Think feminist porn is all about softcore girl-on-girl action? Think again.
Feminism and pornography are not two words that have historically sat very comfortably together but recent developments in the adult industry have seen some changes to this ‘juxtaposition’. Feminist porn is a new genre that centers on equitable, sex-positive and ethical adult content. And, while some steadfast porn traditionalists are claiming that the results are bland, or even ‘vegan porn’, the truth is quite the opposite. Yes, feminist porn makers are creating movies that are ‘unconventional’ by the norms of the Establishment but they are also original, exciting and incredibly sexy plus they are empowering those involved in creating them. It’s a win-win situation.
In this feature, we lift the lid on the myths surrounding feminist porn and reveal just how good ethically produced adult content can be. We take a look at those sites that are showcasing the best porn in this genre as well as reveal just how popular feminism in the adult industry is becoming.
What is Feminist Porn?
A genre of porn that is specifically aimed at redressing the traditional culture of inequality in porn and representing the real sexual desires of women, feminist porn originated in the 1980s. Though the movement didn’t grow real momentum until the 2000s, the appetite for adult content that is produced ethically, responsibly and appeals to broader audiences has been increasing over the last few decades.
It is true to say that the porn industry has traditionally revolved around a very narrow ideal of what sex should like and, just as has historically been the case for many industries, this has largely been dictated by men. As a result, women depicted in the majority of porn movies over the years are largely stereotyped and usually fit a certain physical and/or social ‘type’ and they are often treated as objects of men’s sexual desires. It’s also true to say that the exploitation of women in porn is, and has been for a long time, rife in the industry.
In short, mainstream porn has traditionally been made by certain men, for certain male tastes. But not anymore.
Feminist porn is all about creating a new wave of adult content that is more inclusive and where all contributors are treated and paid fairly. The result is XXX content that represents a more diverse range of women (and men), is more realistic in its depictions of the kind of sex and fantasy that women (and men) want to see plus empowers the performers who are producing it.
As well as producing porn that represents women from all walks of life and of every age, shape, color and size, feminist porn studios and directors are also dedicated to creating content where all performers, regardless of gender, age, color etc., are paid a fair salary and treated with care and respect.
Critically, the genre allows women to reclaim a sex-positive space that promotes a higher standard of how sex on screen should look. It also allows (often) marginalized groups of society the opportunity to be a part of the porn industry without fetishizing their inclusion.
Still confused? Okay, to be considered feminist porn, content should be created by studios that adhere to some simple principles:
- Women’s pleasure matters.
- Consent and respect are non-negotiable.
- Everyone working on a movie should be paid fairly from crew and performers to interns, and office staff.
- Diversity and inclusivity are at the heart of casting and hiring from on-screen stars to camera crew and office workers. There should be no question of whether someone is hired because of their age, race, gender, sexuality or whether they are able-bodied, for instance.
- Performers are never asked to do anything they haven’t discussed and agreed upfront. In fact, a lot of feminist porn is organic, performer led and largely unscripted.
- All shoots must include breaks, refreshments and be held in an atmosphere that is relaxed and safe.
- Safe sex is a must with up to date STD checks being mandatory but performers should be able choose whether they wish to use a condom.
Fundamentally though, this approach is about challenging the preconceived Western ideals of beauty, desire and sexual fulfillment by using new styles of filming as well as showcasing ‘unconventional’ representations of gender and sexual orientations.
This is the gold standard of porn that is both open-minded and inclusive whilst upholding strong moral beliefs.
Don’t believe good porn can be made with all these caveats? Think again….
Is Feminist Porn the Same as ‘Female-Friendly’ Porn?
In a word, no.
The big hitters of the porn industry have noticed the growing percentages of their audiences who are women and have been keen to capitalize on this share of the market. On platforms like Pornhub, women account for 29% of traffic globally. In fact, in certain countries the split is even higher:
- Philippines – 38%
- Brazil and South Africa – 35%
- Mexico – 31%
- Australia, Poland, Sweden and India – 30%
As such, there has been a trend of tagging and categorizing porn as being ‘female friendly’ or ‘popular with women’. What this means is that more of the viewing audience are female (proportionally) than perhaps other genres of porn.
