Ms Naughty Porn for Women Blog
Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, the adult industry and sex in general.
What’s In The Box?
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
My, what a huge… present you have.
Happy Christmas to everyone.
Related Posts:
Christmas Tongue
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Who cares about the stupid present? Give her tongue, man!
Related Posts:
Carnal Christmas
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Here’s a nice dirty photo to spice up Christmas a little. You’ll find more at the free mini site Carnal Christmas.
Related Posts:
Feminist Porn Awards Expands, Offers New Filmmaker Competition
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Alison and the good people at Good For Her have sent out a press release concerning next year’s Feminist Porn Awards. They’re planning to create a jury of members of the public to help judge the films, which is an excellent initiative. You can find out how to become a jury member here.
They’ve also initiated a scholarship for new and upcoming feminist porn filmmakers (hmm… sounds familiar), the Emerging Filmmaker Award (EFA).
The EFA will honor emerging talent in the field of feminist porn production by offering monetary scholarship to an individual who is breaking boundaries, creating sexy feminist porn and who is committed to the representation of women and alternative sexualities in erotic media. Each year, Good For Her will strive to select new, up and coming talent with the hopes of creating more accessible opportunities for those whom are traditionally challeng ed by the process of securing finances for their creative projects.
The EFA is intended for the completion of a film project to be released for film screening and/or DVD distribution in 2010-2011. The EFA is intended for individuals working on their first erotic film project(s) only.
Full terms and conditions are on their site.
Despite all my best laid plans early in the year, I have nothing to submit for nomination. I could, however enter the EFA as I have plenty of exciting ideas in the pipeline.
Related Posts:
Porn For Women Retrospective 2009
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009The year is drawing to a close and thus it’s time again to take a look back at all the newsy and interesting things that have occurred in porn for women in 2009. Overall it’s been a big year with plenty of media attention and what appears to be a growing recognition within the adult industry itself that yes, women do enjoy porn.
In The News
* The big deal this year was that Oprah featured a show about women and porn. Stunned by the idea that 1 in 3 porn surfers are women, the show’s producers decided to look into the topic. The show featured web sex expert Violet Blue and a brief piece on Kelly Holland, director of many Playgirl’s films, but the main focus was an extended interview with Jenna Jameson, hailed as the most famous porn star in the world.
The end result was a mixed bag. While Violet did a great job at promoting women’s erotica and sex-positive attitudes to porn, Jenna was made out to be some kind of feminist icon, which stretches the truth a little. She seemed to put a lot of female viewers off, judging by the negative comments in the Oprah Forum. It also emerged that Candida Royalle had initially been asked to appear, only to be swept aside when the focus turned to Jenna.
Nonetheless the show did prompt a larger interest in porn for women with several media outlets featuring articles on the topic. Most seemed amazed at this “new” trend, but for me it’s old news.
* In July Violet Blue again made waves thanks to her article on CNN about women and porn which caused a surge of media interest in the topic.
* In August Nightline featured a report on women and porn. The item included interviews with Candida Royalle and Nica Noelle.
* In September a kerfuffle erupted in Sweden thanks to the public funding of a feminist porn film called Dirty Diaries. Filmmaker Mia Endberg and several others created images of female eroticism with home cameras and mobile phones. Naturally the government funding had conservatives frothing at the mouth of the “waste of taxpayers’ money” while fellow feminist porn makers could only sigh wistfully at the thought of it.
* Playgirl was heavily in the news in November thanks to its almost-nude spread of Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin’s ex-son-in-law. They were also reportedly offered naked photos of Tiger Woods post scandal but declined to publish them.
* In October I was interviewed by Spanish magazine 20 Minutos about porn for women.
Hatches, Dispatches… and Outings
* In May Filament magazine appeared on the scene and was met with the usual tired “women aren’t visual” response. The editor Suraya Singh also met with difficulties in getting the second issue published because the printers refused to print photos of erect penises. She managed to turn the problem into a useful awareness-raising campaign and the magazine has been a huge success. I published an exclusive interview with Suraya on the blog in July.
* In the same month it was announced that major women’s erotica publishing label Black Lace was shutting up shop, a fact that caused a great deal of distress for readers and anger for authors who said the company had abandoned a profitable arm of the business. Many bemoaned the loss of one of the few outlets for female sexual expression.
* In July it was also announced that HBO would be producing a new television series based on the idea of an old-school feminist starting a porn magazine for women. Diane Keaton is said to be in the lead role.
* November saw the media world explode with the news that sex blogger/writer Belle De Jour had outed herself. The fact that highly intelligent research scientist Dr. Brooke Magnanti was behind all those explicit tales of unrepentant prostitution had the moralists in a tizz.
