CANOGA PARK, Calif. — Many of the most influential women in the adult entertainment filmmaking biz are nearly invisible to the world outside of it, according to an article this week published by the Huffington Post.
The feature tells the tales of rising to the top from several female directors in porn, including Stormy Daniels, Erika Lust and Jessica Drake, as well as Candida Royalle, who was one of the first women to make the leap from performer to director.
As with many female directors in porn, Daniels said she originally had no plans to be a director.
“[I]t wasn’t something I even considered. I thought it would be a one-time personal experiment,” said Daniels, who now directs 10 feature-length porn movies a year. “About halfway through the first day it hit me. I love this. This is what I’m meant to do.”
The piece also noted that estimates now suggest that women make up one in three porn viewers, and that women are increasingly moving behind the camera to direct. It even underscores the point that maybe porn is less misogynistic than other industries.
“I mean, how many female directors were nominated for an Oscar this year?” asked Lynn Comella, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “None. Zero.”
“It might come as a surprise to people who think the adult industry is an exclusive boys club,” Comella said, “but women are increasingly changing the face of [it].”
Sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals suggests in the article that one reason for the porn biz’s relative openness to women is that since the filmmaking “is so polarizing, the industry has tended to insulate itself and hire from within when possible.”
“The close-knit nature of the network of the adult industry has contributed to the enhanced gender equality we see,” she said.
The Huffington Post piece also takes a look at the differences in female porn story lines compared to their male counterparts.
Lust said her filmmaking is “about creating that narrative that tells the story of one, two, three or more consenting adults, giving and receiving pleasure as sexual equals, and giving attention to the details — like facial expressions, the hands, body positions ... not just the genitals.”
“If someone is having an orgasm, we want to see how their entire body reacts.”
The Huffington Post article can be read here.
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