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from www.thevine.com.au – Let’s just get one thing out of the way here. Yes I watch hardcore, mostly hetero porn (though hardcore is subjective depending who you ask), and yes I do enjoy it.

But after a while, the wham-bam-thank-you-m’am, blowjob-fuck-cumshot routine (cunnilingus optional) just didn’t impress me any more. Porn just got boring. And the young feminist in me hated how actresses were used as no more than ‘cum dumpsters’ (an actual film title). I also got sick of how all the women had breasts that looked like half-oranges, were absolutely hairless and how the men behind the penises disappeared five minutes into the movies. What I hated most was while some women were screaming like banshees they didn’t look like they really enjoyed it.

Fast forward to present day, I recently attended a talk at Melbourne’s The Pleasure Salon by Tristan Taormino, an American feminist porn director, writer, sex educator and self-described anal sex expert.

She explained how the oxymoronic notion of feminist porn has a place alongside modern feminism as a means to empower female sexuality. Porn, traditionally made with male pleasure in mind, could be re-imagined to appeal to women and gender-queer people. Taormino, who occasionally makes cameos in her own films, also explained that feminist discourse surrounding the relationship of female sexuality and porn focuses a lot on “consent and agency, before pleasure and satisfaction”. She asks, why shouldn’t women be able to enjoy porn?

That’s maybe because a lot of women think they shouldn’t be into porn. Many, including my teenage self, feel guilty about liking porn, because it’s meant to be forbidden, dirty, demeaning, exploitative and something only zit-faced 13-year-old boys are into. But perhaps that’s because the only porn they’ve ever encountered is the type stocked in your friendly neighbourhood Club X. Abiola Abrams, an African-American porn producer from New York said it best: “It’s not that sex is degrading – sex is awesome. It was the images that were degrading.”

The difference between feminist porn and the demeaning stuff is more to do with the behind-the-scenes technicalities most viewers aren’t aware of. The annual Feminist Porn Awards lays out three criteria a film must cover to be eligible:

1. A woman had a hand in writing, producing or directing the work;

2. It has to depict genuine female pleasure;

3. It should expand the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges sexual stereotypes often found in mainstream porn.

Part of Taormino’s own definition of feminist porn is that it is made under “fair, ethical, working conditions” where the performers are recognised as sex workers, with a particular emphasis on the ‘work’ part. With her own titles, performers must have regular STI and health checks and get fair pay. They are always offered the option of using condoms and the women in particular are allowed to do whatever they need and take as long as they want to get off.

It is not the most exciting part of porn, but it’s definitely something that needs to be more widely acknowledged. There is a growing volume of female-friendly porn out there, and while it’s still a niche segment, it helps that women like Tristan Taormino are also involved with some big names in the mainstream industry, giving them the chance to infiltrate the mass market and flood it with safe, sex-positive content.

These are women who understand that while there is a great deal of sexism and exploitation in the porn industry, there is also the potential to strip away the stigma and promote sex-positive attitudes through porn that reflects feminist values.

Modern feminist matriarch Andrea Dworkin, who was famously anti-porn, consistently expressed her view that “intercourse as an act often expresses the power men have over women, while porn incited male hostility towards women”. But Anna Span, Britain’s first female porn director, said in an interview with Women’s Views on News that the anti-porn feminists’ issue with porn is flawed. She argues, “Women and men are different, they have different powers…Power is something that excites us – it’s a huge part of all our lives.”

Taormino argues many anti-porn feminists just haven’t seen enough porn. There is so much stuff out there, and the same applies to feminist porn; just because it is porn that is meant to appeal to women, doesn’t mean it is all gentle sex that looks like a scene from a European arthouse flick.

Taormino herself is partial to the gonzo genre, a kind of no-frills porn usually with little to no storyline, plenty of dirty talk and camera-work that is almost as hyperactive as the on-camera performance. Her award winning film, Rough Sex, is anything but soft and yet manages to steer away from the portrayal of men as sexual robots and women as vehicles for sexual pleasure. The film was peppered with personal interviews with the performers, where they talk about their likes and dislikes, how they set boundaries and the real chemistry the pairs had.

Bottom line is, not all porn is misogynistic, exploitative or derogatory, as long as the women involved are in control. That doesn’t mean, of course, that there isn’t porn out there made by men that is absolutely female-friendly. Feminist porn can empower men, women and gender-queer viewers by giving them information and ideas that inspires fantasy and adventure. People feel their own experiences are validated when they see themselves and their sexuality, whatever it may be, represented.

Any pornography, not just movies that explicitly set out to be feminist feminist, that is inclusive of a diversity of genders, sexual orientations, sexual roles, ethnicities and body shapes is paving the way for a democratisation of the industry.

Meanwhile, chastising women who like porn is assuming there is only one way of being a feminist. Series like X-Art and Crash Pad, and Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex series offer great hetero and queer options for women. And the Feminist Porn Awards would be a good starting point if you’re looking to get some quality smut, whatever your kink may be. Women should be allowed to get hot and bothered with pornography without, as it has been in the past, getting hot and bothered about pornography.