New Porn Movies For Women
2009 was really a big year for diversity with a wide variety of new erotic films released that don’t fit into easy-to-define genres. Independent films and movies made for women have been making headway even as the mainstream porn market has collapsed in the wake of the global financial crisis and growing piracy.
* Director Nica Noelle made a big splash this year with the release of her Sweet Sinner line of erotic films. Rejecting many porn traditions, Nica has created an impressive, female-friendly series that’s high on storylines and good-looking porn stars.
* Petra Joy released Her Porn 1, a compilation DVD featuring the work of numerous female directors such as Marianna Beck, Maria Beatty, Emilie Jouvet and Candida Royalle. Candida also released Petra’s film Feeling It under the Femme label in November.
* Anna Span launched her new line of films for women called Women Love Porn, with two films: Apocalypse Angels and Rock Hard. The third eponymous title was delayed due to censorship issues in the UK – see below.
* Queer pioneer Courtney Trouble has moved into film directing, releasing her debut Roulette along with follow-ups Nostalgia, Speakeasy and 7 Minutes In Heaven. Her movies cross all genre boundaries, featuring lesbian, gay, transgender and straight sex scenes.
* BDSM and Queer trailblazer Madison Young was a veritable powerhouse in 2009, directing and starring in six of her own films as well as running her San Francisco art gallery Femina Potens.
* New Zealand director Astrid Glitter released Triple X Vignettes, her straight follow up to her impressive gay debut John.
* Australian filmmaker Anna Brownfield made waves in Berlin when The Band opened the Berlin Porn Film Festival. Her impressive film is now available on Amazon.
* Shine Louise Houston continued to prove that lesbians are making the porn of the future with her feature film Champion, an epic that went on to win awards all over the place. She also released more episodes from her successful dyke site Crash Pad Series.
* Tristan Taormino pushed the boundaries of feminist porn with her amazing film Rough Sex. The movie explored the idea of consensual power play where women act out submissive fantasies through rough sex. She also helmed several more releases in her Vivid Ed series.
* The Playgirl production line continues apace, releasing at least one film each month of the year along with a line of gay male masturbation titles.
Awards and Festivals
* The Feminist Porn Awards had another successful year. It was the first time the awards offered a large list of nominees – a sign of how far we’ve come, perhaps. I’m pleased to say that For The Girls was a sponsor this year and the event was sold out. The announcement of the winners saw Pink and White’s Champion named Film of the Year and, indeed, many of the awards went to queer and lesbian movies. My one gripe about the awards was that the subsequent press and blog reports were rather one-sided and an outsider may not have realised that there were any straight films at the awards at all.
* The AVN awards in January didn’t offer much in the way of nods to women’s films. The preceding Adult Entertainment Expo offered a “marketing to women” panel at the expo starring Kelly Holland and a bunch of other women I hadn’t heard of. Madison Young made headlines by walking the red carpet with dyke porn star Syd Blakovitch, causing the AVN people all sorts of genre headaches. (AVN magazine later went on to cause outrage due to several unsavoury articles – one promoting racist porn and one discussing BBW porn in the most derogatory terms possible. They also had dust-ups with Violet Blue and Madison Young over the racism issue.)
* The inaugural Poryes awards were held in Berlin in October. Instigated by Sexclusivitaeten adult store owner Laura Merrit, the awards acknowledged the contribution of Candida Royalle, Petra Joy, Annie Sprinkle, Shine Louise Houston and Maria Beatty. The awards aim to promote sex positive, feminist erotic films.
* Also in Berlin, the Petra Joy Awards were handed out to first-time female erotic filmmakers at the Berlin Porn Film Festival. My film That’s What I Like won first prize.
* The Berlin Porn Film Festival was a bright point in the erotic calendar because this year the focus was really on female filmmakers and female sexual perspectives. With roughly half of all films shown made by women, the festival waved a flag for the growing movement of feminist, indie adult filmmakers. My short doco about the festival is here.
* There were a number of other erotic film festivals making waves around the world in 2009. Cinekink was a huge success in New York and went travelling around the US afterwards. Rated X in Amsterdam also attracted positive reviews. Meanwhile the Sexy International Film Festival in Melbourne has expanded and now has outposts in Perth, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
Research, Surveys and Reports
* 2009 saw an awful lot of news reports and research into the “mystery” of female desire. As usual clueless editors and writers asked the question “What do women want?” with the inevitable generalisations and shrugging of shoulders. One lot even opined on “the real reasons women have sex” – which caused much derision in the blogosphere. Thankfully, the idea that female desire is a paradox was mentioned in one piece, which needs to be said more often. One interesting piece of research suggested that women enjoy being lusted after a-la Twilight and Pride and Prejudice. There was also a refutation of the idea that “women aren’t visual” which is always welcome.
