Apr 102014
 
Arabelle Raphael, Tina Horn, Andre Shakti  PHOTO CREDIT: KD DIAMOND

Arabelle Raphael, Tina Horn, Andre Shakti
PHOTO CREDIT: KD DIAMOND

TORONTO (April 8, 2014)— The 2014 Feminist Porn Conference was presented by The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto April 5 and 6, 2014; it was the culminating event in a week of diverse happenings that included a special film screening of the past year’s best films, a storytelling event, a fisting workshop, a new film festival, and the 9th Annual Feminist Porn Awards. Over 300 people attended the second annual conference which brings together academics and industry workers to explore various facets of the feminist porn movement. According to a pre-conference survey, it was an incredibly diverse group. 20% of attendees identified as porn makers, including directors, producers, and/or performers and 13% of attendees identified themselves as fans. Academics comprised nearly half of all attendees; 15% were professors, and 33% were undergraduate and graduate students. 10% were members of the media, and the remaining 9% of attendees checked the “other” box, identifying themselves as sex workers, sex educators, sexologists, web developers, artists, and activists.

The conference program featured fifty-six speakers from the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, France, and the UK. Speakers included Shine Louise Houston, Tristan Taormino, Jiz Lee, Madison Young, Dylan Ryan, Danny Wylde, April Flores, jessica drake, Tina Horn, Maggie Mayhem, Loree Erickson, Carlyle Jansen, Constance Penley, Kevin Heffernan, Mindy Chateauvert, and Zahra Stardust, who was named Heartthrob of the Year at the 2014 Feminist Porn Awards.

Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde PHOTO CREDIT: DANNY WYLDE

Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde
PHOTO CREDIT: DANNY WYLDE

Over two days, there were 28 different presentations on a variety of topics from sexual expression and labor by women of color, the role authenticity in feminist porn, and evaluating ethical production practices to discussions about sex worker histories, self care strategies, and privacy concerns. Professor Nicholas Matte talked about the upcoming exhibit “Archiving Sex” at The Sexual Representation Collection at the University of Toronto, and York University’s Bobby Noble and Lisa Sloniowski discussed their work at the Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project. One of the most well-attended sessions was a panel called “Feminist Pornography: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Why It Matters” with UNLV Professor Lynn Comella, producer/performer Courtney Trouble, Australian filmmaker Ms. Naughty, and Tanesha H.D., a Toronto-based sexuality researcher and self-described “sex-positive porn fan girl.” There was also a business track featuring workshops on production skills, affiliate programs, marketing and branding and a new series called “Theory/Practice,” which featured unique conversations between scholars and feminist pornographers about how sex, work, and scholarship intersect. Films by Shine Louise Houston, Carey Gray, Ovidie, Jennifer Lyon Bell, Ms. Naughty, Zahra Stardust, and more were screened and followed by director Q&As.

Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, delivered the opening keynote on April 5; Duggan’s keynote surveyed over 30 years of feminist porn advocacy, pointing out how far we’ve come and how much we’ve accomplished. Duggan, the co-author of the seminal collection Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture, noted that, “The feminist porn movement today is a progressive beacon in a sometimes bleak political landscape.  Feminist porn producers set an example for the wider culture industry by pushing for expansive diversity in representations of bodies and sex, and by demanding an ethical workplace and production process. Radicals everywhere have a lot to learn from the feminist pornography movement.”

FPCon Keynote  PHOTO CREDIT: pinklabel.tv

FPCon Keynote
PHOTO CREDIT: pinklabel.tv

The conference closed with a powerful, emotional keynote by filmmaker/performer/artist Courtney Trouble, who urged the audience to embrace an inclusive, intersectional approach to feminist porn; the audience gave Trouble a thundering, three minute long standing ovation. Trouble, who won two 2014 Feminist Porn Awards for their films Lesbian Curves 2: Hard Femme and Trans Grrrls: Revolution Porn Style Now, said, “The Feminist Porn Conference is a place where the underground politics of social justice and queer theory intersect with women’s and gender studies, academia, business, and media outlets. It’s a jumping point for all of those worlds collaborating and sharing skills and ideas. It’s an important place not just for people interested in porn or erotic media, but for anyone who has ever wondered how media and art can effect our sexuality, or self-esteem, or our relationships.” Both keynotes were recorded, Courtney Trouble can be found here and Lisa Duggan will be made available online shortly.

“Attendance at the Feminist Porn Conference increased 25% this year, which is incredible for an event that is still so new. The amount of interest in the subject matter and the exceptional scholarly and community-based work that’s being created around feminist porn is inspirational. I look forward to planning next year’s conference,” says Tristan Taormino, founder and producer of the conference. One attendee posted on Twitter: “We were so invigorated by the passion, feminism, brilliance, and sexual freedom at The Feminist Porn Conference.” Another called it “an amazing, life-altering conference.” After the closing keynote, conference goers celebrated and networked at an after party sponsored by Sliquid Natural Intimate Lubricants.

