An Interview With Feminist Pornographer Lucie Blush

If there's one thing we hear most often about pornography, it's that it's a man's world out there. And it's true. The vast majority of pornography isn't made with female viewers in mind. As a result, it's typically low on the kind of sex that really turns women on. You know, the kind that involves foreplay.

If you're a woman who can squirt in 30 seconds flat, more power to you, but if you can't, the wham, bam, thank you ma'am flavor of most mainstream porn is likely to leave you more bemused than aroused. So, what's a sexually-charged woman to do on her down time? The good news is, an increasing number of pornographers are women, and they're making a new kind of porn. One in which empowered women engage in sexual acts they enjoy. One in which the sex - and the orgasms - are real. One in which female pleasure - both for performers and viewers - takes center stage.

Want to learn more about this new wave of pornography? We talked to pornographer Lucie Blush of We Love Good Sex about the porn industry, feminist pornography and how women can tap into sexual content made just for them.

Kinkly: We Love Good Sex states that you're on a mission to make good porn. Why is that your mission - and what, in your mind, is good porn?

Lucie Blush: Good porn is porn that respects the actors and the audience by making movies that feature real passion and real pleasure. People who have fun, basically - and that's what's missing from mainstream porn. Why is it my mission? It's been a long process. I wanted to find videos that stimulated me. I found a lot of inspiring content, but nothing that really corresponded to what I wanted to see. So I said, OK, let's make a porn film.

Kinkly: What kinds of stories are you trying to tell with your films?

Lucie Blush: I based everything on my own experiences and fantasies. I don't try to anticipate what people wan; I basically do something that looks like me, feels like me, is the result of a personal exploration. I like to work with people who I'm attracted to, people that I would like to sleep with. People who are natural, healthy and happy in their own bodies. They don't need to correspond to the standards of beauty in our society.

Kinkly: What made you decide to venture into creating porn? Is sexual openness and exploration something you grew up with?

Lucie Blush: I grew up in an environment that was filled with body shaming. I was very self conscious. I had no clue about my own sexuality. I was never taught that my body was there to please myself. I was taught that I was there to please men. That started to hit me around 22 or 23 and I started to think about female sexuality and sexual relationships. It's something I kind of forced myself into because I knew there was something missing. I knew that sex had to be better than this. I was never really satisfied. That's when I discovered a whole new world of feminist porn. It really made me realize all the potential of sex and porn. I realized that porn could be really useful for people to get more pleasure out of sex and to have more ideas.

Kinkly: You make what you describe as "feminist porn." That's a term people are becoming more familiar with, but maybe explain how feminist porn differs from the more mainstream pornography people may be familiar with.

Lucie Blush: Feminist porn is porn that respects the values of feminism and applies them to the making of the movie. It makes sure that the performers are comfortable, that they're paid well and receive good working conditions. The movies should also have sexual equality, and feature women who are proud of their own bodies and not sexually passive, or "dick machines" - people who have personality, who have souls. Feminist porn is about not showing women who are used for sex, but women who want sex and who like it, like we do in our lives. It's ethical porn, basically. (Check out this cute video that shows the difference between porn sex and real-life sex - using food.)

Kinkly: What about sex-positive porn? What elements make pornography sex positive?

Lucie Blush: It's about removing all the shame that we have around sex and porn. It's about making porn and having women who say, yeah, I like fisting. It's about removing all these clouds, pollution, taboos around sex and showing what it's really like and how fun it can be. It's about respecting everyone's sexuality, nudity, bodies. This is what we don't see in mainstream porn, which reduces sex to something mechanical, something like robots. Sex can be so much greater. When you see great porn, it turns you on for a few days and triggers real feelings in you, and you think of it days later and it still turns you on. I think there needs to be a wider choice in porn.