When I’ve been called upon to describe what the phrase “ethical porn” means to me, I’m talking about pornography produced with the pleasure of the participants in mind—porn that did not depend on male-gaze shooting techniques—porn that shows body/gender/sexual orientation diversity—porn that allows the performers to have a say in how the action progresses and what happens. That’s just some of the things I think about when I look at a pornographic film and decide if it falls into my ethical porn category, though I also tend to want to know how the company works behind the scenes for a more accurate judgment.
How does this look in practice? Well, let’s take one example sex act—cunnilingus. How is one cunnilingus shot different from another? How can we deconstruct this one sexual behaviour that is seemingly about female pleasure and say whether the company is employing ethical standards or not?
There’s a huge difference in how it’s shot, for a start. Cunnilingus that’s good for the camera (i.e. focuses on tongue barely touching pink) is very different from cunnilingus done for sexual arousal (and porn directors that focus on female arousal tend to focus on the facial expressions vs the actual act). There’s a difference on how long is spent focusing on that activity- if it’s a girl on girl scene, how much time is spent on cunnilingus vs, say, dildo play, and if it’s a straight scene, how does the time spent on cunnilingus compare to the time spent on fellatio? Do you get any point-of-view shots from the female perspective, watching her pussy being eaten? Does it show her orgasming from this, or only when a toy is introduced?
” Fair Trade Fucking: Kitty Stryker on Ethical Porn