“Can porn be empowering for women?”
That’s the question being asked a lot this week, prompted by the Women’s Hour debate which took place on Sunday, asking this question. I was not able to attend the debate unlike people who have blogged about it already, but I wanted to add my thoughts on the matter.
Very simply, I believe that yes, porn can be empowering for women. I’m not going to argue that all porn is empowering for all women, because I don’t believe that is the case at all, there is a lot of porn which is problematic for both female performers and viewers. But I believe that I, and a lot of other women can gain a lot from watching porn, feminist porn in particular.
I have benefitted from porn in two ways – personally and professionally.
Long before I started making porn (as a performer, then producer), I was a porn consumer. I watched quite a lot of it, mostly bdsm and fetish porn. The porn I watched allowed me to see that other people had the same desires I did. That I was not unusual in wanting to play in the more extreme parts of bdsm. It helped me to feel less alone.
A lot of the things I now count as my favourite things to do I first explored via porn. Watching others do the things I fantasised about was the first step to turning those things into my reality. Porn gave me the safe space in which I could see these things happening for real, to explore how that reality matched up with my fantasies, and whether they were things that I did want to bring to life for myself, or to keep as something to just think about.
As a performer and producer I hope to give others the same reassurance and validation that I got through porn. I want to show that women of different shapes and sizes can enjoy being sexual.
Being able to run my own business, performing in and making the sort of porn I enjoy has empowered me greatly. It’s taken me from being on benefits to being self-sufficient. It’s given me a job which I am able to work around my health issues. Is it the job I imagined myself doing when I was at school? No. But it’s a job that works for me, and I love it.
Pandora has also blogged her thoughts after the debate, you can see what she has to say over at her blog.