Ms Naughty Porn for Women Blog
Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, the adult industry and sex in general.
Erika Lust Has Been Very Busy
Monday, February 28th, 2011
MAKING OF HOT HOTEL
Uploaded by lustfilms. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.
Above is the “making of” video for Erika Lust’s latest short film Love Hotel which is her sequel to Handcuffs.
A can only feel jealous as to the circumstances behind this film. A new boutique hotel in Barcelona called Casa Camper decided to invite six Spanish directors to create short films set in their hotel. Erika was one of those directors – and they obviously didn’t mind that she wanted to make an erotic film.
I feel dizzy even thinking about that kind of freedom and that kind of acceptance. I need to go and live in Spain.
Anyway, it seems that Love Hotel features a hot MMF threesome. I’m keen to see the whole thing. In theory it was released on February 25 but I the Casa Camper TV site goes 404. I guess Erika will release her film on her own site soon enough.
In other Erika news, she’s due to begin filming her latest feature Six Female Voices very soon. In October last year she put out a call to women, asking for ideas about what to shoot. I’ll be fascinated to see the result.
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Vote For Rob – Australia’s Hottest Tradie
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Our latest centerfold at For The Girls is the gorgeous Rob – seen here with his undies mostly on. He’s a wonderful bloke, really easygoing and friendly. He’s also a tradesman and that means he’s eligible to win Australia’s Hottest Tradie.
It’s a competition run by a dating site, now into its 3rd year. The premise is that single women prefer the more “macho” trade professions than men in suits, especially when said macho men have their shirts off. Interestingly, a number of women have entered themselves to prove that all tradies aren’t men. It’s a good point – perhaps next year they need male and female categories. For now, though, it’s all about perving on shirtless male eye candy. And on a purely superficial level, I quite like that.
Last year Rob was a finalist and he subsequently got into part-time modelling. This meant we were able to ask him to pose nude for For The Girls and we were honoured when he said yes.
Rob is once again an entrant in Australia’s Hottest Tradie and he needs votes to win. Thus, if you’ve got a few moments, I want you to click here and give him your vote.
And you can see all of Rob inside the members area at For The Girls.
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Dusk Erotic TV Channel For Women Has 1.2 Million Viewers
Friday, February 25th, 2011
In Berlin in October 2009 I had the opportunity to meet Martijn Broersma, a TV executive who had just set up an adult cable channel for women in the Netherlands called Dusk. We talked about porn for women and he invited me to submit my film “That’s What I Like” and anything else I made.
2010 rolled around and I got bogged down in the drama of trying to revamp For The Girls. I didn’t make any more movies until November. And I didn’t get around to sending off my films until just recently. Silly me.
Since I met Martijn, Dusk has been beavering away (as it were), turning itself into an impressive channel that now caters to over 1.2 million women.
Dusk says they offer “porna” – a new term they coined to describe erotic material that was different from the usual “porno”. Their main market is straight women and they offer films like Erika Lust’s Barcelona Sex Project, Candida Royale’s films and Matinee by the gorgeous Jennifer Lyon Bell.
“Holland is lucky to have Dusk. There is definitely a market of under-served women [in the United States] who would love to have something like this,” said Bell. “There is a revolution going on right now in porn, in alternative and feminist porn, and yet there aren’t a lot of outlets for it to be sold.”
In 2004 there was an attempt to set up a similar erotic channel for women in the US. Inpulse TV was launched with fanfare but I never heard another thing about it. Perhaps the time wasn’t right.
I guess the last few years have seen a growth in the number of women who enjoy porn and are actively seeking it out.
The other interesting thing about Dusk is they actively invite women to comment on what they like via their site. This means the films are partly selected by the viewers, a nice intiative.
My films aren’t on Dusk yet but they will be soon.
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I Recommend: The Expert Guide To Female Orgasms
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Last month I reviewed Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide To Female Orgasms for For The Girls and I’m overdue to talk about it here.
Put simply, I loved it.
It’s the latest in Tristan’s Expert Guide series in which she presents sex education accompanied by scenes of hot sex. The important thing is, the sex isn’t your usual porny stuff. Instead, the lovely porn stars demonstrate how to have good sex, the kind of stuff that results in female orgasms.
And by damn, if there’s isn’t a plethora of good sex female orgasms in this film.
Tristan gives a no-nonsense yet entertaining run down of female anatomy and psychology before discussing techniques. In between we’re treated to five different couples getting it on. The female stars were invited to choose their partners and are given the freedom to have sex however they like. On hand are a variety of sex aids including the ubiquitous Hitachi Magic Wand.
