Ms Naughty Porn for Women Blog

Archive for November, 2009

In the last week Adam and Eve and Candida Royalle have released Petra Joy’s Feeling It to the US market. The film has a new cover, one that’s quite radically different to the old one. As you can see it features a big pic of the female stars all laughing together with champagne. They’re not nude. There are three other pics along the bottom but none are explicit. It’s an interesting idea; the cover art seems to suggest this is a fun, “girl’s night out” kind of film, rather than a porn movie. I’m wondering if it will make a difference to sales.

I think I prefer the original cover which features the gorgeous Belle blissfully caressed by a hunky black guy, their skin contrasting in an alluring way. Perhaps the mainstream people didn’t like the “interracial” overtones… because you can’t just have a black guy and white girl together. You have to label them.

Anyway, this looks like Petra’s big break into the US market which is great; she’s been stymied by difficult distributors in the past. And having Candida’s name on anything will ensure it gets out there and sells.

Meanwhile, I’ve been slaving away updating Porn Movies for Women. I’ve added new directors/companies Anna Brownfield, Courtney Trouble and Joybear plus updated the Playgirl and Sweet Sinner pages with their new titles. And I added a bunch of new names to the Female Directors of Porn page, including myself (hell, why own a huge encyclopedic website if you can’t be a bit biased towards yourself?). It’s becoming apparent that the “hall of fame” of feminist porn directors is getting decidedly large. And that’s fabulous.

And I really need to write up some new reviews but I think I’m knackered.

Edit: I did a quick review of Nica Noelle’s The Stepmother.

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So it’s been almost a week since Oprah did her porn show. I haven’t had a chance to watch it so I can’t comment but it seems the response is not as positive as we’d like it to have been.

This seems due to the fact that the show relied heavily on an interview with Jenna Jameson. Reading comments in the Oprah forums after the show had aired, I was depressed to see so much negativity towards the topic and also toward Jenna herself. Perhaps not surprising – blonde, silicone-boobed Jenna is not exactly the sort of celebrity who appeals to your average soccor mom/Oprah viewer. She’s an example of the mainstream porn industry rather than the new alternative porn that is seeking to cater to women.

By all accounts Violet did a great job but it was Jenna who got the attention – along with Vivid founder Steve Hirsch. The show also featured the owner of an adult store. What is interesting is the number of people who weren’t interviewed.

Which brings us to Candida Royalle. She’s made a comment on Facebook saying she’s “miffed” at the Oprah show for the way it was conducted:

Anyone catch Jenna Jameson on the Oprah show? Jenna trying to take credit for ‘feminist porn’ was a joke. Only thing worse was watching Vivid founder Steve Hirsch try to take credit for the ‘couples market’. Oh really? Was he even in business when I created my Femme line for women and couples in 1984?…

So here’s the deal: I was called by the producers in June and worked with them for 5 months on that show…only to be canned at the last minute along with a bevy of other far more qualified and significant women who made a difference for women in porn…

In the end they went for the most famous, wealthiest and recognizable person who they hoped would bring in the ratings…it is after all sweeps month.

(Quote is from LukeisBack)

I do think it’s a pity that Candida and other female-friendly porn producers (and stars) couldn’t have been on the show. Hell, I’d have paid my own way over there to be on it and give my 9 years’ worth of 2 cents. But I guess it’s a mainstream show and, like Candida said, they wanted something to give them ratings and headlines.

There have been a few articles about the show:

E!Online offered this snarky short piece: Jameson to Oprah: I’m One Classy Lassie

The Examiner had several opinion pieces on the episode. Suzanne White offered this analysis of the show, concluding that it was focused on Jenna rather than on women consuming porn.

Interestingly, Google News lists Oprah/Jenna stories from such worthy tomes as The Plastic Surgery Channel and Celebrity Baby Scoop. I decided not to link to those.

Here’s the page on Oprah.com describing the show along with several other links (including, unfortunately, an article that states that “men are visual, women are textual”).

So… all in all, it hasn’t exactly been the big win I was hoping for.

Incidentally, if I had the luxury of compiling a show about women, porn and the new wave of feminist porn, I’d want to invite a massive guest list. My stars would include:

Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hartley, Veronica Hart, Shine Louise Houston, Anna Brownfield, Jennifer Lyon Bell, Tony Comstock, Petra Joy, Erika Lust, Marianna Beck, Maria Beatty, Nina Lennox, Anna Span, Nica Noelle, Jamye Waxman, Audacia Ray, Tina Tyler, Estelle Joseph, Tristan Taormino, Madison Young, Mia Engberg…

And me of course.