The Feminist Porn Conference is made possible by the generous sponsorship of The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good Vibrations, GoodVibrationsVOD.com, Sliquid Natural Intimate Lubricants, Aslan Leather, Studio Ten Toronto, Bright Desire, The Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project at York University, The Feminist Press, Good for Her, The 2014 Feminist Porn Awards, and Sex Out Loud. The conference is part of the largest annual gathering of feminist pornographers in the world.

Apr 022014
 

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Shape Magazine interviewed me for their article “The New Porn That Will Transform Your Sex Life“:

“Feminist porn prioritizes authentic depiction of desire and pleasure, and shows authentic orgasms,” she says. “You’re not going to see a cookie-cutter repetition of ‘one way’ to be for men or for women, or ‘one way’ to have a sexual dynamic. You’re much more likely to see a diversity of bodies, desires, fantasies, and power dynamics.”

Read the whole article here, it also mentions Dusk!TV and Reid Mihalko.

I’m also quoted in the Nerve article by Lux Alptraum, “When Queer People Make Straight Porn.”

Furthermore, shooting heterosexual sex offered her the chance to directly challenge the misogyny and sexism that often comes bundled with ideas about straight porn. “You’re contending with this history of what we see men and women constantly engaging in… It’s actually more challenging for me…to work with the power dynamics when the sex is heterosexual.”

I went to Knoxville to speak at University of Tennessee’s Sex Week and despite legislators trying to stop the events, student attendance went up.

“Colleen Ryan, member of the SEAT executive board and freshman global studies, said Tristan Taormino, a sex educator and pornographic film director, was another favorite. However, he noted, it is typically the edgier events that draw fire from the public and the legislature.”

This weekend I’ll be in Toronto for the Feminist Porn Awards and the Feminist Porn Conference I’m producing. Here’s a mention in the Daily Xtra about both events.

If you can’t make it to the conference this weekend, you can spend some time studying porn at home – the first issue of Porn Studies was released and is available for free online for a limited timePorn Studies is the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal to critically explore those cultural products and services designated as pornographic. It will develop knowledge of the history, modes, aesthetics, genres and subgenres of pornography, examining pornography’s institutional and industrial structures, its consumption and regulation.

Topics covered in the inaugural issue include research methods, psychology and pornography, and fair-trade and porn. Alongside articles, the journal includes a scholarly forum devoted to shorter observations, developments and issues in porn studies, designed to encourage exchange and debate. The first issue will be free to view at www.tandfonline.com until 31st May, after which it will be available via subscription only. All future issues will also be via subscription only.

And finally, check out the latest reviews of my kink book, 50 Shades of Kink. Released as an e-book last year, it’s now available in paper!

From BexTalksSex.com: “It needs to be in the nightstands of every housewife in middle America, next to the fuzzy handcuffs and Ben Wa Balls bought from the sleezy sex shop down the road; and then they need to read it and throw away the fuzzy handcuffs.”

From NightOwlReviews.com: “This is a must read book for anyone wanting to know more about BDSM.”

From ReviewsByAmosLassen.com: “..we now have a nonfiction account that shows us how to make our fantasies become realities.”

For advanced kinksters (or when you’re ready to take it to the next level), Krissy Novacaine talks about my other book, The Ultimate Guide to Kink.

I am picky about what books I recommend to others for kink. I want the whole book to give out sound (safe) advice while still holding on to the erotic element of the subject matter. This is the best book I have ever read to balance those two things.
– Full review here.

Jan 242014
 

Print
TORONTO (January 24, 2014)—Building on a year of unprecedented media attention for the feminist porn movement, registration opens today for The 2014 Feminist Porn Conference, which takes place April 5 and 6, 2014 at the University of Toronto. The Feminist Porn Conference brings together academics, students, cultural critics, sex workers, activists, fans, performers, directors, and producers to explore the intersections between feminism and pornography as well as feminist porn as a genre, industry, and movement. It includes sessions devoted to both academic and non-academic presentations, film screenings, two keynote talks, and networking time. New this year, there is a business track featuring workshops on production and filmmaking, legal issues, marketing and branding, social media, and web-based technologies.

dugganIn addition, conference organizers announced the opening and closing keynote speakers: Professor Lisa Duggan and filmmaker/performer/artist Courtney Trouble. Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, will give the opening keynote on April 5. Professor Duggan is a historian, journalist and activist who has published widely on feminist and queer sexual politics. She is the author of Sapphic Slashers: Sex Violence and American Modernity and The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy. She is co-author with Nan Hunter of the seminal collection Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture and co-editor with Lauren Berlant of Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and National Interest.  She is also co-editor with Joseph DeFilippis, Kenyon Farrow and Richard Kim of A New Queer Agenda, a special e-book edition of The Scholar and the Feminist Online.