This film proves one thing: if you want to guarantee a female orgasm, make sure you have a mains-powered vibrator handy.
The sex ranges from very soft and quiet (Evanni Solei and Evan Stone) to playful and slightly rough – with anal (Adrianna Nicole and James Deen). There’s also a lovely scene starring Madison Young and Jiz Lee mixing it up with vibrators, dildos and lots of fisting. It’s good to see Vivid expand its boundaries and include a queer scene in there.
The other great thing about this film are the interviews with the stars. They talk honestly about what turns them on, how they masturbate, what it feels like to have an orgasm.
In short, The Expert Guide To Female Orgasms is fabulous. If you want to see porn that gives priority to female pleasure, respects its performers and delivers some seriously slide-off-your-seat sex, this film delivers in spades.
Please visit Porn Movies for Women for a selection of over 300 female-friendly films
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Gail Dines On Lady Porn Day
Friday, February 25th, 2011I have to hand it to Rabbit Write. Her Lady Porn Day idea has hit the big time with numerous articles in the mainstream media. The latest is this one on ABC News.
What’s interesting in this piece is that Gail Dines has taken a step back from her “all porn is evil” stance. She actually concedes that there is some feminist and female-friendly porn available.
“This is a distraction to take our eyes off what’s really going on, which is the increasingly brutal nature of the porn that men are using.”…
“There are some women making pornography, but they’re not really bleeps on the industry map. What I’m more concerned with is the type of porn that most men watch when they’re alone,” she says.
Admittedly it’s not much of a concession but if we consider that last month she was saying that any porn for women was made by men, it’s a step forward.
Now if we can just get her to acknowledge that her concern is primarily with extreme gonzo – and if she backs off from calling for censorship – and if she stops making generalisations about “most men” and uses better data – then maybe we can have a real discussion.
Although it doesn’t help that she says watching mainstream porn is “anti-feminist”. But then, maybe that’s just the usual no-true-scotsman argument about what feminism means.
Great to see comments in there by Clarissa Smith. Please consider taking part in her pornography research project.
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Fucking Is The Only Prayer – Trailer
Thursday, February 24th, 2011Fucking Is The Only Prayer - Trailer from Louise Lush on Vimeo.
I finally got around to making a short trailer for Fucking Is The Only Prayer which screens at Cinekink in New York on March 4 and is available in the member’s area of For The Girls.
The thing is, when your short film is only 3 minutes long, a trailer for it is kind of tricky. You don’t want to give the whole thing away; you only want to give a brief idea of what’s happening without spoiling it.
What’s interesting is that I’ve made my erotic film look a little bit like a sexy horror film in this clip. That’s not the intention but I found that I quite liked the result so I’ve left it as-is.
Rest assured, Fucking Is The Only Prayer is not a horror movie. It’s a sensual look at the spiritual side of sex – without reference to deities. An atheist porn film.
You’ll find more detail at my film site Indigo Lush.
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The Punishment For Screening Porn In Australia Is… A Donation?
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
In August last year, film director Richard Wolstoncroft decided to engage in some civil disobedience.
He had wanted to screen the film LA Zombie, an explicit gay film about zombies, at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF). The Australian censors did not grant permission for him to do so – it’s illegal to publicly screen porn in Australia. Angered by the banning of the film, Mr Wolstoncroft organised a “public disobedience freedom of speech event.” No police turned up so he went ahead and showed the film.
Then in November, police raided his home demanding a copy of the DVD. He said he’d destroyed it. They threatened to confiscate all his DVDs and computers but finally relented.
Yesterday he went to court to face charges of… well, I don’t know what, to be honest. Screening a porn film in public or similar. He could have been given a $28,600 fine and spent 2 years in jail. Instead, the magistrate gave him a diversionary order and fined him $750 (plus all costs). He was ordered to pay the money to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Let’s go beyond the insanity of our laws that make it illegal for consenting adults to view an adult film in a cinema because I think the absurdity of the situation speaks for itself.
What’s more interesting is the way Mr Wolstoncroft has been told to effectively donate to a charity to expunge the sin of showing other adults a porn film. A children’s hospital. Are you picking up the message loud and clear here folks? The implication is that the showing of LA Zombie caused harm. And somehow that harm was to children, apparently. Hence restitution for the crime of watching porn is to pay money to the children’s hospital.
