FEMINIST PORN DIRECTOR Erika Lust has seen it all. When she released her first film The Good Girl 20 years ago, Pornhub didn’t even exist, and the concept of feminist porn was unheard of.
Now, due to both technological and social advances, porn is a different animal entirely. Lust and others in the industry have witnessed the rise of tube sites that pirate porn, and then ethical sites that prioritize fair treatment of actors, as well as new tools like artificial intelligence that have changed the landscape of what porn looks like today.
Porn’s Past and Present
While early forms of erotic material such as statues and engravings date back millennia, the first pornographic films came out around the turn of the 20th century in France and Argentina. Short, silent, sexy movies called stag films began screening in settings like frat houses and brothels in the 1920s, followed by feature-length films in the 70s. These were shown mainly in theaters until movie rental shops sprung up in the late 70s, allowing people to watch porn in the privacy of their homes.
With the rise of the world wide web in the 90s, we began to see internet porn on both free and paid sites. But it wasn’t until the 00s that tube sites like Pornhub came into being, allowing users to upload videos themselves. This led to a lot of pirating — stealing porn from elsewhere and posting it to tube sites, says Lust. At this point, “the industry changed dramatically because it became much harder to earn money making porn,” she says. Mindgeek, the company behind Pornhub, Brazzers, and many other porn sites, gained a monopoly over the industry.
“What I have seen during these 20 years in the industry is how the tech guys took over the industry — how they started the tube sites, they pirated porn, they put it out there for everybody,” says Lust. “They were not really interested in sex or in porn but rather, they used it to move traffic. That was the business model: They used porn videos because they knew that people wanted to watch them. If people wanted to watch birds fly or horses run, that’s the kind of videos they would have put out.”
Liberation Through Sexual Expression
Enter sites like Lust Cinema, that prioritize fair treatment of performers as well as ethical messages within the videos. This genre, which gained widespread awareness in the 2010s, is known as ethical porn and also includes sites like FrolicMe, Forplay Films, and Pink & White Productions. Another overlapping genre is feminist porn, which strives to center women’s pleasure. Queer porn films like those in the Crash Pad Series similarly demonstrate pleasure from the perspective of a wide range of genders and sexualities. Some porn like afterglow’s aims to provide sex education. More and more women are also directing porn and showing sex from a female perspective, according to Stacy Lyle, co-owner of Blush Erotica.
“Since I launched Frolicme back in 2015, ethical porn was not mentioned or even understood,” says the site’s founder Anna Richards. “However, in the last nine years, more women have embraced an interest in both purchasing and consuming porn, which has driven the interest and desire for ethically produced films that focus on female pleasure and healthy sexuality.” Ethical porn sites tend to require people to pay, since this is how to ensure fair payment of actors. Because people are accustomed to free videos and therefore feel “entitled to porn,” tube sites still dominate the market, Lust explains.
“Porn unfortunately has been hijacked by the free tube sites and, with them, has generated associated shame in the viewing of degrading, unregulated imagery,” says Richards. Tube sites also tend to skew toward videos containing “systemic violence toward women in the way they’re using language and how they’re relating to women,” Lust adds. “You can still find lots of racist language.”
However slowly, though, porn is moving away from tube sites toward ethical creators. For instance, Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments on Pornhub after news came out regarding abusive material on the site. Richards hopes to see viewers continue moving toward paid porn sites, as these not only help actors make money but also prevent children from accessing the videos. Not to mention, they’re “less likely to give you unexpected and unwanted pop-ups that you struggle to close or the fear of viruses and malware,” says Ricahrds. “It becomes a far safer and trustworthy choice for you, the viewer.”
Porn in the Digital Age
Technological changes have also had a major impact on porn’s evolution. Subscriptions to the cam site OnlyFans, for instance, skyrocketed during the pandemic, reaching 120 million users in 2021. Some porn stars moved to independent sites like OnlyFans in order to have full control over their footage and revenue. “All these different platforms… changed the power balance in the industry,” Lust explains. “People who had already kind of big names could reach their audiences directly without having to count on other production companies and distribution companies to make the content.”
As Dominic Ford, creator of the cam site JustForFans, puts it: “The industry is now model-centric instead of being studio-centric.” He explains, “I have been in the industry for 17 years, and there has been a giant shift in power dynamics and model agency in this time. When I started, everything was about the studios. They were the only way to reach a mass audience, and the only way to elevate your brand as a model. And the only way to make money. Now, the rise of social media and fan sites have switched this. The most exciting effect of this shift is that models can now make a passive, recurring income. In the studio world, models were paid a flat rate for a scene and never got residuals.”
Cam sites have also made porn viewing a more two-sided experience. “Fan sites have not only brought wealth to many individuals but have also established a new way to interact with adult models,” explains Lyle. “Many viewers are now in search of a more intimate porn experience; they want a connection. In decades past, the idea of meeting your favorite porn star was just a fantasy. With the advent of fan sites, viewers can pay to interact with them directly, see their day to day on social media, and even get custom videos made for you by them.”
VR is another new development allowing people to experience porn in new ways. “With the rise of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the experience of adult content is becoming more immersive and interactive,” says Lust. For instance, with a VR headset, you can watch a porn performer giving oral sex as if you were the recipient.
