The idea of feminist porn may seem strange to anyone with a conservative impression of porn. Traditionally, porn has catered to men while tentpoling its success on the female form. Some feminists have declared porn and sex work as dehumanizing spaces for women.
Frequent reports of abuse, like the recent Ryan Madison sexual abuse allegations, paint a picture of a predatory industry. Within the industry, a disproportionate number of men hold power over the narratives surrounding sex and pleasure. “[W]hoever’s behind the camera is basically writing the story,” filmmaker Shine Louise Houston tells the Daily Dot when speaking about black women creating porn. “And if all we have are white cis guys writing their story, those are the only stories we have.”
Fortunately, a growing number of people are looking for a more well-rounded illustration of pleasure politics. Women and queer folx are creating porn for women, establishing studios, and inserting themselves in creative roles. In doing so, they’re rearranging priorities of porn productions and making way for the new era of feminist pornography.
What is feminist porn?
Genre tags on mainstream porn sites cater to specific kinks and sex acts, but feminist ideals aren’t so easily defined. Feminist porn isn’t an “I know it when I see it” concept. Truly feminist porn is best expressed through ethical porn production standards behind-the-scenes. Still, there are a few trademark principles to finding feminist porn sites.
Feminist porn is worth paying for
Feminists believe that women should be paid fairly for their work. Free porn may seem like a 21st-century allowance, but it doesn’t always provide means for creators to get paid. Spending your almighty dollar on good quality feminist sites helps keep studios and indie producers in business. Paying for content means studios can pay cast and crew fair wages. It’s the most effective way for you to support creators that build a culture of consent on set. It also helps then make arrangements for performers’ safety.
“If you care about the conditions under which your food was made and your jeans were made, then you should care about the conditions under which your pornography was made,” sex podcast host Tristan Taormino explained in a report by BuzzFeed News.
Feminist porn changes the culture of pleasure
A 2016 study of over 3,000 people recorded a 30% orgasm inequity amongst heterosexual cis-gendered couples. Unsurprisingly, men cum out on the winning side. It’s overwhelmingly common for mainstream porn to fake, misrepresent, or altogether exclude women’s pleasure. Whether this art is imitating or influencing life, feminist porn sites promote videos that dismantle this inequity. On set, creators emphasize real orgasms, enthusiastic consent, and real chemistry between performers. Porn that features organically pleasurable sex packs substantially more heat for the viewers.
Feminist porn elevates marginalized voices
Feminism in the mainstream doesn’t always advocate for a full-spectrum representation of what it means to be feminine. Some studios feature real female orgasms and call the work done.
The best feminist porn celebrates LGBTQ+ identities and BIPOC talent. Feminist filmmakers highlight the pleasure of people with different body styles, ages, and abilities. Films made by these creators represent a multifaceted interpretation of what it means to be feminine. These stories also include alternative relationship styles or sex acts. Narratives in female friendly porn reward non-feminine identifying characters for exhibiting feminist ideals and behaviors. You don’t have to identify as feminine to work with feminist pornographers. But if you want to be their lover, you gotta get with their standards of intersectional feminism.
Where to watch feminist porn
1) Lust Cinema
Erika Lust has created an empire of high-quality sex films that are uniquely cinematic and inclusive. In addition to directing her own films, she collects works by other directors with a similar artistic vision. Lust clearly puts a strong emphasis on authentically pleasurable sex. This female friendly porn should be watched in a theater. She also casts superstar performers diverse bodies, genders, ages, and racial identities. Cruising her catalogue, you’ll see renowned stars and creators like Natalie Mars, Mickey Mod, Casey Calvert, and so many more.
Lust’s film network includes three different sites. Lust Cinema collects original films and series along with content by studios like JoyBear, Adam & Eve, and Wicked Pictures. Else Cinema specializes in softcore porn, emphasizing softer, more sensual narratives. Original series XConfessions features short films inspired by confessions submitted anonymously by viewers.
