Since the explosion of growth caused by its arrival on the Internet, pornography has also become a super-giga-business: in 2020, the revenues of the industry were estimated at 60 billion worldwide. These figures whisper to us that porn is now a common culture, whether we like it or not.
It is often said that pornography is made by and for men. But women also consume it, and make it. A so-called feminist pornography attempts to respond to this demand.
For the past three years, the Filministes festival, with a completely assumed feminism, has devoted an entire section of its programming, the Filminounes, to feminist pornography. This series of short films, which are presented at the L’Amour cinema, take “explosive, more experimental, more sensory and more evocative forms”, explains one of the directors of the festival, Maha Farah Elmir. Very recently, a Cinéma Erotika show, co-founded by Ariana Molly with the collaboration of Veronika Yemelyanova, also took the stage, still at the L’Amour cinema.
“Pornography raises many emotions and criticisms that irremediably divide feminists: stereotyped visions, sexual violence, phallocentrism, exploitation, etc. “, explain the directors of the Filministes festival. “With this naughty session, we want to make room for aesthetic approaches that move points of view outside the traditional scenario, while leaving room for a more feminist production. mainstream. »
The fact is that the consumption of pornography by women seems to have been growing in recent years, as has the production of so-called feminist pornography. In his master’s thesis, titled Feminist pornography, an exploratory study among users, filed in 2022 at the Department of Sexology at UQAM, Alexandra Fournier mentions that in 2021, 32% of Pornhub listeners were women. This would be a 5% increase over the previous year, according to data from the pornography giant.
A 2020 study gives higher ratios. “Based on a broad definition of pornography (including video, print and image), responses to an online questionnaire show that 60.2% of adult women have consumed pornography in the last months,” she wrote.
What then, in this context, is feminist pornography? Initially, pornography referred to ” […] material judged to be sexual according to the context, the primary intention of which is to sexually arouse the user […] “. In general, feminist pornography is made “by and for women”, where there is a greater diversity of bodies and genders, outside the traditional frameworks of adult films, which are often centered on sex and sex. male pleasure. It also often guarantees that filming is carried out in an ethical manner.
“I think that there are more and more women who consume pornography and who invest themselves in making porn, says sexologist Myriam Daguzan Bernier. On the Onlyfans site, there are many women who have tried to take over these platforms to do something else. »
The right to pleasure
In fact, it was from the turn of the 1970s that a current known as feminist pornography emerged, at the same time as pornography hard core, through movies like Deep Throat, gains a more general audience. In 1980, Candida Royalle (former star of the golden age of porn) founded Femme Productions. And in 1981, Annie Sprinkle co-directed the film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle.
American porn actress Nina Hartley said to women, “Sex is not something men do to you. It’s not something men get from you. Sex is something you dive into with enthusiasm and enjoy every moment of it, just as much as they do. »
In mainstream pornography, female pleasure, less measurable and less visible, often comes second, along with the fantasies that seek to satisfy it. As a sexologist, Myriam Daguzan Bernier regularly receives requests from her clientele for so-called ethical pornography. “It always depends on how the pornography is made,” she says. “There are a lot of young people who will use this as a kind of school,” she said. In many cases, we are talking about pornography that guarantees that the employees who participate in it are well paid, and that the consent of all parties is respected.
Simulations
In Quebec, traditional television and cinema shot under the umbrella of the UDA only allow scenes of simulated sexuality, where real sexual organs are not shown, explains intimacy coordinator Mimi Côté. “If there is vaginal, anal or oral penetration, or if there is sexual contact between two performers, it is definitely because there is a prosthesis,” she adds. This obviously excludes pornography, the primary purpose of which is to provide real sex scenes.
However, the opportunities for intervening on these platforms, for the coordinators (they are currently only women) of intimacy, are not lacking.
The fields covered by intimacy coordinators are very broad. This ranges from respecting the notion of consent to the protocols surrounding the training of the artist in intimate scenes, the moment when he or she must undress, the concept of a closed set, to the handling of complaints concerning cases of abuse or harassment.
Mimi Côté is called upon in particular to allow artists to express themselves on the scenes they have to shoot. “We make sure they are able to say what they think. There can be power dynamics on set. »
Sometimes the simulated sex scenes are described “five minutes before, in the hallway,” she says. However, protocols framing artistic practice exist, she underlines, “they are just unknown”.
Mimi Côté does not exclude the possibility of working one day in the pornography industry as an intimacy coordinator. “There may be good practices, and some very well-governed platforms, but there are others that could need more supervision. »
Different feminist currents
In her memoir, Alexandra Fournier recalls that different feminist currents oppose each other on the subject of pornography, as well as on the subject of prostitution.
Within the feminist movement itself, “the anti-pornography movement collides even more directly with a pro-pornography vision among certain pro-sex feminists, who defend its recognition as a lever of empowerment and pleasure for women”, writes- her in this one.
His investigation, based on the testimony of 12 women who use pornography, tends to give reason to the seconds.
“In other words, women use pornography for a given reason (for example, to get aroused) and derive a more or less consequent experience (to experience sexual arousal or not),” she writes.
“Feminist pornography aims to deconstruct stereotypes,” says Julie Lavigne, professor of sexology at UQAM, who directed this thesis.
The average age at which a child has first contact with pornography has dropped from 11 to 9 years old, according to sexologist Myriam Daguzan Bernier. During this time, that of the first sexual intercourse remains relatively stable, adds Mme Vine.
“I think there would be interest in educating on pornography,” says Ms.me Vine.