Porn and feminism: not strange bedfellows after all

I was recently approached by a young journalist, who asked for my comments on the Feminist Porn Awards. In the course of the interview, she asked if I thought feminists should watch porn. I replied that watching porn is, to my mind a personal choice, and "should" didn’t come into it. Feminist responses to porn reflect the diversity of feminist responses to sexuality in general. These include not just responses to the physical act of sex, but to representations of sex and sexuality in words and pictures. For all the self-identified feminists who reject pornography, there are plenty more who enjoy watching it. Some even make their own. Between 2001 and 2003 I worked with a team interviewing a range of Australian DIY, cottage industry and ‘hobbyist’ porn producers, as part of the Australian Research Council funded Understanding Pornography in Australia project. Most were women, and all of them were intensely aware of feminist debates around pornography.