Erika Lust candidly discusses ethical, female-friendly porn, creative project XConfessions, and the impact mainstream porn is having on our children.

There’s a movement happening in the erotic film industry, and women are at the helm. Contrary to mainstream porn’s depiction of extreme violence, degradation, utilization of human trafficking, and a myriad of other transgressions, this variety of ethically-made, female-friendly porn is changing the way viewers experience on-screen sex. Erika Lust, founder of the Barcelona-based, award-winning indie film and production company Erika Lust Films, and creator of crowdsourced cinematic film site XConfessions, burst onto the adult scene in 2004 with indie short film “The Good Girl” and hasn’t looked back since.

After studying political science and gender studies at University of Lund in Sweden, Lust read “Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the ‘Frenzy of the Visible’” and had an epiphany, of sorts. Similar to others, Lust says “I was exposed to porn at a young age, like many people, and my first reaction was disappointment. When I was older, I decided to give it another try, but the same woman in heels was still giving a blowjob to a police officer to get rid of a fine.” Upon reading the book, however, her eyes were opened to a new way of thinking.

“It was the first book to look at pornography as a genre with a history, as a specific cinematic trend, and as a part of contemporary discourse on sexuality,” says Lust. “Beside being such a theoretical work…it made me realize porn was not only porn. I realized that mainstream porn is not something that really reflects any truths about sex — but it makes a statement, an idea; it expresses ideologies and values and also opinions about sex and gender.”

The more she learned about the discourse of pornography, the more she says that she wanted to try her hand at creating a film that represented her own ideas and values, while also being something that would appeal to women and men seeking sensual and ethical erotic content.

Today, she oversees XConfessions and Eroticfilms.com. The first is a crowdsourced site where Lust gathers anonymous confessions from her viewers and brings them to life in a high-quality cinematic film experience. Lust pointed out that the desires and kinks are vast and have exposed her to what she claims is “how amazingly creative and diverse female fantasies are,” noting that they’re “often far kinkier than men’s fantasies.” The latter is an adult site comprised of ethically-sourced porn by a variety of directors and features categories like Trans, BDSM/Fetish, Gay, Lesbian, Women Directors, and Sex Education. Depicting a variety of body types, races, and sexual orientations, the site coincides with her commitment to diversity.

When reflecting on mainstream porn, Lust says it “shows sex as a thing that men do to women, or that women do for men, which means misogynistic porn that objectifies women and places unrealistic expectations on both sexes. The representation of male pleasure is the ultimate goal, the scene typically unfolds through the male gaze, and the cumshot seems to be mandatory to end the scene. The female character is being used to satisfy others, but not themselves.”

In comparison, Lust says her films show women and men “as sexual collaborators, not as objects or machines,” and places a strong emphasis on representing female sexuality and desires, including taking into account the female perspective. “The most important message is that female pleasure matters. Not because male pleasure doesn’t matter, it does too,” but because, for decades, women’s pleasure has been ignored in mainstream porn, Lust says she wants to represent women “who assert sexual agency” and, in turn, offer women an empowering and positive experience after watching her films.

And that she does. Because of Lust’s openness to fans, keen artistic eye, and ability to diversify while still creating quality female-friendly porn, she says of the positive feedback she gets a lot of Facebook messages and e-mails thanking her for her work. “In fact…due to the release of ‘Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On,’ I have been overwhelmed by how many people have discovered me and sent me e-mails,” she says.

With a casting process that is “long and thorough” and an unconventional directing method that abides by her rule of not actually directing the sex at all, Lust ensures that the actors are excited and enthusiastic about participating and lets the performers “do what feels natural and pleasurable.”  

In addition to being a pioneer in the female-friendly porn industry, Lust is also a mother to two young girls with her partner and co-founder of Erika Lust films, Pablo Dobner, and the couple are conscious of the type of impact her work can have on them. “We’ve always asserted that educating our children and teens about pornography and sex is far more useful than attempting to try and stop them watching it. But it has come to our attention that children of far younger ages than we expected are being exposed to porn — children as young as 8 or 9.” That’s the age of her daughters, and Lust says add to that her unique voice in the dialogue around pornography and its influence on young people “Sparked something within me. So my husband and I have launched a non-profit project, ThePornConversation.org,” which is designed as a free tool for parents to help with instigating conversations about porn at home.

Labeling “porn as the new sex-ed,” Lust is equally as passionate about protecting children from misinterpreting the unrealistic expectations set forth by the mainstream porn industry.

“We are giving our children zero framework for contextualizing porn — for discussing it or balancing its potent images against everyday adult relationships,” she says. “But online porn is there. It can be improved, ethical adult cinema is on the rise, but mainstream online porn is going nowhere…the sooner we talk to them and educate them the better.”

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ColumnIn last week’s column I introduced you to the thriving (and surprising) feminist porn movement. Since then, we’ve witnessed a violent, gratuitous rape scene on “Game of Thrones” and were exposed to a repugnant stream of frat boy text messages rife with relentless misogyny. Just another day in the cesspool of American culture.

We could all use some sex-positive, uplifting momentum right now, can’t we? If you’re yet to be initiated to the world of Feminist Porn, feel free to review last week’s column. Now, let’s meet some of the movers and shakers in this emerging field, and get acquainted with their work.

