Wow, I’ve been getting oodles of mail lately — yay! I went to a wedding this weekend here in town, where one of my oldest friends married her butch girlfriend of many years. After a week of dealing with that porn industry woman angrily criticizing my upcoming book based on its being geared toward female viewers, couples and films focused on female pleasure, being at my friends’ all-inclusive wedding was like food for my soul. As is much of the mail I’ve received on the topic. Last week when I worked at the Good Vibes store I recounted my magazine-lady experience to an African-American feminist I work with, and she told me she wasn’t surprised at all. "What do you mean? I’m kinda shocked," I told her. She explained to me that African-American culture has a term for people like the magazine editor lady, a term I can’t repeat here. She said that it’s a term referring to when a black person gets into a previously all-white enclave of some kind, and then is the only person of color there — and acts as a sentinel, guarding against the inclusion of other people of color, not allowing them in. She told me that this editor lady was being exactly like that, guarding against other women who didn’t tow the line or who might challenge what her position is built upon, in an industry built on male and female stereotypes. It’s an interesting point, as interesting as one reader who wrote me saying, "…it sounds like you’re taking on some of the myths of the industry that continue to undermine it. You citing the porn-industry mag woman who criticized your assumption about your audience really hit home, except I’m a man and enjoy porn and erotica of all types, and the industry just doesn’t get it. Jesus, with the millions they’re making you’d think they could take a risk or two occasionally, I mean look how popular Fashionistas is, that’s not standard fare!"
Indeed. You can tell this is really on my mind, but I’m excited by it at the same time. So I dug up a bunch of recent articles on women and porn, and the mainstreaming of porn in general:
Recent porn studies and women:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/26/1059084259893.html
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6932943%255E1702,00.html
Porn for women in the UK:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifeandstyle/articles/6075637?source=Metro
Porn mainstreaming:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/934252.asp
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0803/17porn.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/30/1059480405770.html
On other fronts, I think I’m finally over my evil allergic reaction to Burning Man (playa dust) and can get back on the porn reviewing train. Ahhh — yesterday I watched the newest video from indy porn makers Blowfish Video, Clearly Sex, and had the masturbation session of my life. Or at least of the weekend. This video is a great example of San Francisco porn (unlike the drek my company makes). Hot, sexy women with incredible natural bodies (they look like hotties that might work at the local hip café) experiment ten ways until Sunday with every hard acrylic toy that Blowfish carries, yum! You see, to get my interest with girl-girl and female masturbation fare, the women must have bodies similar to mine and have to be really getting off and having fun. And in this video they are all that. One steamy masturbation scene opens the video, then there is a brief interruption as we see how the toys are made (it’s cool if you like tech stuff and lathes, like me), then four women try out a bunch of toys. Let’s just say they were very inventive with positions. The final scene was with a het couple where they have sex while he enjoys a butt plug, but sadly there’s no come shot, and you know how I objectify men… but they are cute and loving and very tender and sweet, which sure is a nice change from most of the porn out there. So that’s my pick ‘o the week. Now, back to the next two books, a couple proposals, pitching an article, and firing up my poor neglected motorcycle.