Now that I’ve compiled that list, it’s pretty damned impressive, actually, and nowhere near comprehensive.

Here’s hoping the Oprah show decides they haven’t given the topic enough attention and has another go.

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Petra has uploaded these videos shot on the 24th October at the Joy Awards.

And here’s snippets from the winning films including mine:

Part of me is mortified at how I look on that video. There’s a reason I’ve been anonymous all these years and it’s not just privacy or safety. I’m also kicking myself because I had a fabulous necklace and earrings ready to wear on the night and forgot to put them on. I was so distracted by trying to strap on my mile-high lesbian wedding heels (and then I spent half the night trying not to fall off them). So I look kind of bare. At least the professional makeup job looked nice.

Anyway, I’m out of the porn closet now for better or worse.

I should say that the other winners I met on the night – Lindsay, Cora and Lola – were all lovely and very talented. We had a great time drinking champagne in the limo – even if we did get stuck in traffic and had to do a 16 point turn to make it back to the cinema in time.

I will say thank you again to Petra for organising the whole thing and also thank you to Pjur for putting up the prizemoney. It helped to pay for my trip to Berlin and accommodation which was great.

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Anna Brownfield’s amazing indie erotic film The Band has only just been released in the US and is available on Amazon.*

The Band opened the Berlin Porn Film Festival and played to 3 sold-out cinemas on the first night. The response from the audience and other filmmakers was overwhelmingly positive. I certainly enjoyed it. This film successfully combines a fully developed narrative arc with plenty of hardcore sex. The explicit scenes are just the right length and they’re often combined with humour. Indeed, this film gave me the giggles; not the standard thing you’d expect from a porn movie.

I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Anna torwards the end of the festival – she was so busy being interviewed it was hard to pin her down beforehand. It was great to talk porn with a fellow Australian (not to mention revert back into non-enunciated Aussie slang). She’s a no-nonsense, smart and talented woman who really knows her stuff and I’m so glad to now count her as my friend.

Here’s the blurb for the film:

When lead singer Jimmy Taranto dumps his girlfriend Candy then his rock band Gutter Filth, Candy decides to take his place in the band. Together with anal bass player GB, cross-dressing drummer Dee and Jennifer their loyal manager, they begin a journey to stardom. While their success eclipses Jimmy’s, Candy still can’t find the true love she is looking for. But sometimes the things you want are right in front of you. Includes special Making of The Band featurette plus director’s commentary.

The Band is grungy, funny and very sexy and you should buy it!

Here’s the trailer:

* Can I just say how pleased I am that Amazon quietly made the decision to sell erotic films? It used to be that they’d can you as an affiliate if you were also promoting porn.

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Pardon me while I swoon just a little.

Captain Dominic James, who was formerly a nominee for Cleo Bachelor of the Year, is being lauded as a hero after successfully ditching his jet in the sea off Norfolk Island, saving all on board. The plane was critically low on fuel after being unable to land and so the hunky pilot took the plane down in 1.5 metre seas.

Only three passengers had time to put on life jackets and the others were forced to cling to them as the plane sank and they were left treading water awaiting rescue, Mr Robinson said.

“Full credit to the pilot … the aircraft sank fairly rapidly and he pulled [the passengers] together,” he said. “It was just an amazing effort by him.”

Yes yes, I know it’s all a bit stereotypical to be feeling week at the knees about this but just look at this guy. He’s gorgeous. He’s a pilot. AND he’s a hero. The romance-novel loving part of me is very, very impressed. And the Red Dwarf fan in me is saying “What A Guy!”

Here’s a News.com.au report on this story.

Edit 20th Nov. As Crikey have rightly pointed out… why was the plane out of fuel so early? Perhaps our hero isn’t quite what we want him to be. Ah well.

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On Sunday celebrity sex blogger Belle De Jour outed herself as research scientist Dr. Brooke Magnanti. The media has since gone beserk over the story and I won’t repeat it all here.

What I have been doing is trawling through the stories on Google news and one thing keeps popping out at me: a lot of commenters refuse to believe that Dr. Magnanti doesn’t regret her foray into prostitution. They’re actually incredulous at the idea that she may have enjoyed herself.

And a great many others are very quick to rush in and say that Dr. Magnanti is not representative of “real” prostitution, which is, as well all know, a dirty, degrading business populated by drug addicts and criminals.

