Porn Star Feminism and the Ownership of Pleasure

With the help of the internet, female stars are taking control of the industry

by Z IVAN MILLER

For the 33rd time, the heavyweights of the pornography industry gathered at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada on January 23, 2016 to celebrate the stars nominated for the Adult Video News Awards — often referred to as the Oscars of porn.

Despite years of degradation and demonization, the showcase for the massive industry that, according to Kassia Wosick, assistant professor of sociology at New Mexico State University, turns a profit of $10–12 billion each year in the United States and $97 billion globally, has eclipsed the Hollywood Academy in the way female stars are honored and paid.

Hosted by comedian and actress Kate Quigley, and joined by adult movie actresses Joanna Angel and Anikka Albrite, the AVN Awards aired on Showtime and distributed 18 awards on air and 115 total. The awards range from honoring the best male, female, and transsexual performers, the best specific sex acts and fetishes, the best pleasure product manufacturers, and more.

One of the standouts of the night was porn star Angela White. Her movie Angela White 2 received the third most nominations (16) at the AVN Awards and won 3 of them in the categories of Best Oral Sex Scene, Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene, and Best All-Girl Movie for her DVD Angela Loves Women.

White is one of the faces of an expanding group of female adult stars who exercise total control of their own material. She runs her own production company, AGW Entertainment, and produces and directs all content exclusively for her website at angelawhite.com.

The pornography industry awards female performers more extensively than Hollywood ceremonies like the Oscars and Golden Globes. Sixteen out of the eighteen televised awards at the AVN’s were at least partially presented to female or female-identifying performers.

The Sundance Institute and the advocacy group Women in Film reported that only 4.4 percent of the top 100 box-office domestic releases between 2002 and 2012 were directed by women. In 2012, only 28.4 percent of all on-screen speaking characters in the top 100 were women.

Forbes reported that the 10 highest-paid movie actors in 2015, led by Robert Downey Jr. ($80 million), made $431 million. But the 10 highest-paid movie actresses, led by Jennifer Lawrence ($52 million), made only about half that sum — $218 million.

But then of course, Jennifer Lawrence isn’t having sex on screen.