I have
some very diverse gay and bisexual female friends and very
few admit to enjoying mainstream lesbian porn. It’s
something that has baffled me over the last few years. The
argument that is given most often is that mainstream
lesbian porn is created primarily with men in mind,
featuring situations and models that are geared toward
pleasing that particular section of the audience. The
derogatory phrase ‘Lesbian porn for boys’ is
one that’s been banded around for a long time and one
that I find offensive to both men and women.
There seems to be a
culture of belief that women in porn are being exploited.
It’s a legacy that’s been passed down through
generations, from way back when. It’s true that there
are many areas of life where women are still getting a raw
deal equality-wise, but after reviewing in excess of 200
sites I’m pretty sure that the online adult industry isn’t
one of them. In fact, it’s an area where many women are
the ones who are in a position to do the exploiting.
A surprisingly large
number of websites are run, produced and created by women
who take control of the content they serve up to a
porn-loving public. In many cases, the model of the
site is also the webmaster. It’s an area where the girls
really are doing it for themselves - in more ways than
one!
There’s no doubt that
porn used to be a male-dominated industry and a lot of
older material had very little to no input from the women
in front of the camera but in the climate of the early 21st
century things are being turned on their side. Yet many of
my friends stick by their view. Should we really snub an
industry because of the way things used to be without
giving it an opportunity to redeem itself? Or is it me who’s
in the wrong? Should I be the one to reassess my views and
start looking more deeply into what I’m being shown,
questioning whether it’s something I should be enjoying
or whether it’s aimed at the opposite sex?
Yes, lesbian sites
will always be enjoyed and subscribed to mostly by men.
The main reason for that is that there are simply a lot
more straight men around than there are gay women. That
doesn’t necessarily mean that the content of the site is
geared toward them in particular.
A fitting analogy
would be the movie industry (no, not the adult one!)
Although there will be both men and women who enjoy every
film that is released, action movies will always
have a slightly larger male following and romance movies
will always have more of a female following. Does
that mean that women can’t enjoy action movies and men
can’t get into the odd romance? No, it doesn’t. If it
did then films would be rated ‘M.O.’ or ‘W.O.’ for
Men Only or Women Only instead of PG, 15, 18 etc.
For every person that
disputes the validity of mainstream lesbian porn there
will be another who enjoys it. When I look at lesbian
porn I check for certain things - do I find the models
attractive? Are they doing something that I find
appealing? Do they appear to be enjoying themselves? What
I don’t ask is, would I be enjoying it more if I
were a man?
There’s no right or
wrong side to the argument. There will doubtlessly be some
sites and shoots that look awkward and posed but that’s
true across all genres. Women are taking a larger
bite of the porn pie, both in terms of creating content
and enjoying it, and this in itself will improve the
amount of lesbian material that gay women can enjoy. But
we have to remember to open our eyes to these changes once
in a while. Things don’t stay the same - and in an
ever-expanding industry there’d bound to be something
out there for everyone - it just might take a little while
to find it!
