Feminist porn is lifting the genre out of the seedy corners of the web

Once upon a time, I worked at a men’s magazine. My job? Writing sex stories. Most of them were so explicit that I wrote them under a pen name: Pandora. My «alter ego». Back when the print sector was big (with budgets to match), I travelled to a suburb of Barcelona for some eyewitness reporting. The European porn industry with its highbrow aesthetic was in retreat, while gonzo style (cheaply produced skin flicks with lots of close-ups) was on a victory march over the Atlantic from the US.

But I was there to visit a film set that was operating under dignified conditions. It had a script, excellent cameras, costumes and make-up, set design and sufficient breaks. Meanwhile, the actors had insurance, and enjoyed their work. The production company was called «Private Films», which once guaranteed a certain standard.

Someone who made a lasting impression on me was a young woman I met on the last night of my trip at the premiere of a very special movie. Her name was Erika Lust, which was, of course, a stage name. The talented Swede had her mind set on conquering the female target audience as a porn producer. Her friends had gathered at her city apartment to appraise her debut work, «The Good Girl». It had a classic storyline involving a pizza boy that doesn’t just deliver pizza. All of this, however, was perfectly staged – right down to the sofa cover. In place of the typical, corny background music, «Beautiful Day» by U2 served as the soundtrack. And the focus? That lay unequivocally on the female gaze.

Yes, porn can make movie history too

In this porn film, I recognised something totally new to the genre: genuine desire. And joie de vivre. It was in 2003 that «The Good Girl» made erotic film history, with 2 million people downloading the movie via the free internet link. In 2004, it was named Best Short Film at the Erotic Film Festival in Barcelona. Buoyed by the film’s success, Erika started her own production company, «Lust Films».

The firm now has 20 employees and distributes books and sex toys in addition to films. It also created «xconfessions», a platform where people like you and me can describe their erotic fantasies, which then have the potential to be chosen by Erika for adaptation into a film. Female-made porn (or at least, porn catering to female desire) had begun to make inroads. And if you want my personal opinion, there’s nothing wrong with that.

What kind of porn turns women on? Almost the same as men (nothing too vanilla anyway)

From a cinematic point of view, pornography probably falls into the «sci-fi/fantasy» category – almost anything is possible, and everything is sure to be over the top. Porn is raw, lurid and in many ways, has no bearing on reality. I’m okay with that. As far as I’m concerned, porn can go ahead and be as clichéd as it wants – I get enough reality as it is.

Hardly anyone seriously believes (apart from minors, of course – the over-sexualisation of still inexperienced teens is a real problem!) that the average penis is 30 cm long and the average vulva is hairless and pink. And probably a minority at most have the desire to be covered in sperm by a bunch of strangers.

But what does «reality» actually consist of? Do women really require a meaty plot, tenderness and romance from their porn? And are these things numbing, addictive and unsatisfying in the long run? For a reputable 2022 international research paper, 2,433 women were anonymously surveyed about their sex lives. Women who watched porn while masturbating showed greater interest in sex, masturbated more often, had less difficulty becoming aroused during masturbation, and also became aroused more easily during sex with a partner. On the subject of the content of the films, I have a recent study on my screen right now. The work of Finnish media researcher Susanna Paasonen underlines the fact that women are drawn to a similar range of pornographic content as men.

Two thousand women answered detailed questions about their porn consumption habits – and super-romantic vanilla sex barely got a mention. What did come up were dominance, gang bangs, bondage and S&M. It’s especially interesting that many of the respondents who reported being aroused by violent porn said they wouldn’t want to engage in these kind of sexual acts with their partners. They expressed a perception of porn as fantasy and not a reflection of reality. Neither a mirror nor a replacement, but simply a facet of eroticism.

FemPorn: the business of bodies and sexuality done differently

Within this facet, there are plenty of others: rough sex, close-ups of the genital area, spit as a replacement for lube – but also emotion, body language and experimentation. There’s a book on my bedside table at the moment charmingly titled «Feminismus fickt» (Feminsm Fucks). Autor Patrick Catuz, who co-founded «Arthouse Vienna» with former opera singer Adrineh Simonian, isn’t writing from a dry, theoretical perspective. As the co-creator of a platform for sophisticated adult movies, he’s familiar with the current debate about whether porn can be made in a socially just way. In the book, he writes: «Feminist pornography is a recent phenomenon, though it’s only the next logical step. There are now porn films made by women, for women. Productions that differ significantly from the practices of the mainstream porn industry. In the business of bodies and sexuality, they’re changing the way that business is done. Therefore, it isn’t simply a symbolic struggle.»

The man knows what he’s talking about. The only movies produced and approved for his streaming platform are productions by filmmakers who work in line with ethical and feminist values. The goal? To create a safe space for viewers and filmmakers alike. Everyone involved works under fair conditions. Diversity of gender, ethnicity and social class is a top priority – and the genres range from bondage to S&M.

So, we’ve got it all now: porn created for the «male gaze», and feminist porn, which centres female desire while shunning gender roles and stereotypes. The selection on the market today is considerably wider than the one in Barcelona back in 2003. It’s a range that caters to garden-variety horndogs and carnal connoisseurs alike. It’s diverse – in every position, from queer to straight, sensual to dirty.