* I also encountered numerous studies into the way teenagers use porn – some enlightening and some accompanied by the usual hysteria. What has become apparent is that teens are not turning into monsters because they use porn; research shows they often view it with very critical eyes. Meanwhile, the US government-funded Internet Safety Taskforce found that teens were rarely in danger from sexual predators while online.
Censorship
The battle against censorship has continued apace this year. My focus has mainly been on Australia thanks to the ongoing battle over the planned mandatory internet filter but also due to other ridiculous incidences of censorship and sexual oppression.
* In March it emerged that the muddled and very flawed net filter plan involved using the AMCA blacklist, a secret collection of URLs that only selected politicians and beaurocrats were allowed to see. Thanks to the inherently anti-democratic nature of this blacklist, it was promptly leaked to the public on Wikileaks. The list revealed that perfectly legal websites such as Abby Winters, I Shot Myself and Whale Tale had been banned, along with political sites such as an anti-abortion site and a pro-euthanasia one. The ACMA scrambled to change their list and maintained that it only contained child porn links but the incident proved just how much of a slippery slope mandatory censorship will be.
* STOP PRESS – I was still writing this post and the news has come through that Conroy has given the filter a green light. Suffice to say I am NOT HAPPY JAN.
* In July police raided the offices of Garion Hall, owner of AbbyWinters.com, the largest Australian adult site. Egged on by a tabloid journalist who told them the models were underage, officers seized computers but in the end did not press charges. The incident brought to light a lesser-known law that means it’s illegal to shoot “objectionable films” in Australian states. No cases have been brought to test what “objectionable” means.
* In August the Melbourne Underground Film Festival was due to screen Jennifer Lyon Bell’s Matinee, a relatively tame yet explicit depiction of two consenting adults having sex. The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification banned the film without having seen it, preventing the festival from screening it in public. The festival directors pointed out that the OFLC had passed Lars Von Triers’ sexually explicit and violent film Antichrist for another festival because it was “art” but that Jennifer’s beautifully shot example of erotica was considered too dirty for everyday people.
* In July I looked at the inconsistent and hypocritical decisions made by the OFLC with regards to “art vs porn” using 9 Songs as the example.
* In the UK Anna Span celebrated a small victory over the British film censors. Her movie Women Love Porn had been held back from release for almost two years due to the presence of a female ejaculation scene. The BBFC said it was urine; Anna brought in experts to prove otherwise. The censors begrudgingly gave way although they still maintain that female ejaculation isn’t real. The case highlights how censorship often discriminates against expressions of female sexuality.
Ms Naughty In 2009
It’s been a bigger year for me than I expected. In February I shot my first erotic short film That’s What I Like under the name Louise Lush. The film has gone on to screen at Berlin and Melbourne and, as mentioned above, it won the Petra Joy Award. It’s available at For The Girls and should be out next year on the Her Porn 2 DVD.
I had every intention of making more erotic films this year but fate intervened. My husband was diagnosed with mild epilepsy which meant a lot of worry and doctor’s visits for several months, although everything is fine now. Meanwhile, Garion Hall’s arrest in July created legal uncertainty about whether I should make more films. Right now it seems I will have to move overseas to pursue my artistic vision.
I did make a couple of small films including Paddling The Pink Canoe and my Berlin doco. I also attended a short course in guerilla filmmaking in March that was extremely educational and motivational. Going to the Berlin Porn Film Festival in October was probably the most important thing I did all year because it meant I was able to meet so many wonderful filmmakers and other porn industry people. I can see the future and it’s very bright indeed.
For The Girls continues to grow. We’ve published such a wonderful variety of high quality erotic fiction this year and we were also joined by Jamye Waxman, who makes vodcasts for us, and porn star Tyler Knight who writes moving and funny accounts of life in the world of mainstream porn. In the next few weeks we’ll launch our exciting new member’s area.
Some Larger Blog Posts From 2009
The joy of my sex education – how I learned that sperm should wear top hats
How did “yes” become “yes I’ll fuck the whole football team”? – Musings on consent amid the Australian rugby league sex scandals.
This is why we need porn for women – a few glaring examples of why the phrase is still relevant
I’m not really a sex blogger – why I don’t get too personal on this blog
How long is the ideal sex scene? – ruminations on how long it takes to shag on film
Why you shouldn’t assume all porn should be free – my thoughts on why people should be prepared to pay for good porn.
Oh yeah, and then there was the silly Hunks In Aretha’s Hat post. Now that’s quality porn.
Related Posts:
Mandatory Net Filter Gets The Green Light
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
The mandatory internet filter has been on the cards for nearly two years now but I must admit I honestly didn’t think it would get off the ground. The whole idea is manifestly flawed and technically unfeasable and I foolishly thought that Senator Conroy would have to bow to common sense in the end.
Alas, no. Religious zealotry tends to flush away all common sense and thus it is that today Stephen Conroy has given the green light to the filter.
