As a gift for Leila Spilman's birthday, Torbjørn Rødland photographed her and her friends wearing clothing Spilman made under her own unestablished label LSCO. Also included are a Thom Browne jacket and Saint Laurent dress.
Launched in 2012, Chakrubs was born from Cuccia's growing interest in crystals and her own sexuality. Following the breakup of a six year abusive relationship, the then-23-year-old found herself living in LA, feeling disconnected from herself and her body. After taking a job at the infamous Pleasure Chest, and learning more about crystals and their healing properties, she had an idea: sex toys that could get you off spiritually and sexually.
The resulting line features dildos, anal plugs and Yoni eggs in Amethyst, Quartz (rose and clear), Aventurine, Jasper (red and white), Obsidian and wood; Cuccia also released Crystal Healing & Sacred Pleasure last year. For Cuccia, though, Chakrubs isn't just about giving her customers the tools to give themselves a giant orgasm—it's about giving women the power—and the tools—to explore themselves and their bodies, and for self-love.
office called Cuccia to talk more about Chakrubs, Yoni Eggs and overall good vibes.
Tell me about Chakrubs. What was the impetus for starting the brand?
I do feel like a lot of things from my past led up to the ‘Aha!’ moment that I had [before starting the brand]. When I was living in LA, I was getting out of a six-year relationship and realizing that it was sexually and emotionally abusive. So, I was at this point where I realized that a quarter of my life was already done and I always thought that I would always really enjoy sex, but because of this relationship, I dissociated myself from my body—I had become really numb in my vagina. I felt like I was walking around asleep—I really wasn’t connected to myself at all. And I knew I couldn’t go on like that. So, I decided to take some steps towards connecting to myself, and one of the ways was taking a job as a web order fulfillment person at [sex toy shop] The Pleasure Chest [in LA].
That’s amazing.
Yeah! It was really amazing because in the employee training process there, they teach a lot about not being judgmental and being really sex positive. They had every kind of toy under the sun—and I had a discount! I was finally in a position where I could try different toys and I really wanted to, but there was something missing for me, because I knew my issue was not only that I couldn’t experience pleasure with a partner—I needed something on a deeper level. Previously, I had been taught things like, ‘Pleasure is for him,' or that I have to perform during sex. The toys were great—but it just wasn’t clicking for me. During this same time, I was living with a spiritual teacher and we were studying a lot about crystals and learning about subtle energy systems. One night, I went with him to this woman’s house and saw a crystal that was carved into a point, and realized that crystals can be carved and shaped. So, I thought, ‘Why not make one insertable?’ That way, you’re getting pleasure with a vibrational shift, while also having an orgasm.
You mentioned having to re-educate yourself sexually, which I think is a huge flaw in our current educational system, especially concerning women. What kind of significance do you think this structure has in our current society?
It’s so major. Something that I would love to see change—and a way that I feel Chakrubs could help—is by opening up a conversation between mothers and daughters. I’ve thought about this a lot and it’s a very progressive idea, but if Chakrubs was available when I was entering puberty and my mother had presented me with my own Chakrub, and took that as an opportunity to teach me about my body, my pleasure, self-love and boundaries, and said that it would help me explore all of these things, then maybe my life would have been different. It’s an opportunity to teach young women, but it's also something very sacred. A lot of parents get nervous about this subject, but sexual liberation teaches youth that’s it’s not this big thing—it’s a really happy medium.
That’s something I’d like to see because I think we need to start opening up conversation with young people about all of the things that have been coming to light recently. I think the entire concept surrounding sex and women is often taught as something negative, so to be able to switch that idea and actually give the power back to young women, is really liberating. Starting from a place of exploring yourself rather than it being just about being with a partner would really help women to be more self-aware in their journey into adulthood.
I know you guys offer a number of different toys, made from a bunch of different crystals, like the Jade Yoni Egg, for example. Can you tell me about the crystal healing practice that comes along with your toys?
Well, regarding the Jade Egg, [the Yoni Egg] is a practice that’s been around for centuries. I had no idea. So, when I started the company, people were asking me to provide this ancient practice that’s good for strengthening the pelvic floor and so many other things. When it comes to the healing properties, it really combines a physical strengthening as well as strengthening your relationship to your sacred space. The different crystals hold different meanings and properties.
What’s the difference between Rose Quartz and Jade, spiritually speaking?
I talk about a lot of this in my book, Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure. One thing I’m really passionate about teaching is why crystals work, and sort of taking away the mysticism behind them. But on a metaphysical level, Rose Quartz would be different from Jade first based on their history—each crystal holds a collective awareness of why it was used for a specific practice based on ancient usage. There’s also the color—colors vibrate on different frequencies—that’s just science. McDonalds uses red and yellow in their advertising because it evokes hunger. So, in terms of the Rose Quartz, its pink color is going to bring along feelings of comfort, peace and softness; whereas the green of Jade is going to be more associated with things like abundance. Finally, the shape holds a lot of meaning. The Jade egg toys represent fertility.