Never mind that nobody was actually harmed, that adults happily attended the screening with out any ill effect, that police didn’t give a damn about it for months (it does seem that in November somebody higher up got a few phonecalls from a Christian lobby group and felt compelled to act).
The other thing is the rather mixed messages it sends. 2 years in jail for showing an adult film is just horrific. The $750 fine seems to suggest the law doesn’t want to take such a ridiculous “crime” seriously. Except to send a veiled message that porn somehow harms children in hospitals.
I’d love to hold a porn film festival in Australia. Perhaps we could just dispense with all that messing about in court and I could just donate some money directly to charity. A couple of grand to the children’s hospital to erase all the sin of watching explicit sex and we’ll call it even. Kind of like six hail marys but with swearing in between.
Or we could, oh, I don’t know… change the fucking classification laws in this country to reflect the 21st century.
Richard is holding a free speech event and mystery film screening to help pay for the court costs this Sunday. Check out the details here.
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I’ve Got The Site Revamp Blues
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
I own over 100 domains. I’ve got a whole bunch of sites out there that have been online for years. Plenty still look the same as they did five years ago. Too many have broken links and images, outdated text. It’s a result of a bad habit I have: I think of an idea, buy a domain, create a site for it and then move on. I’ve actually still got about 20 domains waiting for me to put something on them.
Ms Naughty is overdue for a revamp. I want to change the design and, more importantly, change the linklist. I want to move it beyond a simple free porn list and include more types of content like blogs and tumblrs. I want to add a heap more categories. I want to better reflect the diversity that I saw so many women talking about on Lady Porn Day.
But damn, it’s going to be a big job. One of the problems is that the linklist script that I paid $300 for is no longer supported. The programmer just went offline, never to be heard from again. My application of the script has errors and I’m not sure how to fix them. So that’s a little frustrating.
Meanwhile, For The Girls is STILL awaiting its member’s area revamp.
Way back in July 2009, Jane and I decided it was time to change FTG and update the inside, make it easier to use. I also had heaps of new ideas for content, both written and visual. I was really excited at moving the site forward, keeping up with the changes in porn.
It still hasn’t fucking happened.
We made the mistake of hiring a Dutch design company who ripped us off. They lied, wasted 7 months of our time and still didn’t deliver the finished product. The full story is here.
After the dust from that had settled we gathered up some more money and hired a new programmer to start again. He’s been working on the new member’s area since September, building a CMS from scratch. Apparently it’s a bigger job than we thought because we have too many photos and videos. I guess that’s a quality problem.
In any case, we were getting very close. We had hoped to launch the new member’s area on March 1. But then there was the Christchurch earthquake. Our programmer lives in Christchurch. Thankfully he’s OK but he’s without power, hasn’t slept and needs somewhere to stay. He’s obviously not very interested in working right now.
So it may be another month until we can launch.
One of the frustrating things about this is that we’ve held off from making changes to FTG until the design was done. We haven’t actively promoted ourselves because we thought we’d wait for the new design. Everything got put on hold. And putting your site on hold for a 18 months is insane. Although at the time, we were just waiting until tomorrow, next week, next month.
Towards the end of last year we finally stopped waiting and went ahead with some of our new projects like our male model shoot and my latest film. I’m still organising new written material.
Meanwhile, I can see other changes on the porn horizon. I want to take advantage of those. I need to organise FTG and my other sites to be ready for it.
I have SO much work to do.
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Help Create Better Porn Research
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
It’s becoming increasingly apparent in the debates surrounding porn that statistics are being used like weapons. At the recent Cambridge debate, data, or the lack thereof, was an important factor in how points were presented. And dodgy statistics and studies about porn seem to be everywhere.
Now we have a chance to help create some unbiased research into the topic of how people use porn.
Pornography Research Online wants to talk to porn users and get an idea of how people interact with porn. I’ll let them do the talking:
In the past, pornography has overwhelmingly been assumed to be a ‘problem’, and the only really important questions to ask about it are – how much do people (and especially children) encounter it, and how great is the ‘harm’ that it does? This research is different.
Our project is concerned with the everyday uses of pornography, and how the people who use it feel it fits into their lives. Pornography is of course a highly topical issue, subject to many opposing views and ‘strong opinions’. And we are not saying that there are no moral or political issues. But we are saying that the voices of users and enjoyers have been swamped. In fact, there is very little research that engages with the users of pornography, asking how, when and why they turn to it.
At the Erotics Conference last week I was privileged to meet Clarissa Smith, the author of One For The Girls, a look at how UK women interacted with For Women magazine. We had a great chat about porn for women and she told me about the porn research project. I said I’d help get the word out.