“Lisa Duggan is one of the most powerful voices for radical sexual politics of our time. A scholar, journalist, educator, and activist, Duggan is a leading authority on the feminist sex wars and queer politics. Her keynote will provide both the historical context and the call to arms we need as activists, academics, and artists working on the front lines of the new sex wars,” says Mireille Miller-Young, Professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. Miller-Young and Professor Constance Penley, last year’s keynote speakers, will both present at the 2014 conference.

courtneytrouble-avn-2014Fresh from the red carpets of the 2014 AVN Awards and the XBIZ Awards, where she received multiple nominations, performer, director and artist Courtney Trouble will be the Closing Keynote speaker at the 2014 Feminist Porn Conference. Courtney Trouble is a porn star, photographer, award-winning pornographer, and founder of TROUBLEfilms, IndiePornRevolution.com, and QueerPorn.TV. The director and creative force behind over 22 queer porn films (including  Girl Pile, Live Sex Show, Trans Grrrls, Lesbian Curves, Hard Femme: Lesbian Curves 2) and endless online conent, Courtney is the recipient of numerous Feminist Porn Awards (including Best Website, Best Trans Films, Best Dyke Film, and Most Diverse Film) and countless adult industry honors, including 8 XBIZ 2014 nods (a first in queer porn history), and won Director of the Year at the BBW Fan Fest Awards in 2013. “Courtney invokes that ’70s spirit of rebellious adult moviemaking while also being ahead of the trends when it comes to sexuality in art,” wrote AVN staffers in the feature “Game Changers: 30 Women Power Players in the Adult Industry.”

Courtney Trouble’s films speak to an extremely fluid, authentic, and hardcore version of graphic sexual imagery and feature queer, trans*, and genderqueer performers as well as performers of color and size. Her films have been screened at film festivals throughout North America and in Australia, The Netherlands, Mexico, Greece, France, Israel, Denmark, Spain, and the UK. Trouble contributed a piece to the first issue of the academic journal Porn Studies and directed “Chapter One” of Michelle Tea’s Valencia: The Movie/s, a film that consists of 21 directors’ unique takes on the legendary queer memoir. Most recently, Trouble released the boundary-breaking film Trans Grrrls: Revolution Porn Style Now, which brings porn and feminism together directly to center trans women in queer porn. Trans Grrrls is nominated for 2014 Trans Porn Award for Best Film.

“Courtney Trouble’s contributions to feminist porn cannot be understated; she sets the standard for DIY, radical, artistic movies that represent incredibly diverse performers and sexualities. Political and provocative, I’m confident that Courtney’s keynote speech will educate, challenge, and inspire everyone in the audience,” says Tristan Taormino, founder and producer of the conference.

The Feminist Porn Conference is made possible by the generous sponsorship of The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good Vibrations, GoodVibrationsVOD.com, The Feminist Press, Good for Her, The 2014 Feminist Porn Awards, and Sex Out Loud. The conference is part of the largest gathering of feminist pornographers in the world, four days of feminist porn that includes The Public.Provocative.Porn Screening and Panel and The 2014 Feminist Awards and Gala, both presented by Good for Her.

Apr 102013
 

IMG_2801I just returned from Toronto and the 2013 Feminist Porn Awards and The Feminist Porn Conference, and I am still reeling. We arrived in Canada on Thursday and hit the ground running. Thursday night Good for Her presented Public. Provocative. Porn, a screening and panel that featured short films and clips by Gala Vanting, Saskia Quax, The Madame, Christian Slaughter, Julie Simone, Nica Noelle, and Clark Matthews. I’d heard a lot about Krutch starring Mia Gimp and directed by Clark Matthews, and I was really impressed by it. Mia Gimp is a star. The way the film is framed, how it flows, and the photography are all fantastic, especially for a first time director and performer! Mia and Clark are also articulate and funny, and, I wish the panel could have gone on longer.

The 8th Annual Feminist Porn Awards were on Friday night at a brand new venue this year, The Capitol Event Theater, which was really lovely. I was thrilled that Krutch won for Sexiest Short along with Biodildo, the Christian Slaughter film starring Jiz Lee that was screened the night before. I was truly surprised, and absolutely honored, to win the Smutty Schoolteacher Award for The Expert Guide to Pegging. Of all the sex ed movies I’ve made, this one is really close to my heart. Three of its stars (Dylan Ryan, Jiz Lee, and Wolf Hudson) were there to see me win (and were award winners themselves that night), and I dedicated my award to the kick ass women behind Bend Over Boyfriend.

Me, Colten, Nan Kinney, Christi Cassidy

Me, Colten, Nan Kinney, Christi Cassidy

Fittingly, Shar Rednour, femme diva, pioneering lesbian pornographer and the director of Bend Over Boyfriend presented The Trailblazer Award to Nan Kinney. Nan is a legend: she is the co-founder of On Our Backs and co-founder and current CEO of Fatale Media, the first company to produce lesbian porn by and for queer women. Nan’s speech was really moving, her partner Christi Cassidy (who runs Fatale with her) was in the audience beaming, and the crowd jumped to their feet in a well-deserved standing ovation.

