Pornography is, ironically, one of the messier topics related to women and gender issues to discuss; the existence of pornography has a tendency to divide those within the gender studies community. Is it a symbol of the objectifying, male-dominated, sex-focused culture in which we live, or is it an opportunity for women to express their sexuality and take ownership of their bodies? Pornography is a much more diverse industry than one might expect, with varying companies and individuals creating and distributing it in different ways, making it a mistake to discuss porn as a monolith. Instead, the complex intersection of feminism and pornography must be dealt with in its many forms – from the issue of censorship and feminist opposition of pornography, to the potential benefits of feminist pornography, to the way LGBT, class and race issues are personified or explored within pornography. Exploration of all of these issues leads to an image of pornography that is not a single-minded expression of male gaze and controlling desire, but has the possibility to empower and arouse people of both sexes without shame.
The Feminist Porn Wars
Porn has been a divisive issue within feminism, leading to a decided conflict between whether or not it should be resisted or embraced. Pornography, almost as definition, is a performance – two or more people are performing for a camera. However, there is a certain tension between fantasy and reality that occurs in porn; viewers are meant to lose themselves in the fantasy and believe that the couple performing is earnestly having sex, but the reality may be far more complex than that. Different levels of porn can bring about varying levels of performance; the difference between mainstream porn and ‘amateur’ porn, for instance, is that amateur porn has a greater sheen of authenticity to it, with nonprofessionals and scenarios that imply a greater sense of fly-on-the-wall realism. Mainstream porn, meanwhile, focuses on contrived scenarios, high production value, and women befitting a very strict standard of heteronormative ideas of beauty.
The line between these types of performance may be somewhat ill-defined, which is what can cause the confusion among many feminists as to what to do with porn. Many may want to censor porn – preventing it from being distributed in order to stop what many feminists see as objectification of women. According to Dworkin, pornography “sexualizes inequality and in doing so creates discrimination as a sex-based practice” (26). Feminists like Dworkin see mainstream porn as a way of subordinating and objectifying women, and she is correct to do so. Pornography subordinates, objectifies, and performs violence against women, persuading men who watch porn that women are solely meant to be performed on until such time as they are no longer needed for male gratification.
However, there are also those pro-sex feminists who believe that sex should still be celebrated as an outlet for female pleasure, and to censor and stop pornography altogether would be tantamount to denying that impulse in everyone. Many women find strength and power in asserting their sexuality, and to censor and ban porn would be to deny women those avenues. Instead, the answer is to simply make pornography better, change the industry from within and bring about more equal, non-objectifying and subordinating porn that empowers women instead of treating them as objects for male satisfaction and erection. The divide between these two arguments comprises the ‘feminist porn wars,’ in which the issue of pornography altogether must be addressed in a way that stops violence against women while not restricting women’s own sexualities.
Defining Feminist Pornography
One of the most intriguing avenues for egalitarian treatment of women in porn is feminist pornography. Bakehorn notes that the feminist porn industry, as it currently stands, is “fragmented; it lacks a central location for production and is less established than the mainstream porn industry” (92). As such, it is still a smaller force in the world of porn than the unmistakably destructive nature of mainstream porn; however, the fact of its existence bodes well for pro-sex feminists. Feminist pornography can best be defined as porn designed and filmed by women, ostensibly with women as a primary audience; the works can feature heterosexual or women-on-women lesbian intercourse as well, but greater care is taken to prevent the kind of objectification and subordination that Dworkin refers to.
Many feminists in the mainstream porn industry can find mainstream porn to be “empty, inauthentic, and not representative of [their] sexuality and the kind of sex [they were] having” (Ryan 121). Mainstream porn can have a disastrous effect on women, with the perfectly framed, lit and toned bodies of porn actresses leading to body dysmorphia in normal women, adversely affecting their self-image because they do not fit the heteronormative construction of women’s bodies in a certain narrow schema of attractiveness. To that end, feminist pornography is meant to eschew all that in order to provide a more even-handed, optimistic and honest view of sexuality that shows women as being more realistic, yet still with a sex drive and set of desires that should be honored.
Feminist pornography is chiefly designed as a positive, ‘better’ alternative to mainstream porn (Bakehorn 103). Women who make porn commonly have backgrounds in sex education, activist stances and artistic backgrounds, as well as prior sex work experience and industry connections to porn through personal connections (Bakehorn 94). Many of feminist pornography’s goals include not just titillation and sexual stimulation, but promoting sex positivity, safe sexual practices, and encouraging women to be secure about their sexuality (Bakehorn 96). In essence, feminist porn seeks to demonstrate that “the process of making porn cannot only be consensual, it can be safe, professional, political, empowering, and fun” (264). Feminist porn, then, is an initiative taken to provide women with porn that is made for them, and therefore does not cater strictly to masculine stereotypes and turn-ons for porn. The existence of feminist pornography and porn made for women rebuffs the cultural notion that porn only exists for men and women are turned off by it. As opposed to pornography being a strict product, feminist pornography has a specific cultural, social and political goal – to prove to women that their sexuality and desires do not have to be determined by men or male-dominated social norms.
The fundamental utility of feminist porn is also quite valuable from a feminist and gender-studiesperspective. According to Taormino, who has herself worked in the porn industry, “Feminist porn creates its own iconography and is committed to depicting diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, class, body size, ability, and age” (262). Pornography itself is important as one of the few places where “we can watch other people interact sexually” in modern society; therefore, instead of censoring it, feminist porn must simply become more prominent in order to combat the dangerous images of mainstream porn (Taormino 262).
