s penis (actual sex).

The “interested parties” who made submissions regarding the film’s classification included TV critic Margaret Pomeranz and the conservative Christian lobby the Australian Family Association (and can I just say how much it pisses me off that the religious nutjobs have commandereed the word “family”?).

The paper discusses why the board decided to go against the “general rule” of “‘simulation, yes – the real thing, no.” I’ve added my own emphasis:

The Review Board in the majority found that there were special aspects of 9 Songs which differentiated it from other films which feature “the real thing” and have been Refused Classification by the Classification Review Board:

• 9 Songs is a film in which Matt and Lisa’s relationship is explored, from Matt’s perspective, through music and sexual activity. In this context, the scenes of actual sex are integral to the plot and theme of the movie.

• 9 Songs, made by the highly-regarded British director Michael Winterbottom, is a film of serious intent and considered by many to have artistic merit. The underlying themes of the movie, the honest, realistic and, at times, emotional and poignant depiction of the couple’s relationship, which were integrated with the scenes at rock concerts, were likely to resonate with a number of the film’s likely audience and had artistic value.

• The scenes of actual sex are not considered by the majority to be exploitative, immoral, indecent, demeaning, improper or gratuitous. In particular, regarding the scene in which Lisa slaps Matt and steps on him with a stiletto boot, the majority was of the view that the impact of this scene was mild and was not demeaning to Matt or Lisa.

• The tone of the scenes of actual sex, in terms of theme and style, were contextually relevant, filmed in a restrained manner and different from standard pornographic films that are routinely classified ‘X’.

The board also took into account “the persons or class of persons to or amongst whom it is published or is intended or likely to be published.”

So the decision to let 9 Songs be R rated was based on the idea that the film was artistic, serious, moral and not demeaning to the participants, as well as the fact that, being an “art film” it was designed for a higher class of people – you know, those smart trendy ones with university degrees who can obviously watch explicit sex without being corrupted or aroused – unlike all those scum who watch porn and for whom the X rating was created, to stop society from descending into a Mad-Max type scenario.

At least, I think that’s what the Classification system is supposed to do.

The OFLC document holds its moral head high in declaring the various teddibly important and artistic reasons why they made this exception to the rules. And yet to me it reveals that the Australian censorship emperors are clothing themselves in particularly airy garments.

I can name numerous adult films with explicit sex that are artistic, serious, moral and not degrading. Of particular note is, of course, the films of Tony Comstock which were banned from a film festival several years ago, but I could also talk about the explicit films of Petra Joy, Jennifer Lyon Bell, Shine Louise Houston or Tristan Taormino. Most of the movies I saw at last year’s Berlin Porn Film Festival could fit into that mould… but they would be illegal to screen here. I could easily argue that the new brand of porn seeks to explore relationships and sexuality in exactly the same way that Winterbottom has done with 9 Songs.

The only difference is that adult filmmakers acknowledge the arousal of their audience rather than placing themselves on an “art” pedestal, one that denies the fact that people WILL get turned on and masturbate if you show them sex.

And that’s what it really comes down to in the end. The OFLC can use all kinds of excuses about art and class and audience and intent but ultimately our laws are about the fear of people getting aroused and masturbating.

(It’s interesting to see the way film reviewers are so quick to say that 9 Songs isn’t really arousing… at least, for the right sort of person.)

If 9 Songs can explicitly show penetration, fellatio, cunnilingus and ejaculation and receive an R rating, why can’t others? I might think that 9 Songs is an art film but no doubt the Australian “Family” Association thought it was filth on the same level as your average gonzo. But if real sex gets the OK in some films and not others, what is the basis for distinction?

The OFLC document talks about the porn genre with disdain, indicating there are personal judgements of taste at work. I find a lot of porn to be distasteful as well (not to mention artless and downright stupid) but that should not be a defining factor in what adults can and cannot see in this country. I find the whole idea of Australian Idol and Transformers 2 to be fairly tasteless… so why are they on our TV and cinema screens?

Why are the personal tastes and “morals” of those who sit on the Classification Board considered to have more authority than mine? What special thing makes them able to sit and watch films that may corrupt the rest of us?

