Construction of the Fantasy
Text: Siyang Dai
Image: Lingli Crucq
Have you ever experienced searching twenty pages on Pornhub just to find porn that can make you come? It is easy to question morals when watching porn with themes of certain sexual fetishes that are against social norms. Maybe you just want to enjoy the glamorous physical and mental union of humans. Sex is portrayed in mainstream pornography as the direct combination of genitals; pure intercourse in which the camera moves quickly over the actors' faces and lingers for a long time on the enlarged, hairless, clearly visible sex organs. What we hear is systematic dialogue, and we see are fancy positions for intercourse and settings that are against convention. We witness a false and exaggerated sexual pleasure that could hardly be practised in real life.
The pornography we watch not only educates our understanding of sex but also structures society and influences the relationships between people. The discourse that lies beneath sex may also be entwined with violence and crime. We should fight against that, and fulfill the need for a poetic kind of erotica that entangles the spark of humanity into a delightful dream. Feminist pornography, or in other words ethical pornography, could offer us an alternative that led to reflections on the current mainstream pornography in the aspects of filming techniques, film themes, and its cultural and political value.
From the point of view of the work itself, feminist pornography is considered soft and slow porn gives audiences more freedom while watching. In terms of camera language, the director pays more attention to aesthetic expression during the shooting. Directors often take inspiration from artistic film and literature. Therefore, such products can be considered works of art. It is the imagination audiences engage in while watching that brings the charm of the work itself. I watched a five-minute short film about a random man receiving oral sex from a female sex worker. The camera was fixed on the man's face for the whole time, and the director presented the audience with a focus on the changes in the man's expression from meeting the sex worker, from nervousness, shyness, restraint, gradual enjoyment, and then finally ejaculation. I didn't feel the film had been edited when I watched it, and this is where the authenticity of feminist pornography comes into play. Many of the works are also shot in the form of documentary narratives, such as following the lives of a couple. Isn’t romantic sex in everyday life also a kind of fantasy that we are aiming for?
As the name suggests, feminist pornography is not only feminist in its filming, it acts as a counter-movement against patriarchy which constructs every sector of our society. In addition to the change in shooting and editing approach, the contents also have high a high amount of diversity. Many directors devote themselves to producing queer pornos, aimed at audiences that are excluded from mainstream pornography. The pay-based platform also helps every agent involved in the production of the film to receive its revenue which reduces labour exploitation. A legitimate and profitable platform that reflects audiences’ support and social need is the basis for the construction of the fantasy.