Membership costs to each site vary, but Lust Cinema costs more. A Lust Cinema login grants you access to Else Cinema, and you can add an XConfessions membership for $2.95/mo. If you’re not exclusively into secret smut or soft-core, the Lust Cinema bundle is a steal.
2) Bellesa Films
Bellesa seeks to shift portrayals of women “from objects of conquest to the subjects of their own pleasure”. Great starter ideology for a feminist porn site yeah? The about page lays out its standards for creating an environment of support for its performers. The casting process puts a heavy emphasis on chemistry, consent, and real orgasms.
It’s easy to see why many of the industry’s biggest names in talent have worked with the studio. In the Bellesa House series, stars choose their own partners for their scenes. The sex is on fire, but the flirtations before the hot-and-heavy stuff will warm your heart, too. Watching the cast work closely with director Jackie St. James adds to the series charm, giving viewers a peek inside of the site’s production atmosphere.
While Bellesa makes beautiful narrative films with gorgeous, talented performers and high-quality sex, there are a few snags. You don’t see much in the way of body diversity across the site. Worse, many of the plot lines have problematic power dynamics and concepts of consent.
Bellesa Films hosts exclusive films for a monthly fee, but the brand began by collecting free, female friendly porn clips. Bellesa.co now hosts clips from partnering studios, feminist blog content, erotica, and an online sex toy store. Paying for porn is ideal, but previewing clips is a great way to try before you buy.
3) Couples Cinema
Are you and a partner are looking for a more sensual watch in the spirit of togetherness? Look no further than Couples Cinema. This beautifully curation of female friendly porn hosts videos from some of the most visually engaging film makers. The site is simple to navigate and sports a reasonably priced monthly subscription, which includes a limited number of films. Then you can pay to unlock more films from inclusive, feminist studios like like JoyBear and Foxhouse Films. Once you unlock a premium film, it’s yours for the duration of your subscription. Couples Cinema is a perfect option if you want porn for couples without the trouble of sifting through for quality.
4) PinkLabel.tv
PinkLabel.tv offers a medley of pornographic content organized like Netflix, but pinker. Viewers can browse progressively sexy genres like “BIPOC Porn” and “The feminist porn gaze”. Variations in content, genders, and bodies on PinkLabelTV are representative and empowering. These are real-ass people having real-ass sex, and that includes real representations of ass sex! Many films deal with gender identity and sexual orientation, like the original film “Chemistry Eases the Pain”. The film collection is curated to “expand our notions of adult film.” Everything on the site has idiosyncratic charm. PinkLabel’s library is a viable porn selection for those who are thoughtfully thot.
The site also includes educational porn, vintage porn, and representations of BDSM and kink. Don’t miss Crashpad Series, the story of a secret apartment where sexy queer folx go to get it on.
5) Adult Time
Adult Time is well on its way to becoming a household name in streaming as “the Netflix of porn”. The site partners with major studios and puts their films into an easy-to-navigate interface. You can search for smut by category, performer, or studio. There are also some incredible original films and some binge-worthy series.
Adult Time’s diversity in studio partnerships also means more diversity in bodies and identities. The same is true in its presentations of sex. Studios like Burning Angel, Vivid, and Girlsway offer quality content––and with an Adult Time subscription, they’re all yours.
6) MakeLoveNotPorn
Cindy Gallup is the creator of MakeLoveNotPorn. She doesn’t refer to the videos on the site as porn, but says that they’re a celebration of real-life sex. Her mantra “pro-sex, pro-porn, and pro knowing the difference” blurs the semantic lines of amateur porn in the best way. Instead of hiring performers to perform scripted sex, MakeLoveNotPorn sources real sex tapes from real, everyday people. MLNP calls itself the world’s first social sex platform, and that sex-positive attitude shines in every video. Scroll through the curated collections like “MakeMeTimeLove” or browse the site’s whimsical tags like #giggly, #yes!yes!yes! and #procrasturbation.
