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My feminist porn mix-up

Rating: NNNNN


It was like a scene from Eyes Wide Shut – 300 pairs of eyes glued to a screen displaying images of girls who do boys who do boys, sometimes with masks.

The Feminist Porn Awards, held at the Gladstone on Friday, June 1, aim to change “how women and people of colour are represented in adult films.”

Inspired by anarcho-feminist Emma Goldman, who rejected any control over women’s bodies, sex toy shop Good for Her came up with the idea for the awards two years ago as a way of offering an alternative to male-driven hardcore. But while many of the women gathered want to make porn that appeals to them, most I talked to couldn’t really define what makes this porn “feminist.” Then there’s the fact that many porn directors wanting to produce woman-centred sex flicks have a hard time finding performers to represent cultural and transgender diversity.

An added contradiction is that feminists, too, tend to find guilty pleasures in the worst kinds of porn. As one filmmaker I spoke to admitted, “I like all kinds of things up everybody’s asses with no condoms. So I’m a bit conflicted.”

I started thinking of my own fetish for facial scenes, which can be tasteful, too, depending on how they’re (ahem) shot. I secretly wondered what all the other pervs in the room were into.

Among the 12 winners of the butt-plug-shaped glass award was Candida Royalle. Categories included hottest gonzo sex scene, hottest diverse cast and indie porn pioneer.

“People don’t know they have a choice when it comes to porn,” said event organizer Chanelle Gallant. “Yes, there’s a lot of bad porn out there. We want to recognize and celebrate the good porn makers.”

Local porn maven Coco La Cr&graveme rounded off the X-rated event by jumping out of a cake as part of her burlesque bit.

“I think in one sense we’re preaching to the converted,” she told me in a back room after the show. “Some people may never be reached, but I think there are a lot of people in the middle who aren’t satisfied with what they’re seeing and want to find progressive porn.”

Maybe we’re nearing a time when women can indulge in what gets them off without guilt or misogyny casting a shadow.

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