One of the things I find frustrating is that this nonsense is still on our lawbooks in 2009. 9 Songs was released in 2004 and the R decision prompted some debate… but nothing has changed. The legislation still talks about “the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults” but those in power won’t accept that standards have changed. The ready availability of porn on the internet means that people are a lot more comfortable with sexually explicit material now. What’s more, the fact that society hasn’t disintegrated as a result of this ready availability should be a strong indicator that all the moral panic surrounding sexually explicit material was wrong.

Until someone can show empirical proof that porn causes harm, there should not be laws restricting the consumption of it.

And if Australians can be grown up enough to rent 9 Songs from Video Ezy and not go mad, why not Xana and Dax, or Chemistry or, hell, even your average Buttman nonsense gonzo.

I’m looking on the bright side. 9 Songs has given me a happy hitlist of the top 10 important things I need to include in order to get an R rating for any explicit film I make:

1. Concert footage from whiny-yet-hip bands plus a brief snippet from a classical music concert
2. Footage of a couple eating breakfast and being playful together. It helps if the guy says “I love you” while wading in freezing water.
3. “Restrained” penetration, oral and cumshots. Whatever that means.
4. Arty lighting.
5. Wandering piano music during the sex scenes.
6. Comments about Antarctica and global warming.
7. A trailer that doesn’t show very much sex.
8. A marketing campaign that focuses on the right “class” of people.
9. A constant avowal to the press and critics that “it’s not porn, it’s art.”
10. A good relationship with Margaret Pomeranz.

I must admit, I’m not saying anything new with this post. If you want to read a more researched and academic critique of the whole “porn vs art” censorship issue, visit Tony Comstock’s The Intent To Arouse. For the Australian perspective I’d recommend my friend Helen Vnuk’s book Snatched: Sex and Censorship in Australia or read her excellent article on the whole topic here. Also another one here.

Here’s the trailer for 9 Songs. As you can see, it’s pretty light on for sex.

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I’ve just come back from my 2 yearly pap smear appointment and thought I’d make a too-much-information post about it. I’m feeling like someone’s attacked my insides with a blender – and this despite the fact that the doctor is a really good and caring GP. Why is this procedure so horribly awful? Surely there’s some other way we can test for cervical cancer other than spreading your legs for a stranger and letting them scrape away at your bits with a miniature toilet brush?

I found myself doing the “keep yourself nice” routine – having a thorough shower and shaving my legs, putting on some makeup. This from a furry princess who is often found wearing pyjamas all day. Why do we do this? Perhaps it’s to feel a little bit more comfortable and in control during what is, essentially, an unpleasant experience when we often feel exposed and helpless.

And then I had a smile about the old urban myth of a woman turning up for her pap smear with glittery nether regions.

Apparently Joan Rivers’ method for making pap smears better was to “learn to throw your voice.”

I did laugh at the little sign in the surgery: “I won’t panic, cry or scream. I’m the doctor.”

I also had to resist becoming a geek and talking about this shot film on Youtube when one of the interns knocked on the door as I’m lying there behind the curtain with legs akimbo.

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Just thought I’d put up this rather gorgeous photo of pretty boy star Emile Hirsch. I watched “Into The Wild” on the weekend and very much enjoyed the film, made even more fabulous by the fact that Emile here is so easy on the eye. And he has a short beard through most of the film, which I was happy to see. Plus he does a brief nude scene, although unfortunately it’s in a freezing cold river and is very brief in most senses of the word. I couldn’t find a screenshot and I’d already taken the DVD back so there’s no peen to be had in this post.

I’m filing him under “Hot male movie stars I’d love to see in porn.”

Pic came from this site.

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I’ve long been a fan of the films of Petra Joy. Now she’s launched The Joy Award, a short film competition that aims to encourage new female filmmakers to create erotic movies.

This award is for first time female film-makers who would like to create erotic films that dare to question porn clichés and show sex in innovative and creative ways…

The theme of the short film competition is: “What is erotic to you?”. The maximum duration of the films is five minutes. The genre is open – from animation to documentary or erotic vignettes – we welcome all films that show sex and eroticism in an innovative, creative and artistic way.

The winners receive cash prizes, a screening at the Berlin Porn Film Festival and a chance to be on her next DVD.

Petra has written about the award on her website.

From years of battling the odds, I understand how hard it is to raise finance for a film and get your first work published and distributed, especially if your film questions clichés and breaks the mould, so I really hope that through my mentoring and the sponsorship from pjur we will discover some new female talent and make more female fantasies seen and heard.