New platforms like Cheex are designed from the ground-up to tap in to this trend for female-friendly erotic content. It’s certainly a growing trend.
As ever, the internet adult content hosting site, Pornhub, produce some interesting statistics about their service and how we are watching porn on their site. At the end of every year they produce some figures about the content on their site for the previous 12 months. For 2018, the content on Pornhub that is most popular with women was tagged as follows:
- Lesbian
- Japanese
- Hentai
- Threesome
- Korean
- Massage
- Gangbang
- Lesbians Scissoring
- Step Mom
- MILF
- Anal
- Pussy Licking
- Lesbian Threesome
- Double Penetration
Whilst this may give the industry some insight into what women want to watch it doesn’t mean that the way this content is filmed, produced and performed is ethical or feminist in its approach.
How Big Is Feminist Porn?
The appetite for change in the adult industry towards an ethical workplace, inclusion and equality has gained massive momentum over the last few years and feminist porn is changing the landscape of how adult content is produced and enjoyed.
However, there are limits to how successful it can be largely due to the proliferation of free (and often pirated) porn available online. The sad truth is that most porn viewers don’t want to pay for the content they watch and with amateurs uploading their home sex tapes and so much free material, they don’t have to.
With equal and fair pay being at the heart of the feminist porn movement, this means that content will only reach those audiences who are prepared to pay for it.
Which Sites Offer the Best Feminist Porn?
So, if you’re interested in checking out what kind of adult content falls into the category of feminist porn then you will have to pay for it. After all, this is one of the ingredients of how the films are made; all performers are paid well for their involvement and the distribution of money is fair. However, there are some sites on this list that offer some free previews or non-subscription services likes Pay-Per-View and Video-On-Demand.
In our selection of the top feminist porn sites that are breaking the mold, we’ve included a diverse mix of those content producers that are creating ethical porn as well as inclusive porn. Some are aimed at the kink or LGBTQ+ communities whilst others are intended for a mainstream audience.
Erotic Films
Erotic Films is a library of some of the best independent and adult content from around the world. It is owned and operated by the Swedish adult film director, Erika Lust.
Lust has been a huge proponent and activist for the feminist porn movement and, on this site, she has collated a massive archive of content that is all 100% sex-positive and made in an ethical way.
The site is arranged so you can easily find content to suit your tastes and includes sub-categories such as:
- BDSM/Fetish
- Romance/Comedy
- Swingers
- Roleplay
- Massage
- Group Sex
You can also search for those films that have been directed by women or simply find your favorite director and stream their movies.
In total, there are over 500 movies available on demand with at least two new titles being added every month.
What we liked about this site is that it represents a truly international market and the porn here covers a really diverse range of styles, sub-genres and directors. You can also watch a free trailer of any movie before you commit to making a payment. To help combat the issue of piracy, the content here is only available for streaming, not as a download.
In terms of pricing, you pay a monthly subscription of €11.99 (approximately $13.50) to enjoy unlimited streaming.
Erika also operates a similar site called Lust Cinema. The benefit of this site is that if you sign up for their newsletter you get a film to watch for free.
And lastly, if you enjoy the kind of content that Erika Lust produces then it is well worth checking out her own site XConfessions.
Smart Ass Productions
Tristan Taormino is a sex educator and feminist pornographer who has produced several feminist adult videos through her production company, Smart Ass.
Her movies firmly focus on female pleasure and are made in a performer driven way that guarantees authentic chemistry and orgasms.
She has produced several titles including Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex, The Chemistry Series and House of Ass. Some of these are more educational including her Guide to Bondage for Couples and other Vivid-Ed productions. Her films have been awarded several awards, notably from the Feminist Porn Awards as well as nominations for more mainstream gongs.