Best of all, membership to MakeLoveNotPorn is free, and from there you can rent individual videos for $5 each. The only risk involved? MLNP’s content might make you want to submit your own homemade porn!
7) Lustery
This site is a homemade sex jewel, featuring real-life couples who want to share their sexuality with the world. The site’s format has a similar user-submitted vibe as other amateur porn sites but with a more curated feel. Paulita Pappel is a self-proclaimed exhibitionist and voyeur, and she created Lustery in the name of “reclaiming your own gaze”. Seeing relatable, intimate homemade sex on the site is an empowering experience for performers and viewers at the same time.
Lustery also hosts both the POV blog and podcast, where you can get to know couples from the site. Both are also incredible sources for current outlooks on sexual health, culture, and identity.
8) ManyVids
Are you into a platform that supports videos and content made by the performers themselves? Your hands can be in every cookie jar with MV. The site has videos, photosets, live cams, phone chats, panties for sale, and other options. Bella French, CEO of ManyVids, co-created a platform where sex workers could have more control and ownership of their content. The result? You’re free to browse the site knowing you’re directly supporting real sex workers, which is feminist af.
Here you’ll find some incredible user-submitted content, so performers range in diversity. MV stars post videos that strike a beautiful balance between professional skill and homemade sex reality. This clip site is also much easier to navigate than other porn sites hosting user-submitted videos.
9) Pornhub Premium
Look, I hate recommending free porn sites, so I’m all for finding Pornhub alternatives. Free sites often post pirated content, meaning the stars and production crew don’t get paid for their work. This tube site has a very un-sexy reputation for shifting the responsibility of regulating content onto creators. Still, Pornhub is the most well-known adult entertainment site. It’s still a beneficial place for amateur sex stars to post their own work and make a name for themselves. Watching content made by verified users and subscribing to premium provides models with a higher payout-per-view rate.
Premium or not, finding female friendly porn that suit you may take some time. The site has a laissez-faire attitude toward unethical content, and it doesn’t monitor the language surrounding women and marginalized communities. Consider this a trigger warning for just about everything. Random video titles can be cringeworthy or occasionally violent. PornHub Premium is a thrift store for porn; you have to sift through a lot of junk if you want to find a gem.
10) TROUBLEfilms
Queer porn icon Courtney Trouble built a network of LGBTQ+ porn that seeks to serve the community. Putting emphasis on queer people seeing their pleasure represented in film, she created TROUBLEfilms, Queer Porn TV., and IndiePornRevolution. The sites explore and glorify queer sexuality, including kinks and modes of body exploration and expression. What’s more, the sites feature some of the best and most broad-spectrum educational porn available.
Of the three sites, TROUBLEfilms allows you access to the whole network for one price. Trouble knows that porn isn’t always affordable for marginalized queers. She believes it is, however, essential to their sexual wellbeing, so each site has free content available. All three site layouts are a little pell mell, but the content is well worth the drudge.
11) Four Chambers
Four Chambers is a stunningly filmed and very unorthodox take on the presentation of modern porn. Creator Vex Ashley is an adult film star whose background in photography influences the site’s edgy aesthetic. Each film features sharp color and light contrasts, visceral close-ups, and narratives dripping with mythological or religious imagery. The films beautifully highlight diverse performers, vivid imagery, and unconventional presentations of sex. A Four Chambered Heart is feminist porn that bleeds into high art. Between its stylized videos and photosets, this site will get you the most artistic flair for your dollar.
12) Sssh.com
Okay, do you have a small fan nearby? Great. Put on something gauzy, flip that switch on high, and point that fan directly at your face. It’s time to dive click-first into digital romance novel vibes courtesy of the creators at Sssh.com. The site’s female friendly porn centers around intimacy and female pleasure. The films are cis-normative, but still highly imaginative. In addition to beautiful, original films, Sssh also hosts written content discussing sexual health and culture. The site is tricky to search, but browsing is fanciful, sexy, and fun.