Annie Sprinkle: The Pioneer

Annie Sprinkle is the still-reigning queen of Feminist Porn – she’s the original provocateur, and the reason that the young auteurs you’ll meet below can do what they’re doing today. (Full disclosure: Annie is my friend, so forgive the gushing please – she truly is this awesome.) Annie is a porn star and self-described “sacred prostitute” with a PhD in Human Sexuality. Her breakthrough performance art piece from 1990 was called “A Public Cervix Announcement,” a piece in which she invited theatergoers onstage to examine her vagina with a speculum. That’s when her work became iconic for Women’s Studies students everywhere (and how I first heard her name). Annie’s latest (amazing) projects are in the field of Eco-Sex and Sexecology.

Tristan Taromino

You may know Tristan’s work even if you’ve never watched porn, because she wrote a sex column called “Pucker Up” for the Village Voice from 1999 – 2008. First and foremost, Tristan is an awesome educator – all of her work feels like a super empowering lesson in sex-positive exploration, while simultaneously being fun and hot. This is why she regularly lectures at colleges across the country. Her copious instructional videos are wildly popular, especially for women exploring anal sex for the first time. Although she’s not a porn performer, she definitely belongs in this list because her contributions to the feminist porn canon are iconic. You can listen to her radio show: “Sex Out Loud” every Friday at 8 pm on Voice America.

Madison Young

She’s an award-winning adult film star and director, sex educator, performance artist/founder of the Femina Potens gallery in San Fran, and so much more. Young’s new memoir “Daddy” was first supposed to be a work of erotic fiction, but turned into a story about her life. Her work in the BDSM arena is legendary — explore her oeuvre when you’re ready to graduate from “Fifty Shades of Grey” to something real — and really intellectual.

Courtney Trouble

Trouble’s website describes her as a “queer porn icon” but it’s true – she’s is an icon. She is a porn performer/director and the founder of TROUBLEfilms, IndiePornRevolution.com, and QueerPorn.tv. She has won numerous Feminist Porn Awards.

Erika Lust

The founder of Erika Lust Films, Erika studied political science and feminism at Lund University, and has made her career out of challenging the conventions of the adult film industry. Born in Sweden and living/working in Barcelona, she writes and directs award-winning films that blur the boundaries of gender, sexuality, pleasure and fetish. Lust says: “Porn is a huge part of the culture we’re living in. We cannot just ignore porn, we have to participate and discuss this very influential genre.” Amen.

Got a question for Stefanie? Email stefanie at ecosalon dot com, and she’ll answer it in the next Sexual Healing column.

Keep in touch with Stefanie on Twitter: @ecosexuality

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ColumnAre you a feminist? Do you like porn? Luckily your politics and your pleasure can hang out in the same room without humiliating each other: feminist porn is here to stay.

Feminism is complicated – it has come in waves and continues to exist in camps. It’s less and less a dirty word – even some celebs are embracing the once-shunned Big F — it’s become a trend (for better or worse).

But when it comes to pleasure, there’s long been a divide between anti-porn/anti-sex feminists and sex-positive feminists. Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon rose to prominence in the seventies and eighties by trying to ban porn, not to mention sex work in general. Their argument was that all forms of sex in the marketplace – porn, prostitution, etc. – required the ipso facto exploitation of women. There could be no nuance or exception — porn was all bad, and all porn performers were unequivocal victims.

If women were turned on by porn, it was because there was something wrong with them, according to the Dworkin/MacKinnon coterie. Brave pioneers like my friend performance artist/porn star/eco-sex activist Annie Sprinkle have always been out there fighting the good fight and telling the truth about women in and around porn. It’s been a long road, but the new wave of feminist porn is here — and it’s exploding into mainstream consciousness.

Advocates of feminist porn argue that anti-porn feminists ignore the agency of all women by assuming that porn performers are victims, or worse — self-delusional. It’s true that there are plenty of demeaning images in old-school porn, made by men for men. But throwing the baby out with the (porn-star) bathwater only deprives women of discovering their own relationship with the meaning of pleasure. One can identify images that are truly dehumanizing and use alternative images — those that are empowering, beautiful, and truly hot. What’s better than a video that gets you off and agrees with your politics? Orgasms that come with progressive street cred are wonderful orgasms indeed.

In the last ten years or so, pro-sex feminists have begun winning the porn wars, in large measure, by taking porn into their own hands: producing, writing, directing, and starring in it.

The ultra-fascinating “Feminist Porn Book” offers its own broad definition of feminist porn:

As both an established and emerging genre of pornography, feminist porn uses sexually explicit imagery to contest and complicate dominant representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, age, body type, and other identity markers. It explores concepts of desire, agency, power, beauty and pleasure at their most confounding and difficult, including pleasure within and across inequality, in the face of injustice, and against the limits of gender hierarchy and both hetero-normativity and homo-normativity. It seeks to unsettle conventional definitions of sex, and expand the language of sex and an erotic activity, an expression of identity, a power exchange, a cultural commodity, and even a new politics.

Put more simply: feminist porn is inclusive, and it’s not made exclusively for men, like most mainstream porn. That doesn’t mean that it’s softcore Cinemax or light erotica a la the cheesy, bodice-ripping Harelquin. If you blushed reading “Fifty Shades of Grey,” you’ll probably turn even redder watching anything labeled feminist porn. But it’s worth the hot cheeks – you can really learn something about yourself by letting yourself go there.

In part two of this series, I’ll introduce you to a few breakout producers and stars in the genre.

Got a question for Stefanie? Email stefanie at ecosalon dot com, and she’ll answer it in the next Sexual Healing column.

Keep in touch with Stefanie on Twitter: @ecosexuality

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