It’s hard to articulate the churn of negative emotions I’m feeling now but suffice to say that I’m angry, frustrated, outraged and perplexed by the decision. The plan still involves a blacklist and it’s still going to be secret; it’s essentially a green light for the government to censor pretty much anything under the guise of “protecting the children.”
And what’s being sold as a fight against child porn is actually a war on legal, adult pornography. The report says that RC (”refused classification”) material will be blocked – this is material that it is actually legal to own in Australia. The Australian Sex Party says 99% of all adult websites would be considered RC if the government had the resources and time to classify the millions of them out there.
Even female ejaculation is considered a “fetish” and thus beyond the pale. Once again, censorship imposes itself on female sexuality and tells us what is and isn’t “normal”. This is a regime that bans the healthy sexuality of Matinee but thinks images of clitoridectomy a la Antichrist is OK.
The only positive thing I can take from this is the overwhelming response to the announcement on Twitter and in comments on news sites. About 99% of all comments and tweets I’m reading are opposed to the filter and a lot of people are saying it’s a vote-changer. There’s real anger out there and I think it’s going to be forcefully expressed in the coming days and weeks.
Fact is Australia has outgrown it’s ridiculous censorship laws and there’s a wave of Gen X and Y internet users that are about to start getting seriously vocal about their right to freedom of speech. It really is time we stood up to these conservative bastards and told them what the majority of Australians really think.
And if protests and letters and emails and strong public antipathy don’t work, I will be leaving Australia. Probably in a year’s time when the filter is due to come into force. No doubt For The Girls and some of my other sites will be blocked and I don’t want to give my tax dollars to a country that thinks my brand of positive sexual expression is obscene.
Fuck them.
Update (and I think I’m going to keep updating this post this evening as things progress): The Australian Christian Lobby which pushed for the filter is ALREADY demanding that it be extended:
Managing director Jim Wallace issued a statement claiming the Enex report had “proven the technological principle [of filtering] can be extended to deal with other harmful X and R-rated material on the internet.
“This is now clearly feasible and we need a review in three years that might test this in practice, particularly using third party providers of URLs,” Wallace said.
Hello slippery slope.
Related Posts:
Annie Sprinkle’s Post Porn Modernist, 1996
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Scanning in old photos a few weeks ago I came across the pics we took at the Sydney performance of Annie Sprinkle’s Post Porn Modernist in 1996. Annie positively insisted that the audience took photos of the show so these blurry images are the result of our participation. I’ve also still got one of the rice-filled shakers we used to create a wall of sound during Annie’s orgasmic meditation.
This show was like a first step into a wider world for me. I’d had my interest in sex and sexuality stirred by the then-risque pages of Australian Women’s Forum mag but beyond a few furtive visits to a sex shop, I was still pretty naive.
And then Annie Sprinkle came to town amid much fanfare and negative press. I don’t think I paid much attention until the day the police paid her a visit. Suddenly it became imperative that uniformed officers determine if “obscene” acts were being performed in the Belvoir Theatre, something that couldn’t be allowed to go on if drinks were being served.
The libertine in me was galvanised. I booked two tickets to the show, partly to say “fuck you” to conservative censors who would tell me what I could and could not see.
Once I was in the theatre, I found myself feeling rather nervous. What was I in for? Was this really my kind of thing?
And then Annie appeared in all her positive, cheerful, bewigged glory and related the fascinating tale of a life lived to its fullest. She made us laugh and she made us share in the sad times. She also made us squirm. I can still remember my shock at hearing the story of a customer who enjoyed anal fisting: “I’d reach up and around and tickle his heart,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. I think that’s the first time I’d even heard of fisting, let alone the anal kind.
In the interval she invited audience members to come down and have a photo taken with her boobs on their head – for $15 of course. I was too shy and I still regret not doing it. The above photos show that we enjoyed it vicariously.
And then she performed her amazing breath orgasm which was just a stunning thing to watch (I actually tried it a year later with mixed success). It was a mind-expanding experience, to be in the same room as a woman who could achieve orgasm through breathing and mind power alone. I was just so impressed and Annie has been a heroine for me ever since.
Indeed, she showed me that sex can be a positive and feminist experience and that one can make a living out of prostitution or porn or sexually-based art without having to be all those negative things that society insists a woman should be. In a way, Annie’s Post Porn Modernist put me on the path that I’m still walking today: a feminist pornographer out to change the world.
I dug up my old Sydney Morning Herald and Age data CDs to see if I could find the news reports of Annie’s visit here. They’re so out of date they don’t work on Windows Vista but I did salvage some articles after much mucking around. Here’s a sample of some of the media from Annie’s 1996 visit.