Out of every toy Chakrubs offers, which one is your favorite?
It depends! My favorite right now might be the Original Prism Chakrub—it’s just so pretty. It’s made of clear Quartz and the thing about clear Quartz is that it’s a very useful tool for intentions. It can be programmed with different things depending on what I need that day, but ultimately it’s very good for clarity.
You've published a book, you have a full sex toy line and there's also the Chakrubs blog, where you post about everything from politics to breast health and the benefits of CBD, to the zodiac. So, what’s next for your vision?
In 2019, we'll have a bunch of new products coming out, a few new books, and new wellness-based products, as well. But we’re also going to be doing a lot of more workshops. We're excited.
'Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure' is available now. Shop Chakrubs here.
Read our interview and peep some exclusive artwork, below.
When did you first start getting into illustration?
I’ve been an artist my whole life; this project, in particular, began around last July. I had been doing a lot of screenprinting work and collage work and nothing was turning out the way I wanted. Like, I had made tons of good work before, but I was just in such a rut for months. And then, I forget what even triggered it in my brain, but I was like, ‘I wanna make a line drawing.’ So, I did. I went to photo school, so I had a ton of photo gels lying around my apartment. So, I thought, ‘I’m going to collage color onto this,’ and then I put the finished piece on Instagram, and people liked it. So, I just didn’t stop making them.
So, the idea for line drawings just kind of popped into your head and you were like ‘I’ll work with the materials I have on hand, let’s do this.’
Yeah! I honestly feel like I’ve been giving myself the idiot’s illustration degree over the last year.
We’ll call it ‘self-taught.’ I’m the same way with shoot production and other little
endeavors I’ve found myself involved in.
Exactly—it’s pretty easy to teach yourself these things. And hell, I’m already 200 grand in the hole from school—I don’t need to go back. So, over this last year-and-a-half or so, I’ve been collaging onto the illustrations, using my Copic markers that are crazy stupid expensive. I’ve also been teaching myself watercolors. Just trying to spread out—I very much like to be the kind of artist where it’s like, ‘Throw a medium at me, I will make something happen.’
The subject matter and the results are always so you—they definitely have your signature on them. Lots of nudes and lots of sexy dudes.
And I like to be a little funny with it.
Tell me about your process for choosing your subjects—are you just imagining these scenarios or working from models?
Well, obviously, I am my own best model. I take a lot of self portraits—sometimes it’s obvious that the subject is me and sometimes I change things around to make it not look like me. I take a lot of inspiration from amateur Tumblr—I love amateur Tumblr.
Sometimes, I’ll just just get a really specific idea and I will scour the internet for reference photos and just collage everything together to make this new image. So, yeah, I make use of a lot of reference imagery which I then draw. Sometimes drawings that I make are the product of six or seven different images that I just mashed together into this Frankenstein monster. For example, there’s that drawing I have on my Instagram right now of the gay witch with a dildo broom—that’s the product of about six different images that I sourced and the base image was drawn from a guy on a stripper pole. I try to find ways around making things as easy as possible for myself—like, I turned a stripper into a witch on a broom.
Are there certain details you look for across different reference materials? Like, a certain kind of dick or certain kind of model?
I get very specific ideas sometimes, so usually, I’m looking for [a certain reference] and just scrolling for hours for the right one, or I’m spending like two and half hours taking one. Also, for a while, I was taking submissions from my Instagram followers, which was really fun. It was a little nuts because I got a lot of them, but then it became a problem because it was all I was doing—I wanted to make people happy.
It’s pretty tough to say no if someone’s going to send you an amazing nude. I mean, you could, but then they’d be like ‘Oh…’
A friend of mine, CJ—he’s the guy with the palm trees—approached me a couple of months ago and requested that I make a drawing of him because he’s trans. He was like, ‘Will you draw me with a dick?’ which was such a sick idea, so cool. I wanted to make the work really special for him, so I really put the work in on it and it ended up being one of the best portraits I’ve done. Not to say that I don’t treat everything with full energy, but you know—it was extra care.
How did he respond to seeing that vision of himself rendered so well?
He told me he cried, though I wasn’t with him when I sent it over to him. I don’t know if it was a hyperbole internet cry or a literal one. But it was really nice picturing him getting it in his email and just being really happy about it. With submissions and portraits of people, it’s all about making them happy for me. If I can give a little bit when I get a little bit, that's best.
Is that one of your goals for your practice overall? To give people a vision of themselves that they can be happy about?
Absolutely. I’ve spent so much time not being happy with myself, so maybe if I can give a little bit of good energy to anyone in the world—I’m happy about that.