If you only watch one title from her collection then make sure you check out Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry #4 – The Orgy Edition. An epic film featuring Evan Stone, Tyler Knight, Adrianna Nicole, Sinnamon Love, Johnny Sinz and Penny Flame, it’s a two-disc set which lets the stars take control.
Most of Taormino’s films can be rented, streamed or downloaded from the Good Vibrations website.
MakeLoveNotPorn
A pro-sex and pro-porn site that takes the shame out of sex, Make Love Not Porn was launched in 2009 and is the world’s first user generated, human curated social sex video sharing platform.
Basically, sex videos are submitted by members who adopt good sexual values and behavior and want to share these with a community of people who buy in to the idea of Social Sex. The result is an environment that promotes healthy debate on the norms of sexual identity and sexual activities. This is #RealWorldSex.
As the site itself puts it:
“If porn is the Hollywood blockbuster movie, MLNP is the documentary”
All of the video clips on the site offer a free sneak preview and can run anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour. As with other feminist porn sites, the clips can only be streamed and not downloaded.
The site operates on an equity share when it comes to profits and viewers simply pay $5 per video or sign up to a monthly subscription; content producers receive 50%. A subscription will cost you $10 for which you can watch up to five videos each month.
Indie Porn Revolution
‘Subversive smut created by ladies, artists, and queers’
The longest running queer porn site in history, the Indie Porn Revolution (also known as No FauXXX) was created in 2002.The content on the site is alternative and all-inclusive with genres ranging from BDSM to BBW, ballet to ball-busting and everything in between.
Though it is commonly believe to be a site only for the LGBTQ+ community, there is in fact huge diversity in the content on offer. And this is most evident in the kinds of performers who are showcasing their work here. Expect to find emos, hipsters, punks, goths as well as fat, thin, gay, trans and straight. It’s one of the only sites around where you can find true representation beyond binary gender and those stereotypes of porn performers.
Some of the content on the Indie Porn Revolution website is ‘DIY’, the quality of much of the porn here is very high and features those independent studios that are offering high art as well as explicit, but alternative, explorations of sex.
They are a part of the Trouble Films network so you can get a bundle membership for some other queer porn sites if you like but subscription to the Indie Porn Revolution starts at just $10 for 10-days, or:
- $20 for one month
- $38 for two months
- $55 for three months
- $100 for six months
Bright Desire
Offering a ‘new wave’ of ‘smart porn’, Bright Desire aims to offer adult content that is not only erotic and sexy but intelligent and inclusive. This is the home of the thinking person’s porn and you can expect to see movies here that include all of the intimate moments of sex; the laughter, the pleasure as well as the fantasy.
The site doesn’t only have video pornography but includes plenty of erotic fiction, photograph, candid interviews with performers plus film reviews and articles. Run by filmmaker ‘Ms Naughty’, Bright Desire has been recognized with plenty of nominations, honorable mentions and awards for their work.
It is a celebration of sex all in one domain and includes an archive of over five years’ worth of feminist, ethical and independent porn. The focus is on heterosexual sex but you can find some more alternative and LGBTQ+ clips here and there.
You can sign up to watch these films by paying a subscription of $22.95 for the first 30 days followed by monthly payments of $9.95 or for just $37.95 for 90 days (non-recurring).
See our full Bright Desire review.
For The Girls
As you would expect from the name, For The Girls is dedicated to providing porn for women. It is one of the oldest sites of its kind online and was originally launched in 2000, becoming a major premium porn site in 2003.
It offers an incredibly diverse range of content and there should be something for everyone in here from romantic sex scenes to rough hardcore action. The only thing that links them all is that this porn has been curated with the ‘feminine gaze’ firmly in mind. However, this isn’t a lesbian site and content is mainly selected for heterosexual women. Yes, there is some girl-on-girl stuff here but mostly couples or solo men masturbating.
