Can Porn be Feminist?

*This post contains some pretty graphic material*

This post is a response to something Feministing wrote a couple weeks back. They had interviewed feminist porn director Tristan Taormino and she had given her theories about what makes porn feminist or not feminist.

Here’s what she thinks, quoted from Feministing:

There’s no one definition. The feminist pornographers I know, we all don’t really agree on what that definition is. For me, the emphasis really is on the process of making it, because once I make it and put it out in the world, people can read it and use it in all these multiple ways that I really can’t anticipate.

For me, it’s about creating a working environment that is respectful, consensual, fair, that people have good working conditions, and that their experience of the sex as sex work is a positive one. I also have a really collaborative process with my performers. I’m interested in the performers participating in creating their own images, and participating in creating their own representation. I don’t have an interest in saying, “You, you’re going to fuck this guy, in these five positions, on the kitchen counter, and you’re going to do it for this long.” I want to find out what they’re into. What things they like, what they don’t like, what toys they want to use, what positions they like, what performers they want to work with, and what pieces of their sexuality they’re interested in sharing with the camera. I think it’s important that they also have a voice.

A big part of my porn is the interview segments. A lot of people speak for sex workers in this country, but we seldom let them speak for themselves. And I think it’s important to let them speak, and to let them speak freely, in order to create this three-dimensional image. It’s still an image; I’m not claiming that this is the real person behind the porn star. They’re still performing for the camera. But I do think that it gives people a better sense of who they are as people, as three-dimensional human beings, rather than essentially what I would consider bad porn, which is porn that has sex robots, who arrive, and fuck and then depart, and you don’t know anything about them, or why they’re fucking, or what their deal is. And I also think that I’m dedicated to showing a diversity of female sexuality. I’m interested in genuine female pleasure and genuine female orgasms. Those are things that are missing from a lot of mainstream porn. For me, it’s really about the work process, and an atmosphere and environment where I really value the work that they’re doing, and I want to give them the best possible conditions to do it in.

So I’d like to weigh in about her points and then add a couple of my own from my own personal experience of porn.  

As porn goes, I think Taormino’s method for making them is the only ethical way to go. I think her approach to her performers is extremely feminist. It’s also a very sex positive way to make porn. Without the input of a lot of minds, especially the performers themselves, I find that porn can get very sex by rote (and SERIOUSLY boring). Obviously consent and the women being comfortable are extremely important. Consent is sexy people. Especially when you are making films about rough sex, as Taormino has done. I also think she has possibly benefited the world be creating a series of films about female orgasms. Helpful on both sides of the playing field I think. So when it comes to Taormino’s definition, her porn really is feminist.

But it isn’t according to mine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pornography that was feminist (okay, to be fair, my viewing selection has been very limited). Here’s what I think:

1.        The Possessiveness of the Sex and the Camera towards the Female Body

Even if everybody is consenting about their involvement in this film, the viewers are still using female bodies and their orgasms to get themselves off. (But Maija? They are adults! They consented to display it for us! Why can’t we watch it and get ourselves off?) Because we as a culture are taught to fetishize the naked female form and female orgasm in an unhealthy way. Porn is never about the whole person, no matter when proponents like Tristan Taormino say. Porn is about their nudity, and their sex noises, etc. We co-opt the porn actors as objects for ourselves. That is not a healthy way to approach sex and sexuality. And the fact of the matter is the one who is mostly co-opted is the woman. Sure the man is involved. Or the female partner. But there is always one person on display, one body that becomes the object both to the actor right in the room and us, the viewers at home with our pants off.  And that body is inevitably female. Porn is conditioning us to view the female body as object. More than that, porn is conditioning us to view the female body as something that we act upon, for our pleasure. And what about hers? What if the woman does come? Well I’ve seen porn where the woman moans that her orgasm belongs to her male partner. Yeah, that’s feminist.  WHAT THE FUCK? I’ve seen porn where the woman’s orgasm is incidental to the action as a whole. Sure, she may come, but that’s not the big finish, now is it?

Straight porn never lingers on the male body this way. Straight porn, even when the woman is the one acting (ie. giving a blow job) still often makes it seem like the guy is the one directing her efforts. And when a guy goes down on a girl in straight porn? I’ve never seen him ask for what she wants. The woman get directed when she go down. When a guy goes down, she simply lies there. Furthermore, the camera never REALLY focuses on her pleasure but on her bits, or her tits. So what does that teach us about oral sex? It’s all for the guy. She should go down. And if you deign to go down you know what the fuck you are doing and don’t have to check with her. Just be sure to glance at her tits every once in a while. They are there for you, after all.  

