Feminist Pornographer

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my ambitions to post both my true and fictional dirty stories about M. But I’m insecure about my fiction-writing, so I’ve decided to post about a couple other writers’ feminist erotica before subjecting you all to my own.

I already wrote about I.G. Frederick’s X-rated stories. Today, I treat you to a link to the Office Slut series on long-distance sub, a blog by a fellow feminist submissive. The first story in the series is “Sales Report,” and this just may be THE HOTTEST STORY EVER.

Well, at least, in my judgment of what’s hot. It features all sorts of elements that are common in my own masturbatory fantasies – a single naked woman in a room full of well-dressed men (think suits and ties), a gang bang, and most important, the absurd fantasy of the sex secretary – the female employee whose main responsibility is to be sexually available at all times and occasionally do a little light typing – the lady who greets appropriately attired customers, co-workers and clients in lingerie or her birthday suit and offers them a good fuck instead of coffee. I’ve fantasized about being bent over some corporate desk with my lacy panties around my ankles countless times, so when “Sales Report” describes Lyn as naked in stilettos and surrounded by men talking business, I got very wet.

But lyn, the author of long-distance sub, doesn’t just write X-rated stories about fictional Lyn, the Office Slut. I’ve discovered – after reading more of her blog and corresponding with her in order to write this post – that she and I have a lot in common. Aspects of her real life (a lifelong identity as feminist; a degree in women’s studies, hers a major, mine a minor; exploration of her submissive sexuality) and her posts (true tales of her sexual experiences with her Dom, such as Fun and Games , thoughts about her weight loss, her body, her appearance and her feminism, such as Whose Body) are quite similar to my own. The similarity between our blogs doesn’t stop there. We also have an exhibitionist streak in common. We both post erotic pictures of ourselves … some of lyn’s pictures are more fashion-oriented and erotic like this one from her post entitled Pretty:

But most are full-on explicit nudie pics like this one from Purple Passion:

Well, of course, I had to email lyn and tell her that I’d be posting about the Office Slut stories and what I find feminist about them. And then I asked her my question – does she consider herself a feminist pornographer? Here’s her reply:

Thank you! i’m totally tickled that you want to link to the stories, and that you find them feminist – that rocks. Because my vision for Lyn is really all about empowerment, and i’m thrilled that comes through.

As for your question… it’s really interesting that you should ask that right now. In the middle of our most recent photo shoot, it suddenly occurred to me that my Master and i were part of the Internet porn industry. That this label – pornographer – could be applied to me. We’ve been taking and posting explicit pictures for a couple of years now, so it’s not new, but it was the first time i’ve thought about it in those terms. So to answer half your question, yes, i do consider myself a pornographer. As to the feminist part – hell yeah! i’ve been a feminist my whole life, even majored in women’s studies in college. Occasionally my particular brand of submission causes me some cognitive dissonance, because of the strong focus on creating and maintaining a traditional feminine appearance. But i feel more connected to and in touch with my body now than i ever did when i was a fat, short-haired, flannel-shirted bi-dyke in college. And happy and content about both that body, and the way in which it (and i) move through and interact with the world. i am me in a way that i wasn’t then. My submission makes me happy. Stronger. Focused. My feminism, and my belief in a woman’s right to choose her own path, is what allows me to choose this one, and find empowerment and strength there.

So what do I find feminist about these stories? That’s a good question, because on the surface, these stories are not at all feminist. They are set in an old boy’s club – an office where the people in power are men, and the woman is primarily a sex object.

How do I reconcile my own potential for cognitive dissonance between my feminism and my sexuality? How do I reconcile the apparent contradiction between my desire for women’s equality in the boardroom and my love of stories like lyn’s?

I’ll tell you how: shameless hunger for cock.

Lyn, the fictional office slut, hungers for cock the way a man hungers for pussy. Personally, I find shamelessness about sexual desires to be a much more important feminist goal than breaking the glass ceiling. Freedom to explore sexuality in one’s personal life is extremely important to me. And so I proudly declare my fantasies about slutting myself out in an office setting. I mean – come on – how many men would jump at the chance to be a professional pussy-eater and the center of attention in a roomful of horny women? Well, I, too, love the idea of commanding the attention of lots of cocks, and so does Lyn.

But there’s something else about lyn and her Master and her blog that is extremely feminist to me. That cognitive dissonance she experiences between her traditionally feminine appearance and her politics. I have no problem with that. Not in her, and not in myself. I find her very feminine appearance and her nudie pictures to be the most feminist thing about her and her blog. She may have gotten closer to the pornographic ideal by losing weight and getting acrylic nails and waxing her pussy at her Master’s “command,” but hers is a very real body, a very adult body. At various times throughout her blog, we see brown moles dotting her creamy white legs like stars in the sky and silvery stretchmarks crossing her small round belly like lightening bolts – all surrounding her pretty pink hairless pussy. Mainstream pornography and fashion magazines would photoshop out the brown and silver and just leave the white and pink. So I love it that lyn and her Master reject that invented visual fantasy in favor of sexy images of reality. I love it when a fellow formerly fat woman with stretchmarks and moles asserts her right to be feminine, sexual and objectified. And I love it even more that her man lusts for her real body and takes all these sexy pictures of it. That’s a man who deserves a feminist’s sexual submission.

