Yes, Feminist Porn Exists — Here’s Where To Find It
In a previous article, I wrote about how I used porn to help discover my sexuality. In the process of writing a book with two female characters who fell in love, as a person who had no experience with that myself, I used porn to help me write realistic sex scenes. A commenter who had obviously only read the Facebook intro and not the article itself left a sarcastic comment about how ridiculous it was that I thought I could use porn to learn about any kind of realistic sex.
My response was defensive. Of course you can find porn that depicts realistic sex. You just have to know how to look for it. In my head, I was equating the porn I watched — porn that depicted realistic-ish sex not tailored to the male gaze — with feminist porn.
While it’s true that you can find porn that depicts realistic (or fantasy-based), consensual, sex-positive, super-hot sex that doesn’t cater to the male gaze, none of that guarantees you’re watching feminist porn.
In reality, the only way porn can be feminist is if you’re paying for it. I wasn’t doing that, and I was wrong.
If we care about the humanity of the performers in the videos we watch — i.e., want them to be cared for, safe, and well-compensated — we really have to pay for our porn. If we get it for free from the various “tube” porn sites that pop up in a google search, we’re most likely viewing stolen content. We have no idea how it was made, how the performers were treated, or whether they were paid fairly for their labor. They almost certainly are not earning anything from our stolen views.
Not only are these platforms full of stolen content, but Porn Hub and other similar free sites are breeding grounds for extremely problematic porn content, not the least of which is child sex trafficking and abuse. Unless and until these sites clean up their problematic content and ensure the income from the content they provide is actually going to the porn workers, we shouldn’t watch them.
I know. I’m bummed too.
But anyway, now that we’re all on the same page, here are my top 10 favorite places to find smoking hot feminist porn to suit all your fantasies — ethically. Fair warning, none of the links below are safe for work. 😉
1. The Indie Porn Revolution
Created in 2002 under the name “NoFauxxx.com,” the goal with this company is to provide a home for “ladies, artists, and queers” to make the kind of pornographic content they weren’t seeing in the world but wished they were. Memberships are offered in 5-day, 14-day, monthly, or multi-month subscriptions. Content includes everything from queer BDSM to ballet.
2. Pink Label TV
A scroll through their site confirms this site has a little something for everyone, including a robust collection of free feminist porn, an erotic education section, and a section called “The Feminist Porn Gaze.”
3. Literotica.com
Our only completely free option. If you’re like me and a well-written x-rated sex scene can send you to the moon, check out this collection of free stories. Submissions are screened to ensure competent writing, and you can search by interest.
4. Bright Desire
Calling itself a “celebration of sex,” this award-winning site aims to highlight all the best parts of sex — “intimacy, laughter, connection and real pleasure.” Included in their collection are real couples having sex as well as plenty of erotic and fantasy situations. They also have a literotica section. Membership comes in 30-day or 90-day increments and gains you access to their entire collection.
5. XConfessions
This indie porn site run by Erica Lust literally turns users’ confessions, fantasies, and desires into movies. How amazing is that? Subscribe by the month to have full access to their diverse 250-movie catalog, and trust that performers are being treated with care based on their publicly stated ethics statement.
6. Good Dyke Porn
If you love vagina-vagina porn (and many straight folks as well as queer do love this genre!), for $9.99 per month you can access a little bit of everything on this inclusive, queer owned, operated, and performed site. “We are real dykes, who identify as lesbian, queer, bisexual, transgender, butch, femme, in-between, shy, exhibitionist, dominatrix, submissive, and other.” Um, is it getting hot in here?
5. Lady Cheeky
They call their content “smut for smarties.” The site is set up like Tumblr and populated with erotic images and gifs. Tons and tons of content.
6. Dane Jones
This site is a bit more mainstream based on what I can see in their clips, but the stated goal of the site is to be more sensual, romantic, and focused on female pleasure. They offer a collection of free content on their site as well as a monthly subscription service.
7. A Four Chambered Heart
For lovers of artistic porn, this gorgeous, inclusive site has a collection of stunning erotic stills and movies that completely defy the expectations of the porn genre while still being smoking hot. There is quite a bit of free content on this site as well. My favorite part is their lengthy transparency statement, where they say they reject the labels of “feminist” and “ethical” for a host of reasons that make me feel they might just be the most ethical and feminist creator I’ve yet found. My personal favorite in this list.
8. Crash Pad Series
A division of Pink and White Productions, the queer-friendly Crash Pad series produces adult entertainment that reflects the blurring of modern gender lines and fluid sexualities. This site has a monthly subscription feature but offers referral discounts.
9. OnlyFans
Another way to view porn ethically is to support performers directly through their OnlyFans accounts. Of course it’s possible that a person could still be exploited using this platform, but OnlyFans has an identity verification process that helps mitigate those potential issues. So if you enjoy a particular performer’s content, put money directly into their bank accounts by subscribing to their OnlyFans page.
Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list. The point here is, lots of us enjoy porn, and there’s no shame in that. But if we’re deriving pleasure from other people’s labor, we need to do our best to ensure they are being compensated and cared for. Otherwise we can’t really call ourselves feminists.
