| Title: | ARCHIVE-- Topics of Interest to Women, Volume 2 --ARCHIVE |
| Notice: | V2 is closed. TURRIS::WOMANNOTES-V5 is open. |
| Moderator: | REGENT::BROOMHEAD |
| Created: | Thu Jan 30 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 30 1995 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1105 |
| Total number of notes: | 36379 |
These are excerpts from an article in Mother_Jones magazine
Feb/March 90. It's called "Nasty Girls" by Laura Fraser.
In the discussion she mentions a book from the 1940's by Anais Nin
called "Delta of Venus". Has anybody read this that's willing to
give a book report?
"A 1986 survey of one thousand video stores that carry adult
material, conducted by Adult_Video_News, a monthly magaizine
published in Philadelphia, revealed that women and couples rent 63
percent of all porn tapes. The women who are making female-oriented
porn are hoping to cash in on those numbers, and are banking on the
idea that women are tired of perfect, pleasing Playboy bunnies and
want to see porn that better resembles thier own fantasies - and
physiques."
"...Some want their work to be the opposite of dehumanized male
porn: tender, safe, and emotional. Some think women should stop
hanging on to romance and let themselves loose in the dark,
uncharted territory of hard-core sex."
The women who make the films;
Candida Royalle: FEMME Productions. "...she creates her videos as a
way for making sense of her conflicting experiences as a femminist
activist and a porn star...Sex is politics for women...What angers
me about traditional porn is it's always these little nymphets there
to please men's fantasies, men's needs...The roles my women play
both sexually and with their lives are very strong, autonomous
women."
Susie Bright a.k.a Suzie Sexpert: On_Our_Backs and Fatale Films.
"There's nothing wrong with softness, it's just that with an
unrelenting diet if it, you start to feel contemptuous and wish
those women would show a little passion...In the Fatale videos, sex
is the core, and any other softer elements are added as part of the
eroticism, not a reassurance that it's okay to be watching this
video, nothing bad will happen to you...What's women's number one
complaint? That they can't achive orgasm, that's not a male
complaint...Bright's films sexualize, exaggerate, and lust after
aggressiveness - in women, rather than in men...That's what's sexy,
that's the key to women getting aroused."
Annie Sprinkle (she specializes in the Golden shower): "I want to be
the Shirley McLain of porno"...Porn is the frontier of feminism...my
images are more about porn than porn; it's not meant to arouse,
it's a concept...'she wrote an article on New Age Sex called
See_God_and_Come'...women producing porn will push things in a
positive direction."
The author (Laura Fraser) "Whether the new pornography these women
create are creating can be considered 'feminist' is a matter of
personal definition...it does seem as though the vision they present
for women is a liberating one...but they have yet to hit the
mark...Royalle's romantic narratives are too trite, Bright's
hard-core magazine is too callous, and Sprinkle's New agr Sex is a
laugh..but to each her own."
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 993.1 | i doubt it | DECWET::JWHITE | keep on rockin', girl | Tue Feb 20 1990 16:03 | 12 |
re: nin's 'delta of venus'
'delta of venus' was commissioned by a male reader. the forward
to my copy says something about nin's 'poetry' or 'sensitivity'
coming through anyway. comparing it to common garden-variety
smut, i would say that 'delta of venus' is far and away more
poetic and sensitive. some of the stories are quite beautiful
and they are all full of atmosphere. whether or not this
constitutes 'feminist porn', i couldn't say.
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| 993.2 | cooked lust, maybe? | BOOKIE::RANDALL | Bonnie Randall Schutzman | Tue Feb 20 1990 16:25 | 9 |
I saw a feminist-porn video a while back -- and boy, was that
HOT. I don't think it was by any of the women mentioned in
.0, however.
It was quite a bit different than the average x-rated stuff
I've seen in the past -- softer photography, an emotional context,
though still focussed on lust.