I plan to post at least one X-rated story I’ve written. I may only post one because thus far in my life, I’ve only written one. My one story thus far features M, the third of the three guys I’m focusing on in my collection of vignettes about sexuality and body image in my personal relationships. I wrote up this story when I was struggling to reconcile M’s hold on my erotic imagination vs. the reality of our relationship. I was totally into him and the promise of adventure held in our very dirty and shared sexual desires. But the reality was that we had a couple dates, slept together once, and then spent months in a bizarre internet-sexting relationship that goaded my body politics and frustrations with the male gaze, while also stringing me along, hoping that he would resume a real-life BDSM relationship with me.

But the M stories – both the true story of internet-subbing to M, and the fictional story of drinking M’s cum out of a cup – needs to wait for another Sunday. Before I post my meager attempt at writing a fictional/fictionalized dirty story, I feel it’s my responsibility to post about some real feminist erotica. So this week, I’m posting about I.G. Frederick. And in a couple weeks, I’ll be posting about one of my other favorite X-rated story writers.

As I did in my post from a few weeks ago about my friend’s kick-ass bondage porn site (Captive Cuties Online), I must disclose a conflict of interest about I.G. She is a friend. But I think my recommendation of and reflection on her erotic writing benefits from our personal interactions. Whenever I’ve hung out with her, she has always been full of life, spirit and sex-positivity. And the same qualities come out in her erotic writing.

I.G. writes novels and short stories, which you can find out more about on her web site: eroticawriter.net. I adore her short stories “Honeymoon” and “Benjamin” – they are both prime examples of feminist porn, in my opinion. Dirty and explicit – they are deliciously X-rated and pornographic, even if we never see anything but imaginary naked flesh because all the nudity and fucking is described in words. And they are definitely my kind of feminism – I.G. cleverly includes feminist personal /political issues in a positive and entertaining way. “Honeymoon” is a story inspired by my number one feminist personal/political obsession: the relationship between women’s appearances and people’s sexuality … or ultimately, in the case of Allison, the fictional narrator of the story, the lack of relationship between her apparently average appearance and the sexual desire her new, handsome husband and his gorgeous swinger friends have for her. I’m a sucker for a story that not only makes my clit throb but also artfully makes the point that sex appeal is in the eye of the beholder.

And “Benjamin” – well, that story appeals to my love of gender role reversals and romance. Submissive man. Dominant woman. Obstacles to love. Steamy sex scenes in which his cock doesn’t penetrate her. Nope, her pussy is most definitely in charge, mounting and taking him passionately.

So I consider I.G. to be a fellow feminist pornographer. But does she consider herself to be one?

I emailed I.G. a few weeks ago, letting her know I was working on a post about her work. In the email, I said:

I have an interview question for you … no right or wrong answer on this one … you can take the question seriously if you’d like, you can answer simply with a yes or no, or you can answer at length. But first and foremost, I ask it because I consider it a fun question to fit the theme of my site. Do you consider yourself a feminist pornographer?

Her initial response was excellent:

I would be happy to answer the question seriously, IF I knew what you considered the definition of feminist pornographer?

Getting me to think through my own identity more deeply – I.G. is a sharp cookie.

I replied:

Oooh, this is good already. On the one hand, I want to reply by saying who cares what I think the definition is. In a post about your writing, your definition is what really matters.

But, that would probably be annoying for me to stop there. I have a really broad definition. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say I have no definition at all. I think “pornography” can be a whole lot more than naked pictures — erotica, dirty stories, X-rated writing can be called pornography, even if we first think of images when we think of porn — and by deduction, a writer could be a pornographer. In my view, identifying as a feminist is like Dossie Easton’s and Janet Hardy’s discussion of identifying as a top or a bottom or a submissive or a dominant or whatever — you get to decide your identity. No one else gets to tell you you’re not a real top because you don’t do X. No one else gets to tell you that you are or are not a feminist.

Well, I.G. liked my “definition” and my original question a lot – I.G. said, “I had to think about your question, which makes me glad you asked it. I’ve always taken pride in my feminism. It’s time I took pride in pornography as well.” She liked it so much that she wanted to write about the question properly … in a post of her own. What an honor! To have inspired a thoughtful, interesting and well-researched post by a writer I admire. I.G. reveals that she does consider herself a feminist pornographer, which is way cool. But even cooler … I.G. delves into a bunch of fundamental issues about feminism and pornography that I have neglected in my own writing. And she does a much better job than I would have at laying out these fundamentals. Super cool. Now I don’t have to sweat over a post about those core issues between feminism and pornography and I don’t have to fret about living up to my promise of X-rated stories at feministpornographer.com – I can just point you to I.G.’s blog and her feminist pornography.