Perhaps the most important aspect of feminist porn is its emphasis on authenticity and inclusiveness. Feminist porn stars have a tremendous capability to become positive role models for young women to explore their sexuality and show them new ways and techniques with which to do so. Despite the many contradictions and issues that are still widely present within porn, it is valuable to recognize that effort placed towards creating more equal representation within porn and greater welfare for porn actresses as an alternative to mainstream porn (Taormino 263). With feminist porn, greater care is taken to provide women of color, queer women, women of color, and women with a wide assortment of body shapes and sizes; furthermore, performers in ‘feminist porn’ are less pressured to limit themselves in terms of body type, comfort level, or honesty. A greater emphasis on reality exists within feminist porn, including honestly feeling and expressing pleasure (i.e. no fake moans for the camera), communicating with one’s partner, and displaying a sense of individuality and personality within the scene (Ryan 127). These aspects and more all contribute to a significant difference between mainstream porn and feminist porn.
LGBTQ, Class, and Race in Pornography
While strict gender issues in pornography may be seeing the beginnings of change in the form of feminist pornography, there is still the issue of representing LGBTQ individuals, as well as those of different classes and races in porn. Porn, as an extension of media in general, is predominantly white and middle/upper-class in makeup; as people of color and lower-class populations have more immediate issues to worry about (violence, economic destitution, police discrimination), the issue is not brought up as much. As such, the battle against sexualized stereotypes of ethnic women (and men) has not gained as much ground. However, pornography can be one of the few battlegrounds on which these issues can be combated, particularly as porn is one of the fields that requires the most work to change.
As a society, we are responsible for including discussions of race and class in the same discussions of sex and gender when it comes to porn. Issues of class are often rarely discussed in dialogues about the ethics of porn, though the industry itself plays on perceptions of both upper-class and lower-class sexualities. Upper-class pornography, such as that provided by Playboy and Penthouse, offers escape for the upper-class men who need conventionally attractive, bold and submissive women accompanied by fancy clothes and high-end items – thus equating women with these objects of status and power (Kipnis 130). Hustler, conversely, offers a much more working-class outlet for pornography, combining a more varied color and size palette for their women with discussions of political outrage, bawdy comedy, and more (Kipnis 130). The Hustler crowd, as well as the homemade and amateur porn industry, showcases a decidedly more honest, working-class porn outlet to combat the unrealistic expectations and constructions of the female body expected of the more discriminating tastes of the rich.
Women of color are particularly marginalized and stereotyped in porn, combining intersectional patriarchy with ghetto caricatures to synthesize a particular image of black women that is thrust into the mainstream. Black women are overly represented in the porn industry as being larger, sassier and altogether ‘different’ than white women in order to play up their ‘ghetto’ construction; this is, of course, if black women cannot appropriately fit into white standards of beauty (Miller-Young). While their bodies are coded to be ‘undesirable’ because they do not fit into Anglicized conventions of beauty, they are also desired because of their exoticism, acting on a near-fetish level (Miller-Young). Black women are paid much less than white women in the porn industry, and are altogether given less work and less reputable work than their white counterparts. Even discussing these issues is verboten, as many people in the porn industry are not aware of these issues, and the disposable nature of the industry means it is easier to simply replace questioning performers with ones who will not question, and it is more difficult to unionize and fight for these equal rights.
Despite these issues, black women do find ways to turn pornography to their benefit. The flexibility of the work and its lucrative nature allows women to economically sustain themselves in ways they might not otherwise, and offer the chance to explore their sexuality and become economically mobile and independent. Furthermore, working in porn gives them the chance to work up the ladder to direct projects of their own and take work within the industry when they cannot (or will not) perform any more. This kind of mobility is also advantageous as it will allow black women directors to accomplish the same goals feminist porn directors do for their workers; making safe and ethical environments, provide more three-dimensional characterizations of black women that do not fit into stereotypes, and offer the kind of authorial control that lets women dictate how they are represented in porn.
Feminism and pornography provide a unique and fascinating arena to discuss the social and cultural constructions of gender, race, class and sexuality. The way we see ourselves and each other can be heavily taken from the porn we enjoy and tolerate. Consequently, this leads different camps of feminism to quarrel over whether or not porn is, without fail, an expression of men’s subjugation of women, or if there is room for women’s voices in porn to allow them to have a positive outlet for their sexuality. Feminist pornography is one concrete step towards this, which focuses more on authenticity, honesty and performer welfare than the traditional mainstream images of patriarchal sexuality found in porn. Greater intersection with class and race would help to provide outlets for lower-class individuals and people of color to have louder voices in the realm of pornography. If these things were to be accomplished, porn could stop being a monolithic symbol of male oppression and become a healthy way for people to discover their bodies and have their sexualities expanded and validated.
Works Cited
Bakehorn, Jill. “Women-Made Pornography.”
Dworkin, Andrea. “Against the Male Flood.”
Kipnis, Laura. “Disgust and Desire: Hustler Magazine.”
Miller-Young, Mireille. “Interventions: The Deviant and Defiant Art of Black Women Porn
Directors.”
Ryan, Dylan. “Fucking Feminism”
Taormino. “Calling the Shots: Feminist Porn in Theory and Practice.”
