Feminism and pornography have long had their contentious differences, but can the two unite to change the face of porn as we know it?
If you’ve been paying attention to headlines at all lately, you’ll already know that more women than ever admit to watching porn. Websites have begun to roll out all kinds of free porn for women— with different and exciting genres, depictions, and actors. The kind of porn we actually want to watch with a whole lot less of the busty blondes getting bent over counters, and more foreplay, sensuality, and tasty bisexual scenes. But that’s not all the ladies have brought into the wide world of porn. They’ve also introduced “feminist porn” and it’s about damn time too.
Feminists Watch Porn Too
While some feminists still see porn as extra decisive— even that which has been dubbed ‘feminist’— there are a growing number of women warriors out there that are becoming increasingly comfortable with the types of porn that are available and pushing for ever better genres, particularly those that don’t exploit women, whether they be actors or consumers.
One of the biggest gripes about porn the world of feminism has long held is that porn is exploitative and holds some seriously outdated and dangerous ideas regarding beauty standards. Even in the historic porn industry, women actors were often paid better than their male counterparts and often secured better franchising deals— however, the scripts that they were required to take part in were what seemed the most problematic. Taking the bird’s eye view of traditional, Westernized, mainstream porn flicks, it’s easy to see why feminists took such a hard stand against erotica. Most women were displayed as blonde, thin, tall, with ridiculously large breasts and other exaggerated features. Essentially displaying the ‘ideal body type’ that doesn’t really naturally exist— setting beauty standards unrealistically high.
Classic pornography also tends to display women as subservient, weak, and basically as involved as a wooden doll. With scenes that rarely focused on feminine pleasure— instead definitely leaning towards what a man would think of as hot. Largely because, direction and production of porn was a man’s game. But feminist porn is changing that.
The Golden Age of Feminist Porn
Thanks largely to more women in general watching porn, genres like female produced porn, feminist porn, and ethical porn have finally found their footing within the adult entertainment realm. Which is great, as all of these genres have found a way to continue of with the explicit sexual acts that we love— without all the negative stereotyping and poor treatment of actors. More than just women, these genres have also broadened their scopes into creating better racially focused and balanced porn— turning away from fetishism and really focusing on equality in production and hiring standards. Getting rid of a number of tired (and seriously offensive) tropes that exist heavily in traditional porn paradigms.
Focusing on actual bodies, receiving actual pleasure. These types of erotica have quickly become favorites for porn consumers across the board, as they tend to explore burgeoning sexuality in depth, creating a more relatable and enticing experience for everyone. So while not all feminists are on board with this new wave of pornographic productions, it’s nice to be able to start seeing adult content that better represents the community that watches it— and that most definitely includes women.