This year, there were two awards for Hearththrob of the Year: Christian and Jiz Lee. I have directed Christian in a ton of films (Chemistry 2 and 3, Rough Sex, The Expert Guide to Oral Sex 2: Fellatio, The Expert Guide to Anal Pleasure for Men, The Expert Guide to Advanced Fellatio, The Expert Guide to Threesomes, The Expert Guide to Advanced Anal Sex, The Expert Guide to Pegging), and this was a big win for someone who is always overlooked by the mainstream adult industry. He was one of the first (and continues to be one of a handful of) male performers who has done gay, straight, and trans porn, who gets pegged on camera, and, as Nina Hartley once said, “lets his freak flag fly.” Congratulations Christian!

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Jiz Lee and Wolf Hudson (photo: Tania A)

 

Jiz Lee is also just as deserving. I must say if there was any one person that everyone wanted to meet, who people gushed the most, and who is widely worshipped and adored by filmmakers and fans alike, it’s Jiz Lee. They rule for so many reasons, and I am so glad to know them. I’m also excited that Madison Young’s film 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan won for best kink movie and Gala Vanting, Ms. Naughty, and Wolf Hudson all received Honourable Mentions. Carlyle Jansen, owner of Good for Her and producer of the awards and JP, this year’s director, and their crew did an amazing job once again with the Awards Gala. It gets better every year!

The next morning, I was up bright and early to prep for The Feminist Porn Conference. The Feminist Porn Conference was inspired by The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure and my co-editors Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Constance Penley, and Mireille Miller-Young. We first met and began a conversation about the intersections of feminism and pornography at the Console-ing Passions Conference in 2008 on a panel called “Sex Work in Industry and Academe.” It was the first time I had the opportunity to publicly talk to academics who were studying and teaching pornography, and it was an invaluable conversation. That conversation lead to more discussions, which lead to us co-editing The Feminist Porn Book. I created The Feminist Porn Conference to continue the dialogue that the book has sparked. Like the book, I wanted the conference to emphasize a hybrid approach, bringing together academics, cultural critics, performers, directors, producers, sex workers, activists, students and fans to explore the emergence of feminist porn as a genre, industry, and form of activism. Most importantly, the event was designed to put these folks into conversation by coupling academics with performers and producers whose work informs, inspires, or intersects with their porn scholarship.

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Carlyle Jansen, me, Nan Kinney, Carol Queen, Jiz Lee, Wolf Hudson, Mireille Miller-Young, Clark Matthews

We had some major accessibility issues at University College at UT, which I only found out about once I arrived in Toronto on Thursday. I want to thank Clark Matthews who assisted us in addressing some of these issues, Loree Erickson for bringing additional issues to our attention, and both of them for their patience and kindness during what was a frustrating, imperfect situation. I learned a great deal from the experience about what it means to be truly accessible, what kinds of questions to ask in the future, and make a public pledge to do better next year.

Interest in the conference exceeded my expectations, and we had 240 attendees. For you geeks out there, here’s what I know about who came to the conference: 31% of attendees were students, 22% identified themselves as producers, directors, or performers, 12% as professors and scholars, 12% were fans, members of the media and cultural critics made up 6%, 17% identified as “other,” and some of them specified: activist, writer, editor, therapist, sexologist, sex educator, sex worker, student and performer, researcher, programmer/curator, and sexual health clinic worker.

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jes sachse, Carrie Gray, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Carlos Batts, April Flores, Courtney Trouble (photo: Tania A)

Although lots of folks partied late into the night, most managed to get to the conference in time for the first session at 10:15. Courtney Trouble organized the panel “If I Had A Hammer: Reclaiming Feminist Porn As A Tool of Political Activism Against Oppression,” and there was a big crowd for it. This notion of porn as a form of activism is really important and highlights the multiple ways feminists can intervene and challenge the status quo. Courtney is a shining example of putting politics into action. She is strong, driven, and steadfast in her refusal to shut about issues most important to her.

Constance Penley proved why she is such a kick ass feminist rock star when she opened the Keynote Lunch with some history and context for the conference and some amazing stories of teaching porn in the early nineties at UC Santa Barbara.

Mireille Miller-Young

Mireille Miller-Young (photo: Tania A)

Mireille Miller-Young spoke eloquently about the importance of acknowledging access and privilege in spaces like the conference as well as the links between sex work, criminalization, politics, and pornography. I wrapped up by discussing why “feminist porn” is the right term for this genre, industry, field of study, philosophy, and movement and the parallels between feminist porn and the organic/fair trade movement. Then I put forth a call to action for folks to shift the cultural dialogue about feminist porn. I got a little fired up about it!

