The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure

by Tristan Taormino (Editor), Constance Penley (Editor), Celine Parrenas Shimizu (Editor), Mireille Miller-Young (Editor)

Overview

This thrilling anthology celebrates the power of desire, bringing together personal essays, manifestos, and scholarly research, turning the spotlight on an industry where feminism is thriving.

The Feminist Porn Book weaves together writing by producers, actors, consumers, and scholars of feminist pornography, investigating 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.

With original contributions by Susie Bright, Candida Royalle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley, Buck Angel, Lynn Comella, Jane Ward, Ariane Cruz, Kevin Heffernan, and more, The Feminist Porn Book updates the arguments of the porn wars of the 1980s, which sharply divided the women’s movement, and identifies pornography as a form of expression and labor in which women and racial and sexual minorities produce power and pleasure.

“I predict this volume is going to find its way onto the bedside tables of several generations of American women. . . . At the core of the book is the question: Can porn coexist with the principles of feminism? No matter how one ultimately adjudicates this question, The Feminist Porn Book leaves no doubt about the inherent value in the inquiry itself.” —Melissa Harris-Perry, author of Sister Citizen

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558618183
Publisher:	Feminist Press at CUNY, The
Publication date:	02/19/2013
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 8.34(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Tristan Taormino is a sex educator, feminist pornographer, and the award-winning author of seven books including The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and Opening Up. As head of Smart Ass Productions, she has directed and produced twenty-four adult films. She is the host of “Sex Out Loud” on The VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network.

Filmmaker and film scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu is professor of Asian American Studies at the Universityof California, Santa Barbara. Her books are Straitjacket Sexualities and The Hypersexuality of Race, winner of the 2009 Cultural Studies Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies.

Constance Penley is professor of film and media studies and co-director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, Universityof California, Santa Barbara. A founding editor of Camera Obscura, her work includes The Future of an Illusion: Film, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis, NASA/TREK: Popular Science and Sex in America, Teaching Pornography (forthcoming), and influential collections Feminism and Film Theory, Male Trouble, and Technoculture.

Mireille Miller-Young is associate professor of feminist studies at the Universityof California, Santa Barbara. She researches and teaches about race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture and the sex industries. Her book, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women, Sex Work, and Pornography (Duke UniversityPress) examines African American women’s sex work in the porn industry.

Table of Contents

The Feminist Porn Book
Preliminary Table of Contents

Introduction: “Producing Pleasure, Watching Smut, and Redefining Sex: Feminist Pornography and Politics in Academe and The Adult Industry” by Constance Penley, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Mireille Miller-Young and Tristan Taormino

1. Watching It: Feminist/Porn Spectatorship
Susie Bright, The Birth of the Blue Movie Critic
Kristin Cole, Pornography, Censorship, and Public Sex: Exploring Feminist Perspectives of (Public) Pornography Through the Case of Pornotopia
Ariane Cruz, Pornography: A Black Feminist Woman Scholar’s Reconciliation
Emily Crutcher, “She’s Totally Faking It!” The Politics of Authentic Female Pleasure in Pornography
Alea Adigweme, The Pleasure of Flinching: On the Intersections between Pornography, Brown Women, and Suffering
Jane Ward, Feminist Chauvinist Pigs: Getting Off and Getting Beyond the Authenticity Imperative

2. We Build It, They Come? Emerging Markets and (In)conspicuous Consumption
Candida Royalle, What’s A Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Karen Jackson, My Decadent Decade: Ten Years of Making and Debating Porn for Women
Lynn Comella, From Text to Context: Feminist Porn and the Making of a Market
Anne G. Sabo, After Pornified: Feminist Porn
Keiko Lane, Imag(in)ing Possibilities: The Psychotherapeutic Potential of Queer Pornography

3. Making It: Agency, Labor, and Production
Betty Dodson, Porn Wars
Tristan Taormino, Calling the Shots: Feminist Porn in Principle and Practice
Christopher Daniel Zeischegg, The Case for Consent: An Examination of Ethics in Porn
Mireille Miller-Young, Interventions: The Deviant and Defiant Art of Black Women Porn Directors
Crystal Jackson and Laurenn McCubbin, The Queer Porn Mafia: Redefining Gender, Sex, Desire, and Feminism
Jennifer Moorman, “Wanda Whips Wall Street”: Women Filmmakers and the Business of Pornography