--bonnie
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| 993.3 | Seen this one? | EGYPT::SMITH | Passionate commitment to reasoned faith | Tue Feb 20 1990 16:37 | 5 |
Anyone seen "The Young Lady Chatterly?" It's been on Showtime,
frontal nudity, explicit sex, and all. Nice color, too. I liked
it.
Nancy
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| 993.4 | YUPPY::DAVIESA | Grail seeker | Wed Feb 21 1990 07:54 | 20 | |
I have a collector's copy of "Delta" - it's illustrated in tone
with the stories.
As mentioned, it was commisioned by a man, and I felt that this
came through sometimes in an occasional jolt in the tone as if
Nin was thinking "Oops - forgot this is meant to turn on men and
not be just my fantasies. I'd better slip in a bit of typical
stuff.....". However, I too found it sensual rather than sexual,
and sensitive to female-to-female eroticism.
And I liked the "Young Lady Chatterly" film too.
Has anyone seen "Bilitis"?
Photographed by David Hamilton, dubbed from French to English,
and with some contraversial aspects.....
'gail
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| 993.5 | Well, how do we actually get them? | MCIS2::WALTON | John Boy This! | Wed Feb 21 1990 09:48 | 16 |
Okay, I guess I have to ask....
How does one find and rent/buy these "feminist pron" films. I have
seen a few of the standard ones, and won't ever rent one again. But I
am intrigued by the thought of a softer kind of film, and I would like
to preview one. Unfortunately the video store just has these three
ring binders with all the tapes listed, and they aren't in any order
that I know of. I don't want to stand there, flipping through the
leaflets of "Big Butt Bertha" and "Reform School Nympho" titles just to
find the one that I want. (By the time I am done I am so disgusted I
need a shower, and I am *NOT* in the mood to watch some erotica!!!)
So, any suggestions?
Sue
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| 993.6 | Info on buying (forget renting!) | TLE::D_CARROLL | We too are one | Wed Feb 21 1990 12:29 | 39 |
> How does one find and rent/buy these "feminist pron" films. I have > seen a few of the standard ones, and won't ever rent one again. I don't expect you'll have much luck renting them, at least not at your average family video rental place that also carries a binder-ful of porno. Ferget it, is my experience. The only place I have seen that kind of video for rent is at video shops in Time's Square that specilize in porn. As for buying them, I'm not sure in general, but I have the address for Fatale films, if you are interested, drop me a line. Also, I strongly recommend The Sexuality Library (aka Good Vibrations) in San Francisco. I've mentioned them in this file before, but I can't recommend them highly enough, so I will give their address *again*: 1210 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 $2 will get you the TSL catalog, which mostly has books, but also carries about 20 or 30 videos, which are selected for appealing to women. The store is run by women and focuses on sex-positive books, toys and films. In the catalog, there is a blurb describing the movie, and a guide which lists which categories each film falls into, including woman-on-woman action, romantic, non-vanilla sex, good photography, good script, etc. I haven't bought or viewed any of the films, but the short reviews in the catalog appear to be honest. (They aren't trying to sell them to you...Joani Blanc, the woman who runs GV and TSL takes a very soft-sell approach, and would rather not sell you anything than sell you something you would be unhappy with.) (Gee, can you tell I am enthused about this place?) Their title list (which I happen to have here, for unrelated reasons) includes "Autobiography of a Flea", "The Story of O", "Hungry Hearts" (by the previously mentioned Fatale Videos), "Cafe Flesh", "Bi-coastal" and "Aerobisex Girls." Unfortunately, I am not about to pay $30-$60 for a film I will probably watch once or twice, and might not even like, so I am in a similar position as you. I want to preview them too... (If you *do* end up buying one of these and want to lend it out... :-) ) D! | |||||
| 993.7 | the one I saw came from a bookstore, not a video store | BOOKIE::RANDALL | Bonnie Randall Schutzman | Wed Feb 21 1990 12:34 | 6 |
You can also sometimes find them in a sex-toys store that's
oriented towards women. The one I saw is owned by a friend of
mine; I think she got it at a (scifi?) bookstore in the
Northampton area.
--bonnie
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