Feminist Porn Awards- Lady love all round

“I absolutely love fucking you!” exclaims Madison Young on stage to her co-actress, Ryan Dylan, as she clutches the first butt plug awarded this evening in Berkeley Church. The porn director and actress has just won the award for hottest kink movie, with her film “Perversions of Lesbian Lust, Vol. 1”, at Good for Her’s 4th annual Feminist Porn Awards.

Tonight feminist porn creators, actors and enthusiasts have gathered in everything from gowns to jeans to celebrate the achievements of the feminist porn community. On stage Young resembles a modern Aphrodite with her golden, open chest gown, matching pasties and tumbling strawberry blonde curls.

“We’re making waves in feminism one orgasm at a time,’ she says, wrapping up her acceptance speech.

Onlookers occupy the U-shaped second story of the church-turned-theatre, supported by white columns. On the ground level the audience occupies two rows of chairs in front of a giant screen on stage, which projects short erotic scenes from winning film makers as they accept their anal plug shaped awards.

In a brief clip from the Crash Pad Series 2 – Unlocked, winner of the steamiest trans scene, we see a woman in a black bra and panties whimpering as the tattooed woman on top of her bites her neck, pushes her down into the bed sheets and smacks her ass. The once rambunctious church is silent, save the occasional randy yell of approval. When the scene ends the audience erupts into cheering. The temperature has definitely raised a few notches.

Ryerson student and documentary film maker Joanne Loton graces the stage in a purple, layered number to announce the winner of the golden beaver award for Canadian content and most sensual softcore. Mimi Balfour nabs both for her flick “Man of my Dreams,” which involves the stereotypical studs, a cop and a blue collar repairman who both find a woman ready and willing to make love in their apartments. We catch a short glimpse of some sultry lighting and defined abdominal muscles which seem more at home in your typical City TV porno night.

The diverse male posse, Boylesque, delivers the awards on stage tonight, donning old school ties, suspenders, collared shirts and hats. “The more clips we present the more naked they get,” announces Deb Pearce, our host of the evening, with a blonde mullet and a flashy belt buckle.
Next, Coco La Crème takes the stage for her burlesque performance in a whirlwind of glowing, voluptuous mocha skin, turquoise feathers and glittering sequins. She turns her exposed cheeks to the audience, shaking them as she turns her head to give us a ruby lipped grin. Playing with her feathered skirt, she slips it off to expose a curvy stomach and thighs before yanking at her bra straps playfully with her thumbs. The bra goes flying, revealing golden nipple tassles adorning her generous breasts which rotate in wide arches as she winks with an aqua painted eye lid.

Throughout the evening Pearce reprimands the talkative bar crowd at the rear of the theatre. She wanders through the throng grasping her microphone, an image which is tattooed on her wrist, and interrupts chatting couples. “I’m the asshole trying to shush you tonight,” she says, beer in hand. With a white rose amidst a bob of curls framing her heart-shaped face, Courtney Trouble, owner of nofauxxx.com, gets a little teary eyed when accepting the award for most deliciously diverse cast. A preview of her winning film, “Roulette”, features two boys with Mohawks, jeans down around their bare, pale asses, stroking each other’s cocks on a rooftop.

Next the male and female heart throbs of the year are announced. Tyler Knight, an actor whose chocolate brown member is stroked two-handedly on screen is not present, but the spiky haired brunette, Dylan Ryan, gasps wide eyed with her hands clasped over her lips at the announcement. She accepts the awards after we glimpse a clip of her climaxing. “I’m completely honored,” she says and pauses, biting her lip. “This is an incredible business to be in, I’m very lucky and I’m very happy that you like the work that I do.” Alison Lee, the head organizer of the awards files on stage alongside the entire Good for Her crew to recognize their efforts. “Isn’t it fun showing porn in a church?” says Carlyle Jansen, in a corset and black shirt, while handing bouquets to the sex shop employees.
By now the butt plug delivery boys have stripped down to their briefs and Young gets on her hands and knees to hunt among the boy’s prominent packages for her second award of the night, indie porn pioneer of the year. She wanks off a man in yellow who’s bent forward, holding the prize above his ass, out of her sight. The audience is cracking up and someone yells, “I don’t think you’re going to find it in there.” “This is who I am. This is part of my art, of breathing,” says Young, after finally securing her award. We watch a clip of her being led with a chain around her neck by her then blonde-haired master, Ryan, who wears black platform stilettos. “I am so sick of seeing BDSM compared to torture. I’m really trying to destroy those stigmas,” Young says in a rush, her voice rising.

