In response to a Stop Porn Culture conference held in Boston by the Stop Porn Coalition, a group that claims to be feminist but is actually rooted in fundamentalist Christian organizations (though this fact is hidden on their website and other materials), Violet Blue created Our Porn, Ourselves. The Our Porn, Ourselves mission statement says:
We women are tired of people trying to control our sexuality by telling us what we should or shouldn’t like sexually (porn) based on what someone else thinks is best for us. It’s like keeping women in a perpetual state of being children about sex. And women who say they are feminists make it worse by discounting all the women who find porn to be an empowering sex toy. Or if not, to at least give us the benefit of the doubt that we can make that decision for ourselves, thank you very much.
It's about time there was a counter argument to the anti-porn feminists. I'm not about to tell someone they're not feminist for being against porn, especially if they're exposure to porn is all the violent shit out there. But I'm also not about to judge anyone for what turns them on or tell other women that they shouldn't explore their sexuality to see what exactly does turn them on. There's a great quote by Sarah Estrella, from the Sex & Relationship Examiner, that addresses the compatibility of the feminist label and porn:
...To that I’d add that feminism and pornography are no longer incompatible, if they ever were, and both are becoming more progressive than you might imagine (witness such phenomena as the recent 5th annual Feminist Pornography Awards). As one set of feminists are returning to the old right wing rallying cries of Andrea Dworkin, another set is increasingly participating in the means and ways of production of adult entertainment, and becoming a significant portion of the audience for pornographic material as consumers. As a result, the old charges that pornography is about a male-centric and sexist objectification of women are falling apart. To be sure, there is still plenty to talk about, plenty to protest, and plenty to change for the better in the adult enterainment industry – particularly around violence against and exploitation of women, to the extent that each still exist – but the argument that feminism is by definition anti-porn just doesn’t hold up anymore.
That's what PoolBoy Magazine is all about, acknowledging and accepting that women are sexual and enjoy being so. Instead of being sexualized by the media and society, PoolBoy asserts that women should be sexual and address what gets them hot. How are women to enjoy sex if they're not allowed to explore what it is exactly that turns them on? Or just be judged by what gets them going? Perhaps the underlying message of anti-porn groups are that women are not supposed to enjoy sex, or only be the means that they deem acceptable. Sad face.
Anyway, porn is cool and people, men or women, telling other women that they shouldn't watch it are just as bad as men making laws about what women can or cannot do with their bodies. Why don't you just let decide for themselves? Or, if you don't like the porn that's out there, make your own!
Our Porn, Ourselves is having a video contest with some rad prizes. All you have to do is, "Make a short video that tells us you are pro-porn, and upload the video to your favorite video sharing website. This is where you get to tell us “I’m pro-porn and I vote!” When you’re done, Tweet the location (URL) of the video with the hashtag #proporn. The deadline is June 12, the start of the Stop Porn Culture feminist anti-porn conference." The prizes are listed on Our Porn, Ourselves so check them out and get to making your video!
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