Please Don't Take My Porn Away

Please don't take my porn away just because I'm a feminist. Please don't take my porn away just because I am smart, beautiful and educated. A woman with a strong voice and an even stronger presence. I've been reading various feminist blogs on this topic and apparently there's a huge amount of dissent. A view that all porn is damaging to women. That's not 100% true anymore. Women like Jenna Jamison are not trampled upon. They are not drug addicts. They are not beaten or abused. They are in perfect control of their commodity, their sexuality, and nobody feels sorry for them.

I know Marilyn Chambers was trampled upon. I know she said she was raped. And this is a terrible thing. I am not downplaying the women who were raped, coerced or otherwise abused. Women with track marks and bad skin. But today is a new day. More and more, women are taking charge of their pornographic lives. Women like Candida Royalle. I'm a big fan of her films. There is an appreciable difference between porn created with the male gaze. And porn created from the female gaze.

There is more foreplay. LOTS more foreplay. There is dialogue. Tenderness. Mise en scene. It doesn't get too anatomical. Cum flies and pussies are penetrated. It's still hot. It's still about sex and getting off. But the women aren't objects, they are subjects. It is their story. Their illicit romances, their fantasies. There is nothing degrading about this. I've grown into this POV. I used to be far more hard core. I used to read Andrea Dworkin. That was 1980. In 1998, my friends bought me a slinky nightgown, a porno produced by Ms. Royalle, called Eyes of Desire (see photo above), and a vibrator. So I could take myself out on a date. Which I did, and often. Today, I like to think of myself as a sex positive feminist. I believe I can have my cake and eat it, too. BTW: here's a link to a post I wrote for the Bitch Blog. I responded to an open prompt: What influences you in feminism now?