As gay people, we go through a lot. There’s homophobia, there’s general ignorance, there’s struggling with accepting yourself. Has making your work helped you on a personal level?
Oh yeah. I find that making my work is often very meditative. I have a lot going on up here [taps head] and when I work, I really just shut everything else off. I don’t want to phrase it this way, but I feel like it’s the only word I’ve got at the moment—it’s like I go into a trance. My brain shuts off and it’s just like automatic writing at a certain point. Like, once I get there, the work just pours out. So, artwork helps me in that sense, where I chill out for a second, and when it’s all over I wake up and realize what I just made.
Do you think it’s important for queer people to celebrate who we are and make art about it?
Of course. Without getting too ‘identity politic-y,’ because that’s not what’s really important at the end of the day, but queer people do need representation. It’s so important. But it’s also like, do whatever the hell you want.
I feel that—if you don’t need representation as a queer person to get out of bed in the morning then amazing, that’s great for you. I personally can’t get enough of it. And as gay men in particular, a lot of people feel like our battles are being won in a certain way, or that we benefit from having the most visibility.
But that doesn’t mean everyone else’s battle is won.
Exactly. I also think there are many gay men who still don’t see themselves represented in the world—there’s a certain archetype of gay male who is visible in mainstream culture, but it’s very limited.
Across the entire spectrum there are still many fights left to fight. Even the heteronormative, white, straight-acting gay male type—I don’t think they realize that their fight isn’t even over. You can be the most acceptable version of anything but still oppressed in certain ways.
Have there been aspects of our current culture, outside of your own art practice, that have helped you stay mentally afloat during the last couple of years?
I haven’t seen her new show yet but Sarah Lucas was so important to me when I found her. She has her retrospective up at the New Museum right now. She came up during the young British artist era and she’s just fabulous. She strikes a really amazing chord between crass and hilarious. I’ve tried to stay away from certain popular queer media I guess—like, I still haven’t seen Call Me By Your Name. And there are all these conversion therapy movies coming out right now and I’m just like what the hell is that about? We have But I’m A Cheerleader—let that be.
I did see The Miseducation of Cameron Post for Sasha Lane, and I’m probably going to see Boy Erased for gay reasons— I need to see Nicole Kidman doing her thing.
Also Troye Sivan is in it. Troye, if you’re reading this—call me!
Any TV series or films you’ve watched lately that felt like a queer step forward?
There’s The Haunting Of Hill House—Theodora is a brilliantly written lesbian character. I loved that her sexuality wasn’t the only facet to her personality—it’s a footnote to who she is overall and generally, people that exist in the world, our sexualities are often a footnote to our lives. It shouldn't have to be our entire lives or what we focus on exclusively. It’s a huge part of who we are but like, you know—I’m not a flaming faggot every moment of the day. It’s not the most important thing at all times.
What else? I don’t know. It’s hard to find good queer representation in the mainstream. I’ve always been a big Adventure Time fan and they finally confirmed the Princess Bubblegum and Marceline relationship. That was another footnote-y moment for who the characters are—it wasn’t the climax of the episode. That was so nice, especially on a children’s show. They’re not the first to do it and they didn’t necessarily sneak it into the narrative, but it was just subtle and handled without drawing crazy unnecessary amounts of tension around it—they just did it how it happens in life.
Your work is very sexually-charged. Talk to me about why you weave a healthy amount of sex into your work?
I have a lot of work that I don’t share with people—like, I do a lot of flowers, as well. I always have. But around my sophomore year of college, I was in school for photography, and I had this professor who trapped me a little bit in a project that I just hated. Photo school is all about working in series and—this is so art school—one of our first assignments was to go out and photograph around a neighborhood that was unfamiliar to us. I came away from that assignment with a really strong picture of the Manhattan Bridge, and so for the rest of the semester I was stuck making bridge photos. I wanted to die—I absolutely hated the project. The only good photo that came of that was the first one, because it was the only one I actually felt like taking. Right after that, I did a complete 180 and started taking these nude self-portrait collages that were absolutely insane. That’s sort of where the sex and sexuality entered my work - ever since then, it has just not let go of me.
Up until recently, in my life sex has always been the issue—my sexuality has always been something that I never thought about much, but the world around me has had a lot to say about it. I moved when I was in the fourth grade and immediately I was being called gay and told that I talk like a girl—all of this nonsense, which now I look back at it and I’m like, ‘What's wrong with talking like a girl? Do you hate women?’ My sexuality has always been something that everyone else has something to say about and once I actually started fucking a dude and came out, I was still very much uncomfortable in my skin. Actually, really right around the time I started making the collage work I mentioned before is when I really dove headfirst into authentically being myself. I’m also just a horny fuck.
You’re perfectly able to channel that in an expressively unique way.