I found myself having a giggle at this paragraph by Riana Kelly in Newsweek:

When she’s not blogging about her past sexploits, she using her Ph.D. in informatics, epidemiology, and forensic science to research the effects of pesticides on children. How’s that for an unexpected spin on the whore-with-the-heart-of-gold theme? I’m kinda jealous of her, I have to admit. Magnanti is like a year of feminist studies rolled into one. I would have loved to be the first credible candidate for one of feminism’s holy grails: the empowered sex worker—able to expose herself to patriarchal fantasies of male domination without becoming damaged goods.

It sums up what’s so very cool about Dr Magnanti: she’s proof that women can think and fuck at the same time. And yes, that’s a very crass way of putting it. But the problem is that she’s a great big thorn in the standard philosophy that all prostitution is bad for women.

Tom Sutcliffe from the Independent says:

Had Belle de Jour turned out to have a crack habit, rather than a ruinous addiction to higher education, things would have been so much simpler for those of us (myself included) who feel uneasy about all forms of prostitution.

And it seems that a lot of people are simply closing their eyes, putting their fingers in their eyes and yelling “Blah blah, I can’t hear you!” on the topic.

A couple of examples:

Tracy Corrigan writes in the Telegraph:

It seems this sanitised, glamorised, picture of posh prostitution is supposed to make us think, well, really, what’s the harm? It is possible that Belle has emerged from her experiences without incurring psychological or physical damage. But it’s no excuse for projecting prostitution as a rather fun, pragmatic passtime for smart girls.

Tanya Gold in the Guardian argues that legalising prostitution does not improve outcomes for women:

The sanitisation of prostitution goes on, coercing us into a room where we will accept anything… I am glad you were not battered, Belle, but prostitution is a poisoned solution; a solution to nothing.

Gold produces plenty of compelling statistics to prove that prostitution can be a very dangerous and unhappy business. I don’t think anyone is denying that. But the problem is the absolute refusal to acknowledge that it might also be a profitable, safe and rewarding business for women, especially if it’s legalised and regulated and the woman is thoroughly in control, as Dr. Magnanti was.

I’m not an expert in this area but I do read the blogs of several professional sex workers. I know that they are trying hard to change attitudes to sex work and advocating to make it a safer, better profession. Dr Magnanti is not the only ex-prostitute who enjoyed her work and who doesn’t regret it. I recommend you visit the blog of Audacia Ray for further info.

It’s a pity so many commenters in the media are being so negative. Perhaps Belle’s outing should give us an opportunity to say: “Why can’t all prostitution be like that?”

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What to make of this photo. It’s a guy masturbating in a slightly acrobatic position and ejaculating onto his own face. Is it sexy or not?

I’ve already stated my objection to the ubiquitousness and sexism that seems inherent in many facial cumshots in porn. I do hate that bit where the woman kneels and looks stupid while the guy jerks off and ejaculates on her face.

But a guy doing it to himself? I think it could be very sexy. The idea of a man who tastes his own come or who isn’t afraid to go down on a girl after he’s had an orgasm is hot. I think it implies that the guy is accepting of himself and his sexuality.

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The mainstream media has featured a number of articles about women and porn recently, most still breathlessly amazed that women enjoy porn.

The Telegraph (UK) featured a short piece on the large number of women present at the Berlin Porn Film festival. It also discusses the “PorYes” awards created by Laura Merritt.

The SMH has reprinted the article today with comments. I’m still waiting for mine to be moderated.

Meanwhile the Fox “Sexpert” Yvonne Fulbright has offered her take one women and porn, disputing the figures about how many women actually watch porn. She then goes on to make lots of generalised statements about “what women want.” Unfortunately the column ends by assuming that only men are reading it – the second last sentence says “At the end of the day, the success of your quest may not be your movie of choice, but getting her to explore different forms of pleasuring in general.”

In other bad press, Kate Harding’s Salon argument that porn doesn’t empower women has irked me in a number of ways, the main one being her use of the term “actual feminist” to describe those who think porn oppresses (as opposed to all of us confused pretendy-feminists who might hold a differing opinion). She is happy to assume all porn is a monolithic bastion of male pleasure to further her point. The article doesn’t do much for creating a respectful or useful atmosphere for discussing various problems posed by pornography.

I wasn’t going to mention it but there’s quite the frenzy about Sarah Palin’s almost-son-in-law Levi Johnston appearing in Playgirl, not quite nude. Good PR for Playgirl but I’m not sure I really want to see that guy in the buff. Because crazed fundamentalist Republican teenage fathers really aren’t my bag, baby.

