BY: AOIFE RYAN
Porn is perhaps one of the biggest, all-consuming conversation dividers of our age. Is it bad, good, healthy, distancing, dangerous, artistic, cheap, domineering, expressive or all of the above? Get a room of varied men and women together to discuss it and it will invariably end in an explosive polemical rant. Whether you love it, hate it or want to ignore its significance in modern society by treating it with indifference, one thing is very certain—porn is going nowhere. It is a vast umbrella industry filled with many genres and hundreds of millions of users. Content is available for every device you use and is becoming the first touchstone of sexual experience for adolescents in modern life. It goes without saying that mainstream porn has come under fire for misrepresentation and misogyny for years now, but is the increasing indie porn being produced going to elevate the status and reimagine the entire industry within this generation?
Across Europe and North America a host of young directors and writers are producing porn with a fresh perspective; porn that empowers women rather than debasing them. Focusing on the female preference for detailed storytelling character details and plot lines- rather than quick visual stimulus often preferred by men, these directors are opening the discourse to the other half. One such director is acclaimed filmmaker Erika Lust, a Swede based in Barcelona, who was drawn to the industry when she saw a gap in the market that needed to be filled (no pun intended).
Erika Lust is an independent filmmaker who believes that love making is the highest form of art.
She recalls “I shot my first movie, The Good Girl, in 2004 when I had to create a final short for the film direction course I was doing in Barcelona. It was a humorous statement of principles based on the classic “‘pizza guy’” porn. Having grown up in Sweden, I was well aware of the conversation about feminism and pornography having studied Political Sciences as well. Naturally, I had been involved in debates about the representation of women and the power struggle in movies, so I had always been disappointed by the mainstream porn I watched.”
When her film was released online for free, it was downloaded over 2 million times and won the prize for best short film at the International Erotic Film Festival in Barcelona. Since then, Erika Lust has started her own production company Lust Films, preferring to work with an all-female crew to best represent the female perspective. Besides directing, she also participates.
Yet many fear that in a film genre so strongly associated with objectification, there is little hope for female empowerment and the only result of wading in those waters is to be tainted.
Lust responds, “Porn, just as it is for men, is a way for women to explore their sexual desires, kinks and pleasures. It is a way to sexually liberate themselves and enjoy their sexuality with no doubts or worries. Let’s not forget that through female involvement in porn, women can regain the power of decision over the content they feel aroused and identify with.”
Her inspiration for creating this empowering sexually explorative form came from Linda Williams’ book Hard Core. As she recalls “[This] was my main source of advice as she found that porn is a discourse of human sexuality.” If Angela Carter could rework our history of fairy-tale literature into feminist reimagining in her book The Bloody Chamber, surely Erika Lust could do the same for pornography.
Her porn tends to focus more on romance and female empowerment.
Irish sexologist, Emily Power Smith recognises the serious need for real representation in a male-dominated sexual form such as porn. She believes that porn is not just a form of entertainment, but a form of education that exercises significant influence on society.
She explains, “While using porn as a learning tool has historically been a more male practice, increasing numbers of women are turning to porn for education due to the Internet. Studies show that children and young people of all genders watch porn for education but they may wish to learn different things. For example males watch porn to learn what to do and females watch porn to learn how to look and act.”
She continues, “This may be in part due to how males and females are depicted in mainstream porn with the emphasis being on what the male is doing with his big hard penis to the woman, and how the woman is reacting to said phallus. Her job is to be visually pleasing in order to arouse him. He will then do things to her in order to sexually satisfy himself. Her satisfaction is derived from his pleasure and orgasm/ejaculation, rather than her own. The scenario gets played out in many ways within mainstream porn but the message is the same: women should look sexy and available and men should be hard and in charge.”
In her professional encounters with clients as a therapist and coach, Emily Power Smith has noticed that many of her clients need clarification around the reality of porn. She tells me that basing expectations on standards set by porn is increasingly causing body issues, performance anxiety, erectile difficulties and problems with orgasms.