You can find a mixture of erotic fiction, films and photos plus magazine style articles including the For The Girls Good Porn Manifesto, reviews and recommendations.
If you want to celebrate award winning feminist porn scenes and snatch some of the action that is arousing women then you can sign up as follows:
- $22.95 for the first 30 days then $15.95 per month (recurring)
- $44.95 for 90 days (non-recurring)
Lightsouthern Cinema
An award-winning producer of adult content, Light Southern is an Australian site that offers ethical porn.
As well as intelligent and sexy feature movies you also get Behind the Scenes, Director’s Cut Films and stills from the shoots. Their most popular titles are from the Momentum series which has received an AAAA rating from AVN. Set in the 1970s it is nostalgic, authentic and incredibly sexy. There are several volumes available to watch and in total they have been nominated for 6 XBiz Awards, 8 AVN Awards and other notable gongs.
You can watch the titles on either a standard or premium pass as follows:
- 3 Months Access – $39.95
- 12 Months Access – $99.95
Pink Label
An adult streaming service that specializes in independent erotic films, Pink Label TV is a popular site for queer, alternative and feminist perspective porn. They are well-known for championing the work of emerging studios and independent filmmakers who produce ethical adult content.
In a similar way to Netflix, the library of videos is well curated and is categorized by main genre as well as other defining features including:
- BDSM – Some Like It Rough
- Cinekink NYC
- The Feminist Porn Gaze
- PornFilmFestival Berlin
- Ceci N’est Pas Une Porn: Experimental and Alternative
- Eco-Sexual and Outdoor Sex in Nature
- Edu-Porn: Sexy Adult Education
There’s lots of classifications that are intriguing so you won’t have any trouble finding something to suit your tastes plus there is even some free content to enjoy. However, most films are individually priced and you can either pay to stream them on an unlimited basis or rent a title for 48-hours.
Prices vary by film but can be as little as a few dollars to over ten bucks per title. If you enjoy watching a lot of the content here on Pink Label then it would be cheaper to opt for a recurring membership. Prices range from $9.99 to $25.00 per month depending on how long you sign up for initially.
Joy Bear
Winner of several awards including the Best Female-Friendly Site 2016 InStyle, Joy Bear is a British site that has been producing sex-positive films since 2003. An ethical studio, the company was founded by Justin Santos who was tired of working in an industry which featured ‘pleasureless’ sex and treated its contributors unfairly.
He took part in the Playboy Head to Head competition, a reality TV show set up to find the next biggest erotic filmmaker. Santos won the show and promptly set up Joy Bear as a result.
The films you can stream on the site are diverse as are the cast they use to create them. You can enjoy them all knowing that performers were all treated professionally and fairly whilst working in a safe environment. Content is all 100% exclusive to the site and is filmed in HD along with high-res photo sets to accompany each movie.
Payment for membership is processed in GBP and is currently being charged at a rate of £25.00 (approximately $30.00) per month or £50.00 (approximately $60) for 90-days.
Sssh!
Female-driven and focused, Sssh offers ethically produced but explicit, sex-positive feminist porn films. The content here is a real mixed bag from cutting edge VR to narrative films and everything in between.
Most of the films have been produced by independent filmmakers for heterosexual couples and women so there is less ‘queer’ than some of the sites on this list. However, that doesn’t mean it’s all vanilla or not alternative.
Many of the titles you can find are critically acclaimed and have won awards at festivals and with the adult industry including CineKink, AVN, XBiz and the Feminist Porn Awards. There’s even some films here that have been recognized by the Sundance Institute.
As well as video content you can also find original erotic fiction and novels plus some amazing photo galleries. The studio and its main director, Angie Rowntree, are listed with the Ethical Porn Partnership (EPP) and are APAC approved. Rowntree herself is actually a founder of the EPP.
Joining up with Sssh is easy and you can opt for a two-day trial to sample what’s on offer for just $4.95 or you can sign up as follows:
- One month – $19.95
- Three months – $54.95
- Twelve months – $99.95
