The “Feminist Porn Mini Con” — the first academic conference in the Unites States to discuss pornography from the feminist perspective — will take place at Pollock Theater today, with three UCSB professors from various departments taking part in the event.
The event — which takes place from noon to 9 p.m. — celebrates the publication of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure, a book co-edited and produced by UCSB professors Constance Penley, Mireille Miller-Young, Celine Parreñas Shimizu and feminist author and filmmaker Tristan Taormino. The event will kick off with a keynote panel discussing the book and featuring adult film stars Carlos Batts, Sinnamon Love, Dylan Ryan, April Flores and Jiz Lee.
The event, which is free and open to all attendees over 18 years of age, will also include a book signing, Sex Education and Activism Workshop and evening event entitled “The Feminist Porn Show,” which showcases feminist porn clips from the work of both pioneers and newcomers of the industry. The events collectively strive to shed light on the various ways the contemporary adult film industry has been shifted by feminist and queer pornography.
The Feminist Porn Book is the first collection of feminist writings in the adult entertainment industry that will bring together a wide range of queer, transgender and other minority perspectives.
According to film and media studies professor Penley, the conference places UCSB as a leading university in pornography research and education. All three professors — who vary in their research from studying porn as an important social genre to relating it to issues of race, labor and sexuality — first came together on a panel with porn star Sinnamon Love and film producer Tristan Taormino at the 2008 international conference, “Console-ing Passions,” also held at UCSB.
Feminist Studies professor Miller-Young said there are major discrepancies between the feminist movement and feminist scholarship about pornography. Miller-Young said she and her colleagues complete research regarding the adult film industry that differs from the research and opinions of many feminists who are opposed to pornography.
“They see it as a form of violence against women and as something that warps and exploits male sexuality, encouraging gendered violence against women,” Miller-Young said. “I and my co-editors of The Feminist Porn Book come from the tradition of feminism that challenges that view. We believe that pornography is heterogeneous and more complex than it seems, and that it offers a space for women, queer people and other minorities to make media that portrays their own sexualities.”
While Miller-Young said pornography has been seen as oppressive of women and many minority groups, she said contemporary feminist pornography is transforming the porn industry in many ways.
One such change is this genre of pornography’s more ethical treatment of sex workers in what Taormino terms “fair trade, organic porn.”
“If people have become better consumers of food through education about the food industry, why can’t they become better consumers of porn?” Taormino said.
The conference also aims to change the way pornography is perceived, in addition to showing the variety of viewpoints held by individuals in the adult entertainment industry, according to Shimizu, professor of Asian American studies.
“I hope that students are able to access a wide range of perspectives about feminist pornography, especially from industry on-the-ground practitioners, and how they inform academic perspectives on the subject,” Shimizu said.
According to Penley, it is important to hear from the women who work in the industry themselves to show that pornography can actually provide positive contributions to the female experience, as opposed to negative ones.
“Women have a strong sexual imagination, as strong as men’s, and to be able to take on the means of production and produce work that could be meaningful to them — to produce the porn that they want — is extraordinarily empowering,” Penley said.
Nearly 20 different groups on campus have endorsed or sponsored the event. These organizations include Human Rights Board, Take Back the Night, Student Commission on Racial Equality, Hull Chair of Feminist Studies, Womyn’s Commission, Queer Commission, End Fake Clinics, PRIDE, Black Quare and Health and Wellness amongst others.