I approach the subject in a lot of different ways—I try to make it a joke in a way, and keep it lighthearted. Although it can make people a little uncomfortable. For a while I was collaging dicks from old porno mags onto pices of furniture, so I have a chair in my apartment that I’ve shown a couple of times and the entire seat is just covered in dicks and you have to sit on dicks. Some people are really excited to do it and other people are like, ‘Uhhhhh.’
It’s good that you’re uncompromising with that part of yourself and able to channel it into your work.
Someday, when I get a backer or something, I want to do a homewares line. For years, I’ve had a suction cup dildo in my bathroom as my toilet paper holder and whenever anyone uses that bathroom they pop out and are like, ‘Your toilet paper holder is really funny!’ and close the door again.
Do you think you’ll ever jump back into photography or any other medium you’ve worked in heavily before?
I’ve been thinking about a photo project lately, so maybe. I don’t know, we’ll see—I haven't done it in so long. I was using sort of toy cameras for the whole end of me taking photos, so I don’t know if my technical skills are still there. Like I said at the beginning of our conversation, I want to be the kind of artist where you can throw anything at me and I’ll be able to deal. I just have so many fucking ideas going on at all times. I’ve done a lot of screenprinting work and am absolutely desperate to get back into that. I’ve also made a bunch of videos in the past, but not really done anything with them, just because I’m never happy with the results of my video work. It’d be nice to get into performance just because I’m a theater kid. I feel like there’s this whole mentality where the entire room rolls their eyes when they realize performance art is about to happen. But I personally love it. I also secretly do a lot of writing that I don’t show anybody. Maybe one day if something is good enough I will put it out into the world.
Are we talking fiction writing or stuff from your real life?
We’re talking poetry—I’m not sitting around writing essays on theory. As a kid, I was always a little bit above my reading level and started writing poems when I was around 11 or something. It’s always been something I’ve done, I just don’t know how people would receive it because I don’t show anyone.
Maybe you can make a zine out of the writings. That’s the best part about doing indie print—the whole thing might cost you like $10 to make and it doesn’t have to be polished or fully realized.
I’ve been wanting to make a zine forever now—like, I have so many books of collage work that I’ve made that are ready to go. I just need to xerox them. Also, my drawings lend themselves so well to a coloring book. The way I present the final product with that work kind of has a coloring book feel to it because I just don’t follow any kind of color theory or anything like that at all. I’m working on a large-scale drawing right now similar to the group shots I shared with you here but that’s a total undertaking. I’m working with the lighting gels I mentioned before and cutting all the shapes out for it is a process.
How long do those panoramic-style works usually take you?
The first one I banged out in probably just two or three hours. The others I’ve needed to take much more time with to really get them right. The larger one I just mentioned is almost four feet long and I’ve just been staring at it—it’s such a big undertaking I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m ready for this!’
I have a couple of works in progress that are both the collaged gel and marker. Eventually, I think the one that’s four feet long is just going to be like a mish-mash of four different mediums. I’m really just gonna go a little cuckoo with it. [...] I mean, seriously, the world’s gonna end by 2020, so make the fuckin’ work.
If you were going to have an exhibition of your work would you want to show all the different mediums you work in or have it dedicated to a single aspect? And what would you title the show?
When I’ve had shows in the past it’s been a lot of different things going on just because I make a lot of different things. Maybe if a professional gallerist were to go through my work, they would have different ideas about that, but I feel like because there are so many different facets that I work in it would be a detriment to not give a rounded view. And to that end, let's call the show ‘A Rounded View.’ I’m all about a pun.
View more of Dick Wagner's work here.
Growing up in Sweden, Lust had a familiar first experience with porn. Watching it secretly with a girlfriend, she was aroused, but like a lot of other adolescent girls, felt kind of embarrassed, and hated the way women were portrayed on screen. Plus, she was disappointed by the actual film.
So, after studying for degrees in political science and gender studies, the Barcelona-based filmmaker tried her hand behind the lens. The result was the 2004 erotic short, The Good Girl, which sparked in Lust the desire to keep pushing porn forward and refocus it—away from the male gaze.
Since then, she’s developed her own brand of inclusive feminist porn that, aside from including the audience in its production, forces viewers to not only to witness female sexuality, but enjoy it—in all its forms.
office caught up with Lust to talk about feminism, sexual autonomy and being a mother and in porn.
How did you get into porn as an actual career? Is it something you ever thought you would do?
It started when I was studying Political Science and Gender Studies at university. I often tell people about the book that influenced me, which was Linda Williams’ Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the "Frenzy of the Visible". It gave me my lightbulb moment and I realized that pornography was a genre—a specific cinematic trend with its own history. It wasn't just ‘porn’ to me anymore—it was part of a discourse on sexuality making a statement and expressing ideologies and values on sex and gender. Williams explains that porn wants to be about sex, but on closer inspection, it's always about gender.