So, here’s your chance to be heard. The survey may take half an hour of your time but it will be worth it. The result should be something that actually reflects our own experiences with porn, without the judgemental nonsense or “addiction” paradigms built in.
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Librarian Porn. Feminist Porn.
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
During our December photoshoot I was trying to think about funny and artistic ways we could shoot our male models beyond the usual “I’m naked with my hard cock out” pic. I did a few artistic rip offs, as you can see in the post The Artistic Male Centerfold.
These photos were inspired by my bookshelf. More specifically, I thought my collection of feministy, porny titles would probably look much better if I got a naked man to hold them.
As you can see, Dan here does an excellent job of holding my books for me. I used to be a librarian before I started to make porn. Apparently the “sexy librarian” has become a porn cliche (she rips off her glasses and shakes out her hair!) but only when depicting women. I thought I’d turn the tables.
I also deliberately chose those books because I wanted to make a statement about feminism and porn. The books in the pile include The Porn Report, The Hite Report, both of Nancy Friday’s books on female fantasies, Susie Bright’s Sexual State of the Union and The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. I also included the weighty Attorney General’s Committee on Pornography report which was the result of Andrea Dworkin’s famous campaign against porn.
When we take a photo of a naked man, it’s still a revolutionary act. We have a lot of history behind us, including a history of repression and censorship. But we stand on the shoulders of women like Shere Hite and Nancy Friday and Candida Royalle and all the rest.
I admit, I had to photoshop the second pic. I don’t own a copy of Gail Dines’ anti-porn book Pornland. I intended to buy it for the photo session but was shocked to discover it was over $40 to buy. I found myself reluctant to contribute money to that particular author, given that she is so unrelentingly negative in her portrayal of porn and in favour of censorship. So we got Dan to hold another book and I’ve pasted in the cover.
Still, makes a nice image, don’t you think?
Gail Dines insists porn is exploitative. Are we exploiting the young and delightful Dan by taking a photo of him like this? I’d say no; we paid him well and we didn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do. He had originally planned to be full frontal naked but he changed his mind. That was OK, we still paid him what we promised and everyone was happy.
Are women being harmed by this photo? Uh, I’m not sure. Anyone? How are you coping with this image? Is it causing you to turn to drugs, or to rush out and have abortions, or whatever harm it is that’s supposed to come from viewing porn? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Has this photo made you addicted to porn? Not sure. Maybe I should check back in an hour or so.
Anyway I hope you like this pic. It’s my final contribution to Lady Porn Day. At least, until tomorrow.
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Don’t Dream It, Be It: Women Enjoying Porn And Making Porn
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Lady Porn Day. There are so many things I could write about porn for women* and women’s enjoyment of porn. And there’s so much I’ve already written; the landing page of my blog has a whole bunch of posts that I recommend you read.
What I want to do here is talk about the future of women’s porn because perhaps Lady Porn Day is a marker of sorts. It feels as though things are shifting, ideas are changing. Perhaps the audience of porn-loving women has hit a critical mass and it’s time to head in new directions. As someone who has made porn for women for ten years, I’m fascinated. And I want to be involved.
I’ve found the comments made via the #ladypornday hashtag on Twitter to be interesting and enlightening but also a little depressing. It seems there are a lot of disgruntled women out there. My first encounters with the idea of Lady Porn Day were couched in the complaint that it was not representative enough. Then there was this really angry complaint about Filament magazine. And the hashtag revealed more complaints. I can probably add them to the list of things I’ve heard many women say about “porn for women” over the years. They include:
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1. There’s no porn made for women
2. I can’t find any porn for women
3. Porn for women is all candles and romance and soft focus and softcore and that doesn’t turn me on
4. Porn for women is really just for gay men
5. Porn for women is stereotypical and illogical because you can’t make assumptions about what every woman would like
6. There’s no erections
7. The guys are ugly/too muscular/too skinny/too gay looking/too young/too old/too white
8. Porn for women is completely focused on heterosexual vanilla sex
9. I don’t see myself represented in this porn
10. I don’t find my particular turn-on/kink/fetish/fantasy in this porn
I’ve covered some of these issues in the following posts:
Porn for women – the backlash
The female gaze does not exist?
But what if stereotypes turn you on?
Boring blowjobs and feminist facials
Misconceptions aside, I know porn aimed at women is not perfect. It’s still a relatively new phenomenon and one that struggles with numerous issues.
