27
June
2008
I just have to blog about this news story because I find it fascinating. The New York Times has a piece about the sworn virgins of Albania. These are women who took an oath of virginity and took on the role of male head of the family when all their men died.
For centuries, in the [...]
Posted: Feminism, Sex and Women
26
June
2008
Just a quick post. Amber Rhea has hosted the latest Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy with a fab post here. It’s chock a blog (yes, that was a typo but I like it so I’ll leave it) full of great posts about the intersection of sex and feminism.
And yes, I’m listed in there [...]
Posted: Blogging, Feminism, Sex and Women
16
June
2008
Obsessing about my place in Google once again I found a rather long winded feminist essay about women’s porn, entitled: Rape Culture: Renegotiating Sexual Subjectivity on Porn Sites for Women. The piece takes a rather large philosophical stick to Sssh.com, which is an adult site for women that’s been around for roughly the same time [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women, Raunch Culture
31
May
2008
I just had to post this very cool photo of comedian Bill Bailey, who is a very, very funny man.
A snippet from his blog:
What is this lunacy of making people pledge allegiance to the Queen? I could understand if it was allegiance to the band Queen.
Posted: Feminism
7
May
2008
The newspapers seem to have gone into a gurgling meltdown this week over the upcoming Sex and The City Movie. Which prompts me to rant.
Me and Sex and The City were not friends. It pissed me off. I think I only managed to watch a couple of episodes before I gave up in frustration.
Sure, it [...]
Posted: Feminism, Popular culture, Sex and Women
23
April
2008
On October 20, 2003 an article called “The Porn Myth” by Naomi Wolf appeared in NYMag. The article suggests that porn desensitises men to real women and thus ruins relationships. She says that women now have to compete with a porn star aesthetic:
Now you have to offer—or flirtatiously suggest—the lesbian scene, the ejaculate-in-the-face scene. Being [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn
21
April
2008
I’ve now watched Erika Lust’s debut film Five Hot Stories For Her and I have to say I’m very impressed. This film won movie of the year at the Feminist Porn Awards and I think it deserved it. Certainly this film now shares a spot on my “all time favourites” list.
Five Hot Stories For [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn Movies, Porn for Women
18
April
2008
Surfing around today I was slightly startled to discover that women’s porn sites have been the subject of a very serious academic paper.
Women’s Porno: The heterosexual female gaze in porn sites “for women” by Terrie Schauer is an 18 page article first published in the journal Sexuality and Culture two years ago.
Here’s the abstract:
The article [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women
14
April
2008
April 14 is Cake and Cunnilingus Day, now in its third year.
Yes, I made it up. I decided to reject the stupid masculinist idea of “steak and a blowjob day” by creating my own silly girly holiday. Does it help the cause of feminism? I’m buggered if I know.
Anyway, it’s two months after the [...]
Posted: Feminism, Quirky, Weird, Funny
13
April
2008
Following last weekend’s Feminist Porn Awards, there’s been the inevitable debate about whether feminist porn can even exist.
Violet Blue’s SFGate column discusses the idea and at the time of writing there are no less than 806 comments. I have only read the first 6… it’s too nice a day to even consider going through the [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women
9
April
2008
The London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, hosted by the BFI, featured a special selection of female-focused and produced erotica. Under the banner “Female Fantasies”, the festival screened a number of erotic shorts by female filmmakers, including Petra Joy. From festival website:
A new wave of feminist pornographers explore authentic onscreen sexuality with humour, edge, and [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn
8
April
2008
Good For Her’s 3rd Annual Feminist Porn Awards have been announced following a ceremony held in Toronto on Saturday night.
The list of winners:
Boundary Breaker of the Year
Buck Angel
Smutty Schoolteacher of the Year (Educational Title)
Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Oral Sex Part 1 Cunnilingus and Part 2 Fellatio | Tristan Taormino; Vivid Ed
Hottest Dyke Film
Crash Pad [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn for Women
3
April
2008
No, that title doesn’t mean your usual girl-girl, long fingernail stuff. I’m talking about real life lesbians, making porn that reflects their sexuality.
