finally..."a vision of new porn"

I'm not a big fan of porn because the few that I've seen left me angry, disgusted, and sick. Angry because the woman always look like she's in so much pain. Disgusted by seeing the same angle for twenty minutes. And sick of constantly seeing the man spray his cum into her mouth, forcing her to swallow. But after reading this article, I'm thrilled to see how pornography can be portrayed in such a way that is not only sexually arousing to its viewers but also look sexually satisfying to its performers.

In the article "A Vision of New Porn", Professor Anne G. Sabo shows how feminist porn directors--Candida Royalle, Anna Span, and Erika Lust-- strive to move away from patriarchal porn to producing this overdue vision of egalitarian porn. The structure of this article is lay out on how porn is re-visioned by women in the United States and in Europe.

In the United States, Candida Royalle is a a renowned producer of porn from "a woman's point of view" (224). She was part of the feminist movement but later became a porn actress. This is when she became ambivalent about the porn industry and believed that better porn could be made for both women and men so she co-founded the Femme Productions in 1984. "Royalle's films stand out in terms of quality filmmaking, use of realism, and depth of plot and character development" (225). Her films speak to most Americans who are not encouraged by society to pursue their sexual desires. "Royalle's way of dealing with the hegemonic heterosexual erotic discourse, with its "symbolic subordination of women" was to engage it reflectively and ironically, a critical appropriation" (226).

Professor Sabo brings in a viewpoint I've never really thought about. Most Americans (myself included), get turn off by a lot of the 'hardcore' porn because we find them degrading to women, but other people in other parts of the world who are more comfortable with their sexuality don't seem to have any problems viewing this type of porn. Anna Span who is a British producer of porn states, "'to sexually objectify, that is to fleetingly view a person's sexual attractiveness separately from their personality/person, is a natural human experience, NOT just a male one, as traditionally depicted'" (230). Professor Sabo goes on to state that Span's porn speaks to countries such as Scandinavia and Norway who have had "the benefits of a much more thorough human sexuality education and the accomplishments of the women's movement ..." to encourage these European women to take "ownership over their sexuality" (230). It has never occurred to me to make the connection with our abstinence-only education and our perceptions of porn.

I really like the way Professor Sabo tied up all the different themes we have been discussing so far from Levy to the CAKE book. I'm excited to see this new vision.