cabaret desire

Cabaret Desire (stills)

Cabaret Desire, the latest film of feminist porn maker Erika Lust, is inspired by an actual New York-based Poetry Brothel with branches around the world, including in Barcelona:

The Poetry Brothel, a unique and immersive poetry experience, takes poetry outside classrooms and lecture halls and places it in the lush interiors of a bordello. The Poetry Brothel presents poets as high courtesans who impart their work in public readings, spontaneous eruptions of poetry, and most distinctly, as purveyors of private poetry readings on couches, chaise lounges and in private rooms. The Poetry Brothel is a place of uninhibited creative expression in which the poets and clients can be themselves in private.

Apparently, The Poetry Brothel from New York and its Barcelona branch participated in the making of Cabaret Desire with their "high courtesans," or "whores" as they also call themselves. Explains Erika:

strawberry seductress' art core

I am working on an article about the "art core" films of German-born Petra Joy (b. 1964) who lives and works in Great Britain. In the US, Joy's work has recently been featured by Candida Royalle under her Femme Productions label. Comments Royalle: “Joy’s work is completely unique and never wavers from her commitment to a feminine vision.”

Joy founded Strawberry Seductress in 2004 and has since produced four of her own films, and two collections featuring re-visioned porn by other women. Her focus is on female pleasure and sensuality.

Joy’s motto is “feeling it, not faking it” and she prefers to work with amateurs and couples who’re together outside of the set as well.

While seeking to capture real chemistry, Joy also aspires to create artistic films, however: "art core." Her films--typically shorter vignettes--reflect a penchant for soft hues and filters, and are less about crescendoing to climax and more about a creative lingering on sensual intimacy. The vignettes integrate artsy shots of food play, sex toys, role-play, lush feather displays, burlesque silhouettes, and other artistic props and effects, including blurry dimmed filters in soft red hues, floating camera movements, and dissolving images fading in and out. There is no dialog; the vignettes are instead accompanied by mellow bluesy soft cabaret jazz music.

I will let you know when my article is complete and up at Good Vibrations Magazine.

Update: My article was published at Good Vibrations Magazine on October 13:
Feeling It! Petra Joy's "Art Core"

re-visioned porn by women reflects growing gender equality

A new study on the correspondence between a country's relative gender equality and the degree of female "empowerment" in each country's porn had me thinking about my chapter contribution to Generation P?. As I show in this article, women have been re-visioning porn to match a time of greater gender equality for years. And it's their porn that appeals to the sexually emancipated and empowered young modern female porn consumer.

As I also argue in my After Pornifed book, this kind of porn is becoming a surefire counterweight to all bad porn and pornified media that discriminates against women as well as men.

brief update

Earlier this week, I was approached with an invitation to contribute with an article based on my book to an anthology on feminist porn. Then a progressive magazine aimed at women invited me to write an article for them on feminist porn. I am excited to write both as soon as I get over this nasty head cold that has turned into an even worse sinus infection. Despite a throbbing headache, I did manage to complete my article on Eva Midgley's lush erotic vignettes, however; it was published today at Good Vibrations Magazine: Erotic Moments from Eva Midgley.

Oh; I am also working on revamping my sites. You might notice that a lot of the gadgets are gone from the sidebars here. I am developing a platform for all my sites, including Love, Sex, and Family and my blogs (this one and quizzical mama). A lot of the information that's been replicated at the different sites, will be published only at my platform/author page. Watch for a slicker, cleaner look to come (shortly).