4. Messages and Manifestos: Performance and Representation
Nina Hartley, Porn As Vehicle for Sexual Role Modeling and Education
Kevin Heffernan, From “It Could Happen to Someone You Love” to “Do You Speak Ass?” Women and Discourses of Sex Education in Erotic Film and Video
Kristina Pia Hofer, Pornographic Domesticity: Amateur Couple Netporn, Straight Subjectivities, and Sexual Labor
Lorelei Lee, Cum Guzzling Anal Nurse Whore: A Feminist Porn Star Manifesta
Dylan Ryan, Porn Star. Feminist?
Sinnamon Love, A Question of Feminism

5. Academic and Activist Interventions: Feminist Porn Pedagogies and Social Movements
Ronald Weitzer, The Need for Solid Evidence: Reviewing Everyday Pornography and Pornland
Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith, Emotional Truths and Thrilling Slideshows: The Resurgence of Anti-Porn Feminism
Constance Penley, Teaching Pornography
Ingrid Ryberg, “Every time we fuck, we win.” The Public Sphere of Queer, Feminist and Lesbian Porn as a (Safe) Space for Sexual Empowerment
Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Beyond Looking for the Penis: The Feminist Ethics of Asian American Men in Porn

6. “Dangerous” Bodies: Constructions of Desire and Otherness
Jason Davids Scott, Girls Will Be Boys: The Transgressive Female Body
Jiz Lee, Uncategorized: Genderqueer Identity and Performance in Independent and Mainstream Porn
April Flores, Being Fatty D
Loree Erickson, Out of Line: The Sexy Femmegimp Politics of Flaunting It
Buck Angel, The Power of My Vagina
Bobby Nobel, The P Word: Pleasure, Penetration and the Post-Politics of Porn’s Feminist Masculinities
Tobi Hill-Meyer, Where The Trans Women Aren’t: The Slow Inclusion of Trans Women in Feminist/Queer Porn

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In terms both jarring and harrowing, women's bodies became the terrain on which the 2012 election was fought. That the choices, experiences, and consequences of women's sexual lives became fodder for such poorly informed national "conversations" is evidence of the pressing need for thoughtful, sex-positive scholarship which centers on women's sexual agency. The Feminist Porn Book is just such a contribution, and I predict this volume is going to find its way onto the bedside tables of several generations of American women. This volume brings together academics, activists, and porn entrepreneurs who have a startling array of interactions with pornography as an experience, a business, and a field of inquiry. This text is straightforward and informative in ways that are unfortunately rare in the multi-decade feminist struggle over porn. It's also fun and sometimes a bit naughty to read. The authors do not assume that the porn industry as it exists is the one essential and only possible incarnation of porn. Instead, they assume that when feminists engage, intervene in, produce, and study pornography, they can radically alter its formations and meanings. At the core of the book is the question: Can porn coexist with the principles of feminism? No matter how one ultimately adjudicates this question, The Feminist Porn Book leaves no doubt about the inherent value in the inquiry itself.”— Melissa Harris-Perry, host of MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry," author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, and professor of political science at Tulane University

"Finally the time is right for feminist porn! This stunning collection by academics and artists in dialogue accounts for the massive changes in technology, erotics, modes of spectatorship, and embodied identities which impact the world of pornography. As this volume demonstrates, we are now far from the sex wars of the 1980s, the sex panics of the 1990s, and well into a new era of erotic representation. In order to make sense of new and emergent worlds of desiring bodies, trans-femininities and trans-masculinities, transgressive racial performance, and the erotics of disabled bodies, read The Feminist Porn Book , and when you are finished, go out and make some porn!"—Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal

“The Feminist Porn Book is a knockout! If this doesn’t sway antiporn feminists to the pro-porn feminist side, I’ll eat my bra. Let’s come together right now!” —Annie Sprinkle, feminist pornographer and eco-sex activist

