Jodie Foster's six greatest moments

All Jodie, all lesbian, all of the time

Today it was literally my job to watch clips of Jodie Foster movies on Youtube. I mean, I may not be being paid, but I'm certainly being allowed to sit in an office and assess the merits of (now openly) lesbian film stars. Who else knew that Jodie Foster was Lindsey Lohan in the original version of Parent Trap? Not me. This important morning's work became the literary tour de force, 'Jodie Foster's six greatest moments':

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/jodie-fosters-six-greatest-moments160113

I also wrote a news piece about the 'Protest Transphobia @ the Observer' demo, taking place tomorrow afternoon. Do I need to mention Julie Burchill again?

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/anti-transphobia-protests-scheduled-following-withdrawal-burchill-hate-rant160113

Also, it turns out that queer women have to go for cervical screenings because lesbian sex is real, just like other sex. I think that the speculum may be irrelevant to smear tests, really. They do it just to punish women:

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/lesbian-and-bisexual-women-risk-cervical-cancer160113


As I didn't blog yesterday, you can also read up on a couple of pieces I did then. First, a Stonewall walk against homophobic bullying:

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/want-stamp-out-anti-gay-bullying150113

Second and finally, there's a big gala being held to celebrate the Teddy queer film awards in Berlin:

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/soir%C3%A9e-diversit%C3%A9-awards-ceremony-launches-berlin-film-festival150113

All I want for Xmas is a stocking full of really arousing feminist porn

Originally published at The F Word: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2011/12/all_i_want_for_

This isn't quite doing it for me

Wrongheadedly, I visited Anne Summers the other day. Hidden at the back of the store next to the 'Dominatrix' range (exclusively advertised with pictures of submissive women - I don't think they get it) was the section marked 'Porn for Women'.

A less interesting porn section could scarcely be conceived of. Whoever is designing this porn seems to think that women will descend in droves to purchase any porn which replaces the 'for men' signifiers 'slutty/anal/hungry/cock/bitch/fest' with the more delicate, pleasant, feminine word 'couples'. As if 'couples' is any draw in a film that conforms in every other respect to the male subject/female object binary.

I'm sorry for women if that's what porn 'for women' amounts to. Perhaps I shouldn't expect revolutionary female-driven narratives about sexualities and the female gaze in the Anne Summers porn section, but I would at least like to be slightly titillated. The barest hint of a sensation in the knicker department would be enough.

Still, it's only the most commercially successful sex shop 'for women', after all. In a more fringe way, women, or rather, feminists, have been conceiving of, directing and distributing feminist porn - or porn which tries to subvert the misogynist narrative - for ages. The downside is that the lack of mainstream market support results in small, independent distributors who seem to spring up and then go under (and not in the fun way, either). Last month, notably, saw the sad departure of Filament Magazine, billed wonderfully as the 'thinking woman's crumpet'.

It's a small relief that the Feminist Porn Awards are out there, attempting to give voice to the desires of those mind-numbingly bored by the restrictive fare conventionally on offer to women (let's not even get started on the soft/hardcore misogyny that passes for general/men's porn). The Feminist Porn Awards reckon that porn is feminist if it is hot and:

"1) A woman had a hand in the production, writing, direction, etc. of the work.
2) It depicts genuine female pleasure
3) It expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn."

Or, as Caitlin Moran succinctly put it, "I JUST WANT A MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR INTERNATIONAL PORN INDUSTRY WHERE I CAN SEE A WOMAN COME."

That all sounds great, so why is it rare to find hardcore porn which fits these quite minimal criteria? There are, of course, commercial successes. There are the Anna Spans of the straight world (though her failure to look critically at mainstream porn is rather damning), and there are the Courtney Troubles and Shine Louise Houstons on the other end of the spectrum. But it isn't enough, it isn't available enough, and what there is doesn't do enough to undermine the free tube sites of the industry.

Isn't it strange that an activity which - much of the time - is something men and women do together, should be so invariably so distorted when put on camera? I don't think there is anything about the presence of a camera, or indeed a mass market, that necessarily turns sex into misogyny, but it is depressing when this is so often the case.