There are now over 30,000 porn scenes available in VR, says Lyle. “Right now, you can have your favorite porn star sitting on the couch in your living room looking and talking directly to you,” she adds. “You can feel every stroke and speed of the model’s actions with an interactive Bluetooth toy that connects to the scene. Interactive toys can be used with VR which simulate the up/down motions, speed, and depth occurring in the scene. Passthrough is another feature available in VR which allows the viewer to see the model in their own personal space. It removes everything in the scene’s background except the model, so it seems they are right there in the room. Talk about intimacy!”
In some areas, though, technology has yet to catch up with ethics and the law. For instance, advances in AI have led to what’s known as “deep fake porn,” although Lust points out this shouldn’t be called “porn” at all: it’s abuse. Deep fake images are altered so that someone’s face—usually that of a celebrity—is edited onto someone’s body in a pre-existing porn video. And it’s not just famous faces getting edited into explicit content; deepfake technology means that literally anybody can be at risk of revenge porn.
“I fear we will see a lot more of this in the adult industry, and this can cause a huge issue for our performers,” says Lust.
The Future of Porn
AI has spawned many new developments beyond deep fake images, including sites where you can chat with virtual versions of porn stars. “You can already generate photos that fit any description you want, and companies are working on bringing this to porn,” says Ford. “And eventually, this will be true of videos, including placing yourself in a video with your favorite porn star.” VR porn will also likely expand as cell phones develop the capacity to film in true VR, according to Lyle.
But as technology marches ahead, Lust would like to see a return to the past within the porn industry. “I think it would be absolutely wonderful to show porn in movie theaters,” she says. “It needs to be porn that is a bit special. It has to have some kind of cinematic quality to really make it work. I do many events and screenings in big cinema theaters; I bring over 500 people in a theater, and I show my films — and then we have conversations with cast and crew about how we make the films and our values, and the audience interacts a lot. We sell out all of these events.”
In fact, content-wise, Lust foresees porn videos evolving to be a lot more like movies. “The creativity and the cinematic style… this is something people are interested in,” she says. “They like the artistic treatment of these short films that we are making, and the different perspectives and narratives. I think that there’s still quite a lot of space to grow in that category, and there’s not many players who are doing it — partly because it’s very difficult to make. You need a lot of concentration and energy and passion and creativity and technical requirement and film studios and lots of things to make it happen. But people are starving for that kind of content.”
Erika Lust
Lust also sees a greater prioritization of consent occurring as increasing numbers of porn producers hire intimacy coordinators—people who ensure that actors are comfortable and their boundaries are honored—something which is also becoming a standard practice on film and TV sets.
“I think we will see porn movies celebrated on big screens and influencing Hollywood, leading to the creation of Oscars and BAFTAs for the best intimacy coordinators,” Lust says. “We envision a porn and cinema industry that prioritizes the safety and well-being of actors and actresses on set, teaching how to protect them during intimate scenes.”
The Politics of Porn
While porn is a landmine for innovation, its potential may not end up fully realized. Conservative politicians in the U.S. and elsewhere have made many moves to limit access to porn—if not ban it entirely. The PROTECT Act, proposed this winter by Utah Senator Mike Lee, could require the removal of all porn from the internet. In the UK, the Online Safety Bill just passed, requiring porn users to prove they are over 18 using government IDs or facial recognition technology.
“Republicans need a galvanizing cause, and they have decided that being anti-porn is that cause,” says Ford. “They are masquerading it by saying ‘protect the children,’ but what they are doing has nothing to do with children or protecting them. Many states have already passed ID verification laws, and many more are trying. Some states even make it a criminal offense to link to a porn site on a site that doesn’t age-verify. This puts models in jeopardy, and sites like ours. There are many ways to prevent children from accessing porn sites. Porn blockers and site filters have been around for 20+ years. We need to support organizations like the Free Speech Coalition, which is our trade organization — and which is bringing lawsuits against the states enacting these anti-porn laws.”
There is no way around it: porn is political. It can be used for oppression or liberation. And often, it’s about more than sex. Our privacy, freedom, and individuality are entangled with our ability to browse the internet as we please, X-rated content included. And our choices regarding what we view and how we view it are wrapped up in our beliefs about gender, identity, and pleasure. Richards, for one, is hopeful due to the demand she has seen that our porn habits—along with our approach to sex and relationships—are changing. “Women are driving a growing interest and consumption of sex as they become more empowered and interested in their sexuality,” she says.
“I would like porn to show relatable experiences, to respect women and people of different identities — but I think that we are going in that direction,” says Lust. “When I entered the industry, I found the industry very divided: ‘This is heterosexual porn, this is gay porn.’ But we have definitely seen how with the mix of identities and sexualities that we are showing in our films, the audience has grown. They are watching all kinds of films. I see especially men opening up, how they are little by little watching more bisexual content, being more curious, asking more questions, opening up their minds instead of being so stiff in their masculinity. Becoming a bit more interested in other people and other identities. And that, I find beautiful. I hope that is where we are going.”
And what about the next 20 years?
“We hope for a society where people can openly discuss sex — for instance, at the dinner table,” says Lust, “recognizing that sex can be positive, equal, and diverse.”
