So we all agree: mainstream lesbian porn is an epic failure. But what happens when a real-live lesbian decides to make some all-women pornography? We get Superfreak from Shine Louise Houston of Pink and White Productions. This is the only lesbian porn I’ve seen that comes even remotely close to depicting the “truth” of female pleasure.
However, believability is only half the battle in terms of what turns women on: we also have to be physically and emotionally attracted to the women on the screen. So for me and for some of my friends, this became an issue since the women in these films are not necessarily our “type,” i.e. the kind of lesbian we would normally be attracted to. But personal preference aside, I’m sure there are plenty of girls out there for whom these women are their type, not to mention that finally there is a director wiling to show us real lesbian sex, rather than the cotton-candy fluff that we get in the other mainstream films. Shine began making porn after she noticed (just like we have) the lack of representation of genuine lesbian sex in the industry. Her filmsuse actual gay actresses, instead of the gay-for-pay girls over at Girlfriends Films. There are femmes thrown in the mix, but definitely not the kind that we saw in Women Seeking Women. As Princess Donna explains, “We’re femme. It’s a look. It’s a lifestyle… We’re representin’. There are homos who look like us out there, and we’re some of them.”
In the documentary, Behind the Kink, Shine says, “The mission for Pink and White is to create beautiful cinema that’s representative of today’s blurred gender lines in the queer community… So when [lesbians] watch it they can be like, ‘Oh yeah! I’ve done that! That’s hot, I can relate to that.”
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The premise of the film is a bit outrageous, but what porn plot isn’t? It is a lesbian party in which each girl gets possessed by the ghost of Rick James (I know…I know) over the course of the evening; resulting in “super freaky sex.” One scene involves Shawn and Vasa and takes place in the kitchen.
There is hardly any speaking throughout the film, save some introductory phrase: “Hey baby, less talking, more fucking,” and they go. The dialogue is cheesy as hell, but the fact that the women just do the sex and do not constantly talk about what they are doing, is infinitely better.
The scene starts with Vasa, who cannot get into the bathroom at the party, so in desperation jumps up and pees in the kitchen sink (not something you’d see in mainstream stuff). Shawn surprises her, drinks some water, spits it on Vasa to rinse her off, and starts going down on her. Shawn’s performance is “eating pussy,” literally. She is not hesitant to get her whole face in there and get crazy. Also, Vasa places her hand on Shawn’s head and pushes her face down harder, a move usually associated with men. In blowjob scenes in straight porn, the man will force the woman’s head down, seen by many feminists as degrading. But what does it mean if a girl does it to another girl? The feminist argument is rendered irrelevant; it becomes simply a display of the ever-changing power dynamics that define “switch” lesbian sex. Lorelei said: “A lot of the ‘lesbian porn’ I’ve seen or been in has not had that kind of energy—women being aggressive. These types of scenes are definitely reflective of my personal sexuality. I am attracted to aggressive women.”
We also get close-ups of Vasa’s face to check her reactions to the sex. Unlike the never-ending controlled moaning in mainstream porn, Vasa’s vocalizations are sporadic and come out as gasps with her voice catching in her throat. Shawn then comes back up and they play with the sink hose in the scene, laughing and spraying each other. The girls watching this with me remarked that they play around like this with their girlfriends, and as it turns out, Vasa (real name Jiz Lee) and Shawn are lovers in real life. Jiz said that “the scene is really similar to the sex life we have. We are pretty spontaneous and messy.”
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Next, Shawn picks up Vasa and carries her across the room and starts fucking her even harder. She inserts two hands and rubs them together, increasing in intensity (and I do mean intensity) until she is literally shoving both hands into Vasa. This ends with Vasa breathing hard, flushing, and yelling out “yeah…YEAH” while squirting all over the counter (Yay for female ejaculation!). After she orgasms, Vasa jumps off the counter, gets down on the floor with Shawn, and fucks Shawn with until she orgasms as well, though not visually.
The last scene is a femme-on-femme threesome between Lorelei, Princess Donna, and Dana DeArmond. All three girls stressed the importance of showing the world that femmes can be aggressive too. Princess Donna even called her role in the scene a “stone femme,” which is a femme playing the part of a stone butch, all about the other girl’s pleasure and never touched. The girls I interviewed said that with regards to their own sex lives, they always try to do whatever makes their partner happy. This goes back to the female brain: “girls’ social agenda, expressed in play and determined by brain development, is to form close one-on-one relationships.” Caregiving is a staple of female relationships, so it makes sense that this instinct would translate over to lesbian sex. I’m not saying that there aren’t men out there who are focused on pleasing their partner, but with women, making sure others are content is a biological necessity.
In this scene, Donna and Dana are completely focused on pleasing Lorelei and take turns fucking her, kissing her, and tending to different parts of her body.
Within twenty seconds, the two women have placed Lorelei on a table and Princess Donna starts finger-fucking her hard while Dana kisses her neck. Donna later switches to a hand-held dildo, and then they change places. The scene borders on S&M, with Donna and Dana playing the dominant roles and Lorelei the submissive, but they often check to see if she’s ok, ask her how she’s feeling, and tell her she’s pretty. It is the definition of hardcore, ending with whole-hand, double-penetration anal and vaginal, (at this point my friends and I were definitely shielding our eyes) but Lorelei looks like she’s loving every second of it. Lorelei says in her post-scene interview that she “just came eight times,” and there isn’t much reason not to believe her, but there is still no visual proof.
So after hours of porno watching (my neighbors now probably think I’m a freak), I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want aesthetics instead of sex, then mainstream is for you, but if you want down-and-dirty fucking, even if you’re not necessarily attracted to the actresses, films like Shine’s are the way to go. As Shine states, “I hope the audience can see that. The attitude is different. When you’re watching mainstream porn you can tell they’re doin’ it for the camera. [In my films] they’re not doin’ it for camera. It comes across as more authentic.” But is porn, even authentic porn, really what lesbians want to see? Based on what the girls told me, it doesn’t seem likely. Many of them without my prompting were eager to bring up movies like Bound and shows like The L Wordwhen talking about what actually arouses them. It appears that the even more elusive “L” word, love, is key in turning girls on, but we’ll save that for another day.
Find Part 1 and more from Katie here!
