Pornography is a diverse beast. The umbrella term is used to include anything from X-rated videos to vacantly grinning blondes in The Sun. Whether we choose the loaded term “porn” or the rather literary “erotica” to describe explicit material, it is safe to say men are the main consumers, while women rarely do more than titter over the occasional Levi jeans hunk.Still, the age-old stereotype of pornography perusal is changing. Human-kind has seen many ages of the porn enthusiast, from the gentleman appreciating erotic sketches in his study, to the haggard old man clutching paper bags full of magazines, to Page Three oglers and men who watch women peeing via a webcam.The female fan of erotica has not assumed as many forms, at least not overtly. Common cultural beliefs suggest that women neither have such a demanding libido nor do they seek to satisfy it through visual stimuli, instead requiring factors such as security and love for sensual fulfilment. despite this perpetuation of the tedious stereotype that women just want to be cuddled and men will spurt over anything leggy, statistics suggest that these beliefs are just plain wrong. According to a new study on sexual behaviour, conducted by Gert Martin Hald, a danish psychologist from Århus University, 80% of women aged 18- 30, from a representative sample of 688, had viewed porn, and half of that number did so at least once a month – and this figure only represents the ones who admit to it.Although these numbers fall well short of the corresponding ones for men, it is clear that women are coming out into the open about their appreciation of the erotic potential of images, film, and writing. ‘Pornography’ originally comes from the Greek words meaning “writings about whores”, and if this is taken literally then no wonder pornography is the domain of the male. Few women will swoon over the male-originated fantasy versions of themselves that we see in Playboy: always accommodating and willing to do anything to please their men, the pin-ups in these magazines are interviewed about their wildest sex acts, with anything else about them being ignored or edited out. They are portrayed, for the pleasure of the male reader, as walking, talking, shagging dolls.The men starring in pornographic videos also cater for a male fantasy: short, moustached and aggressive, they sell the dream that even the salivating Sid Sexists who consume this kind of porn can possess a busty nymphomaniac.No wonder, then, that so many women feel alienated by mainstream porn. They cannot relate to ludicrous caricatures, such as the cheerleader desperate to be banged by the whole football team. Worse still, the silicone-enhanced blonde porn commonplace is even more damaging; some women are led to consider it a universal ideal among men, another blow to their already cowering self-esteem. If mainstream porn culture is generally alienating to women, where would we find what the modern day woman is looking at in their boudoirs? The internet has a plethora of ‘alternative’ porn sites, such as BurningAngel.com and SuicideGirls.com where the tattooed, pierced, small-breasted, big-hipped and unusually striking woman is celebrated, as is the punkish, cheeky man.You can also look at BellaVendetta.com, which celebrates every fetish you never realised you had: menstrual art, zombie fetishes, feet – the list is endless. Bella, the brain behind the site, laughingly describes it as “a unique micro niche fetish site that is out to prove that art is everywhere, you just have to know where to look”.Interestingly, one third of the subscribers to BellaVendetta are female. Bella explains: “Some women do it purely because they appreciate the sensuality and beauty of the photos, some do it because they covet what they don’t have.” These sites show women in a number of different forms; all beautiful, but not according to any defining aesthetic principle. They have been praised as trailblazers who not only show a variety of ‘real women’ – SuicideGirls boasts “the most crush-worthy women on the planet” – but are often directed and controlled by women.Contrary to the attack of feminist figures like Andrea dworkin, who claim that all pornography is debasing for thefemale sex, women are setting their own limits. “I don’t believe any authority should tell a woman what is and isn’t degrading to her,” says Bella. Although she agrees that a lot of pornography can be interpreted as demeaning, this need not necessarily be the case: “On the flipside, there is lots of pornography that empowers women, because it’s women making their own choices and expressions about their sexuality.” Having women at the helm is the most obvious step. SuicideGirls was considered to function under the jurisdiction of “Missy Suicide”, a vampy businesswoman, with Sean “Spooky” Suhl as her mysterious sidekick. However, the site has been damaged by recent allegations that SG is not about empowering women at all. Like every other porn site, it is all about money, and like much of the industry, it is about misogyny.Forty out of more than eight hundred of the site’s models walked out as a protest against the treatment of a fellow model, who was removed from the site after complaining about her payment in her online journal, also maintained by SG.Much of the dispute now centres on the fact that although the girls’ access to the site and their online journals have been terminated, the nude pictures of them are still on the site. SG had, prior to this scandal, ensured that a detailed profile and web journal expressed the characters of the models, so that viewers could not view them merely as flesh.Now, however, the expelled models have no personality on the site while their scantily clad images remain. A plethora of accusations followed: that the site sometimes fails to pay the girls, and sends threatening letters to perceived ‘alt-porn’ rivals; that Suhl, as well as being a secret dictator behind the scenes, has also used terms such as “whore” and “ugly” to refer to the models.There are many such testimonials on Gloomdolls.com, a site that claims to set the record straight about the dark side of SG. Ex-model Jennifer Caravella was quoted in Wired News warning that “females who are 18 years old and want to be a SuicideGirl need to understand who they’re representing. It’s certainly not a group of women who are working together for this”. Cynics maintain that original claims about the feminist aspirations of SuicideGirls should have been denounced from the start, since any business that is about money is going to put that first. This begs the question of whether there is any way to remove the money problem from porn in order to make it about power rather than exploitation.BellaVendetta is the only erotic website I found where the models volunteer to do shoots, rather than get paid, and are happy to do so while the project finds its feet. I asked a writer at BV, “Onyx”, if this impacts the nature of the website. She replied, “I strongly feel that BV is truly unique. It is women and men doing what they love, what they feel passionately for and it is their decision.” She added that “the models aren’t jack-off material because they get off in the photo shoots themselves”. Onyx tells me that her experience with the site has given her a feeling of power, something she describes as “truly sexy”. Her involvement with the site, she says, “empowered [her] to take control and write even though [she] was criticized, to explore [her] sexuality and to learn new things.” Unfortunately, just as women are struggling towards a more open-minded, feminist-compatible kind of erotica, George W Bush and the extreme right in the US are declaring a war on porn. The Chinese government has already adopted a similar policy, and so far closed 1800 adult sites. Western governments are following suit. US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has deemed porn to be “a threat to families and children”. He does not make it clear how this is true, as this top-priority initiative is directed not towards paedophilic websites but rather erotica made by adults, starring adults, for the viewing of other adults. BV, with its controversial variety of kinks, will undoubtedly be targeted.A glance at the website reveals many sadomasochistic images of women in bondage, which could easily be labelled as obscene. However, Bella tells me that “maybe some people consider being submissive to be degrading, but many submissive woman are in loving sadomasochistic relationships and treated with the utmost respect”.This progressive view of alternative lifestyles undoubtedly won’t wash with Bush, but although protecting our right to porn is not the easiest protest to stand by, we need to realise that the move towards destruction of erotic culture is a significant and worrying erosion of our freedom of speech. ARCHIVE: 3rd week MT 2005