Sprinkle’s tour into realm of the censors
By Mark RayIN a city accustomed to sordid revelations at the Wood Royal Commission on corruption within the New South Wales police force, New York-based performance artist Annie Sprinkle seemed an odd target for a burst of censorship fervor.
Sprinkle, a former US prostitute and star of 200 pornographic movies, has just finished a sell-out week-long season of her show ‘Post Porn Modernist’ at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre, despite threatened police action against the theatre. The show opens at the Athenaeum in Melbourne on Tuesday for a two-week season.
During the week, the Belvoir Street Theatre was told its liquor licence might be revoked because of Sprinkle’s explicit one-woman show. There are no longer any censorship laws in NSW but police action against the show was threatened by recourse to provisions of the Liquor Licensing Act.
By Friday that threat had been abandoned – apparently after the Minister for Police suggested to his commissioner that the moves against Sprinkle were inappropriate.
‘Post Porn Modernist’ is certainly explicit, but the atmosphere at one performance here this week seemed unlike that of a sleazy porn show.
An audience of apparently unremarkable suburbanites, dedicated fans and the curious broad-minded staged no walkouts, made no complaints but responded with much laughter…
WHAT I LIKED ABOUT ANNIE.
SHANNON HALBERT, 26, high-voltage linesman.
“It was bizarre. Much more spiritual than I expected. I thought it’d be the life and times of a porno queen but it’s a decent show.”
AMANDA GARLAND, 29, film producer.
“I didn’t know what to expect but it was nice to see sexuality brought out so openly and presented so positively.”
ROBERT SKAPPEL, 50, interior decorator.
“I liked the fact that she included spirituality into her sexual experience. I’m all for that message.”
DIANA COXSHEAD, 35, naturopath and pharmacist.
“She seemed most comfortable in the last part of the program, going into the spiritual, tantric side.”- The Age, 31st March 1996
Annie’s Happy Ritual
By Jim Schembri
…The reaction to the show has been strictly divided, Sprinkle says. “I’ve had the best audiences in Australia and the worst press. The audiences have been the most appreciative of anywhere I’ve been in the world and the press has been the most vicious.“I’ve been misquoted here in Australia more than I’ve ever been. I wouldn’t say (the coverage has been) the most conservative, (but) I would say (it’s been) the most misinformed, the most taken out of context, the most uneducated. And very judgmental, extremely judgmental.”
Sprinkle says she’d never bring Post-Porn Modernist back to Australia because of the stress of bad press, but will bring her new show MetamorphoSex here. “I would have to think hard if I’d want to bring something back that has that potential to be controversial. The bad press inspires a lot of hatred.
I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
- The Age, 4th April 1996
In deep water with Annie
By Emma TomNOT LONG into the all-nude Annie Sprinkle bath-house interview, I wish to inform Houston that we have a problem.
Note-taking in a ginseng bath is turning out to be almost as difficult as the well-documented “where the hell do I put my wallet?” nudist nightclub dilemma.
Plus, for some weird reason, the unclothed subject matter is not proving conducive to family newspaper photographs. No matter how low we sink in the spa or how strategically placed the sauna towels, there’s always a stray nipple or three vying for camera attention.
This is Annie Sprinkle, live performance sextress and former porn film starlet, after all. Asking her to keep her money- makers out of the camera would be like asking Eva Cox for a lap dance. Just wouldn’t seem right…
- The Age, 29 March 1996
Reading through some of the other pieces I’m somewhat depressed that Australian society hasn’t progressed in the 13 years since Annie’s visit. A 1996 article called “Have We No Shame?” used Annie’s public cervix announcement as an excuse to bewail the alleged decline of society’s morals. You could easily reproduce the piece in today’s papers and the conservatives would happily nod along. The visit by the police was reproduced during the Henson art gallery censorship incident in 2008. Seems that Australia’s attitude to sex is still very furtive and juvenile.
Annie hasn’t come back and I don’t blame her. Looks like I’ll have to make the effort to go to the US and seek her out. Maybe then I can finally get that photo of her boobs on my head.
Related Posts:
Kitchen Man
Friday, December 11th, 2009
It’s been a while since I posted a sexy pic.
I like this one because it makes me wonder what this hunky guy with the nice butt is preparing. This photo makes me hungry, as it were.
Related Posts:
It’s Old News That Women Like Porn
Friday, December 11th, 2009I’m kind of bemused at some of the recent news articles that discuss the idea of women enjoying porn. Since the Oprah show they’ve been popping up here and there and they all seem to breathlessly report the “1 in 3 porn surfers is female” like it’s a brand new phenomenon.
It’s not.
I’m now approaching a decade of making porn sites and I’ve been catering to an eager female audience the whole time. And I wasn’t the first person to do this. Women have been seeking out decent porn for years now and even Nielsen Netratings acknowledged this with a “1 in 3″ statistic back in 2003. Hell, when my old employer Australian Women’s Forum launched in the early 1990s it was an old idea.