I was always a cinephile and I had fallen in love with Spain on my erasmus year, so after university, I moved to Barcelona to study filmmaking and decided I wanted to shoot an erotic film. I shot The Good Girl, which was a humorous take on the classic pizza delivery boy porn trope. To be honest, I can't really watch it now without cringing at my lack of experience, but it was a start and it changed my life. I uploaded it to the internet and made it available for free download. Next thing I know, it had over 2 million downloads in less than two months!
That's when I realized there were other people out there looking for alternatives to mainstream pornography, and I decided to start making adult films that reflected my own ideas and values on sex and gender. That's how it all began. I went on to direct four more adult features before starting XConfessions.com in 2013.
What was your experience with pornography growing up? Was it something you actively watched/enjoyed?
I have a pretty stereotypical and common story about my experience with porn growing up/ I was at a girlfriend's house having a sleepover when we found one of her dad's explicit DVDs. I cannot tell you how excited we were to discover the mysteries of sex. But oh god, were we disappointed! After that, I left it alone for a while until I was in college and my boyfriend at the time suggested watching some porn together. I gave it another try, but again, I was disappointed. I felt physically aroused but uncomfortable with the degrading behavior shown towards women and the complete neglect of their pleasure. Plus, the cinephile in me couldn't understand why all of the porn I saw completely lacked imagination, story line, relatable characters and cinematic qualities. I understood that it was solely for the purpose of arousal but I didn't understand why we had to forfeit the satisfaction of our other visual senses.
Do you think your academic background plays a part in how you both experience and create pornography? Like, do you feel like you're looking at it through a more academic lens?
Yes, I do think my education plays a big part in how I interact with porn. Having to study gender from a politicized angle at university meant I had to read academic literature and I was exposed to articulate arguments I hadn't thought about before. My studies were hugely valuable and really eye-opening for me. They equipped me with the language and knowledge to effectively describe what I had thought about porn, sexism and other matters about gender from a very young age.
Tell me about XConfessions. What was the idea behind it?
It came about very organically to be honest. After I made my first few films people started sending me emails with their sexual fantasies asking me to shoot them. At first, I had a blog and I would upload their confessions anonymously. As I got more and more, I realized that they were great ideas for films. So XConfessions was born in 2013 and now I choose two confessions from the public to make into a short film each month. It’s a crowdsourced project.
Why did you want to ‘break down the third wall’ in the sense that you're letting viewers come up with what they want to see?
Breaking down the third wall and letting the viewers tell me the films they want to see is great because the public's imagination is never-ending, and I get to discover sexual fantasies that I'd never even thought about before! Plus, everyone is a bit of an exhibitionist inside, so being able to confess their sex secrets anonymously can give them a bit of a buzz. One of the hottest projects I have recently discovered is the Casual Sex Project, where people write their real casual sex experiences. It's super arousing to read other people's fantasies and real stories—that's why I think XConfessions works so well. You read the confession, you imagine it and then you let yourself be surprised by how myself or a guest director represents it on the screen.
What are some XConfessions fantasies you've been surprised by? Or, some you thought you would receive but haven't?
XConfessions has taught me that inspiration, fantasies and arousal can come from all kinds of sensory experiences. For example, the confession we received for Pouring Pleasure particularly stood out to me. The way this person described the pouring rain in a tropical country—its soothing feeling and the erotic, romantic association it has. I could immediately imagine myself in the rainy season laying down naked on my terrace while the water came down on me, surrounded by euphoric people dancing in the streets. I've learned that sex and sexuality aren't limited to a narrow idea, and especially, not the idea of the predominantly white, middle aged, cis men running the free mainstream porn sites or the Greg Lansky’s and Dan Bilzerian’s of the world. Sex can be funny, or kinky, and it should be a wide, beautiful universe of sensuality and pleasure.
As far as the most common fantasy I receive, from the start, I thought I would receive a lot of threesome confessions—and I wasn't wrong, they're definitely the most popular.
How would you describe your place in the current porn landscape? Do you feel like you fit in?
I have always been very separate to the mainstream porn industry. I set myself apart from them very early on in my career when I said I wanted to do something different. I have always emphasized the importance of the cinematic and aesthetic part of the genre and that was not something that seemed to belong in their club.
There are more female filmmakers in the industry now who have loud voices and who stand by their work, which ultimately, I believe is one of the most important things to do in this industry. If you are proud of what you do and you have nothing to hide, you put your face out there if you can. This new porn landscape includes filmmakers such as Jacky St. James, Jiz Lee, Shine Louise Houston, Jennifer Lyon Bell, Madison Young, Bree Mills and Holly Randall, to name a few. Plus, with my ongoing guest directors open call, I also have that community of new filmmakers who want to show different sides of sexuality and other cinematic perspectives. It's great to be able to get more voices, more depictions of sex and sexuality, and more people doing something different to a lot of the mass produced stereotypical porn on the free tube sites—and it's great to have other sexualities and identities represented on screen without being fetishized.
