Feminist pornography

People who were active in the sex-positive feminism movement developed **feminist pornography**. Like normal pornography, the aim is to show sexually explicit images, or describe situations which help to sexually arouse women. Most pornography is made for men; it often uses stereotypes. Feminist pornography wants to break out of these stereotyped gender roles.  

## Definition 
Much like regular pornography, feminist pornography uses explicit images.  Most pornography made for men use shallow stereotypes. Feminist pornography wants to question these stereotypes and the way in which things such as gender, sexuality or beauty are shown. Feminist porn movies often also show  disabililty. They do this more often than porn made for men: Feminist porn also shows people who are sexually active, even though they are disabled in some way. Feminist pornography looks at what is considered a normal sexual relationship, and turns against seeing one sex as better than another. These interpretations and rules change over time. The last change was made to accommodate the transgender community. In general, feminist porn wants to be seen as diverse and liberal, and to express liberal views on gender and sexuality. 
* Working conditions should be fair. The single actor should have more liberty of expression. No matter what the porn movie shows, everyone should agree on what they do. Security and ethical standards are important. In feminist pornography, scenes are often developed in a collaboration with the actors.  
* It is important to also show sexual practices and sexual identities that are underrepresented in mainstream porn movies.
* It is seen positively that women can take the role as  directors, screenwriters and camerawomen in the production, but this fact is not mandatory. 

With this, feminist pornography creates an aesthetic and ethical vision of change that is neither homogeneous nor clearly defined. 

## Criticism 
Christopher Boulton says that criticism of feminist pornography comes from religion, government policy, and feminism itself. The positions of these movements are very similar. The different movements want to reach them with different means, though.  One of the critics is the organization Stop Porn Culture. Its main proponent is Gail Dines. According to her, the porn movement in western society is bad, especially the protection of children, and of public health.  The means are very similar to those opponents of pornography  used  in the 1970s and 1980s.  Only in this way would she be able to get enough money for the projects in which she could show her own ideas, which are different from the mainstream. For example, she would take on the role of a Big Beautiful Woman, although she rejects this term for herself.  In her view, Capitalist value creation is a means to an end.

## Books 
* Gayle Rubin (1993): *Misguided, Dangerous and Wrong: an Analysis of Anti-Pornography Politics.* In: Assiter Alison, Carol Avedon (eds. ): *Bad Girls and Dirty Pictures: The Challenge to Reclaim Feminism* . Pluto.
* Karen Ciclitira (2004): *Pornography, women and feminism: between pleasure and politics.* Sexualities.
* Marilyn Corsianos (2007): *Mainstream pornography and "women": questioning sexual agency.* Critical Sociology.
* R. Claire Snyder-Hall (2010): ''Third-wave feminism and the defense of 'choice'.* Perspectives on Politics.
* James D. Griffith, Lea T. Adams, Christian L. Hart, Sharon Mitchell (2012): *Why become a pornography actress?* International Journal of Sexual Health.
* Anne G. Sabo (2012): *After pornified.* *How women are transforming pornography & why it really matters.* Alresfort (UK).
* Patrick Catuz: *Feminism Fucks!* Lit-Verlag, Vienna / Münster 2013.
* Rachael Liberman (2015): *It's a really great tool: feminist pornography and the promotion of sexual subjectivity.* Porn Studies.
* Rebecca Whisnant (2016): *But what about feminist porn?: examining the work of Tristan Taormino.'' Sexualization, Media, and Society.

## Other websites 
* Feminist Porn Org: A Guide To Ethical and Feminist Porn
* "It's time for porn to change", Erika Lust's lecture at TEDxVienna
* Interview with Svenja Flaßpöhler about feminist pornography (film) - Arte, 17. October 2009

## References