After a risqué lip-synching performance by Daddy K and the Rhythm Method troupe the evening wraps up with the movie of the year. “I was actually supposed to be in Ottawa getting banged right now,” says the Sasha Van Bon Bon, a member of The Scandelles burlesque troupe and Eye Weekly's sex columnist. She purses her lips, eyes scanning the audience and continues to say that she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give the award for a film that got her so riled up she had to take three people home to deal with the situation in her panties. “There was no safe word that night,” she says.

Director Syd Blakovich wins for her women boxing themed film “Champion.” Wearing a vest with holsters and a sleeve of tattoos on her arm, she announces on stage, “I get nervous when I’m wearing clothes,” and proceeds to pull down her white trousers, revealing brief-style panties. She gives her acceptance speech rather quickly, blushing and laughing as Young kneels, placing her face in her director’s crotch for some public end of the night lip service.

*As published in mutedmag.com, with photo credits to Lana Paiement

Feminist porn gala teaser

There will be more extensive coverage of the fourth annual Feminist Porn Awards, hosted by Good for Her, coming soon. For now, warm up with this sneak peak from Xtra, Toronto’s printed source of queer news and culture. You will meet the rowdy host of the evening, Deb, “Dirk” Pearce, the queen bee organizer/manager herself, Alison Lee, and a slough of amazing directors and actors up for butt plug trophies.

A review of Feisty Feminist Porn on the Big Screen, the second night of the event is also coming your way, complete with commentary from the director panel discussion. Get ready for an extensive look at Toronto’s growing festival that celebrates the sexy, powerful, independent ladies taking control of the camera.

The Feminist Porn Debate

Now to delve into the endless debate, can porn actually be pro-woman, or feminist? Can porn reflect actual female desire and pleasure, and be filmed under ethical, safe, respectful conditions, with women at the helm of producing and writing creative content.

Well I say, hell ya! I attended the Feminist Porn Awards screening, hosted by Good For Her last April in Toronto and saw numerous examples of legitimate, empowering female pleasure on the big screen. The films were independently produced, with real women celebrating their sexuality for themselves and women everywhere, not just for a male meat-wanking audience.

Alison Lee, the manager of Torono’s feminist sex shop, Good For Her, organized the awards last year and actively works to bring a large variety of independent porn DVD’s into her store. She published the feature article in the November/Decemeber issue of This Magazine, entitled “The New Face of Porn,” about her own experience as a feminist to accept and celebrate feminist porn, and the historical backlash against pornography from certain feminist groups. Below is also a video of Alison inside Good For Her, sharing her thoughts about the article and her own experiences with porn.

Reading this article really got me thinking about my own feelings about porn and its capacity to empower women as opposed to demeaning them. I truly feel that the women behind and in front of the camera don’t have to be victimized as moral-less women who need to be saved and were forced into this line of work as a bankrupt last resort. Some of them make porn or act in porn because they truly want to change the face of pornography today and cater to female pleasure while showcasing the beauty of natural women with curves, queer and trans women, women with disabilities, women of different ethnicities, and women who look like everyday women, not an unattainable standard of “plastic” beauty.
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Although when it comes to feminist porn, many debate whether certain sexual acts can be defined as “feminist”, such as cum shots, anal penetration or anything that could be construed as degrading. First of all, what gets some women sopping wet could potentially turn a whole crowd of ladies right off, and that’s part of the beauty of pornography. It can individually cater to our desires, and what I desire may not even remotely resemble what you vibrate to, so get over it already. Each of us has a parcel of unique fetish’s, and as long as it isn’t something that obviously inflicts unwanted, serious pain on a woman, then you don’t have to watch it if you find it offensive. If some women relish having semen on their face, tits or ass, well, power to them, they have a right to enjoy and participate in that on screen if they so choose, and any woman at home has the privilege of revelling in observing it. What makes one woman a feminist isn’t true for another, so trying to fit every single sexual act under some umbrella “feminist” definition isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. Spanking, bondage, and many other kinks are specific to your arousal, so this discussion will likely continue for as long as porn does.

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But it is very rewarding and admirable to witness some independent companies led by women who are trying to get diverse, natural, female-driven, sexy feminist porn out there for women who are tired of watching tanned, bleached, hairless, cellulite-free women who look like they were fashioned by surgeons to feed male desire.

Porn should also reflect female-desire, and most of us don’t look like plastic “dolls”, so I’m glad there are examples of real women and real sex out there for this generation of girls who are discovering their sexuality and aren’t shamed of it.