twincest was a multimedia collaboration between two lovers, Jiz Lee and Syd Blakovich. They spent 4 years together documenting their interpersonal dynamics through art.
I’m really excited about Cherry, a film written by my friends Lorelei Lee and Stephen Elliot. Not to give spoilers, but it will be one of the few films that shines a somewhat realistic and positive light on sex workers in the adult film industry. I’m also proud to say that I got to participate in the film as an extra — so look for the bald blur in the background of the restaurant dinner scene.
Synopsis: Cherry is about Angelina (Ashley Hinshaw), an 18-year-old girl on the verge of finishing high school. Angelina’s family life is difficult. Her mother (Lili Taylor) is an alcoholic and her step-father is violent and unpredictable. One morning her boyfriend (Jonny Weston) suggests she take naked pictures for money. She balks at first but then does the photo shoot, using the money to run-off with her best friend (Dev Patel) to San Francisco. In San Francisco, while cocktailing in a strip club, Angelina meets Frances (James Franco) a well-off lawyer who offers to introduce her to a different kind of world, a place full of expensive dresses and fancy parties. But that world is not as perfect as it first appears and Frances has problems of his own. At the same time Angelina, using the moniker Cherry, has begun exploring the San Francisco porn industry under the direction of Margaret (Heather Graham) a former performer turned adult film director.
Cherry was shot in the San Francisco Armory, home of Kink.com. At 250,000 square feet the armory is the largest adult film studio in the world. Stephen Elliott, the director of Cherry is a former sex worker who is also the author of seven books. The movie was written by Stephen Elliott and Lorelei Lee, a porn performer who is also a writer and lecturer at New York University.
Cherry challenges assumptions about porn, sexuality, and success, and faces the difficult question of where you need to be in order to find yourself.
I’m excited to pass this along. I myself am contemplating submissions, should I find the time! (I’m one of the contributors to the forthcoming book The Feminist Porn Studies: Writing by Academics and Sex Industry Workers, edited by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Ph.D, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, and Mireille Miller-Young, Ph.D.) So it’s great to see more interest in publications that address studies in pornography, this 2 volume collection will be edited by Lynn Comella, Ph.D and Shira Tarrant, Ph.D.
Please repost this call for submissions below — and if anyone would like to interview me for their research or submission, please let me know!
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Call for Submissions: New Views on Pornography: Sexuality, Politics, and the Law, 2 Volumes
Edited by Lynn Comella, PhD and Shira Tarrant, PhD
Deadline: July 30, 2012
Co-editors Lynn Comella (University of Las Vegas, Nevada) and Shira Tarrant (California State University, Long Beach) are seeking submissions for a two-volume edited collection under contract with Praeger.
Description: New Views on Pornography is a two-volume collection of the most current scholarship on pornography. This edited series presents empirical research on a range of contemporary issues regarding pornography’s politics, psychology, cultural and legal debates, providing a comprehensive and multidisciplinary overview of the field of porn studies in one convenient location for students, researchers, and professors across related fields. Our goal as editors is to showcase new and innovative research that examines the culture and politics of pornography in a global context, including but not limited to, questions of production, audiences, market niches, technological innovations, political debates and controversies, obscenity, free speech, public policy and the law. The editors seek well-researched facts and data in order to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of issues on the subject.
Author Guidelines: For consideration, please submit full chapters (5,000-7,000 words), a brief abstract, bio (75-100 words), and complete contact information. Submissions must include endnotes and bibliography, and adhere to Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. