Ethical Porn For Women, By Women: Our Guide To The Best Feminist Porn

In the words of an Avenue Q song – The Internet Is For Porn. But if you’re anything like me, then you probably find most internet porn degrading, demeaning, disgusting, and more than a little questionable. Honestly, it just doesn’t do anything for me. Ethical and feminist porn, though, is perfect for me!

What Is Ethical Porn? And What is Feminist Porn?

Before we go through our recommendations for the best feminist pron, let’s take a step back and have a look at this billion-dollar industry. Porn is a $97 billion dollar industry worldwide, but is it ethical? It is such a huge money-making machine that is widely unregulated.

Some say that this is because the sheer size of the industry would make it difficult to regulate. Others say that as it is extremely difficult to get any sort of legal funding from a bank or financial institution, it forces the industry to work more in the background of the shadows.

This creates the perfect environment for behaviors and policies that are not ethical. In this environment, women are often poorly treated and exploited.

It is wonderful to see that the feminist movement is becoming aware of that and is doing its job by taking control of the creative process behind erotic stories – made by women, for women.

Poor treatment of female performers is one of the industry’s big issues.

Equal pay for women is an issue in many industries. Sadly but unsurprisingly, the porn industry is no different. Women tend to be paid less than their male counterparts.

Consent can also be a problem. Women can find that while they agreed to one scenario, the reality is being forced into acting a completely different scenario. Their health is often not protected. Feminist porn is here to change that.

Some people, including famous porn director Erika Lust, have described ethical porn as fair trade porn. The performers are paid appropriately for their work. They have given their complete consent to everything, and the details of the movie or scene are discussed with them. The scenes are shot to the performer’s preferences, and what feels good for them.

Another hallmark of ethical porn is inclusivity. Ethical porn almost always features a range of natural body types, people of color and, generally speaking, people who are more real-life than mainstream porn.

This also means that performers don’t experience the same pressure to lose weight, have surgery, or alter their bodies in any way, unless they actually want to. The best feminist porn promotes sex-positivity and body-positivity.

Ethical porn has been produced for many years, and it continues to disrupt the mainstream porn industry. Women are one of the main drivers of this revolution. We watch porn. More than a third of us watch porn once a week.

However, when we look for porn, we want to know that the performers are being treated well. We want to know that the women on our screens enjoyed making the film. And we want porn that is going to make us feel good, and not continue to show outdated stereotypes about women and sex.

Our Top 5: The Best Ethical & Feminist Porn Sites

1. Lust Cinema

Erika Lust is one of the go-to names for erotic stories made ethically. Her stable of sites feature her work, and content from other feminist and ethical porn filmmakers. Lust Cinema is one of four sites, and each has its own draws.

Lust Cinema works on a membership basis. It has a variety of billing options, and gives its members access to a variety of ethical porn. XConfessions, another Lust site, also works on a membership basis. Both sites have content from Lust Films, the Lust empire film making arm. The third site is The Store, which contains Lust Cinema merchandising, including films.

Lastly, there’s ElseFilms. EroticFilms is a large collection of erotic stories, including Erika Lust’s films, and other movies from ethical and feminist porn directors. It’s a pay-per-view site, so you can rent whatever movie tickles your fancy at the time.

Another big plus for Lust Cinema sites is that they are ad-free. Most, if not all, mainstream porn sites take additional revenue from selling ad space. These ads are often scams aimed at vulnerable people. Lust Cinema does not use this business model, and will not sell ad space to scams.

Erika Lust has given TED Talks on how the porn industry needs to evolve, and change how it conducts itself. She feels strongly that performers should be paid fairly for their work, consent should be a non-negotiable, and that more women need to be taking up technical jobs on porn shoots. In fact, she estimated that her sets are made up of 50-80% of female performers, and technical staff.

Lust believes that a female led set creates a much more secure atmosphere for all performers.

2. Make Love Not Porn

Make Love Not Porn isn’t really a porn site, but we think it deserves a mention as one of the best feminist porn you can watch. It’s the brainchild of Cindy Gallup, who describes it as a showcase of social sex. It’s a catalog of short films from real-life people having real-world sex.

Gallup launched the site in 2009, around the same time as her TED talk. She felt that mainstream porn was influencing how people were viewing sex, and it was infiltrating into people’s real world sex experiences in a negative way. MLNP was launched to combat the influence hardcore porn was having on real world sex.

The erotic videos are submitted through the site, and users pay either a stand alone fee or a membership fee to watch them. Revenue is split 50/50 between the site and the video submitters.

The site requires two forms of ID from each person who was in the room when the video was filmed, but there are content guidelines as well. Videos that are considered to be too close to mainstream porn will be rejected by the curators of the site. The content guidelines mean that the site will only ever showcase realistic, real-world erotic stories enjoyed by real world ‘normal’ people.

3. Indie Porn Revolution

Indie Porn Revolution was originally known as nofauxxx. It’s a female run site, and features models and performers that would traditionally be ignored by mainstream pornography. It is one of the oldest ‘queer’ sites, but it has a diverse catalogue of genres, and performers. Indie Porn Revolution began as a personal project for founder Courtney Trouble, but it took off.