What are you trying to change about the industry?
There are a few things that I want to address: my first mission was, and always will be, to show that women's pleasure matters. I want to show that women have their own sex drive and desires, and are not passive objects exclusively focused on pleasuring the men. XConfessions is adult cinema that is smart, sex positive and respectful to women. It offers a visual expression of real sex, women’s pleasure and female sexuality, which is not abundantly available on the mainstream market. Women have their own sexual agency and take ownership of their sexuality and their bodies. It doesn't matter if the film is kinky, romantic or anything in between—what empowers women is to have a voice in the story and to seek their own desire. And in turn, I can squash the belief that women aren't as aroused by sex on screen as men.
Another huge part of my mission is also to show that pornographic films can have cinematic qualities. Most of the typical mainstream porn on the free tube sites is devoid of cinematic quality and beauty. We've lost the Golden Age of pornography in the ‘70s when films were feature-length, released in theaters and reviewed by respected media. Now, we have low costs, no filmmaking prowess and low-grade quality. On XConfessions we invest around €17,000 in every short film. We pay a professional crew to work in styling, location, art direction, cinematography and we also invest in post-production, sound, color correction and take equal care of the arts and graphics that accompany the films.
I also want to help diversify the industry, which does not mean fetishizing and categorizing performers by their race, age or body type. I am really concerned with the way certain fantasies are presented and categorized in mainstream porn and the "othering" involved using this criteria. A lot of mainstream porn still puts all people of color into exoticized genres, set apart from “regular” porn. Porn has never been known for its delicate treatment of marginalized groups—and that clearly includes older performers too. When scenes are shot with MILFs, they don’t exactly set out to break down ageism, so much as to exploit it. The fetishization of age can be particularly egregious. Categorization is a very harmful issue for performers. There is a reduction of the performer to their primal feature (that being their size, age, ethnicity, etc.). Racism in the porn industry is jaw-dropping. Not only are the films marketed with racialized language, but the sexual content exclusively relies on racist stereotypes as a motive which dehumanizes the performers. Interracial porn is not a thing for me, for instance—it’s just people having a connection, having sex.
As far as the way women are portrayed in the industry, and in adult films, do you feel like that has changed for the better, at all?
There are definitely more women working in the industry doing amazing work which is having an effect on the way women's sexuality is being portrayed in adult films, but there is still a long, long, long way to go! Stereotypical gender roles are still very much pushed down our throats and the mainstream porn industry still includes female degradation and sex athletics involving men 'doing sex to women' or 'punishfucking' them.
What about on a larger scale—do you feel like women's relationships with porn have changed and/or become less stigmatized?
Yes, I think there has been a reduction of stigma towards women enjoying watching porn and masturbating. For years, women were told that porn was degrading and that we wouldn't, or shouldn't, be turned on by it. But women are sexual beings—we can be aroused by the representation of sex on screen just as much as men. Recently, there has been a cultural shift with regards to women feeling empowered to come forward and embrace their sexuality. However, at the same time, we are still experiencing the same online censorship regarding our naked bodies.
You have two daughters. Has being a mother changed your feelings about the industry? I guess, when you hear anti-pornography ‘advocates’ they always say reductionist things like, ‘Well, what if it was your daughter?’ You're a mother, and a porn director. So, what do you say to that?
Having daughters has increased my urge to address the problem of sex education. They are why I started The Porn Conversation with my husband Pablo. We have been working to provide parents and teachers with the tools they need to talk to teenagers about pornography. The website is full of practical, useful guides to encourage parents to talk to their kids about what they are going to see online; to tell them that it’s normal to be curious, but what they are going to see is a performance of sex and not what real sex is actually like; that a lot of the people they see in the films are not representative of the average body and that you shouldn’t treat women the way they are treated in a lot of the porn on the free tube sites.
The problem we have right now is that good, useful sex education is lacking, pretty much everywhere. We know that a huge percentage of schools are not providing adequate sex education. At no point in a child's education does anyone teach them about consent, which seems pretty important, no? Our kids aren’t oblivious to sex—they hear about it from the society around them and go straight to Google to find answers. And unfortunately, pretty much every time you type something sex-related into a search engine, you’ll be greeted by something like PornHub where you'll be bombarded with a lot of degrading, disrespectful sex or kink which doesn’t always appear to be consensual. We can't stop kids from finding these sites, so instead of ignoring it, let's educate them. By acknowledging porn, it immediately becomes less shameful and opens up a dialogue, which leads to healthy, active learning.