It’s great to see Petra encouraging new talent like this and I’m now considering whether I should enter. I must admit, I’ve been reconsidering my movie making career following the arrest of the owner of Abby Winters last month so I’m not sure where to go with my filmmaking (except, perhaps, overseas). Still, I’ve already got a couple of ideas about what I’d like to do.

The deadline is 15th September so I (and you) need to get cracking!

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The Guardian reports that major erotica publisher Black Lace will not be publishing any new titles in the coming year.

The 16-year-old Black Lace imprint specialises in erotica for women, by women, and has sold more than 4m books worldwide, but its publisher, Virgin Books – part of the publishing giant Random House – has decided to stop commissioning new titles for both itself and its sister imprint, Nexus, which pitches itself as “the last word in fetish fiction”.

Erotica Cover Watch has a more in-depth look at the decision here. Interestingly, the Girl’s comment was rehashed in the Guardian article without attribution, which is rather rude.

Black Lace is blaming stalled sales and the availability of free erotica on the internet.

Writers Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden (who run Erotica Cover Watch) have written a great opinion piece decrying the decision.

In erotic fiction, you’ll probably find truer expressions of female desire than in the popular memoirs from strippers and sex workers, whose job it is to please men. But we’re also unsurprised. Women’s erotic fiction authors are often regarded as randy Barbara Cartlands writing purple porn for the sex-starved, their prose replete with throbbing manhoods, dungeon dynamics and swoon-inducing bastards: “Mills and Bonk”.

Personally I think it’s a shame that Black Lace should make this decision because it cuts off one of the few major outlets for female erotic expression. I do understand the need to maintain profits – publishing seems to operate on very small margins now – but I’m wondering if the imprint was really losing money or if they just lost interest in maintaining it.

And it once again comes back to the issue of the internet. Since I run an adult site I could be considered responsible for the loss of hard-copy readers.

And yet… it’s not the full story. Yes, you can probably find free erotic fiction online but have you actually read some of that shit? The stuff you see on Literotica is often illiterate, nonsensical, cliched and downright unreadable and a lot of it isn’t written for a female audience (I know this because they seem to want to also submit it to FTG). On top of that, the world of online erotic fiction is primarily focused on short stories and smaller pieces. Curling up in bed and getting involved in a novel isn’t quite so appealing via the internet.

If Black Lace withdraws, it creates a gap. I do think there is a opportunity here. Perhaps it’s time For The Girls became a publishing label?

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Yes folks, it’s my birthday. I’m another year older and there’s a few more wrinkles. This year I found a great list of reasons to feel good about getting older:

1. It sure as hell beats the alternative.
2. I can still touch my toes.
3. Any occasion that encourages cake and gifts is a good occasion.
4. When I see a light at the end of a tunnel, I don’t automatically assume it’s a train.
5. Getting to bed by 10 p.m. is a blessing – not an embarassment.
6. To steal from a great country song…I’m old enough to know better, but still too young to care.
7. From here on out, I won’t care when people forget my birthday.
8. I’m not wearing reading glasses yet.
9. I’ve learned that No is not a four-letter word.
10. The longer you live, the smarter you get.
11. Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.
12. If you keep your heart unwrinkled, you won’t need a wrinkle-free face to make a great impression.

I’m not 36. I’m 21 with 15 years of experience and I’m now fully twice as good as I was at 18!

More on this site.

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This sexy threesome pic is one of my faves – I love how both the guys are totally focused on her and she’s in the middle of a gorgeous male sandwich.

You’ll find more pics from this set at the site Mixing Business With Pleasure.

And with that, I’m going to be scarce for a bit. Yes, I’ve already been very scarce as it it on this blog, I’ve been rather busy. And now I’m off for a week of pure pleasure (no business) because I’m turning 36 next week and want to have a bit of fun for the occasion.

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Emily Dubberley is the editor of Scarlet Magazine and she used to run Cliterati which was a great female-friendly erotica site ages ago. Now she’s got a book out about kinky sex. I found this great interview with her so thought I’d throw up a quick link to it.

I tend to sympathise with this comment:

Occasionally I’ll get turned on writing about sex, but 99 per cent of the time it’s just work. I love my job but there are times when I tire of it. If I’ve got PMT, the last thing I want to do is test three sex toys.

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