Madison Young is perhaps best known for her bondage porn, much of which is considered mainstream. But she has also taken a platform within the porn industry to promote the sex positive movement, and to assert a feminist celebration of what it is to be submissive. Her website tells the story of a kinky girl next door who insists she is changing the world one orgasm at a time. She features in and makes films in which "you will find women and men having real orgasms and something that is a rarity in porn – connection. For me art and porn are closely intertwined and I like to see the two come together here on my web site and in my art work."
Given that various feminist ideologies started to split in the 1980's over such questions as whether all porn is offensive to women, all sex is rape, and the normative disagreements between "difference" versus "equality" politics, to assert one is a "feminist porn star" is to move beyond third wave post-modern feminism and into a new wave. A young goddess friend pulled a confused look when I told her Madison promotes female friendly porn. "But I am into porn anyway! What's not friendly about it?" I realised she was never exposed to the debate on porn and the commodification of women, and she is part of a generation in which pole dancing has become a sport and the use of sex to sell everything from cars to mobile phones has truly become the norm. There is something to this young goddess' dismissiveness of the "porn is exploitation" stance, but it requires women like Madison to keep pushing the boundaries and ensuring that there is some authenticity to what's being displayed about women's bodies and sex.
So what is Madison's stance all about? The Soiree began with an afternoon discussion in which Madison explained that porn for her is both educational and political. Rather than directors telling the performers what to do and how to do it, she starts from what fantasies the performers have and creates authentic erotic scenes from there. It's about what the women (in particular) want, rather than producing what the director thinks the male viewer wants. It is a celebration rather than a commodification of sex.
The evening session of the Soiree featured the world premier of Madison's new film "Femmetastic", in which femme lesbians - in the 1990's referred to as lipstick lesbians - created the scenes from their fantasies. The most intimate and erotic scene was of one woman alone in a laundromat who cheekily, sneakily sits on top of a washing machine and, looking to see if someone will come in, starts to play with herself as she is rocked and hummed by the vibrations of the machine. The orgasm she brings herself to is humble but beautiful. And the slightly see-through white singlet and skinny jeans she wears teases mean and women, gay, straight, bi-, trannie, alike.
After a short discussion on her film, during which I asked her whether sex is always political for her (to which she answered "yes, every time I f**k it's political!") we were treated to some impressive bondage performances involving women being tied with complex Japanese-style ropes and hung from the beams of the Amsterdam home we were in. The women who were tied enjoyed the attention but most of all the surrender and the trust of giving over to their master artists.
Finally Madision gave us a performance dedicated to Annie Sprinkle (prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist) and her wife Beth Stevens, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary with a 7-year performance series. Madison washed her naked body with grapes and grapejuice and offered purple bubble gum to audience members which she then stuck to her body, all the while exuding eroticism and creativity. The most subversive element to her perfomance, however, was the fact that she is 5 months pregnant, her swollen, fertile belly a part of her seductive movement and tantalising ease with being naked and spread open to viewers.
Sex positive? You bet. The fluidity of gender identity, gay and bi-sexuality, the beauty of the female form, the talk of poly-amory, the images of various women's sex toys and the notion that porn has moved beyond the need to be "female freindly" and is now "femmetastic".... The evening was aimed at women with some men invited to join, but the point was that anything goes when gender and sexuality boundaries are on the discussion table. It was the first time I've sat through a porn film in a room of about 50 people whose attention was as much on the art and political comment as on the hot orgasms we were viewing.
Changing the world one orgasm at a time...that's a pretty sex positive mission statement!