Today I stumbled on a rather extensive academic essay entitled The Politics Of Lesbian Pornography. The author looks at the contrast between anti-porn feminism and the work of lesbian filmmakers such as SIR [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women
2
April
2008
I told myself I wasn’t going to write about the Porn for Women book anymore because I’m sick of feeding their first page Google ranking while my blog languishes in purgatory for this particular term. But I can’t help it. Today I found the Chronicle Books blog which has a number of posts by the [...]
Posted: Feminism, Popular culture
28
March
2008
Violet Blue’s SF column this week, Ugly Violet, and her subsequent blog post has really struck a chord with me. She writes about the way comment trolls dismiss women because of their appearance and the body image issues women have in our culture. This is a conversation we need to be having and one I [...]
Posted: Blogging, Feminism, Popular culture, Ramblings
27
March
2008
Every now and again I search Google news for the term “porn for women” just in case someone has mentioned women’s erotica in the news. It’s popping up rather heavily at the moment but, unfortunately, the subject isn’t about porn.
The cause of all the fuss is that damn Porn For Women book which features clothed [...]
Posted: Feminism, Popular culture, Porn for Women
17
March
2008
On the weekend I watched Petra Joy’s latest film “Feeling It” and I’m ready to announce that it’s the greatest porn for women movie EVER. Yes, yes, I know that’s what I said about her last film, Female Fantasies, but this is a NEW one. And I don’t think I’ve got enough rampant adjectives to [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn Movies, Porn for Women
15
March
2008
I got a bit of a surprise when I visited Good For Her and discovered that they’ve moved the date for the feminist porn awards forward by two months. Which is why I haven’t mentioned anything about this year’s awards before this. Unfortunately my friend Chanelle Gallant has left the store so I’m a bit [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn for Women
7
March
2008
The recent Cinekink erotic film festival in New York featured a panel discussion called “Women Behind The Lens” featuring Candida Royalle, Audacia Ray and Julie Simone.
There’s a video of the whole discussion here. I haven’t watched it yet because I just don’t have the time today but it’s there if you’re interested.
Audacia has blogged about [...]
Posted: Feminism, Filmmaking, Porn, Sex and Women
30
January
2008
I’ve linked to the blog All Men Are Liars, mainly because Sam De Brito is an excellent writer and I suspect he’s actually a closet feminist.
I’ve been meaning to put this video up for a while. It documents Sam’s weekend spent as a woman, complete with wig, dresses, high heels and Brazilian wax. I recommend [...]
Posted: Feminism, Quirky, Weird, Funny
24
January
2008
The Dominion has an article about porn for women and the feminist porn awards. Admittedly, they’re six months late with the awards, but the piece does discuss women’s erotica in an interesting way.
As for the opposite of feminist pornography, “any film made with female coercion†would qualify, says [Chanelle] Gallant. She stresses that feminist porn [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women
30
November
2007
While I was away enjoying life a small debate erupted about porn, facials, blowjobs and feminism. It started because Petra Joy wrote this on her blog:
A woman receiving head, a woman fucking a guy with a strap-on, a guy tasting his own cum and also to feature female ejaculation – those techniques that show a [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn Movies, Porn for Women
28
November
2007
The Daily Mail has a great selection of old print ads from when women knew their place and advertising was happy to say so.
They’re from the book You Mean A Woman Can Open It?: The Woman’s Place In The Classic Age Of Advertising.
The ad above was from 1952 and accompanied by the text: “Is your [...]
Posted: Feminism
16
October
2007
Congratulations to Spanish filmmaker Erika Lust. Her debut adult feature Five Hot Stories For Her won Best Spanish Script at the Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival (more info here).
The film is slowly being distributed in Europe and, according to her blog, will be released in the US in the next couple of months. I’m really [...]
Posted: Feminism, Porn for Women
13
July
2007
This article in the Observer concludes with four quotes by “feminists who have rocked the boat.” The quotes included:
“In a patriarchal society all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent” - Catherine MacKinnon, feminist author (attributed)
“When a woman reaches orgasm with a man she is [...]
Posted: Feminism, Sex and Women