It's that time of year again! Rebirth, lamb's blood, painted eggs, halter tops, and the Feminist Porn Awards! In honor of Canadian sex shop Good For Her's fifth year celebrating the most vibrantly visible progressive smut peddlers on Earth, allow CarnalNation to lay to rest the seemingly inherent contradiction in the institution of Feminism and the industry of Porn. This erstwhile oxymoron is being dismantled and dismissed by women and men, heterosexuals and queers, educators, entertainers, titillators, entrepreneurs, opportunists, exhibitionists, and storytellers all over the planet.
Still, those who seek to use hardcore filmmaking as a platform for comprehensive sexual education, creative political direct action, promoting the positive visibility of disenfranchised identities and marginalized bodies, and celebrating erotic pleasure struggle to preach to and reach the unconverted. Thus the FPA's are more than just a bunch of lesbians patting each other on the back. The awards assert that it is integral for filmmakers to become aware of one another's efforts, to network, share talent, and swap strategies. On April 9th they will congregate in a church (!) in Toronto to celebrate, rather than compete with, one another.
Preceding the awards ceremony is a screening entitled Provocative.Public/Porn. This April 8th event also includes a roundtable discussion moderated by local burlesque queen CoCo La Creme with author Tristan Taormino; the 2009 FPA Film of the Year's director Shine Louise Houston; performer, writer, director Nica Noelle; and BBW porn star April Flores. Among the confirmed attendees of the weekend's festivities are this year's mainstream breakout stars Jiz Lee and Dylan Ryan, both 2010 AVN nominees for their work in independent queer porn; Parisian performer Judy Minx; BDSM supervixen Julie Simone; Kiwi producer Astrid Glitter; sex worker activist Sophia St. James; and yours truly.
Good Releasing, the video production and distribution arm of legendary sex store Good Vibrations, is prominent in the nominations this year with no less than eleven titles honored. Queer porn maverick Courtney Trouble has had all six of her films for Good Releasing's line Reel Queer Productions nominated, including the first two installments of her Seven Minutes in Heaven gonzo series and her international travelogue, Roulette. As if that weren't enough, Trouble's alt-porn website NoFauxxx.com has been nominated for best website.
Also representing for Good Releasing will be directors Carlos Batts and Madison Young. Batts is up for Dangerous Curves, Behind the Red Door, and Glamazons,all of which feature his wife and muse, April Flores. Young's seven nominations include two from her own company, Madison Young Productions as well as the five that she directed for Good Releasing's Heartcore and Reel Queer Productions lines.
Good For Her's manager, Alison Lee, says that the original inspiration for the awards was a desire "to celebrate filmmakers with a more inclusive bent" than mainstream porn, and with forty-seven video titles and seven websites nominated for awards this year, they've been inclusive of a wide range of sexualities.
Buck Angel, easily the world's most visible FTM porn star, received the "Boundary Breaker of the Year" award in 2008 and has had his deliciously self-explanatory Buck Angel's Ultimate Fucking Club nominated this year. "The Feminist Porn Awards is an amazing thing for the adult entertainment field, because our industry always gets bashed for demeaning women, but there is real empowerment here too," he says. "I think my message about being proud of owning a pussy (even though I'm a man) is what makes Ultimate Fucking Club a feminist film. I'm showing that pussy is just as powerful on a man as on a woman and that it shouldn't be excluded from gay porn."
Four educational titles bear the alliterating moniker of sex-ed superstar Tristan Taormino. The self-made spokeswoman of anal pleasure and polyamory directs how-to films that give tips and techniques while showing just how hot sex can be when you know what you're fucking doing. Not one, but two of her nominated films—Penny Flame’s Expert Guide to Rough Sex (as producer) and Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex—document consensual rough sex with an emphasis on the performers orchestrating their own edgy scenes. Fellow feminist sex educator Jamye Waxman's nomination comes for her video 101 Positions for Lovers, but Waxman says if you watch just to learn new positions, you're missing the point: "The point is not that you can last in all these positions, but there’s way more we can try sexually than we ever do. I want people to see these real couples connecting and experimenting together, and sometimes not liking something, too."
Other noteworthy nominees this year include:
- The two latest DVD collections of scenes from Shine Louise Houston's docu-porn web project Crash Pad Series.
- Five titles of Victorian passion and deviance from Nina Noelle's Sweet Sinner Video and Sweetheart Video lines.
- New projects by 2009 FPA Honorable Mentions: Trannywood Pictures' Couch-Surfers 2 and Erika Lust's Handcuffs.
- Honeybunny, Vena Virago's surreal journey of rabbits and self-discovery for Vivid Alt.
- British director Anna Span's series Women Love Porn, which puts in a pretty convincing bid for inclusion with that title.
- Des Jours Plus Belles Que La Nuit by Jennifer Lyon Bell and Murielle Scherre for Blue Artichoke Films and La Fille' D'O, which had its international premiere at this year's Cinekink/NYC.
A filmfest of this year's size and diversity reveals what may be the most important distinction of 21st-century feminism. As represented by this collection of media, feminism is not a separatist movement motivated by ancient resentment and penis envy, as it is unfortunately so often portrayed. Rather, "feminist" sexuality describes: The promotion of pleasure, the inclusion of all bodies, orientations and identities; the choice to exhibit ones' body—warts, lovehandles, big clit, small prick, natural tits, skinny legs and all—with pride and ecstasy; and the complex and ever-changing hotness of authentic desire, chemistry, and orgasms.
Get it? Feminism isn't just about females. It's about challenging the status quo and promoting pride and pleasure! Feminist pornographers lead by example. They consciously choose to infiltrate the information-saturated media at large with portraits of people enjoying sex and, perhaps just as importantly, enjoying the fact that they can perform and profit off their sex for the camera.
And let it be known; while authentic connection and substance are trends, the softcore erotica stereotype is being bludgeoned into submission with stilettos and Hitachis. The nominees speak for themselves; female sexuality is twisted, raunchy, kinky, and breathtaking.
A full listing of this year's nominees is on the second page of this article.
Print
