Porn (R)Evolution

Posted at 12:41 PM Jul 03, 2008

Every Thursday, Naked City expands your pornographic worldview with tales from the far reaches of the earth. Four international pornographers share this space to tell all about the experiences of being porny and making porn outside of the United States.

Bren Ryder is the creator of Good Dyke Porn, an independent amateur hard core pornographic video website which proudly features authentic queer women having amazingly hot sex.

I had a conversation with a friend recently who is a no-nonsense, out-spoken, hard-core feminist about porn. We were talking about what I do and she listened politely as I spoke about it and then proceeded to let me know why porn was incredibly wrong and harmful to women. I admit it, I was shocked. I really didn't know that feminists still felt that way. She was utterly against all porn for the following reasons: the violence against women, the profiting off of women's sex (and violence against her) and using powerless and vulnerable women. I'm sure that does happen in the world. I don't doubt that, unfortunately. But, then I had to ask, "What does any of that have to do with what I do?" She replied, You make porn.

Porn. It's a word that holds a lot of meaning for people. Sometimes it can make you giggle and sometimes it can make you cringe. I think people like to say, "well, it depends on how you define porn". I have a fairly simple definition: sexually explicit. There are other terms that are in use, such as erotica, but that implies that it's basically soft-core porn. In my opinion, porn is when you can see all the bits and it's making you feel very funny down-there.

But, besides the general definition that gives you an idea about what you're going to see, the meaning of porn needs to evolve. While talking to Erika Lust, one of the other Porn at Large contributors to this site, she said her aim is to take an eraser to the chalkboard of porn and bit by bit erase all the negative connotations and start fresh with a blank board where we fill in positive sexual expressions that still serve to sexually arouse but don't perpetuate the negative aspects of porn (I'm paraphrasing what she said to me in a loud bar after the Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto).

I, too, feel that my work is to break down those negative connotations, especially around "lesbian porn". Which is why I have called my work, "Good Dyke Porn". The porn that exists that depicts "lesbians" is mostly geared towards a narrow view of a male fantasy. The genre of porn for women or porn by women is on the increase and is at the heart of the porn revolution that will eventually cause the evolution of porn itself. When women make porn a whole new aesthetic is created. Sexual gratification and arousal is a part of the visual expression, but it goes deeper than that. And, really, we don't even have to try. It simply comes naturally to women to create sexually explicit material that tingles the genitals and sets in motion the evolution of a word. Porn will one day mean something different. It will result from a Porn Revolution. Watch the women with cameras in their hands. Do what they're doing. They will lead the way.

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