Porn is always going to exist, so giving kids the tools to be critical and aware of what they’re watching is unbelievably important. They should be able to differentiate between the types of porn and also understand what respectful, equal sex is that consenting adults can enjoy. When they are old enough, they will see that certain porn can promote gender equality, intimacy, diversity, affirmative consent, safety, pleasure and sexual freedom and exploration. By learning to distinguish between different types of sex they see around them, kids will develop much healthier attitudes towards sex and relationships. By having open and honest conversations, they’ll have the opportunity to discuss their feelings, communicate their sexual desires and be happier people for it!
Do you feel like you have to spend a lot of time defending yourself for working in the porn industry? Both as a woman, and a feminist.
I definitely did at the beginning of my career and I definitely still do. Often people are still more offended that I am a feminist than a pornographer. People are bothered by my feminist perspective—they don't want me to 'touch their porn' and don't want to acknowledge that a lot of the mainstream porn can be sexist. The films that persist with gender role stereotyping, and portray male pleasure as more important than female. The scene typically unfolds through the male gaze and the cumshot seems to be mandatory to end the scene. The female character is being used to satisfy others, but not themselves.
It's funny because some people don't think that I'm ‘enough’ of a feminist, and of course, I can not please everyone. But I think there is something interesting happening within the movement at the moment. We each approach feminism in our own way, and obviously it is constantly growing and expanding, but it seems that now our feminism is suddenly under intense scrutiny and the purview of a legion of judgemental people looking to police and find faults in other women’s actions. It is undeniable that because I'm a woman who is vocal about what I dislike in the industry and because I'm pushing to have an impact, that I will attract a lot of criticism. I don't see half of the criticism I receive being given to male LA studio owners, who by the way, have done nothing to change a thing.
There is still some backlash against feminist pornographers because we live in a society that is often sex negative, especially towards women, and there is still a lot of confusion over exactly what ‘feminist porn’ is.
So, what is it for you?
For me, feminist porn reclaims a genre that has traditionally been seen exclusively as the purview of men. It's made by feminist directors who directly inject their feminist values into the films. Women have leading roles behind the camera as directors, producers, art directors, directors of photography, etc. making active decisions about how the film is produced and presented, and the stories are told through the female gaze. Feminist porn creates a sex positive space for women to reclaim their sexuality, pleasure and desires. Women are shown with sexual agency, owning their pleasure. Men and women are treated as sexual collaborators, not as objects or machines. The films promote role equality and there is no gender stereotyping, which is ultimately harmful for both men and women.
In the films, the culture of consent is paramount. There is never any simulation of coercion, pedophilia or abuse. There is no depiction of aggressive violent sex or rape scenes (not to be confused with BDSM practices). Diversity is key and the films push the representation of human sexuality and identity, showing the diverse ways of desiring and having sex. Marginalised groups are represented without being fetishized or categorized.
Feminist porn is so important because we need to show the world that female pleasure matters. Not because male pleasure doesn't matter, but because we've been watching a type of porn that completely ignores women's sexuality for too long. And it’s important to understand that porn has the power to liberate! It doesn’t have to be a negative part of our society. We can create porn where people can see themselves in those films, to see the sex they have, to be inspired, become educated and receptive to the huge range of different sexualities out there. And most importantly, they don't need to be exposed to one version of porn that teaches them toxic values.
Within the feminist movement itself, I think there's a divide between women who like porn, and others who feel it’s, as a whole, ‘un-feminist.’ I, personally, when it comes to feminism, don't think there's a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it—it's a personal thing. But what's feminism to you? And how does that affect what you do, working in an industry that has a lot of—I don't want to say ‘un-feminist,’ but misogynistic tendencies?
For me, feminism is the belief that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities in all aspects of life. It is sisterhood and it's about female sexual liberation. Supporting another woman's right to do whatever she wants—however different another's woman expression may be from yours. Women should be free to express and experience sexuality however they choose to do so.
In terms of the divide between feminists on the porn debate, there are two concepts that many anti-porn activists tend to disregard: firstly, women are sexual beings and they also get aroused by sex on screen. Secondly, many women in the porn industry are empowered and elevated by what they do. That is one of the ways they choose to use their freedom. They encounter situations they don't like for sure and some days they might not feel like going to work and having sex on camera, but that is no different than any other job in any other industry. There is this wrong idea that porn (and prostitution) is always exploitative for women, which isn't true. Sex work exclusionary feminists take all autonomy away from female sex workers and feed the stereotype that women do not have their own sexuality or desires. They conflate sex work with sex trafficking and perpetuate the stereotype that sex workers are victims or are driven to a demeaning lifestyle by a damaged history. Do they ever speak to sex workers in the industry about their experiences? Do they ever speak to those sex workers who have chosen this profession because they enjoy it, or because they want to make money? No, they don't, because it wouldn't fit with their narrative.
