Feminists are notoriously severe critics of porn, and historically, porn was never created with feminists as a target audience. Although porn attracts millions of consumers, the expected spectators are men. The majority of today's porn caters to the commercialized idea of the male fantasy, and as a result, alienates much of the female population. This hole in the market creates a major opportunity for a new approach to porn that has a feminist agenda and appeals specifically to the feminine psyche. In contrast to the male-dominated industrial porn complex is the rising female-focused, artisanal, locally-grown, free-range porn for women. It is also organic and gluten-free.
The formula for male-oriented porn centers on his completion -- usually on her face. There may be some basic dialogue and a vague storyline, but ultimately there are a lot of close-ups of penises ramming into vaginas, anuses and mouths -- which serve as the build up to his climax of secreting man juice. Like the model males of these movies, the man watching this porn is mostly doing so in order to achieve orgasm. So, the act of masturbating and the motives to watch porn are one in the same.
Yet, women do not exclusively watch porn to rub one out then go take a nap, turkey sandwich in hand. According to Stacey Morrison from BlogHer,
Women aren't looking at porn exclusively to have an orgasm. They are there for inspiration, context, learning and titillation. The female approach towards porn is about improving your sex life offline. Women use porn and erotic sites to seek out information and explore different possibilities to help build their sexual identity. Aesthetics is important to her so she can identify with the women on the screen. I like to call this movement 'artisanal porn,' and it is an approach that is on the rise. There is an effort to create an ethical business model that is real and natural, and that is what women are really responding to.
The connection between ethics and pornography is perhaps the missing ingredient that should be addressed. Usually one shies away from relating morality to the mass exposure of a sexual act because documenting intimacy is already considered taboo. Given that the mainstream moral compass has designated porn as a degenerate, the disintegration of porn became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Early porn was not showcasing double penetration and 78-person gang bangs. The extremeness grew over time.
Both men and women have fetishes and are turned on by a variety of sexual acts. Women can enjoy domination or feel aroused by violence, but the portrayal of these acts determines whether the female watcher is sexually stimulated or horrified. As Morrison says, "misogynist sex is different than aggressive sex." As a woman watching porn, you don't want to see a girl on screen and feel sorry for her and wonder if she is OK. Creating an authentic scenario that the woman watcher would actually want to be a part of is what makes porn feminist.
Feminist porn star Dylan Ryan loves her job in porn and feels like what she is a part of is significantly different than the male-oriented content. Before being exposed to feminist porn, Ryan could not relate to the women on screen, and felt,
their bodies looked different from mine, and they seemed to embody a sexuality that was foreign to me, one of extreme femininity: vulnerable but hypersexual, passive but sexually desiring, ready for any sex act but without the impetus to make it happen. It seemed as if sex was happening 'to' these women rather than with them or because of their choices or motivations. I didn't imagine that the actresses hated having sex, but rather that they were performing in a venue that discouraged their personal expression. I wanted to know what they looked like when they had sex in their real lives, and I wanted to see that onscreen."
For women to be sexually emboldened is not only good for the individual, but also for relationships. Intimacy is contingent on both partners feeling secure enough to express their needs and desires, and these feminist porn and erotic platforms aim to aid in the process of helping their viewers find their voice. Although male-oriented porn does not necessarily have sexual empowerment as a goal, feminist porn does. The more women feel comfortable using the different tools available to them, the more they could govern their own sexuality - focusing on what kind of lover they want to be, not the kind of lover they think they should be. As Morrison says, "the sex-positive movement is for women to be in control of defining what they like and don't like, not the culture at large."
If you interested in learning more check out Jane's Guide, which is like a rotten tomatoes review guide for lady oriented porn.