In Session 2, I was part of “Watch and Learn: Sex Education Discourses in Feminist Porn” which featured the scholarship of Kevin Heffernan of Southern Methodist University and Sarah Stevens of Ohio University whose work focuses on the sex ed films of Nina Hartley and I. I was both humbled and giddy with excitement to hear them talk about us! I cannot tell you how validating and revelatory it is to have academics talk about my filmmaking. Kevin analyzes it through the lens of early sex ed hygiene films and exploitation films, and Sarah does so from a theoretical perspective about pedagogies. Both of their presentations were fascinating, and I actually gained new insight into my own work through them. Notably, on the issue of authority (who has the authority to teach about sex education and especially about women’s sexuality), Sarah argued that I displace myself as the sole expert in The Expert Guide series when I include interviews of the performers who also serve as experts, teachers, and advisors. I strongly believe that professional porn performers do have much to teach us about sexuality from their unique point of view, so that point really resonated with me.

Bianca Stone, James Darling, Jiz Lee, Quinn Cassidy, Arabelle Raphael, Tina Horn (photo: Tania A)

I was sad to miss a panel that was at the same time as mine: To Be Real: Authenticity in Queer and Feminist Porn with Jill Bakehorn, Dylan Ryan, Jiz Lee, and Shar Rednour. Authenticity in feminist porn is one of the most discussed concepts among directors, producers, performers, and audiences and Dylan, Jiz and Shar all have great things to say about it. Jill Bakehorn from UC Davis and UC Berkeley presented her academic work about authenticity as a social construction. To me, this panel epitomized what the conference was all about: having an in-depth discussion about crucial concepts where people had very different points of view and experiences. People really raved about the ensuing discussion. I heard wonderful feedback about all the sessions (here’s a great post by Girly Juice on the con). Several people were especially impacted by the panel Tina Horn organized and moderated “Being Out Now: How Performers Navigate Sexual Morality and Media Representation.” One attendee said it was “one of the most moving, important, life-changing experiences,” and another called it “an incredible array of experiences articulated by a group of smart, self-aware, thoughtful, fascinating people who happen to be sex workers.”

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Kali Williams, Carol Queen, Emily Nagoski (photo: Tania A)

I attended “Feminist Porn XXX-Ed: Feminist Perspectives on Sexual Identity and Sexual Health in Educational and Feminist Porn” in Session 3 with Emily Nagoski of Smith College, Carol Queen, and Kali Williams. Emily’s presentation had me jotting down an entire page of notes, and she raised so many interesting questions about how feminist porn “queers” narratives about sex but doesn’t challenge them enough and often reinforces ideas about female sexuality that are not what she calls “evidence-based” or reflective of how women’s bodies, arousal processes, and orgasms actually work. She gave me so much food for thought. Carol Queen has the unique perspective of being involved with some of the earliest feminist porn and working at Good Vibrations (one of the first sex-positive shops that had a curated collection of porn for sale). Her thoughts about why people turn to porn for sex education, what role porn could play in sex ed, and how explicit sex education (or XXX-ed, as she calls it) fits into the mission of feminist porn. Kali Williams (founder of Kink Academy, Passionate U and Fearless Press) provided an interesting counterpoint when she argued that her explicit sex education is decidedly “not porn” because its intention is not to arouse but to teach. As I sat in the audience, I just really appreciated three powerful women discussing, disagreeing, and pushing the dialogue forward.

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Kevin Heffernan, Constance Penley, Bobby Noble (photo: Tania A)

 

Each room was jam-packed for Session 4 which featured Constance Penley, Bobby Noble and Kevin Heffernan talking about Teaching Porn in Academe, Madison Young’s presentation on “The Politics of Kinky Porn and Feminism,” a panel about mandatory condoms and safer sex with Lisa Kadey, Courtney Trouble and Arabelle Raphael (moderated with skill by Lynn Comella, who is the best moderator in any industry anywhere), and the screening of Shine Louise Houston’s documentary Shiny Jewels.

Me, Shar Rednour, Nan Kinney

Me, Shar Rednour, Nan Kinney

At the closing reception, we all got to unwind a little and I had a chance to get my copy of The Feminist Porn Book autographed by contributors; I now have the signatures of Candida Royalle, Dylan Ryan, Sinnamon Love, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Ms. Naughty, Ariane Cruz, Mireille Miller-Young, Constance Penley, Kevin Heffernan, April Flores, Jiz Lee, and Lynn Comella. I missed Bobby Noble and Loree Erickson, the two Canadians dammit! Bobby Noble is the Principle Investigator of The Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project at York University. I had a few stolen moments with Sarah Stevens, Clark Matthews and Mia Gimp, Carlos Batts, Madison Young, Christi Cassidy and Nan Kinney.

IMG_2793I feel so much love, gratitude, respect, and awe for everyone who took part in this historic event. As I walked through the hallways or stopped outside classrooms, I’d catch bits and pieces of the most exciting, engaging conversations. People were clearly energized and buzzing from all the dialogue; they were making connections with each other, developing new ideas, re-thinking theories, challenging themselves and others. Each presenter paid their own way, traveling from California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Washington, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, and as far away as The Netherlands and Australia. There was also a fantastic local contingent of Toronto folks like Nicholas Matte and several of his undergrads from UT and Bobby Noble, Toby Wiggins, and Loree Erickson from York University. The presenters contributed to the success of the event in innumerable ways. I had an extraordinary team of volunteers lead by my co-producer and partner Colten: Simon, Clyde, Frances, JP, Addi, bek, Freia, Torsten, Ilana, Tania A., Mike, Marie, Petra, and Rachel worked tirelessly all day with smiles on their faces. Rebecca Thorpe of The Marc Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies and Aaron from UT worked their asses off making sure technology worked and things ran smoothly at the facility.