2.       The things porn teaches us about sex

The very nature of the camera angles in porn are about viewer, not the act. So of course the porn stars are treated like pieces of meat. We need to get that camera in there! So the sex we end up seeing in porn? Is not real sex. So some of the things porn teaches us about sex: no other body parts touch when you have sex. The couples involved might have a passing caress, or a slap, if it’s rough sex, but no other parts of their bodies touch while they ‘go at it’. What the hell is that teaching viewers about the way you have sex with a real live human being? TMI anecdote time: I had sex with a guy who had obviously gotten his moves from porn. We only connected in that one place. I felt like he was masturbating with my body. Part of the pleasure of sex, for both men and women, is intimate touch with another human being. This is not just in the foreplay people. The act of sexual intercourse although biologically reducible to putting a penis in a vagina, is not the sum of those two parts. Touch, all over the body, is essential for good sex, FOR BOTH PARTNERS. Sex is better when you touch in more places, period. No matter what position you are doing it in. The necessity of getting a camera in the middle of this fucks good sex up. And teaches us poor lessons.

Other poor lessons learned from porn: Okay, what on earth is the coming on a partner thing? Maybe this is just the fact that I’m a woman, and do not appreciate being covered in semen. And maybe this is my personal taste and there are some people who love it. I totally buy that. But porn teaches us that this is the norm. I have NEVER seen it happen any other way in porn. The guy comes on her face, or on her tits, or etc. etc. What the hell? Is it like a marking your territory thing? Maybe a male friend could explain it. But the truth is: not every person loves it. And certainly nobody loves it every single time. There is something pretty disturbingly sexist about it to me. I guess it comes back to my body being an object for your sexual pleasure. If it really floats your boat, and you get consent from me before hand, okay. We could do it sometimes. I’m not a prude. But it should never be considered the norm. Consent works for every sexual act people. Just because he or she gave you permission for one act does not give you free reign over their body to do what you want. Again, your sexual partner is not an object. There is still a person in there.

For more fun/awful things that porn tends to teach us check out: Make Love Not Porn. My personal other big one is spitting. What the hell is that? Why is that like a universal porn thing?

3.       Heteronormativity and Homophobia

Alright, I’m sure some of you have noticed that this discussion is entirely too heteronormative. That has been for a couple reasons: my experience of porn is entirely of straight porn, even though I’m not entirely straight. The reason I say that? I think that even though I have watched porn where a woman has sex with another woman, I do not consider it lesbian. It is always clear that this is for men. What does straight porn teach me about gay sex? It teaches me that if you are a woman, it’s okay to have sex with another woman. But it’s a performance. Inevitably a guy has to get involved. And if he doesn’t get involved, you sure as hell know that the film was made with men in mind. Some of the lesbian sex in straight porn is completely ridiculous. So what do I learn? Lesbians are okay as long as they are for my wanking pleasure. Yes, I’m not a man. But their sex is still a performance for others. It’s not lesbian sex. And as for men? Well they can’t touch at all. Or have scenes together. Or experiment in any way. Because straight men find that icky! Men’s sexuality is just a fluid as a woman’s is. The difference is, we women are given permission to experiment with other woman, both by porn and by society. With the addendum, of course, that all men get to ask us if they can watch. But men? No way. No how. (But Maija! Now you’re just being silly. They have gay porn!) Sorry Porn world, you can’t give us performance lesbians and not balance the equation. Of course, this is all incredibly unbalanced and fake, so maybe I should just be glad they didn’t. What horrific version of gay sex would straight porn come up with anyway?

4.      Porn as Junk Food

So I guess it might seen pretty puritanical of me to soundly condemn porn. Hypocritical also because I admit to having watched it. Don’t I like masturbation? My friend Taylor mentioned in his blog that we should treat masturbation, with porn as a tool, as something essential to us. I agree with the masturbation part. A healthy sex life, solo or with a partner, is one of your essential vitamins, folks. Porn is still junk food. You can sorta live on it. And it can be fun, every once in a while. But you function less optimally. Trust me, you can masturbate without porn. (blah blah, men are more visual, blah blah). None of us have to be perfect all the time. But if we can cut down our consumption of porn, maybe we can start to really examine the things that porn has taught us about sex. I’m not going to shake my finger at you for watching porn. Or come and find you and delete it off your computer. I’m just going to say: take a good hard look at what your porn is saying to you. And maybe, try masturbating without it. Your imagination, I promise you, is full of sexy material. 


I'll probably have more thoughts on this topic to share next month. February's Feminist Book Club Selection is Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robery Jensen.