Feminist filmmakers tackle adult movie machismo

Feminist porn films aim to show realistic, consent-based and egalitarian sex instead of the superhuman bedroom exploits of macho studs and submissive women

Berlin (AFP) - Ethical, diverse and not a silicone breast in sight – feminist filmmakers are standing up to mass-market porn with adult movies free of male domination and gender stereotypes.

Their films aim to show realistic, consent-based and egalitarian sex instead of the superhuman bedroom exploits of macho studs and submissive women.

“Feminist porn is part of a fight against misogyny on the same territory and with the same weapons as the sex movie mainstream,” French filmmaker Ovidie, 38, told AFP at a recent film festival on the subject in Berlin.

The first attempts at feminist pornography date back to the 1980s in the United States, but the movement has received a new lease of life in response to a flood of free online porn in the internet age.

The easy availability of even hardcore porn online has raised concerns that a generation of young people is being exposed to material that could warp their sexual attitudes and expectations.

To counter this effect, Berlin’s centre-left Social Democrats who govern the city-state in coalition with the Greens, are now proposing to use feminist adult films in sex education programmes.

- ‘X-Girl vs. Supermacho’ -

Traditional adult films “always follow the same kind of choreography… men dominate women,” said Ovidie, who has spearheaded the “femporn” movement in France.

In her “Stories of Sex(es)” and “X-Girl vs. Supermacho”, women are no longer reduced to objects – on the contrary, they are in charge.

To be truly “feminist” the productions must meet several criteria, explained Laura Meritt, a German linguist and specialist on the movement.

In addition to portraying the desires “of all genders” – including of men, who in most porn are “merely reduced to their penis” – the cast must be “varied physically and culturally” and not of uniformly perfect physique, she said.

For productions to be truly "feminist", condoms must be used and ethical working conditions based on consent must be adhered to, says linguist Laura Meritt

Condom use is a must and so are ethical “working conditions, based on consent, where everyone has the choice to take part in certain practices or not,” Meritt said.

An actress who goes by the name of Misungui Bordelle said that the sex scenes are usually shot with “the least possible” interruption, rather than through the mainstream industry’s “methodical execution… with many takes”.

The American director Jennifer Lyon Bell, a 49-year-old Harvard graduate, in 2004 launched her company “Blue Artichoke Films”, specialising in movies that “portray sexuality in an emotionally realistic way”.

She sees her work as part of “sex-positive feminism” which, rather than seeking to abolish pornography, sees sexuality as the arena in which women must win their emancipation.

- ‘Drop in the ocean’ -

In 2006, Toronto hosted what organisers billed as the world’s first “Feminist Porn Awards” at its adult film festival, and similar events followed in Lausanne, Lisbon and Sydney.

In Europe, the biggest festival is organised annually in Berlin, attracting 10,000 visitors this autumn.

Despite this, feminist pornography is far from breaking into the mainstream.

“I have very little relationship with the mainstream industry. The festivals and modes of income are different, these are circles that rarely intersect,” said French director Lucie Blush, 30.

It is a view reflected in the global sex movie industry, where many are yet to see this type of film-making as competition, said Gregory Dorcel, manager at Marc Dorcel, one of the leading porn media groups.

Ovidie, who has spearheaded the "femporn" movement in France, writes stories where women are in charge

These “ethical” productions remain “a drop in the ocean of porn” online, said Camille Emmanuelle, a writer specialised in issues of sexuality.

Lacking broad distribution channels, the business model is based on subscription systems – a limiting factor since “people, especially young people, are now used to free porn”.

The Swedish Film Institute in 2009 pioneered a series of 12 short films directed by feminists and produced by Mia Engberg.

Inspired by Sweden’s example, the proposals by Berlin’s Social Democrats to use such films in sex education may make them eligible for state funding.

The party’s Ferike Thom said that “it would be great if this alternative porn, which portrays sex differently, could be as easily and freely accessible as the classic sex movies”.