There was a dizzying array of tweets about the conference (#FPcon), and I want to close with some of my absolute favorites. If you want to read all the tweets from the event, we have an #FPCon Storify (special thanks to Epiphora!).

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Apr 092013
 

TORONTO (April 8, 2013)—The First Annual Feminist Porn Conference was held at the University of Toronto on April 6, 2013 and drew nearly 250 attendees. This one-day conference brought together academics, cultural critics, performers, directors, producers, sex workers, activists, students, and fans to explore the emergence of feminist porn as a genre, industry, field of study, and movement. The event, the first ever conference devoted exclusively to feminist pornography, featured 45 different presenters from around the world.

Professors Kevin Heffernan, Constance Penley, and Bobby Noble

Professors Kevin Heffernan, Constance Penley, and Bobby Noble

Presenters included leading professors whose work spans multiple disciplines from history, sociology, film and media studies to comparative literature, sexuality studies, and feminist studies, including Kevin Heffernan from Southern Methodist University, Lynn Comella of University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Ariane Cruz of Pennsylvania State University, Jill Bakehorn of UC Davis and UC Berkeley, Nicholas Matte of University Toronto, Emily Nagoski from Smith College, and York University’s Bobby Noble as well as scholars from CUNY, UCLA, Northwestern, and Ohio University.

Madison Young presents "The Politics of Kinky Porn and Feminism"

Madison Young presents “The Politics of Kinky Porn and Feminism”

Several panels featured some of the most well-known producers and performers working in feminist porn today, including Jiz Lee, Courtney Trouble, Madison Young, Sinnamon Love, Dylan Ryan, April Flores, Carlos Batts, Loree Erickson, James Darling, Carrie Gray, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Tina Horn, Arabelle Raphael, Quinn Cassidy, Jes Sachse, and Bianca Stone. The international conference drew presenters from around the world, including Liesbet Zikkenheimer and Marije Janssen from Dusk TV, an erotic TV channel for women in the Netherlands and Australian webmistress and director Ms. Naughty of ForTheGirls.com. Carol Queen, PhD, co-founder of the Center for Sex and Culture and Good Vibrations’ sexologist, spoke on two panels: “Conspicuous Consumption: If We Sell It, They Will Come,” about the connection between feminist porn and sex-positive retail stores and “Feminist Perspectives on Sexual Identity and Sexual Health in Educational and Feminist Porn.”

Tristan Taormino, Shar Rednour, and Nan Kinney

Tristan Taormino, Shar Rednour, and Nan Kinney

Award-winning filmmaker Shine Louise Houston of Pink and White Productions screened her documentary Shiny Jewels to a huge crowd. A screening of Lesbo Retro: A Dyke Porn Retrospective, a clip show of lesbian porn from 1960-2000, was followed by a question and answer session with its curator, Shar Rednour and special guest Nan Kinney, co-founder of On Our Backs and Fatale Media and recipient of the 2013 Trailblazer Award at The 8th Annual The Feminist Porn Awards on April 5.

Professor Mireille Miller-Young was one of the keynote speakers

Professor Mireille Miller-Young was one of the keynote speakers

The keynote was delivered by feminist pornographer Tristan Taormino and Professors Constance Penley and Mireille Miller-Young (both from University of California-Santa Barbara). As three of the four co-editors of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure, recently published by The Feminist Press at CUNY, they discussed how feminist porn has shifted sexual representation and pondered what the future holds for feminist porn. “The goal of our book was to put academics and sex industry workers into conversation with one another to discuss critical issues about feminism, sexual media, representation, sexual agency, and labor. This conference took those conversations to the next level,” said Mireille Miller-Young. “We hope it mobilizes academics and sex industry workers to create coalitions to support each other’s work,” said Constance Penley.

“The event exceeded my expectations,” said Tristan Taormino, who produced the conference. “I was inspired by the diversity of voices from professors and students to performers and fans. The enthusiasm for dialogue about feminist porn issues was overwhelming, and I am already planning next year’s conference.”

The Feminist Porn Conference was sponsored by the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good for Her, The Feminist Porn Awards, and The Feminist Press.

Photo credits: Tania A.

