How to Make Porn for Women

Erika Lust is something of a film connoisseur -- and her genre of choice is porn. An award-winning director and co-founder of Lust Films in Barcelona, Erika knows the (ahem!) ins and outs of the adult film biz, but she isn’t pleased with a lot of what she sees. While big tits, money shots, bad acting, and fake orgasms might pique men’s erotic interests, Lust believes films that satisfy women’s needs require something different.

Her book Good Porn: A Women’s Guide (Seal Press) walks novices though a pornographic landscape that has traditionally been pretty unsavory for women, and leads them to a more desirable place where female perspectives and power abound.

As someone who co-founded a company that produces adult films, and has directed such films yourself, what part do you see yourself playing in the porn industry?

I do not consider myself to be a part of the so-called adult business. The porn industry does not like me, and I don’t feel comfortable [with] them either. The [stereotype of the] average producer and director in the mainstream porn industry is a single, chauvinist male in his 60s who is a womanizer or even a pimp. He drinks, he smokes, and he has very little style or emotional intelligence. I’m a 33-year-old, married mother of two girls and an innovative entrepreneur with degrees in political science and feminism. Mainstream porn directors and I belong to different worlds, and we have different ideas about what kinds of films we want to make. Other new directors and I are industry outsiders who fight for an alternative approach to adult cinema.

Is that why you decided to write Good Porn?

People, especially women, are skeptical about the idea that good porn is possible. I wrote the book because of the many times I was questioned about my approach to making adult films. I don’t want to change the face of porn; I just want some diversity. I have no problem with movies like Fuck Sascha Grey, Cum Spewing Holes, Cougar Mammoth Cock Hunt, or Gangbang Junkies. If people want to buy those films, good for them! I just want some of the porn out there to be made for women. Imagine if you could only watch Terminator movies in the cinema, and you prefer to watch a movie by Sofia Coppola. Is that too much to ask?

Good Porn is a sort of Porn Industry 101 that is aimed at women who are inexperienced with porn, mainstream or otherwise. What can readers expect to take away from the book?

I want to guide women who have little or no knowledge of porn through the complex world of adult movies. If you want to find good movies in general, you have to know about cinema as a whole. The same goes for porn; if you want to find good porn, you have to know what it’s all about first.

A standard feminist critique of porn is that it exploits women. What do you say to women who are uncomfortable with this aspect of the adult film industry?

Women are, and have been, exploited all over the world throughout history. Porn exploits women. The fashion industry exploits women. The music industry exploits women. Actresses are being abused by producers and agents everyday in the cinema business. We only blame porn because it’s an obvious and direct exploitation, but the subtle ways women are exploited in other areas of life are sometimes worse. So, yes, it’s true that some women are exploited in porn. Some men are exploited too. But actors and actresses are taking control of their careers, and some are becoming their own producers and directors. It’s an evolving industry, and I believe that having more women in powerful positions will help to improve this situation.

Can porn be made by and for women and still be anti-feminist?