Courtney Trouble is a performer, and director. She directs ethical feminist porn under her own company, TroubleFilms, but she has also directed commercial porn. She has edited and shot her commercial porn work with an ethical porn view, hoping to make changes to how mainstream porn production companies shoot their movies, and treat their performers. Trouble has won many Feminist Porn Awards for her work.

It was, and still is, one of a small number of sites where safe sex is a priority. The site believes that safe sex is important, and that all performers should have access to safer sex materials such as condoms, and latex gloves.

The site runs on a membership basis, but there are a number of membership options. There is also an option to get access to all of TroubleFilms with a single password.

4. Bright Desire

Bright Desire is an extremely sex positive site that focus on celebrating the real side of sex. It was founded by filmmaker, Ms Naughty, and the films have won numerous awards.

It’s porn with a difference as many of the scenes aren’t scripted, and are led by the performers. It also showcases the other side of sex. It shows performers, and real life couples having conversations, laughing, joking, and interacting outside of the hot and steamy sex scenes.

Bright Desire uses a membership format and gives members access to so much exclusive content. Content includes performer interviews, erotic photography, and fictional erotic stories.

5. JoyBear

JoyBear is a British site, founded in 2003 by Justin Santos. He found himself tired of seeing people having sex without pleasure, especially women, and after discovering that other people felt the same way he did, the idea of JoyBear was born.

The site features movies with female characters that are multi-dimensional, and much more developed than characters in mainstream porn. JoyBear often include funny, and unscripted moments in their films, which make them much more enjoyable to watch.

JoyBear pay their performers well and promptly, keep them safe, protected, won’t film something a performer is not comfortable with, and treat them as professionals. Although it is founded by a male pornographer, it meets the principles of feminist porn.

6. Morgana Muses

Morgana Muses is an Australian feminist porn performer and award-winning feminist porn director. Her production company, Permission 4 Pleasure seeks to showcase truthful representations of sexuality on screen.

Morgana Muses’ journey in the feminist porn industry is the subject of a fascinating documentary based on her real life experiences: from depressed housewife to porn star in her late forties.

Honorable Mentions

We’ve given you the top five sites, but there are other sites, and directors who definitely deserve an honorable mention here.

• Candida Royalle – pioneer of woman focused erotic cinema. 
• Lightsouthern Cinema – creative, authentic porn. Hot and artistic with beautiful cinematography.
• Jacky St James – a feminist director with wonderful work showcasing BDSM themes in a more true to life, authentic, and ethical way.
• Pinklabel.tv – inclusive porn from new and emerging filmmakers. 
• Four Chambers – short erotic films with a cinema style.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Should I Pay For Porn?

There are a wide number of free porn sites online, but there are a number of problems with free porn.

1. If you’re not paying for porn, how are the performers getting paid? Are they being paid at all? Are they being paid fairly and on time?

2. It’s not an accurate representation of sex. Free porn sites often fall into the stereotypical sex scenes, with hardcore sex, where you know nobody is enjoying themselves. It’s really unrealistic in terms of the sex itself, and the body type of performers.

3. It often ignores female pleasure, or at least, genuine female pleasure. Mainstream and free porn tends to focus on the male orgasm, and very little attention is given to the female performer.

4. Have the performers given their consent properly for the scene that was filmed? It’s entirely possible that the end result of the scene was not what the performer consented to.

5. Ad based revenues are probably the site’s income model. If you aren’t paying the site for access to their content, then they have to make money from somewhere. This is likely to be from selling ad space on their website. These ads have three big issues – viruses, adware and malware.

How To Tell If You’re Watching Ethical Porn

There are many tell-tale signs that will let you know if the porn you’re watching is ethical or not.

1. Pay For Porn

Most people who pay for something are much more likely to research it fully before committing to buy. The same is true for porn. You’ll also be getting more content, which will possibly include interviews with the performers. Paying for your porn is one way to tell that what you’re watching has been produced ethically.

2. Look For The Performer Consent Policy

Porn is ethical when the performers have consented to exactly what was shot and distributed. Look for the production company’s Performer Consent Policy. If the company doesn’t have one, it’s not likely to be an ethical porn company.

3. Watch The Non-Porn Content

Look for behind the scenes content, performer interviews, and other non-porn content. Ethical porn companies will film this type of content as well, and some will film the performer’s giving consent to the scene they’re going to shoot. Some companies will also film behind the scenes, where the performer has suggested a change to the scene, lighting, or angles and the discussion of the scene before filming.

4. Look For The Performers On Social Media

Many of the performers actively engage with fans on their social media pages. If a performer is talking about a scene or movie on their social media, it’s probably because they are genuinely proud of the work they’ve done, and the company they’ve worked with. 

Should I Feel Ashamed Or Guilty About Watching Porn?

That’s one of the most exciting things! Feminist and ethical porn is a guilt-free experience. It’s produced fairly, and with the performer’s needs at the forefront. It’s a realistic representation of sex, and it makes you feel good as well. It’s a win-win!