From a purely commercial viewpoint, the market for porn for women is smaller; a lot of women still don’t buy porn. That alone restricts what’s out there because making porn usually requires money. Commercial considerations as to what will appeal to the most people come into play. If you think that most porn for women is too heterosexual or vanilla… that’s because it still sells. That’s not to say diversity won’t sell or that women don’t want diversity because I know they do but commercial factors are always in play here.
When it comes to who is represented in the images of porn, that too is limited, firstly by who is willing to get their kit off in the first place, and secondly by how much money there is to pay them for said kit-off-getting. Thirdly there’s the consideration of the audience and what they want to see. Decisions need to be made as to whether something will appeal to the viewer in a sexy way. Obviously subjective ideas as to what is erotic play a big part in this but there’s also the consideration of wider appeal (and of NOT turning off the viewer).
Women’s porn is only just beginning to diversify. Mainstream porn aimed at men has split into dozens of specific “niches”. If you want dwarf bondage orgy porn, it’s out there, though it’s still presented from a male perspective. Porn aimed at women hasn’t got there yet. Give it time.
And I’m saying all this from the perspective of owning one of the largest and oldest paysites for straight women, For The Girls. In theory, I’m guilty of making porn for women too restrictive because my site is relatively vanilla and heterosexual. But I’m just one person and FTG is just one site. It’s impossible to be all things to all women. FTG does try to offer a broad variety of content, particularly when it comes to our stories and articles but it can only really fulfil its original purpose: to be a site for women like me.
So having said all that, I want to think positively about the idea of complaints. Mainly, that a complaint is an opportunity.
If you are feeling disgruntled with the state of women’s porn, there are three positive things you can do about it:
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1. Make a request or a suggestion to the people who are making porn. Everyone loves feedback because it’s really useful in helping to refine what’s being offered. But for goodness sake, be nice about it. Catch flies with honey. Remember, pornographers are people too. And chances are they are just doing their best, trying to be creative and make a living, following their own vision.
2. Be prepared to back up your request with cash. By that I mean, make it apparent that you are willing to support the porn companies/sites/filmmakers and buy their product. Making good porn usually requires money, especially if you want good production values and also want to pay your actors/models properly. Ive written more on this in the post Why you shouldn’t assume all porn should be free.
This also applies to links. If you like a pic and put it on your blog, make sure you acknowledge the source. And obviously don’t just steal other people’s pics and repost them as your own. Be fair in your dealings with porn if you want it to be fair to you.
3. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, consider making it yourself. Take your own photos. Shoot your own movies. Write erotic fiction. Create your own vision of what is sexy and put it out there. What’s stopping you? The internet is there for the taking, self publishing is easy, erotic creativity is only constrained by your imagination. Hell, you can even make money with it, either through direct sales or through advertising and affiliate marketing.
Don’t dream it, be it.
And if you need any advice, I’m right here.
I’ve been doing this for ten years. I know a fair bit about online marketing, hosting, domains, traffic, billing, movie editing, coding, writing, PR, advertising, content, licensing, networking and generally selling porn. If you have a vision and want to do something different, I’m happy to give advice. Email me (msnaughty AT msnaughty dot com).
So, the future of women’s porn. Where do we go from here?
I guess it all depends on whether the rest of the porn industry steps into the twenty-first century and decides to embrace women as consumers. If all porn was inclusive, respectful, positive and not sexist then I don’t think there’d be as much of a need for the construct that is “porn for women”.
But that doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen soon. And I do think there’s always a place for porn that speaks only to women as an audience because women experience sex in their own way.
In the meantime, I’m hoping that more women start to speak about their enjoyment of porn and make their presence felt as active consumers. I think more women will step into creative roles and start to make their own porn. There’ll be more diversification and more options, a wider choice. And perhaps a wider social recognition of women’s enjoyment of porn.
Oh, and I hope that piracy and censorship doesn’t fuck it all up first.
I know my future holds a lot of changes this year. I need to revamp a lot of sites, including Ms Naughty. I want to embrace the changes that are coming. And I have a lot of porn that I want to create. It won’t be porn that is everyone’s bag, but it will make me happy and express my own sexuality. And I’ve found that when you do that, you easily find like-minded people who appreciate what you make.
So Happy Lady Porn Day, all.
PS. Let’s do this all again on Cake and Cunnilingus Day.
* Cue the inevitable disclaimer that I mainly talk about cisgender heterosexual women, although not necessarily in this post as I’m also thinking about lesbians, transwomen, queer folk on occasion. You can decide which bit is which and flagellate or praise me accordingly.