Perhaps the one difference is that it’s now considered more normal, perhaps because the internet generation have become adults. For them, porn is nothing to be ashamed of; it’s part of their everyday lives. And I’m talking about both males and females here.
Still, it’s nice to get see mainstream outlets acknowledging that women enjoy porn.
Here’s a couple of the pieces that prompted this small rant:
The exploding world of soft porn for women (exploding? Phew!)
Women Love Porn, Too!
Related Posts:
Touched By His Noodly Appendage
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
I’ve been a bit slack with updating the blog this week (and last week). Suffice to say I’ve been busy. Oh sure, I could tell you about the new sites I’m working on or the redesign of the For The Girls‘ member’s area.
But the truth is I’ve been slaving away making this: our Flying Spaghetti Monster tree ornament. I’ve finally finished and he is now gracing the top of our Hotblack Festivus tree.
Aren’t you pleased to see that I’m putting my time to good use?
Here’s the Hotblack tree.
“It’s so … black!” said Ford Prefect, “you can hardly make out its shape … light just seems to fall into it!”
Zaphod said nothing. He had simply fallen in love.
The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.
“Your eyes just slide off it …” said Ford in wonder. It was an emotional moment. He bit his lip.
Related Posts:
Why You Shouldn’t Assume That All Porn Should Be Free
Monday, December 7th, 2009
I’ve long been musing about the whole issue of copyright, downloading and paying for entertainment/artistic content. It’s now the end of the Noughties and, as we speak, film studios, media companies and distributors are becoming increasingly hysterical about the effects of the internet, in particular the piracy that occurs through torrents and illegal downloads. The British government is mulling over a bill that would see people losing access to the internet if they are caught downloading copyrighted material, as are other Western governments.
Meanwhile plenty of people are advocating changes to copyright law that acknowledges the current situation: that millions of people download music, movies and TV shows every day without paying for them and that you can’t criminalise the whole world.
If everyone is downloading, does the law even apply anymore?
When it comes to porn, the internet is awash with free adult material. If you wish you can visit a torrent site and download any feature-length porn film you can name, helpfully uploaded by some unnamed masturbator. Or you can visit one of the plethora of free tube sites that feature porn video clips, many of them illegally ripped from membership sites. Beyond that there are millions of small galleries and free sites offering an abundance of porn, all for free.
Part of the reason for all this free porn is the promotional model that first emerged in the late 90s: give people some free photos and advertise at the same time. If the surfer is interested in the samples they will hopefully buy a membership to see more explicit pics.
Unfortunately the “sample” model turned into the “here’s the whole shebang” model and suddenly people didn’t need to pay money to see the hardcore stuff because it was absolutely everywhere and freely available.
The end result of all this free porn on the internet is the decline of the mainstream porn industry. As we speak some of the major adult companies are struggling to stay afloat. Porn stars are getting less work and they’re being paid less because the money is no longer there.
Too bad, I hear you say. It’s time the rich media companies stopped ripping us all off.
This is the usual thing I hear in defence of downloading, especially with regards to Hollywood movies and major record companies. The big wigs have had control of the business for too long, they’ve starved out competitors and encouraged crap product at the expense of good artists. The model is stale and cynical and is not giving us what we want. So who cares if they lose money, they’ve got heaps of it anyway. And it’s time things changed.
And I kind of agree, in a way. The distributors and the executives and the parasites need to be scraped away from the creation of good art. It’s time we cut out the middle man and found a better way for artists to get their product out there.
But here’s my problem. Amid all this “Robin Hood” downloading I’m also seeing plenty of theft that is hurting smaller producers. I’m talking about the filmmakers, actors, writers and artists who don’t have a big company behind them. They’re creating self-produced porn with their own money, putting a lot of time, effort and love into making something they think is worthwhile. It can take years for a single film to be made involving vast amounts of work, often without pay, to see a vision realised. And then there’s the endless wrangling with distributors and gatekeepers, trying to get the movie out to the audience.
And what happens then? Some asshole rips it and puts it on a torrent.
Too bad, goes the argument. They should just be happy that people are watching their film in the first place. Art shouldn’t come with a price tag, right?
This seems a delightfully lofty ideal and it’s one that we all might aspire to. Unfortunately, here in the real world, things don’t work that way. We live in a capitalist society where people need to work to make money to live. If you choose to pursue filmmaking rather than, say, an office job, you choose to live on the breadline. Sure, you could try and do both but it’s a great deal harder to come up with good art.
So firstly, if we accept that people deserve money for effort then demanding that they offer that effort for free is not fair.
Secondly, if someone puts time and money into a film and it doesn’t pay the bills (or the loan) because people refuse to buy then they are highly unlikely to make a second film. And if their first film is really good then there’s no chance to further enjoy that person’s unique perspective.