In other words, the disparity between real-life experiences and mainstream porn is damaging to us all. Watching mainstream porn and thinking you now know how to be sexual in real life is as useful as watching The Fast and the Furious and thinking you are now ready to take to the roads in a high speed chase. The prevalence of relatable porn produced by increasing numbers of directors across the world means people are beginning to demand a more fulfilling experience and more ethical porn with real people having real orgasms.
“Have less of the orange, shaved, bleached vacant eyed women with fake nails that make any real sexual touch almost impossible. Women are more attracted to seeing how other women reach orgasm than seeing yet another ‘money shot’” says Smith.
Porn is a way for women to explore their sexual desires, kinks and pleasures. It provides sexual liberation.
For many people however, the concept of a liberated, inclusive form of porn is hard to imagine. How exactly can a filmmaker capture sexuality in such a raw form and can it ever be also considered art? If anyone can argue its benefits and possibilities, it is Lust. In her films, women are represented as equals to men with relatable characters and realistic situations, defining her porn as hedonistic, erotic and individual, unlike the chauvinism and repetition of mainstream porn films.
In terms of its artistic merits, she resolves “as far as cinematography goes, once you state that porn is not just a cheap product to make money with lonely guys who pay to jerk off, but a discourse on sexuality that can be creative and artistic, the consequence is that the pornographic image is re-dignified.”
But this is not to say that there is a binary between male and female directors. There are some great male indie porn filmmakers. It is rather to say that there is a gap between the new erotic wave and the mainstream industry, between story telling and the explicitness of genitals.
Everybody knows at least one couple that insists neither of them ever watch porn. But the out-dated belief by many couples who insist they never watch porn is that the partner should fulfil all their sexual needs without any outside influence. Can porn create distance in real, emotional relationships?
Smith believes “porn in itself will not make or break a relationship. How individuals and couples use or experience the use of porn is the crucial factor. If a relationship is already lacking in intimacy and sexual connectedness, adding the use of porn will probably only serve to enforce the distance. The only way to build intimacy is to be intimate.”
In other words, the potential impact of porn in a relationship is the responsibility of the user—to be abused or to help fortify an already strong relationship.
For those in unsteady relationships, the potential damage of porn overuse is evident, as it is with singles suffering from shyness and lacking in confidence given the problems, that arise in the digital age. Smith furthers this, saying “porn, online dating and chat rooms provide a person who may feel isolated with an outlet where they can be whoever they want. They don’t have to risk being vulnerable or having to perform sexually. The problem is that if you add excessive porn use to social isolation, it can lead to depression, anxiety, symptoms that mimic OCD, or ADHD, sleep problems and general health problems as well as shame and secrecy. It also creates sexual difficulties such as erectile problems and performance anxiety (for all genders).”
Perhaps porn could even be a useful tool for discovering and exploring one’s sexual orientation and gender. Ireland’s sole sexologist makes an insightful point on this question. According to her, “how we identify does not always equate with what we enjoy viewing or fantasising about, or even who we are sexual with. I think it’s more helpful to focus on our pleasure and less on trying to label it. Gender and orientation are best understood on a continuum rather than as binary systems. If we could let go of the need to label we might find it easier to focus on our attraction for the person in front of us rather than their gender. That would be a wonderful world to live in,” Smith says.
But stigmatization still exists with the persistent slut label that may make a performer feel regret. It’s a little hypocritical when those who consume porn criticize performers who play a key role in production. But the new wave of porn is challenging this by treating sexuality with more naturalness.
As Erika Lust says, “of course porn can be art. Is lovemaking not one of the most beautiful and primal things we can engage in as human beings? So why can it not be portrayed in an artistic way to get that across, as well as all the kinks and dirtiness in between?”
Through increased female involvement in the production of porn, women can regain the power of decision over the content they feel aroused and identified by.
The demand for ethical porn with real people having consensual sex and real orgasms is growing
