Feminist Porn Book, The Paperback – 14 Mar 2013

Full disclosure - I work in the adult industry as a sex educator and retail store owner. And, I've protested against pornography and I've sold pornography. I believe some porn is horrid, some porn production is coercive and exploitative, and some is hot and produced in a manner deeply rooted in radical consent.

I'm a feminist with a bachelor's in Women's Studies. I'm deeply familiar with feminist arguments for and against pornography. I can quote Andrea Dworken in my sleep.

Here's what I love about this book. It includes a deep variety of perspectives on feminism(s) and pornography. It's intersectional. It discusses race, class, gender (in it's diversity), and the impact of capitalism on the attempt to produce a feminist product. And it does so by doing something utterly feminist, it relies on the voices of those who do the work as well as the voices and analyses of academics. It also doesn't hesitate to voice ambivalence.

Feminism, sexuality, and pornography are complicated topics. Sometimes the answers aren't easy or concise. What's needed is dialogue and thoughtful consideration. This book sets the stage for those conversations.

If you are interested in gender or sexuality, this book is absolutely a must read.

Pro-porn feminists like Taormino try to brand their pornography as “organic, fair-trade porn.” When I read The Feminist Porn Book, I had hoped to find a clear articulation of a feminist porn perspective, informed by the systematic collection of data in some scholarly form. Unfortunately that is not want I found. I read one chapter after another written by someone tied to the porn industry writing about how the kind of porn they create or support is a great thing. A lot of it was just academic word salad -- toss up a bunch of fancy words and let them fall where they may, making no real sense. While I certainly value first-person narratives, when it comes from the perspective of people whose livelihood is based on making films that scholars who study pornography systematically have found to be just as violent toward women as mainstream pornography, it is difficult to take the arguments in this book seriously.

Pro-porn feminists like Taormino try to brand their pornography as “organic, fair-trade porn.” When I read her book, The Feminist Porn Book, I had hoped to find a clear articulation of a feminist porn perspective, informed by the systematic collection of data in some scholarly form. Unfortunately that is not want I found. I read one chapter after another written by someone tied to the porn industry writing about how the kind of porn they create or support is a great thing. While I certainly value first-person narratives, when it comes from the perspective of people whose livelihood is based on making films that scholars who study pornography systematically have found to be just as violent toward women as mainstream pornography, it is difficult to take the arguments in this book seriously. The book contains a group of essays is printed that support the oft-cited narrative propagated by the pornography industry that acting in pornography is a way to empower women. As one of my colleagues argues, it is difficult to figure out how having several men ejaculate on a woman’s face is empowering. The editors of the book include professors and pornographers who seek to show how the goals of feminism and the actions in pornography are consistent. They define feminist porn as a genre that “uses sexually explicit imagery to contest and complicated dominant representations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, age, body type, and other identity markers.” (page 9). While reading through the book, I was struck by the disconnect between authors who claim that people who identify as anti-porn feminists have become hostile to scholarly work, juxtaposed against the lack of empirical research cited to support their points of view. Authors like Clarissa Smith and Fiona Attwood blame anti-porn feminists for being hostile to research, while citing nothing empirical to support their claims. In fact, most of what they cite are points of view they disagree with in various outlets. I hope that somewhere I can find a compelling explanation of what feminist porn might have to offer, so that I can better understand where people who advocate that perspective are coming from. Sadly, this book does not fit the bill.

What a breath of fresh air this book is! Personally I've never really been into mainstream porn, for a variety of reasons, it's just not my thing. Then I was lucky enough to stumble upon the concept of feminist porn while researching something else. The idea intrigued me so much that I sought out more information, leading me to one of those wonderful `Ah hah, this is more like it' moments. So I will admit, I was predisposed to like The Feminist Porn Book before I even read it. And it certainly lived up to my expectations, and then some!

On my own journey of discovery of what this genre of porn is all about, and how to locate quality end products, I found the biggest challenge has been that information is scattered and can be hard to access, until you know where to look. But, The Feminist Porn Book, changes that. As far as I'm aware it's the first book of it's kind to bring all the key information together in the one spot, providing an excellent starting point for exploring the concept, creation, and development of this different, expanded definition of what porn is, and can be (and also where to find the good stuff!)

