The 2012 Feminist Porn Awards are coming up on April 20th and some pretty fantastic female and “marginalized people” centered adult movies and websites are in the running for awards.  As we count down to the big day, I will feature a website or movie (or both) that has been nominated for an award each week.  Today I’m simply discussing what the Feminist Porn Awards are all about and what I think about their website. I am, after all, in the business of rating adult websites and all.

Good For Her, a sex positive sex toy/porno shop and online retailer, has been holding the Feminist Porn Awards since 2006.  They’re all about body friendly sex toy materials and non-formulaic smut, i.e. porn that focuses on women’s pleasure and genuine chemistry and sex that can be as kinky as it is sensual.  I could go on, but instead I’ll quote their website so you can get a sense of what they are all about in their words.

“At Good For Her, we are feminists and we sell and rent porn. In 2006 we decided that it’s not enough to criticize adult films for not adequately representing women’s – and in many cases, men’s – sexuality. So we decided to do something about it. As porn star and performance artist Annie Sprinkle famously said, “The answer to bad porn isn’t no porn…it’s to try and make better porn!”  Good For Her couldn’t agree more.  We     believe the world is inundated with cheesy, cliche, degrading, and patronizing porn.  But we also believe that erotic fantasy is powerful, and that women and marginalized communities deserve to put their dreams and desires on film, too.  As feminists and sex-positive people, we want to showcase and honour those who are creating erotic media with a feminist sensibility.

Good For Her wants porn to be held to a higher standard. We all deserve to see artistic expressions that celebrate who we are in all our glory, and artists deserve to have there work recognized. For these reasons, and many more, we are honoured to be the presenter and founders of the Annual Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards.”

Before I talk about the website, I have to mention that two of my favorite people in the adult industry, Erika Lust and Buck Angel, will be in attendance and holding discussions about their respective films that will be shown.  Erika “is co-founder of the adult audiovisual production company Lust Films, a sex culture expert and journalist, and director of Feminist Porn Award Winning titles Five Hot Stories for Her (2007) and Life Love Lust (2010).”

Buck “is a prolific trans filmmaker, an LGBTQ pop culture icon, and a pioneering FTM adult film star. He is also the founder of Buck Angel Entertainment, in 2007 he became the first ever FTM performer to win the AVN Award for Transsexual Performer of the Year, was awarded the Boundary Breaker of the Year Award at the 2008 Feminist Porn Awards, and he works as an advocate, educator, lecturer and writer.”  There is so much more to these folks, but I encourage you to check out the website and learn for yourselves!

The website does a great job of discussing what makes someone a winner, how they are not anti-male and the like.  I would give the site a B on navigation.  If one simply wants to check out info on the FPA’s and they click Home, they might get confused as they will get taken to the sex toy store home.  I am not opposed to the two being related, but I think more differentiation between the toy store page and the awards info page would be alleviate confusion and save time.  I had to mention the one drawback.

There is a Feminist Porn Awards drop down menu that allows you to choose to look at information regarding the awards show in general or select by year (2006-2012).  You can check out candid pictures from past events and catch your favorite feminist porn creators, directors, performers, etc.  Schedules and pricing for ceremonies, galas and parties are available on the official website and a complete list of nominees is given.  There is a special page where you can purchase tickets to the various events.  Basically, everything you need to know is explained on the site in one form or another.

I know I injected a fair amount of personal opinion into this review, but my aim was to prep you for the reviews that will be written up until the Feminist Porn Awards take place.  I wanted you to get a sense of why I was focusing on particular adult websites and movies.

Check out this little video below to get an idea of what the Feminist Porn Awards are all about.  Enjoy!

Feminist P*rn Awards Retrospective from good for her on Vimeo.