 

Mar 282013
 

feminist-pornICON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO (March 28, 2013)—Producers of the 8th Annual Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) and the 1st Annual Feminist Porn Conference will hold a joint media event on Friday, April 5 at 12 noon at The Holiday Inn Yorkville, 280 Bloor Street West in the Varsity Room on the 2nd Floor. The event will open with a panel of distinguished guests who will discuss their passion for feminist porn, the significance of their work, and their involvement with the 2013 Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) and the 2013 Feminist Porn Conference; the presentation will be followed by a question and answer period. The panel will include: Carlyle Jansen, owner of Good for Her and producer of The Feminist Porn Awards; director/producer Tristan Taormino, who is the Feminist Porn Conference producer and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book; performer Jiz Lee, 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee and Public.Provocative.Porn special guest; director Matthew Clark, a 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee and Public.Provocative.Porn special guest; performer Wolf Hudson, a 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee; performer James Darling, the 2012 Feminist Porn Award Heartthrob of the Year winner; Nan Kinney, groundbreaking lesbian porn director/producer and featured guest at the Feminist Porn Conference; and Professor Mireille Miller-Young from University of California-Santa Barbara, co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book and a Feminist Porn Conference keynote speaker.

After the panel, an additional group will be introduced that includes FPA nominees, past winners, and presenters as well as Feminist Porn Conference speakers. Members of the media will have an opportunity to meet, interview, and photograph the panelists and special guests. Special guests include: Dr. Carol Queen, groundbreaking sex positive feminist and founder of The Center for Sex and Culture; performer/filmmakers Madison Young, Courtney Trouble, Tobi Hill-Meyer, and Carry Gray; filmmakers Shar Rednour, Carlos Batts, Nica Noelle, Shine Louise Houston of Pink + White Productions, and Ms. Naughty of ForTheGirls.com (Australia); performers Dylan Ryan, April Flores, and Sinnamon Love; Liesbet Zikkenheimer and Marije Janssen of DuskTV in The Netherlands; Professor Kevin Heffernan from Southern Methodist University and Professor Lynn Comella from University of Nevada-Las Vegas; and Professor Bobby Noble, Principle Investigator on the Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project, York University. Special guests’ complete bios here.

About The Good for Her Feminist Porn Awards
The Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards have pioneered the celebration of erotica with a difference. Founded in 2006, The Feminist Porn Awards are produced by Good For Her, a Toronto- based feminist sexuality education centre and sex store.  This event was started to celebrate, recognize and endorse filmmakers who who are creating erotic media with a feminist sensibility in porn for everyone to enjoy.  We all deserve to see artistic expressions that celebrate the diversity of who we are in all our glory, and artists deserve to have their work recognized for challenging stereotypes, expanding the boundaries of sexual representation and creating hot movies!

About The Feminist Porn Conference
The 1st Annual Feminist Porn Conference, April 6, 2013 at the University of Toronto, brings together academics, cultural critics, sex workers, performers, producers, directors, activists, and fans to explore the intersections between sex-positive feminism and pornography as well as the emergence of feminist porn as a genre, industry, and movement. Special guests include groundbreaking lesbian pornographers Nan Kinney (Fatale Media) and Shar Rednour (S.I.R. Video Productions), sex-positive leader Carol Queen, award-winning filmmaker Shine Louise Houston and forty other presenters. Professor Constance Penley, Professor Mireille Miller-Young and Tristan Taormino, co-editors of The Feminist Porn Book, will speak at the Keynote Luncheon sponsored by The Feminist Press. The conference is sponsored by Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good for Her, The Feminist Porn Awards, and The Feminist Press.

About the Panelists

Since discovering orgasms in her late 20s, Carlyle Jansen has been passionate about education for everyone. She founded Good For Her in 1997, a sexuality shop and workshop centre where everyone could feel welcome and included, especially those who traditionally did not feel reflected in sexuality spaces. In 1996, the Good For Her team created and produced the Feminist Porn Awards. An eco-feminist, she believes in empowering people with knowledge to make the best choices for themselves. As the proud mom of 2 active boys, she loves kid play-time as well!

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, columnist, editor, sex educator, radio host, and feminist pornographer. She is the author of seven books including The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion. She runs the adult film production company Smart Ass Productions. She has directed and produced twenty-four adult films, including the groundbreaking series based on real female kink fantasies, Rough Sex and the Expert Guide sex education series, which she created for Vivid Entertainment. The winner of multiple Adult Video News (AVN) and Feminist Porn Awards, she was the first female director to win an AVN award for Best Gonzo Movie for the first film in her reality series Chemistry. She received the Trailblazer Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Feminist Porn Awards in 2010. She is the host of Sex Out Loud, a weekly radio show on The VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network.

Jiz Lee is a genderqueer porn star known for their androgynous look, female ejaculation, vaginal fisting, strap-on performances, and fun sex-positive attitude. The award-winner performer prefers the pronouns “they/them,” and advocates for ethical pornography that creatively and authentically reflects queer sexuality. Ever fascinated by the radical potential of sex, love, and art, Jiz runs a personal blog and philanthropic “Karma Pervs” paysite at JizLee.com. They are the editor of the upcoming anthology How to Come Out Like a Porn Star: Essays from the Porn Industry on Family Matters.

