Monday, Oct 15, 2007    Text size: 

The new paysite joins the ranks of Pink and White Studio’s CrashPadTheSeries.com and Australia’s AbbyWinters.com in the emergent lesbian/queer niche.

Currently, GoodDykePorn.com features content previews, Ryder’s blog, a newsletter, a free content area and downloadable videos for members. Ryder says she also would like to expand the social networking component of the site, and add an area where other filmmakers can post short videos.

A desire to fill the void created by “traditional” lesbian content — generally produced by straight companies with straight performers for a male audience — is what motivates Ryder and other lesbian filmmakers like her to make alternative content that portrays an aesthetic that is more authentic and diverse.

“I suppose calling the website ‘Good Dyke Porn' leads to an implication that there will be dyke porn that is considered good. I have received tons of emails from people saying, ‘It’s about time someone created some good lesbian porn,' which makes me chuckle. I’m sure the people who made the bad porn weren’t intending for it to be bad,” Ryder said on the site’s blog.

“What makes this porn ‘good’? When I first considered naming the site Good Dyke Porn, I thought of it as sarcastic,” she continued. “We all know that the mainstream lesbian porn is bad. It’s fake, it’s designed to please men and it’s so not hot. I found a Top 100 Lesbian Porn Websites list on a porn review site and it was so bad. So, by the simple fact of creating sexually explicit material with women who have relationships with other women and designing it to please me (a dyke) it is opposite of the mainstream porn, therefore it’s good.”

Reflecting the increasing sexual fluidity that seems to have become more prevalent with the younger generation of gay women or individuals defining themselves as “genderqueer,” Ryder points out that the sexuality portrayed in her work is not limited to a mainstream stereotype of what is “dyke” or lesbian.

“In actuality, very few of the people who have participated in the making of these scenes identify as a dyke. They identify as bisexual, queer, transgender, genderqueer — with a few lesbians thrown in for good measure,” Ryder said.

“I’m not saying everyone needs to identify as dyke in their day-to-day lives (unless you want to, like I do), just that they appropriately fit into what is called ‘dyke porn,’” Ryder said. “Hey, if a scene where a guy watches two straight women fool around, then joins in can be called a lesbian scene, then a scene where a bisexual woman screws a transgender boy can certainly be called dyke porn. Why? Because I filmed them."

Ryder also is taking the show on the road with a 23-minute video, also called “Good Dyke Porn.” The short will be shown at the Porn Film Festival Berlin, held from Oct. 24-28, and recently made its U.S. debut at the Rochester Gay & Lesbian Film and Video Festival. It also was shown in August at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, to critical praise, as well as the Lisbon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, held in September in Spain.