“This thrilling anthology brings together scholars, producers, and fans of feminist pornography to define an emerging movement of gender and sexual visionaries, working at the radically inclusive and egalitarian edges of sexual representation. The authors explore an ever-widening range of body types, and a proliferating variety of images, sensations, and feelings. They examine the conditions of production as well as the politics of representation. They show us the new feminist porn as deep play—challenging, exciting, and important.” —Lisa Duggan, professor of American studies and gender and sexuality studies, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University

"Finally: academics are actually talking to sex industry workers, pornographers are doubling as theorists, and feminists have grabbed the cameras. The Feminist Porn Book sets the agenda for new ways of thinking about the sticky social relations of dirty pictures." —Laura Kipnis, author of Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America

"This is the book that feminist scholars, teachers, students, and activists have been waiting for! Eloquent, smart, passionate, and engaging—each page of the The Feminist Porn Book offers a timely reminder of the continued importance of feminist interventions into the politics and production of pornography." —Carol Stabile, director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon

“In this breakthrough collection, scholars, artists, and producers from across a spectrum of identities serve up profound new insights on making, consuming, and studying porn. This book advances my understanding of how porn works, when it doesn’t, and why it matters. The short essay format makes this book ideal for teaching, but it’s essential reading for anyone insterested in sexual politics or contemporary culture.” —Richard Fung, video artist and professor, Ontario College of Art and Design

“The Feminist Porn Book is a readable and smart must-have for any classroom dealing with sexual representations.” —Chuck Kleinhans, co-editor of JUMP CUT: a review of contemporary media

“To have writings from so many of the most important creators in feminist porn in one anthology is wonderful. It captures the past, present, and future pioneering of this important film genre.” —Shine Louise Houston, director and CEO of Pink and White Productions

“This impressive volume of essays shows that thirty years after the feminist sex wars first erupted, porn is still a hot topic for the women’s movement, and for the scholarly study of gender and sexuality. The Feminist Porn Book brings together a potent mix of perspectives from academics, activists, and sex indus¬try workers, while addressing dis/ability, transness, and race/ethnicity.” —Susan Stryker, director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, University of Arizona

Editorial Reviews

Sex industry workers, academics, and feminists explore whether pornography is inherently anti-feminist in this intelligent, accessible, and relevant collection of essays. Porn has often been branded as sexist, with "feminist" groups decrying all forms; however, many women over the decades have sought to bridge their love of erotica with their feminist values by supporting and creating porn that adheres to these values. With contributions from some pioneers of feminist porn such as Candida Royalle, the book features a variety of critical perspectives that examine all sides of the issue. Contributors aren't afraid to both objectively praise and criticize advances the industry has made (such as the way feminist porn has, for some, come to equate "soft" porn, and prescribe stereotypes of female desire), and provide both practical ways to become a smart feminist or queer porn consumer alongside academic approaches to the movement. The collection also rightfully includes essays on racial, queer, and transgender representations in porn, topics often marginalized in this discussion. Besides being extremely thoughtprovoking, this must-read collection is accessible to all readers, and the topic inherently makes it engaging and fun. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

“Contributors aren’t afraid to both objectively praise and criticize advances the industry has made (such as the way feminist porn has, for some, come to equate “soft” porn, and prescribe stereotypes of female desire), and provide both practical ways to become a smart feminist or queer porn consumer alongside academic approaches to the movement. The collection also rightfully includes essays on racial, queer, and transgender representations in porn, topics often marginalized in this discussion. Besides being extremely thoughtprovoking, this must-read collection is accessible to all readers, and the topic inherently makes it engaging and fun.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The voices that stand out most are those who’ve been traditionally either left out of mainstream porn or fetishized in a way that leaves them cold. After a historical overview from Betty Dodson, Susie Bright, and Candida Royalle, the book presents women who knowingly entered porn to make women like them more visible. From April Flores on plus-size porn to Tobi Hill-Meyer on trans women’s fight to be included at levels proportionate to trans men to Loree Erickson on disability in porn, each practically echo the other in conveying porn’s real-life impact.”—The Hairpin

“For Taormino and other feminists involved in making and studying pornography, sexually explicit media provide an opportunity to critically engage with the relationship between identity and agency. By subverting and diversifying the often-stereotypical portrayals of sexuality found in much mainstream media, feminist pornographers invite traditionally marginalized audiences to connect with sex as a medium of pleasure and power. These explicit portrayals, grounded in a cognizance of pornography as both an industry and a cultural form, empower viewers to take charge while getting off.”—Manifesta Mag

