Are you tired of being asked about feminism in porn? That is my meta way of asking you about feminism in porn, I guess.
I am
so tired of being asked about feminism in porn! I can't believe that I am taking the giant career risk of saying to Tracy Clark-Flory, no less, at Jezebel, that I am tired of this. But it's the truth! And I am a risk-taker.
Oh, yes, surely that's a huge career risk [laughing].
No, it really is. So there's two things. One, I increasingly believe there can be no real feminism under capitalism. Like, we can do all the information-sharing and protecting each other and covering each other's backs and solidarity over women's issues—like the issues that women regularly encounter, things like that. But as long as capitalism exists in the form that it currently does, these structural problems that cause women trouble are not going to go away.
I would point you to the Serbian rapper,
Mimi Mercedez, she's my favorite authority on that subject—coming from a society that didn't have capitalism the way that we do in America, I think gives her a very interesting perspective. But it's basically, like, women get paid less than men, generally speaking on average, and when you dig behind that, it boils down to, well, we've got this system that treats people as dollar-generating machines instead of humans. And then, okay, we've got some weird patriarchal ideas about men being more productive or something—but, like, is it really a win for women, if we prove that we can be just as productive to the detriment of health and our social bonds as a man can? That just all totally strikes me as the wrong direction.
Feminism has always been "we need feminism to correct for patriarchy," and increasingly I feel like, actually, we just need to treat each other as individual humans. Feminism can sometimes be excluding to trans people, to male allies, to sex workers, to women of color. Having looked into all that history and being aware of it, and being also aware of the times that I've been thinking too much about women and neglected to think about another group, it doesn't really work so hot for me anymore.
I've always tried to be very clear about my work not being feminist. The only thing that can be remotely considered feminist is, like, a woman going to work, being paid a decent wage, and having a life under capitalism. But anything other than that is a bit of a stretch, and also a disservice to the actual feminist pornographers. There is definitely a lot of focus in my work on the state of sex work, and the history of it, and there's aiming towards human connection and an accurate portrayal of human sexuality, but its not feminist.
So for multiple reasons, the feminism-in-porn thing, I'm over it. I'm over it, and I would like to point you to a list of women who are not over it at all, and are actively thinking about it and are doing actively feminist things. I'd add
Ovidie,
Candida Royalle, if you wanna go back in time a little bit—and
Madison Young is another one.
Erika Lust's company is a great hub to find feminist stuff, or stuff that fits with feminist values.
So you're over it, but you value what those people are doing or have done.
I am so fucking grateful that all the second wave feminists fought those battles, so I could be like, "Yeah I
could try to be a doctor or lawyer, but I'm gonna do this thing that's interesting to me." Because of the work of women like Ovidie, I'm able to just make a porno that's about being porno, or about sex work. And that wouldn't be possible without the work of so many feminists. Not to mention
Emma Goldman is just a general badass.