Category Archives: BLOGGERY: articles of interest from elsewhere………

The Feminist Pornographer

Here’s part of a brilliant interview at Salon.com with the Feminist Porn Book’s Tristan Taormino about porn and feminism and the fact that they’re not always incompatible:

“…One of the things we’re responding to is that there’s this notion that certainly is propagated by anti-porn feminists and other people, which is that there is one thing called porn with a capital “P.” And it’s monolithic and we can qualify it in all these different ways and say this is what it looks like and this is what it does. As Constance says, “That’s just not true.” What there is is a whole series of pornographies with a lowercase “p,” and that’s what we have to look at and investigate. There is no one thing, and she even challenges the notion that there is a clear division between mainstream porn and independent porn, or mainstream porn and feminist porn, because there are feminists working within the mainstream porn industry and then there are feminists working independently, and there are non-feminists working independently, and vice versa. They’re all over the place.

There isn’t one monolithic thing and, yes, of course, built into feminist porn is the notion that we’re critiquing porn that’s already out there, that we feel like doesn’t represent female sexuality in a diverse enough way, doesn’t prioritize female pleasure, doesn’t represent authentic female desire, or simply doesn’t get us off. So we’re going to go and make our own. I think that’s inherent to the thing: Part of what we’re doing is necessarily in response to what’s already out there…”

I’d highly recommend reading the whole interview here.

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Domme in DC

As a Dominatrix, it’s difficult being an autonomous lifestyle kinkster and enjoying what I do for a living, yet struggling against the possible financial necessity of being a “service provider” for someone else’s (potentially incompatible) fantasies. So far, I’ve avoided being a service domme. This is mainly out of stubbornness, and the need to keep enjoying my work and my kinks. This is also why I’m not wealthy.

Anyway, here’s a snippet from a Huffington Post interview with Washington DC’s Domina Vontana on exactly that:

“…A dominatrix is a performer. The IRS term for the job is ‘Psychodramatist.’ She doesn’t pretend to be dominant. That part must be authentic for a successful scene. She has to want to be there or the client can tell.

In the role of a service top, which is how I identify, my job is to fulfill the fantasy of the bottom or submissive. As a professional as well as a lifestyle dominant, the longer I play the more particular I become, so now I only see clients who are experienced, submit easily and want the same type of scenes that I do…”

Full interview here.

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Deep Inside Statistics

I can’t do this article at JonMillward.com justice without just posting a link and telling you to have a look yourself. Read the whole thing.

It’s a bit US-centric, as the data is taken from the Adult Film Database, so only includes published mainstream porn films, rather than the clips and members’ sites of more alternative adult content. Even so, it’s refreshing to see the statistics and challenge assumptions. Even though the mainstream industry is still largely white, slim and heteronormative, the stereotype of female porn stars as predominantly generic, exploited, big-breasted blondes who have no choice over what they do or who they do it with is proven to be false. The study also examines words commonly used in porn film titles, whether the emphasis is on breasts or bottoms, and how trends have changed over the past two decades. It’s a genuinely fascinating read.

Click here to see the whole “Deep Inside” study.

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