13) Bright Desire
Filmmaker Ms. Naughty calls her site a center for “thinking porn”. The site’s films focus on the most endearing parts of sex shared by intimate partners. The films at Bright Desire aren’t just meant to arouse the viewer physically, but emotionally as well. The site features mostly heterosexual sex, although there are some queer videos, too. The performers are also pretty diverse with films celebrating BIPOC and mature couples having sex in lightly-scripted scenarios. There are also whole collections of behind-the-scenes footage, post-scene interviews with performers, mini-documentaries, and erotic fiction and more.
14) Frolic Me
FrolicMe is a Jill-of-all-trades when it comes to female-friendly porn and pleasure. In addition to HD videos, the site has a gallery of high-quality photos, erotic readings, and audio porn stories. Some of the stories give you a detailed backstory, immersing you in the characters before plunging into the sexy bits. Some films drop you into a sex scene, leaving the characters to guide you through the sensations they’re experiencing. If you’re into smutty words written by a woman, be sure to browse FrolicMe’s archive of free erotic stories.
The site will almost exclusively feature thin, white cis-women romping with conventionally built, white cis-men. If you’re looking for representation, you’d do better to read the erotica and use your imagination.
15) AORTA Films
AORTA Films is an indie porn festival golden child. Boldly queer and diverse, beautifully filmed and performed, AORTA self-identifies its content as a celebration of “lusty, opulent, queer fuckery”. The site has a particular love for outdoor porn, but also creates beautiful bondage, food, and even dance-related feminist porn. Signing up for access to the site is a no muss, no fuss process. Membership isn’t charged through the typical porn site payment collection companies that make your porn purchases hard to track. Instead, the site is supported through Patreon. You can easily write it into your budget as support of the arts (which it absolutely is.)
16) Ciné Sinclaire
Ciné Sinclaire specializes in creating deeply intimate films that border on personal documentaries. Scene setting and conversations about boundaries and desires create deeply moving films from this Canadian studio. You’ll get cinematic glimpses of lauded indie porn stars like Jiz Lee, Bishop Black, and Kali Sudhra. Filmmaker Kate Sinclaire has created a diverse, uplifting, body positive space for performers share their pleasure with the audience, and it’s an experience that shouldn’t be missed. With free membership that allows featured rentals, there’s no reason not to check it out.
17) Naughty Natural
This site might be your mother’s idea of feminist porn, and we mean that in the best way. This niche porn site celebrates natural hair and the people who love it. You’ll find both straight and lesbian scenes taking place in the home and outdoors. Scenes serve a wholistic sex vibe that embraces every uniqueness of the human body. Category selections range from your standard tags to fan-requested specialities, like women proudly sporting facial and body hair. The performers talk about and worship their costars body hair, creating a very body-positive and empowering viewing experience.
Feminism is a constantly-evolving ideology that grows in strength as we make it more accessible to everyone. The key to good feminist porn will always lie in representation, and good representation requires empathy. Accessing our own pleasure by watching someone else’s is a radical form of empathy. It empowers all of us to value ourselves and each other, whether you identify as a feminine person or not. Feminism, empathy, and inclusivity are integral to good pleasure, but if we want to see more porn that reflects feminist ideals, we have to support creators who make it. We have to spend our money on porn that demands equity and pleasure for all.
LISTEN UP: Why Re-Inventing Porn for Women Is More Complicated Than You Think
Porn is typically made by men for men, but women have needs, too — and traditional porn doesn’t always meet them.
In episode 50 of 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST, Alli and Jen talk with Michelle Shnaidman, founder of Bellesa.co. The site creates porn videos, erotic fiction, erotic audio, and sex toys with a focus on female empowerment. Shnaidman also addresses the site’s rocky beginnings and the common misconceptions about the porn industry.
Subscribe to 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts!
