Ethical porn with Erika Lust at yök
What a year it has been since the last International Women’s Day! There have been too many (or not enough!?) issues regarding women’s rights in the news, especially with the birth of the #MeToo movement in October. This tiny hashtag managed to give a voice to women who had been abused and harassed, well beyond those in the film and fashion industry, or politics. TIME magazine named “the silence breakers” Person of the Year 2017. A year ago we shared some of our favourite women with you (Klein, Shiva, Eidenbenz and Calle) and this year we want to dedicate a blog post to one fabulous woman we had the pleasure (and she knows all about that) to meet at yök recently.
Erika Lust with Petz and Mari in Casa C!
Erika Lust, “female provocateur and erotic film director, is creating a new world of indie adult cinema”. Finally! Fun, beautiful and enjoyable porn for women (and men!), done by women (and men). She explains her work and life ethics in “It’s time for porn to change” on the TED stage!And on top of all that, Erika is a very nice person, and so is her crew! They took over our apartments to do the episode “Sex Work is Work” with MariaRiot for XConfessions! To get a sneak peek (not for the fainthearted), watch the interview with Erika Lust (in English) at yök by Jenny + (woman with the blue hair) for the Finnish TV below:
Everyone on the set was very friendly and professional, which, unfortunately in our experience, is not that common when it comes to people from the film industry. But being nice and treating everyone well is a top priority at Erika Lust Films, and one of the main ingredients to challenge mass produced mainstream pornography. At yök, we relate to doing business as if it was serving organic versus fast food. Values are as important to us as the business itself (read our Manifesto here), which is why we like Erika’s sex-positive mantra:
• Women’s pleasure matters.
• Diversity is central to creating groundbreaking new cinema.
• Pay every person fairly, from interns to performers.
• Make work that you can be proud of. We have nothing to hide, because we are proud of what we do. (…)
• Our shootings are a safe sex environment
(…)
Erika Lust Films supports charities that work with sex workers and the LGBTQIA+ community, and share values such as equality, diversity and acceptance.
We hope this has inspired you to sign up for some juicy XConfessions and have some fun! We recommend our luxury beds and some relaxing days in Barcelona to get you even more into the mood.
Top image by @riot.maria.x