Porn For Women Pioneers

Thanks to these porn for women pioneers, we now have a lot more great porn to enjoy today.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that the idea of porn for women really gained traction. While magazines like Playgirl had existed in the 70s, porn films weren’t made for women until the 80s. The growth of the porn market thanks to VHS meant it became more viable in the mid 80s. Even then, the first porn for women pioneers faced an uphill battle to make their films. Men largely controlled the industry and few believed that women would even watch porn, let alone buy it. Still, these women worked hard to make their own erotic vision a reality.

These following female porn directors were some of the first to make porn for women. Their work is still worth watching.

Candida Royalle is often acknowledged as the first person to make porn for women. Her Femme line of films, launched in 1984, actively sought to cater to female viewers. The films were hugely successful and she went on to make 17 features. Most were story-based erotic films with explicit sex and female orgasms. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Women’s Erotica at the 2006 Feminist Porn Awards. Sadly Candida passed away in 2015. Her films, and a documentary about her life, can be found at Pink Label TV.

Candida was part of Club 90, a group of female porn performers who would regularly meet to support each other in the early 80s. Other members were Veronica Hart, Veronica Vera, Annie Sprinkle (see below) and Gloria Leonard. Originally a social and “porn star support group”, Club 90 was where Candida originally proposed the idea for the Femme films. The members all made a 30 minute film as part of the project, labelled as the “Star Director Series”. These appear in the titles Sensual Escape, A Taste Of Ambrosia and Rites of Passion. Club 90 were porn for women pioneers.

Annie Sprinkle began her career as an adult film star and went on to become a sexologist, performance artist and sex work advocate. She is a pioneer of sex-positive feminism and her film Herstory of Porn explored porn from a woman’s point of view. She also made a number of sex ed movies ncluding Sluts and Goddesses. Annie is still making sex positive art today. See her work at Pink Label TV.

Betty Dodson, known as the Mother of Masturbation, was an American sex educator who spent a lot of her career helping women to achieve orgasm. She conducted workshops where women were encouraged to look at their vulvas and pleasure themselves. Her book Sex For One sold over a million copies. She also made many sex education videos about masturbation and you can find some of these at Pink Label TV.

Nan Kinney was a co-founder of the groundbreaking On Our Backs lesbian magazine along with Susie Bright. In 1985 Nan created Fatale Media as a spin off from the magazine and it became the largest published of lesbian erotica in the world. Nan, along with Deborah Sundahl produced several videos as part of this, the first being Private Pleasures and Shadows. Fatale also made the best-selling film Bend Over Boyfriend, the first porn film to explore pegging. You’ll find many of the Fatale videos at Pink Label TV.

Jackie Strano and Shar Rednour, originally with Fatale Media, created their own company S.I.R Productions in 1998 (S.I.R. stood for Sex, Indulgence, and Rock and Roll). Shar was the director of Bend Over Boyfriend and went on to make a sequel, along with seveal others including Hard Love Or How To Fuck In High Heels and Sugar High, Glitter City. All their videos are at Adult Empire.

Anna Span claimed the title of the first female British porn director. From 1999 onward she filmed over 160 scenes for her company Easy On The Eye Productions. Most of her work was gritty and quite hardcore. She was named Indie Porn Pioneer at the 2007 Feminist Porn Awards. She has since retired from porn and, after running for the UK parliament in 2010, emigrated to the USA. You’ll find her work at Pink Label TV.

Nina Hartley starred in her first porn film in 1984 and has since appeared in over 1000 of them. She moved behind the camera in 1992 and directed some of the earliest sex education videos. Her “Nina Hartley’s Guide To…” series featured explicit sex mixed with read sex ed and were hugely popular. A long-avowed feminist, she was proud of her sex work and has long advocated for better porn. She most recently starred in a sex scene in 2020.

Tristan Taormino launched her porn career when she directed and starred in The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex in 1999. The film was based on her book of the same name. She went on to direct many big-budget films for major studio Vivid including the Expert Guide sex education series. She won seven Feminist Porn Awards over the course of her career and co-authored The Feminist Porn Book. She has since retired. Her films are at Adult Empire.

Petra Joy is a British director who originally worked in advertising and made documentaries. She set out in 2004 to make porn films for women. Her films have won numerous awards and screened at international festivals. In 2009 she created an award to encourage first-time female porn filmmakers. Petra has since retired from filmmaking but you can find all her films at Cinema Joy.

Ovidie is a French director and documentary maker who has also appeared as a performer. Ovidie has long been an advocate for ethical porn and porn aimed at women. She has directed dozens of films for European companies like Marc Dorcel and Canal+. Her film Infidelite won Movie of the Year at the Feminist Porn Awards in 2013. She also made the hard-hitting doco Pornocracie which critiques the multinational companies who run the tube sites like Pornhub. Some of her films are at Adult Empire.

These aren’t the only women who were working behind the camera in the porn industry at the time, of course. But these are the ones who were working to make porn for a female audience at a time when few believed it was worth doing. We’re grateful to these porn for women pioneers for their work.

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