Making good porn requires money. Sure, anyone can grab their camcorder and film themselves fucking in a dimly lit room. That’s amateur porn and yes, it has plenty of fans. But if you want porn that has decent lighting, sound, sets, camerawork, costumes and actors, you need to start forking out the cash to make that happen. Even simple low-budget stuff can’t be done properly unless you have money. I know this, I’ve done it.
And if you want to go a step further and create porn that breaks the mould, that tries new ideas, that explores weird fantasies or breaks taboos AND is ethically made, you definitely need money. That’s just how it works. The simple ethical idea of treating performers with respect means you have to pay them properly. And that takes money.
Someone asked where they could find feminist porn for free. The answer is, you won’t find a lot of the new wave of independent feminist porn without paying for it. And nor should you. The people who are forging a new path in the porn industry, creating female-friendly erotica with feminist/humanist ethics and high aesthetic value are all doing it without the support of any major players. We’re all small-time in the broad scheme of things.
So many of the filmmakers I met in Berlin are struggling, trying to get their work out there while being ignored by the mainstream porn industry that refuses to believe that women even like porn. They’re self-publishing and distributing, working their butts off trying to get their product out into the marketplace. They may be offering samples of their work, but nobody can afford to just give the whole thing away.
I’m speaking here as a porn producer and artist but I should point out that I’m also a consumer. A few years ago I did my share of downloading on a file sharing site – and I will still do it occasionally when it’s apparent I can’t find and pay for what I want through standard channels (and this I understand is one of the reason many people do download – so many media companies still haven’t “got it” with regards to the internet). But I did make an ethical choice to stop downloading indiscriminately because I felt that what I was doing was ultimately not fair to the artists.
And this is what I want to advocate in this long and rather painful post. We as surfers need to put the brakes on and start to adopt some ethics when it comes to downloading. If we want to see copyright laws loosened then we damn well need to take some responsibility on our end.
Here are my suggestions for the ethical consumption of online media:
- If a movie or song is by an independent artist, make an effort to find their website and buy it directly off them. You will undoubtedly get it cheaper, possibly personalised and you know they’re getting compensation for their hard work that made you happy.
- If you’ve already downloaded something and you really like it, make an effort to buy the official version. Or if it’s not in buyable form, make a donation.
- If you like something, recommend it to your friends.
- If a movie/song/website is making an effort to cater to you and is offering high quality stuff that you can’t normally get elsewhere, pay for it. You are paying for ethics and quality, in much the same way you pay more for free range eggs.
- Don’t assume that everything should be free or begrudge having to pay. It’s not fair to the artist and will ultimately result in less content being created.
Things are still a jumbled mess when it comes to copyright and the world of entertainment feels like it’s on the cusp of a huge change. Everything is going to be delivered digitally in the future and the big media companies can see themselves being squeezed out. I’m not going to mourn them. It’s going to be great when every individual artist is able to make a living by communicating directly with their audience.
BUT
The online audience has to come to the party. If we want the brave new world that is the internet then it can’t all be free.
* The above pic is a screenshot from Grahame Linehan’s hilarious spoof of that annoying anti-piracy ad in the IT Crowd. Mr Linehan is a vocal advocate for loosening copyright laws and not prosecuting people for file sharing. He’s also hilarious.
Related Posts:
Berlin Porn Film Festival 2009
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009It took five weeks but here, finally, is my little doco about the 2009 Berlin Porn Film Festival. It’s a little over 4 minutes and you’ll hear some great comments about feminist porn by some of the fab female directors I met including Shine Louise Houston, Anna Brownfield, Candida Royalle, Anna Span, Petra Joy, Jennifer Lyon Bell and Renee Pornero. Plus a quick cameo from Joe Gallant and footage from the Petra Joy Awards presentation.
A much longer version went live at For The Girls yesterday and I’ll also be uploading more footage there soon. Candida Royalle’s lecture about her films is particularly interesting – that’s waiting for a future update. I also wrote an expansive article about my experiences in Berlin for FTG.
The short blog version is that I had a ball, won an award, met lots of wonderful people and wished it could have gone for another 3 days. I didn’t get to enjoy nearly enough films because I was so busy with the Petra Joy Award but the ones I did see were amazing.
It was the people I met that really made it worthwhile. I interviewed Shine Louise Houston from the Crash Pad Series and was so impressed with her drive and knowledge. She’s a woman with a plan and she’s going to become even more of a force to be reckoned with in the future.
Well-known director Joe Gallant could well be the nicest man in the world. We talked the future of porn and hopefully we can work together at sometime next year. He said he thought I’d like Bong Water Butt Babes but I wasn’t so sure. He made me aware of how disconnected I am from the mainstream porn industry… something for which I’m kind of grateful.