"In terms both jarring and harrowing, women's bodies became the terrain on which the 2012 election was fought. That the choices, experiences, and consequences of women's sexual lives became fodder for such poorly informed national "conversations" is evidence of the pressing need for thoughtful, sex-positive scholarship which centers on women's sexual agency. The Feminist Porn Book is just such a contribution, and I predict this volume is going to find its way onto the bedside tables of several generations of American women. This volume brings together academics, activists, and porn entrepreneurs who have a startling array of interactions with pornography as an experience, a business, and a field of inquiry. This text is straightforward and informative in ways that are unfortunately rare in the multi-decade feminist struggle over porn. It's also fun and sometimes a bit naughty to read. The authors do not assume that the porn industry as it exists is the one essential and only possible incarnation of porn. Instead, they assume that when feminists engage, intervene in, produce, and study pornography, they can radically alter its formations and meanings. At the core of the book is the question: Can porn coexist with the principles of feminism? No matter how one ultimately adjudicates this question, The Feminist Porn Book leaves no doubt about the inherent value in the inquiry itself.”— Melissa Harris-Perry, author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

"Finally the time is right for feminist porn! This stunning collection by academics and artists in dialogue accounts for the massive changes in technology, erotics, modes of spectatorship, and embodied identities which impact the world of pornography. As this volume demonstrates, we are now far from the sex wars of the 1980s, the sex panics of the 1990s, and well into a new era of erotic representation. In order to make sense of new and emergent worlds of desiring bodies, trans-femininities and trans-masculinities, transgressive racial performance, and the erotics of disabled bodies, read The Feminist Porn Book, and when you are finished, go out and make some porn!"—Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal

“The Feminist Porn Book is a knockout! If this doesn’t sway antiporn feminists to the pro-porn feminist side, I’ll eat my bra. Let’s come together right now!” —Annie Sprinkle, feminist pornographer and eco-sex activist

“This thrilling anthology brings together scholars, producers, and fans of feminist pornography to define an emerging movement of gender and sexual visionaries, working at the radically inclusive and egalitarian edges of sexual representation. The authors explore an ever-widening range of body types, and a proliferating variety of images, sensations, and feelings. They examine the conditions of production as well as the politics of representation. They show us the new feminist porn as deep play—challenging, exciting, and important.” —Lisa Duggan, author of Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence and American Modernity

"Finally: academics are actually talking to sex industry workers, pornographers are doubling as theorists, and feminists have grabbed the cameras. The Feminist Porn Book sets the agenda for new ways of thinking about the sticky social relations of dirty pictures." —Laura Kipnis, author of Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America

"This is the book that feminist scholars, teachers, students, and activists have been waiting for! Eloquent, smart, passionate, and engaging—each page of the The Feminist Porn Book offers a timely reminder of the continued importance of feminist interventions into the politics and production of pornography." —Carol Stabile, director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the Universityof Oregon

“In this breakthrough collection, scholars, artists, and producers from across a spectrum of identities serve up profound new insights on making, consuming, and studying porn. This book advances my understanding of how porn works, when it doesn’t, and why it matters. The short essay format makes this book ideal for teaching, but it’s essential reading for anyone insterested in sexual politics or contemporary culture.” —Richard Fung, video artist and professor, Ontario College of Art and Design

“The Feminist Porn Book is a readable and smart must-have for any classroom dealing with sexual representations.” —Chuck Kleinhans, co-editor of JUMP CUT: a review of contemporary media

“To have writings from so many of the most important creators in feminist porn in one anthology is wonderful. It captures the past, present, and future pioneering of this important film genre.” —Shine Louise Houston, director and CEO of Pink and White Productions

“This impressive volume of essays shows that thirty years after the feminist sex wars first erupted, porn is still a hot topic for the women’s movement, and for the scholarly study of gender and sexuality. The Feminist Porn Book brings together a potent mix of perspectives from academics, activists, and sex industry workers, while addressing dis/ability, transness, and race/ethnicity.” —Susan Stryker, director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, Universityof Arizona

From the Publisher