This is in no way a dry, purely education tome though. The list of contributors is extremely impressive, and varied, making each chapter a new reading adventure, taking you on a journey of understanding as to what differentiates feminist porn from other forms of porn, and the philosophy, experience and aims of this genre, from the inside out, and upside down.

I was struck by the depth and breadth of the candid insights provided by the all of the contributors, which include academics, producers and actors, each of whom provide their own intelligent, well informed and considered perspectives and debate, on their experiences of studying, producing, performing in and defining feminist porn.

Having a strong academic leaning myself, I found the chapters on the historical analysis of porn, and the development of feminist porn from an academic perspective fascinating. And on a more personal level I was very taken with being given the unique opportunity to read about the producers and actors experiences and feelings about participating in the production of feminist porn, and how they are redefining the widely held negative beliefs about women in porn to ones of empowerment, freedom of sexual expression, and pleasure.

The Feminist Porn Book provides not only an education and deeper understanding of what feminist porn is all about, but is also underpinned by a broader philosophical approach to sexuality; that of it being something to celebrate, embracing how we see and enjoy our own and other peoples bodies, and the freedom and joy that can be found in peoples own, unique forms of sexual expression, desire and arousal. The Feminist Porn Book gives the reader an alternative, refreshing, uplifting and contemporary approach to porn, one, which I believe, has been long overdue.

If The Feminist Porn Book doesn't end up on the recommended reading lists at universities teaching Sociology, Psychology and media studies, and on the bookshelves of anyone who has any degree of interest in sexual expression and exploration, I'll be very surprised!

And the honesty begins! This was not what I was expecting. I saw the title, thought it would be appropriate for both of my blogs so I went ahead and requested it. I had high hopes for it. Actually, there were no hopes, I expected greatness. After all, it's one of Epiphora's favorites. But I was disappointed. I could hardly get through it. It was literally like a roller coaster. Except, you know, I wasn't moving. What I mean is that there were some parts I loved like the essays by porn stars, producers, directors and writers but I wasn't feeling academic literature. Or literature that can pass as scholarly work. But don't stop reading this review here, because it does actually get better.

While I can complain about how similar it is to a textbook I cannot complain about the quality of the writing or the content. The content was wonderful. It covered everyone; I was especially excited that it covered trans-women, queer women and women of color and had an essay from one of my sex-positive idols, Tristan Taormino.

The blurb I received with the book: "If this doesn't sway anti-porn feminists to the pro-porn feminist side, I'll eat my bra." --Annie Sprinkle

That quote is actually one of the reasons I requested this book. I grew up thinking porn was no good for women's image and it was something we couldn't possibly enjoy so that was the mindset I was in when I started the book. And, quite frankly, what I'd seen for free on the internet reinforced this mindset. This book actually did sway me. Hearing the voices of porn entrepreneurs, women, made me realize that it's okay to get turned on by erotic videos and a lot of women who act in porn actually do enjoy it (something I adamantly denied prior to reading this book).

This inspired me to do my own research. Tristan Taormino is one of the editors of the FPB and she is also created porn and I looked up her work. It really was fantastic; attention was paid to the women in the video and it was arousing while being educational. It totally blew what I knew about porn out of the ball park.

My book is overwhelmed with post-it flags that formed a large dent in my wallet but was well worth it. It was tagging ideas every few paragraphs and it's hard to pick which ones to report on. Nina Hartley was wonderfully non-apologetic in her essay, details her introduction to the porn world and her rise in it. Her story was one of the stories that had the most impact on me rethinking how I viewed porn.

I'm giving The Feminist Porn Book 4 stars because it was difficult to get through but the subject material was superb. Feminist Press gave me a copy of The Feminist Porn Book in exchange for an honest review.

I love this book, and I would recommend it to anyone struggling to define their feelings on pornography. Even if you have strong feelings either way, there's a lot to be learned from this book. The production of feminist porn, and the essays in this book span queer theory, gender theory, representation politics and so much more. The book is a great introduction to other literature on sex work and pornography, and accessible if you've never read anything about sex work before. It also is a great historical reminder (or introduction) to the divide between feminists and pornography, as well as the ways in which this divide remains. A great read!