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Male Eye Candy For Lady Porn Day
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011February 22 has been declared as Lady Porn Day by Rabbit White. It sounds like a fun idea and a good way to raise awareness of porn for women so I’m joining in.
Here are a few more sample photos from the major male model shoot we did in December last year.
I have Adam a copy of My Secret Garden by Nancy Friday to use as a prop and at first it made him giggle. Then it didn’t.
Victor was a centerfold for Australian Women’s Forum in November 1996 and at 40 he’s still got it. He was mucking around with his undies in this shot. He ended up leaving them behind and we joked about auctioning them off on eBay.
This is just such a sexy shot.
Dan is quite shy and has the most wonderful smile. He wasn’t ready to do a nude shoot but that was OK because we thought he was gorgeous no matter what.
The results of our photoshoot appear at For The Girls. Please consider supporting us so we can keep making hot porn for women.
There’s a few more sample photos from the shoot in this blog post.
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Lady Porn Day
Monday, February 21st, 2011
I went back online after the conference and my time away to discover that a blogger called Rabbit Write had planned a blogosphere event called Lady Porn Day. The idea is to start a discussion about women and porn and also share links of what women enjoy.
I only found about about the event because MayMay posted a critique of the event’s banners, complaining that they focused on typical porn images of women rather than nude men or diverse sexualities. There followed plenty of Twitter agreement and snark. So I kind of landed in the middle of a shitstorm without knowing what was going on. I do agree… there weren’t enough nude men on the banners. There’s never enough nude men in banners.
In any case, Rabbit Write has heard the criticism, added more banners and listened to the various criticisms. She says she’s trying to make the thing as inclusive as possible.
I actually think it’s a nice idea, trying to stir conversation and raise a bit of awareness of women and porn. This is what I’ve been trying to do for ten years. It will be interesting to see how it all goes, especially if Rabbit garners some mainstream media attention.
I’ll write a post for Lady Porn Day on the 22nd.
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The Cambridge Porn Debate
Monday, February 21st, 2011
On the 17th of February, the Cambridge University Union Society hosted a debate entitled This House Believes Pornography Does A Good Public Service. On the “for” side were feminist porn filmmaker Anna Span, sex educator and therapist Jessi Fischer (The Sexademic) and porn actor Johnny Anglais. On the “against” side were anti-porn feminist Gail Dines, child psychologist Richard Woolfson and Shelly Lubben, ex prostitute and porn actress, now an evangelical Christian and anti-porn campaigner.
The debate was held in front of a packed audience (with students listening outside the hall) and the end result was a vote in favour of porn, 231 to 187 (with 197 abstaining).
Some have reported that Shelly Lubben’s emotional and non academic performance was a deciding factor (here, here). Jessi Fischer, in her blog post about the experience, says it was the lack of sources and general misinformation on the “against” side that did it in. Anna Span says the “against” side weren’t prepared to face such stiff opposition.
Debates like this are good for getting the issue out there but I do wonder whether the adversarial and strict nature of such an event can ever do it justice. I am mostly on the side of porn but I also believe there are plenty of negative issues surrounding it that need to be discussed. It’s such a pity that people like Dines and Lubben talk only in black and white when it comes to porn, they see only exploitation, abuse and bad outcomes when the fact is the whole shebang is entirely complex and can’t be reasonably discussed in generalisations.
I do have to cheer Jessi Fischer’s ongoing efforts to inject rationality and real data into the discussion, especially in the face of massaged statistics and moral hysteria. I think my favourite quote is this:
“The plural of anecdote is not data.” Superb.
Read Johnny Anglais’ speech here. BBC has a radio interview with Anna Span here.
Update 23rd Feb: Anna Span and Gail Dines appeared on BBC radio after the debate (audio here). Unfortunately the presenter took sides halfway through and belittled Anna. Violet Blue has publicly made a complaint about bias (and I did too after listening to the recording). We’ll see what happens from here.
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Old Spice Guy Returns
Monday, February 21st, 2011I’m happily giving Old Spice some free advertising space on my blog because I just enjoy looking at Isiah Mustafa with his shirt off. Oh sure, there’s that interesting post-modernist aspect and the way it subtly critiques the idea of the perfect man while also celebrating it. One could consider that it’s one of the few times an ad is directly pitched at the sexual desires of straight women.
But mostly it’s just him. He is, after all, a “ridiculously handsome man.”
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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. :(