Lastly, there’s a great interview with Tristan Taormino at Alibi.com along with the schedule of the (just finished) Pornutopia film festival in Alburquerque. It icnludes this interesting quote:

There’s no pat way to make porn appeal to women, Taormino adds. “The first thing you have to do is abandon all hope that you’ll be able to speak to all women,” she says. “I’ve spoken to thousands of women about what they want to see, what kinds of porn they like, what kinds of porn they don’t like, and there is no single female viewer.

Pic is from Gawker.

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Today (November 17) is the big day. The long-awaited Oprah Winfrey show about women and porn is due to be aired.

It features Violet Blue, longtime blog friend and advocate of women’s porn. It also has an interview with Jenna Jameson. That bit is to be expected given she’s the big name star but I’m not sure she’s the best example of the way women are changing the industry.

The preview here looks relatively promising but it’s Violet who says that this show will offer an exceptionally positive look at women and porn – something many of us never expected from Oprah. Perhaps the “1 in 3 women look at porn” figure made her realise she needs to cater to a big chunk of her audience.

Unfortunately I won’t get to see it because Australia is behind when it comes to Oprah episodes. I wish TV could just get over these stupid delays and border differences and just give us shows in real time like the internet. We’re world citizens now, dammit!

I’ve just left a comment in the thread for the show. Already there are negative comments from religious women and those who think porn is addictive. I’m hoping the show itself will address these concerns.

Will write more later, if I find a way to watch it.

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I’m back.

I’ve actually been back in Australia for a week but it’s taken me 7 days to drive home from Sydney, visit a bunch of people on the way and recover from jetlag. Or try to recover – I was up at 5.30am this morning, listening to the familiar birdcalls and feeling excited about getting back into work.

I’m particularly keen to edit my video taken at the Berlin Porn Film Festival. There’s about 4 hours of it so I’ve got a big job ahead of me. I’m really happy I captured Candida Royalle’s lecture about her body of work on the Friday night. I also got a bunch of wonderful interviews with all the porn filmmakers present at the festival and made some great contacts – more in a major post coming soon.

And if you missed the Twitter feed, my big news is that the short version of That’s What I Like won the Petra Joy Award. Which was amazing and unexpected and very thrilling. As a finalist I got to spend the evening with 3 other very talented new filmmakers, drinking champagne and cruising around in a limousine. Very cool. I was also interviewed for German TV, although I have yet to see the end result. Not sure if I want to, really, could be quite mortifying.

There’s pics on Petra’s site – and yes, that IS me. I’ve finally outed myself, perhaps against my better judgement. But to hell with it. This is me… this is what I do. And that’s what I look like, for better or worse.

And I’ve taken a real liking to my new pseudonym Louise Lush. I decided against using Ms Naughty due to possible legal issues so I’ve opted for a fresh persona. Feels like a new start in a way.

I didn’t get to keep the giant comedy cheque. Probably just as well, our luggage was over the weight limit before we started. I had to take my very heavy star trophy home in my hand luggage. Thankfully customs didn’t think it was explosive.

I also had an amazing time being a tourist in Germany, both in Berlin and driving around Bavaria. It’s a beautiful country (albeit VERY COLD at this time of year) and I also love the liberal attitude towards sex over there. Kreuzberg, the area of Berlin where the porn festival was held, is home to a huge Turkish/Muslim migrant population and several gay nightclubs. Now that’s a happy, tolerant city.

It was also exciting to be there as the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approached. I wasn’t there for the big day but there was still a growing vibe at the time, one of celebration and hope. For me the whole thing made me feel kind of old; archive photos show Berliners sitting atop the wall in acid-wash jeans and mullet haircuts… you know, the cool stuff everyone wore when I was a teenager. It’s confronting for 1989 to now be considered “history” but as George Harrison said, all things must pass.

Will post a few travel pics here over the next few days, including some I took at the Museum of Medical History. The above photo is a huge mural on the wall of a hotel near the East Side Gallery. Typically Berlin, very sexy and no-one raises an eyebrow.

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This is a hot pic. There’s something very appealing about sex swings and that weird combination of freedom and captivity they offer. I love how she’s smiling while he licks her clit. Sexy.

Full set of photos is at For The Girls.

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This hunky guy looks just a tiny little bit like Twilight star Robert Pattinson. So if you’ve got a bit of a thing for him, he might make a reasonable substitute. Personally, I just think he’s a cute guy. Look at those “fuck me” eyes!

Full set of photos available at For The Girls

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