Matthew Clark is the co-creator and writer/director/editor of the award-winning crip porn short KRUTCH, his first adult film. Made with collaborator and star Mia Gimp, it explores issues close to Matthew’s heart: disability, perception, authenticity through representation and auteurship. He studied Film and Media Arts at Temple University and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Wolf Hudson is a Dominican crossover adult performer. He’s known for appearing in straight, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and fetish porn. One of the few openly bisexual male performers to successfully transition between genre’s of porn, he’s demonstrated an appetite to push the envelope of sexuality and delivering passionately driven scenes that has gained him a diverse fan base. He’s won numerous awards, including “Best Personality” at The Cybersocket Web Awards and has appeared in acclaimed films like My Own Master. He is also known for being a talented dancer. Hudson runs his own pay site at WolfHudsonIsBad.com.

James Darling is a transsexual male porn performer and sex worker based in the Bay Area. He won the 2012 Feminist Porn Award for Heartthrob of the Year Transguys.com Sex Performer of the Year 2010 for his work across multiple porn genres. James is also the owner and director of FTMFUCKER.com, a porn site dedicated to trans men.

Nan Kinney is the president and co-founder of Fatale Media. She is also the executive producer of Fatale’s lesbian porn and adult educational videos and DVDs. With Deborah Sundahl, she co-founded On Our Backs magazine.

Mireille Miller-Young is associate professor of feminist studies and affiliate associate professor of black studies, film and media studies, and comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research explores race, gender, and sexuality in visual culture, media, and the sex industries in the United States. Her forthcoming book, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women, Sex Work, and Pornography, examines African American women in pornography.

Contact:

Tristan Taormino, feministpornstudies@gmail.com
Carlyle Jansen, 416-588-0900, carlyle@goodforher.com

Feb 122013
 

Feminist_Porn_cover

This week on Sex Out Loud I celebrate the release of The Feminist Porn Book, a new book I co-edited. The Feminist Porn Book brings together for the first time writings by feminists in the adult industry and research by feminist porn scholars, and this week on Sex Out Loud I’ll be talking to my co-editors – Celine Parreñas-Shimizu, Constance Penley, and Mireille Miller-Young – about our 5 year journey to get the collection published. This book investigates not only how feminists understand pornography, but also how feminists do porn—that is, direct, act in, produce, and consume one of the world’s most lucrative and growing industries. Then I’ll talk to Claire Potter about REACT: THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE AT 50, an upcoming two-day symposium and exhibition on Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book.

Celine photoCeline Parreñas Shimizu teachs film and performance theory and production as Professor of Asian American, Comparative Literature, Feminist Studies and Film and Media Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is part of a decades long history of race and media production in the U.C. system. She is the author of the award-winning book The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian/American Women on Screen and Scene (Duke University Press, 2007) and Straitjacket Sexualities: Unbinding Asian American Manhoods in the Movies (Stanford University Press, 2012). Her first feature documentary Birthright: Mothering across Difference (2009) won Best Feature Documentary at the Big Mini DV Festival in 2009. Her films The Fact of Asian Women (2004), Super Flip (1997), and Mahal Means Love and Expensive are distributed by Progressive Films and Her Uprooting Plants Her (1995) is distributed by Third World Newsreel. Her numerous articles are included in the journals Concentric, The Journal of Asian American Studies, Signs, The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Wide Angle and Theatre Journal.

 

MireilleMireille Miller-Young, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She researches and teaches about race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture and the sex industries. Her forthcoming manuscript, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women, Sex Work, and Pornography (Duke University Press) examines African American women’s sex work in the porn industry.

 

Penley-Constance-low-res_0002Constance Penley is Professor of Film and Media Studies and Co-Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Her major areas of research interest are film history and theory, feminist theory, cultural studies, contemporary art, and science and technology studies. She is a founding editor of Camera Obscura: Feminism, Media, Cultural Studies and editor or co-editor of the influential collections Feminism and Film Theory, Male Trouble, Technoculture, The Visible Woman: Imaging Technologies, Science and Gender, and The Feminist Porn Book. Her books include The Future of an Illusion: Film, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis, NASA/TREK: Popular Science and Sex in America, and the forthcoming Teaching Pornography. Her collaborative art projects include MELROSE SPACE: Primetime Art by the GALA Committee and Biospheria: An Environmental Opera. Penley is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Award and the Kenneth Burke Society Prize for Excellence in Rhetorical Studies.

claire potterClaire Bond Potter has been Professor of History at The New School for Public Engagement since 2012. Prior to that I worked at Wesleyan University. I am currently writing a political history of anti-pornography campaigns, Sex in Public: Feminism, the Reagan Revolution and the Politics of Pornography, 1968-2000 (due to be completed in 2014.) I received my BA in English Literature from Yale University and my Ph.D. in History from New York University. I am the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men and the Politics of Mass Culture (Rutgers University Press, 1998) and an editor, with Renee Romano, of Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History That Talks Back (University of Georgia Press, 2012). Since 2007 I have blogged at Tenured Radical, which moved to The Chronicle of Higher Education in July 2011.