Lisa Saunders' interesting and well-argued anti-porn/pro-sex article on this website yesterday suggests that 'it's about as easy to get hold of 'ethical' pornography as it is to score 'ethical' cocaine.' My suspicion is that feminists will lose out if we completely write pornography off, forever, the end. The continued presence of feminist voices in other unethical industries hasn't created any feminist industries, but it has changed some things for the better.

The sustained critique of the industry and its wider cultural normalisation that anti-pornography feminisms provide are extremely persuasive, but I am reluctant to condemn all porn that exists or could exist on the basis of the industry as it stands. Women watch, and get off, on porn which doesn't cater to them, which is misogynist, racist, and unethical in every other respect. If this is the case with such rubbish porn, how much better could it be if feminist porn were to flourish?

Can feminist porn can break away from mainstream misogynist narratives? Are the criteria given by the Feminist Porn Awards enough to make porn feminist? Is there feminist porn which genuinely represents women's sexualities? Have you seen any that really stood out? What are your recommendations for feminist porn?

Real villains and film villains. More Rebekah Brooks please.

Even though she's basically the anti-christ of the world, Rebekah Brooks is a little bit cool, isn't she? Isn't she though? She's brilliant but evil. Talented but ruthless. Relentlessly successful, she conveys remorse without feeling the slightest shred of it. Possibly a domestic abuser, homophobe, racist, and/or sexist. I'll say it for her, her brand of villainy has panache. If wearing a T-shirt saying 'I heart Rebekah Brooks' wasn't the public equivalent of wrist slitting, I'd probably do it.

Massive badass

Phone hacking is only the icing on the cake of Brooks' malevolence. As Chief Exec of News Corp, she was perfectly happy to oversee the hate-n-prejudice projectile vomit that is constantly spewed out by The Sun, The NOTW, and their ilk. I heard that she had once complained about page 3, but as editor of The Sun, let's face it, she only had to stretch out her little finger to eradicate it to the folder marked 'embarrassing blights on World history'. She didn't give a damn. Instead she picked an enemy; peodophiles, and whipped up a national preoccupation; scaremongering about peodophilia.

Even when sitting in front of the Select Committee to answer for her crimes this week, she exuded an untouchable superiority that Murdoch-squared could only dream of. She combines not giving a shit with the skill of understanding just how to tap into public hysteria. It's lethal.

In fact, she's the perfect film baddie. Cast your mind up to the 130th floor of News Corp Towers. Imagine a black leather rotating chair, a gigantic semi-circle desk, and Brooks holding a massive ginger cat. You have the scene.

Except, I have a sneaking suspicion that if/when any major film company gets their dirty little hands on this story, everything I like about Rebekah Brooks will be written out. Its just too obvious that instead of a powerful evil badass, Rebekah Brooks would become a shrieking harridan straight out of the Glenn Close school of female stereotypes. Possibly played by Mick Hucknall, if the spoof videos floating around are anything to go by.

One of my favourite artworks by the Guerilla Girls sums up this trend perfectly >>

Its true. Not that Hollywood would ever do a film about one of the most important human rights movements ever, but if they did, it would look like this.

And though real life female baddies exist, in Hollywood they invariably become a: sexy skin-tight leather aficionados (not that I have anything against skin-tight leather, just, you know), b: (sexy) psycho bitches who just want to be loved by a man or c: ugly, two-dimensional objects of pity.

That's not to say that female actresses haven't, over the years, put in unspeakably strong performances as villains. Kathy Bates in Misery is incredible, for example. But she still falls under category b: evil psycho man-love-needing bitch. I can't think of any proper female film baddies who get to be powerful, where their power isn't their sexuality. Where are the female villains who get to do the awesome speech at the end about how extensively they've planned for this moment? What about the female masterminds who work out convoluted schemes for world domination? We've got real life female villains, how about celluloid ones? If Hollywood are stuck for inspiration, I suggest starting with our friend Rebekah.