In terms of the industry, it's true that the word ‘porn’ has been corrupted by sexist porn. Feminist porn makers often criticise mainstream porn, not to shame people who enjoy it or star in it, but to question and highlight that extreme porn has become the norm—that extreme and often violent porn has become mainstream. That is due to the misogyny in society as a whole. Objectification is not an inherent product of the medium of explicit films itself. The actual definition of pornography is ‘printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement.’ Porn doesn't have to objectify women—sexist people choose to do so. The medium of explicit films can be used as a tool to portray healthy, consensual, happy sex between equals. Pornography as a medium can be used in a positive or negative way as everything else. It can definitely be a tool for women’s sexual expression and for people in general to get rid of taboos.
My mission in life is to spread the joy of sex-positive feminism. I am advocating for female pleasure and have been working over the years to change porn, improve sex education and change unhealthy attitudes towards sex.
What do you think is the difference between female-directed porn and male-directed porn? Both for the actors on set, but also, from the audience's perspective?
In my experience, in terms of the audience perspective, when it's female-directed there are less close up, gynecological shots. This seems basic, but if there's a male performer on my set I also include his head in the shots. So much male directed porn is close ups of the female, her vagina, and the male performer is basically just a dismembered penis. It's quite odd. Myself and a lot of the female filmmakers who I admire are more concerned with capturing the whole feeling of sex—the passion and the pleasure, instead of a mechanical shoot of what it looks like.
When a woman is directing porn, she avoids displaying the woman as a spectacle or portraying her as a passive object of desire. We refuse to make the female body an object of a predatory gaze. When it comes to the performers, I can only speak from experience of what they have told me, but on my sets, it is mostly women and we have a big crew. This can make some male performers quite nervous who are used to small crews made up of solely men. But it’s a really nice, supportive and safe environment for the female performers who are used to being surrounded by men on set.
So, your crews are mostly full of women?
From the moment I created Lust Films I knew I wanted to get more women in positions of power in all aspects of the business. It can vary slightly but it's usually 80% women when I’m working on set, with women working as camera people, producers, editors, runners. My office is mostly female and the heads of each department on the production team are women, including the directors of photography and art. The female viewpoint is vital for me and to really get that I need to have a predominantly female team. You can see a video of my team here.
I think a lot about the male gaze when consuming any art. So, when I think about all film, including pornography, that comes into play. When you have men writing female characters and their stories, then actually directing the films, what does that do to the female experience?
When men are making and directing adult films, they're catering for the male viewer and his pleasure. The ideal spectator is always assumed to be male, and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him. The female becomes the object of the combined gaze of filmmaker, male performer and male viewer. This multiple male gaze means that the woman becomes a passive object to be looked at, while the man is the active subject. Automatically her sexuality is defined by the male, she does not have her own sexual autonomy without him.
As for the women watching these films, it means that her experience is always secondary to the male viewer. As Laura Mulvey taught us [in her book, Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema], the male gaze suggests that the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male. In porn, this means that she sees sex and sexuality through male eyes looking at women as an object. The male gaze creates a power imbalance by supporting a patriarchal status quo, perpetuating women's real-life sexual objectification.
In general, do you think porn is more targeted for men? Is that something you're trying to change with your films?
I think the mass majority of porn on the free tube sites is still targeted towards men. It's definitely something I want to change with my work, to show that women can enjoy porn too. It’s a common assumption to say that women apparently don't find as much pleasure in looking as men do, but we need to look at this in a broader context. When we're looking, who looks and who gets looked at? It's a question of power and historically the gaze is male, while women are the objects being looked at. Sex images make you hot, but is it really surprising if women don't ‘respond’ to images and films made by men and for men?
Women have always been told what to do with their bodies and with whom, and this is yet another example. For years, we were told that we wouldn't, or shouldn't, be turned on by it. But women are sexual beings, we can be aroused by representation of sex on screen just as much as men.
Is feminist porn inherently political?
I guess to a certain extent, yes. Porn is a discourse on gender and sex, thus porn itself is political. I feel conflicted to call all feminist porn political, though. I don't go into every film I make thinking that I want to make a political statement. To me, showing female pleasure and sexual agency isn't a political act. But I know that unfortunately some people don't see it as a normal thing. I think some of my films are certainly more political than others, but I wouldn't say that it's automatically always political just because I'm a feminist making films with my feminist values.
What do you want people to take away from your films?
That female pleasure matters. I also want to show that porn and art don't need to be mutually exclusive. I want to bring beauty and cinematic value back into adult films. Along with other filmmakers, I want to return to a Golden Age style of pornography and return the industry's lost legitimacy; to show that porn doesn't need to be one-dimensional, it can be artistic, have a storyline, character development, cinematic values. Porn can be a part of artistic sexual expression and experimentation.
All photos by Erika Lust; courtesy of the artist.