Anna Brownfield is a card. We were so pleased to meet each other and had the comraderie of two Aussies lost in Europe, trying not to slip into slang when giving interviews. Her film The Band was such a standout and it shows you can easily marry explicit sex, comedy and great storytelling.
I also got to meet Lisa Vandever from Cinekink who is so much fun and easy to talk to, as is Vena Virago, a wild, pink haired artist who just happens to make porn for Vivid Alt. And I found myself getting stupidly protective towards the gorgeous Julie Simone, who is very quiet and shy, despite being a fearsome BDSM Mistress who can rock a rubber dress.
And then there’s Jennifer Lyon Bell of Blue Artichoke Films who I met last year. Jen is kind of like the social glue of the event, introducing people and arranging dinners and you couldn’t encounter a warmer, more positive person.
I even got to say hello to Candida Royalle, albeit briefly. Indeed, I cringe a little when I think about it. I was feeling a little starstruck and eagerly handed her my card which read Louise Lush. “That’s my new pretendy name,” I said.
Pretendy name??? Sheesh! I like to flatter myself that I have a decent vocabulary but do you think I could remember the word pseudonym for love or money at that moment? My husband has been teasing me about my pretendy name ever since.
OK, enough name dropping. Suffice to say I made lots of contacts and, as you see in the film, we all feel like we’ve found a family in Berlin.
I’ve since discovered quite a few of the short films on Youtube or other free sites around the web. I’m hoping to feature these on the blog in the future.
And as expensive as it is to travel all that way I think I’ll have to go back in 2010. The festival is too much fun and far too useful to miss out on.
Related Posts:
Violet Blue On Oprah
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Someone has helpfully posted the segment on the Oprah show featuring Violet Blue so I’ve finally been able to watch what was said.
Violet has posted her feelings about the show on her blog and they’re overwhelmingly positive. I like this bit:
Look closely at this show and you’ll notice that Oprah has reframed the entire conversation: we women are not ‘tolerated’ or marginalized for exploring our inhibitions, voicing our desires, or owning our sexual agency — we are embraced. The 1 in 3 consumers of adult material online — women — were finally acknowledged, and with respect for a change…
Myths and stereotypes: smashed! We live in a world where women are more sexually powerful and articulate than any other time in history because of the internet and emergent communicative technologies. Oprah’s hip to it. You’re soaking in it. And that’s really, outrageously exciting for all of us.
She’s right, of course. It’s wonderful that women’s erotica got such a good airing on a mainstream TV show without the usual negativity.
I do, however, have a gripe. I feel that the show only seemed to skim the surface of the topic and it did so in a way that seemed to focus much more on the mainstream porn industry rather than the burgeoning indie/women’s porn movement that I feel is doing a better job at catering to women. I think having the interview with Jenna Jameson as the main focus meant things were skewed that way.
That moment when Oprah first asked about Violet’s recommended movies had me holding my breath, waiting to hear Tony Comstock’s name, or Nica Noelle’s, or Shine Louise Houston’s or even Candida Royalle’s. Alas, it turned into a plug for Jenna’s relatively mainstream film The Masseuse, fab though that may be.
And it’s wonderful for Playgirl and director Skye Blue to get a mention but for me that company is a prime example of mainstream porn aiming at a female market but not necessarily getting it right. The Playgirl movies I’ve seen look great and can inspire a mood but they still feature the same old porn stars having the same old porny sex. They’re nice enough but they could be so much more.
Of course, maybe I’m just jealous. Actually, I AM jealous, dammit. Once again, online porn receives much less media attention than “real” porn offered via movies (although now that DVD sales have tanked, this may change).
The main thing is, it’s a start and it was good that Oprah even dared to tackle the topic (especially given some of the negative and vitriolic reactions from viewers in the forum).
Now that Oprah has announced a new cable lifestyle channel we can look forward to a sexuality-themed TV series, one that has more time to devote to women’s erotica.
I can dream, can’t I?
Related Posts:
For The Girls Sample Galleries
Ms Naughty On Twitter- msnaughty: Orchids: My Intersex Adventure doco will screen on ABC1 this Sunday 29th at 10pm. Worth watching http://t.co/4BjeZwvY
- msnaughty: Just recorded an interview about feminist porn for community radio 2SER. It will be on 9am Wednesday Sydney time, live on their site.
- msnaughty: RT @NoPlaceforSheep: don't be fooled by "pro life" language: how debates are framed:http://t.co/jgcbDDhR
- msnaughty: RT @ElenaJeffreys: "Reasons to be wary of anti-porn zealots" By Jennifer Wilson http://t.co/2GCU8qKQ
- msnaughty: I had a massage yesterday to cure my various sore muscles. It's given me a massive neck headache. Was going to do lots of editing today. :(
