Here's Your Ultimate Guide To Feminist, Ethical Porn (You're Welcome)
Your world is about to get rocked… ethically.
To answer the question, “Do women have sex drives?” — a query my 12-year-old self could have answered in about three seconds, with a pillow and a library copy of Twilight — a group of German neuroscientists conducted a study in 2019 that definitively cracked the case. The conclusion, of course, was yes: An analysis of brain images from a variety of sources showed researchers from the Max Planck Institute that erotic images make people of all genders horny as heck. Groundbreaking. But even with this knowledge, most statistics find that men remain significantly more likely to watch porn than women. You don’t even need a German neuroscience degree to puzzle out why: Most porn caters exclusively to the male gaze. That is, it once did. Today, however, there’s a growing number of porn sites designed to appeal to female viewers, and they’re well worth your clicks.
Mainstream porn has a reputation for being highly produced and somewhat unnatural-looking, two things that can pull people — particularly those socialized as female, who have been conditioned to criticize their bodies — out of the moment. Plus, a lot of mainstream porn features sex acts that don’t look all that enjoyable for female and female-bodied performers. Adult filmmaker Angie Rowntree believes ethically produced feminist porn — or porn made with women and those socialized as female in mind — provides a much-needed alternative to porn that centers male pleasure.
In 1999, she founded Sssh.com, one of the first porn sites to bill itself as “ethical,” which crowd-sources script ideas from fantasies shared by its members. “Seeing how mainstream porn was male-centric, with a focus on male fantasy that generally neglected the desires of female consumers — because the assumption was that women did not watch porn — I wanted to fill that void and create porn where female pleasure was at the forefront,” she says. “I also wanted to artistically push back at the prevailing myth that women are not as visually stimulated or as aroused by porn as men are.”
Since then, the porn industry has only continued to expand. Maitland Ward, an adult film actor from Vixen Media Group’s Deeper.com, says that women and feminist porn producers have driven considerable progress within the adult entertainment industry. She tells Elite Daily that many major porn productions are now helmed by women, thanks in large part to the success of feminist porn.
But what actually constitutes “feminist” porn? Should you be watching it? And where would you even start? Take some advice from these adult entertainment experts who all agree: Ethical productions are the future of porn. Your web browsers will thank you.
What Is Feminist Porn?
Unlike conventional forms of porn that are found all over the internet, usually for free, Rowntree tells Elite Daily that in order for porn to be considered “feminist” or “ethical,” it must prioritize consent, agency, and transparency.
“Feminist filmmakers typically negotiate everything with the actors in advance, so everyone is fully and enthusiastically consenting to all planned sex acts, feels safe and respected throughout the process, and is paid a fair rate for their work,” she says.
Ward agrees that a defining characteristic of good, feminist, ethical porn is a commitment to respecting the bodily autonomy of all those involved. But that doesn’t mean feminist porn can’t also be extremely kinky. “It can be a completely twisted, taboo scenario but if it’s handled by consenting adults who are aware, along with their audience, that this is an adult fantasy space, then I believe that’s ethical porn,” she says.
Skye Blue, a porn star and entertainer for SNCTM, says feminist porn also tends to be more natural and less manufactured than mainstream porn.
“My favorite producers all choose scripts that have dialogue that seems familiar to our actual sexual encounters and then allow us to do the scene ‘gonzo style,’ where we have sex the way we want to. No cutting, no positioning, just all us,” she tells Elite Daily. “They hold the camera and follow the action as naturally as possible, they include breaks for lube and water, and even include after care. It’s a much more accurate depiction of what would happen in the bedroom, which is what a lot of women prefer to see when masturbating.”
How Can You Tell If The Porn You’re Watching Was Ethically Produced?
As a viewer, it’s not always obvious whether or not an adult film has been produced ethically. But Rowntree has a checklist that can help audiences think more critically about the porn they consume:
- Do you, the consumer, have to pay to access the content?
- Does the site tell you anything about the company, the director(s), the founder, its ethos?
- Is this company on social media and engaging with the porn community?
- Does the company have a performer Bill of Rights on their site?
- Does the company offer contact information?
- Is the company approved by or does it hold membership to any industry organizations?
- How is the site marketing its content? Does it use tropes for descriptions (i.e. MILF), or does it humanize the performers?
According to Rowntree, the list is not all-encompassing, but it’s a good start. “Consider every box a site ticks as a positive, more than thinking of the absence of these elements as a negative,” she suggests.
What’s The Best Way To Support Ethical Porn Producers?
The best things in life are free… except your porn. While there are differing opinions about paying for content, most adult industry professionals agree that the most ethical porn is the porn you pay for.
If you’re sourcing your porn from a corner of the internet that doesn’t explicitly identify itself as an ethical or feminist platform, Blue says the best way to support ethical porn performers is to buy it directly from the performers themselves. Many performers post their own work on sites like OnlyFans and Patreon, and some will post directly on their personal websites, with a paywall.
“If I’m uploading it, it’s because I loved the scene and I want others to view it,” she says. There’s more of a gray area with mainstream brands and tube sites, she explains, because a lot of larger companies require their performers to complete paperwork and actually film the scene before they receive payment. In that scenario, even if a performer wasn’t comfortable with a scene, the company technically owns the rights to the content and can post it without further consent.
That being said, Blue emphasizes that plenty of performers will upload shortened clips of their own work as advertisements for their paid content, and the ad revenue from those videos can help sustain them, too.
I’m Interested In Watching Feminist Porn — Where Should I Start?
I asked Rowntree, Ward, and Blue who the best ethical porn producers are right now, and their answers varied widely.
Aside from Sssh, which was one of the first “Porn For Women” sites ever created, Rowntree suggests checking out ManyVids, OnlyFans, and iWantClips to find content that’s being posted directly by performers. “There’s some very lovely and genuine expressions of passion and creativity to be found on these platforms,” she says.
Ward suggests perusing Vixen Media Group’s offerings, which include brands such as Vixen and Tushy. She’s partial to Deeper, however, which she says is especially known for its thoughtful scripts, mainstream quality, and female-driven productions. Deeper’s work, Ward says, is truly “groundbreaking.”
“If you would’ve told anyone some years back that porn fans would be ravenously following a story and commenting on the writing and the acting, I don’t think anyone would believe it,” she says. “But that’s who our audience is and it’s been remarkable.” Her favorite performers are Aubrey Kate, a trans performer whom she worked with on the set of the second season of her porn show Muse, and Dante Colle, a bisexual male performer with whom she’s also worked.
For Blue, LustCinema — a company created by filmmaker Erika Lust — is the industry player producing the highest-tier ethical, feminist porn. “They’re really blending cinema and porn so beautifully and taking care of every employee involved,” she says. She adds that Lust pays all her performers an equal rate. This means there’s no wage discrimination based on gender or race, which is a common grievance among BIPOC performers in mainstream porn spaces.
Blue also loves the work of several individual, independent creators, including Cam Damage, Freja Noir, Odette Octillion, Nicole Emma Vaunt, and Tay Allard. She admires them for their independence. “When you own all your content, you're in full control of your income,” she says.
Whether you love a romantic side plot, hardcore BDSM, or both, there’s bound to be a feminist pornographer out there who will tick your boxes and get your rocks off.
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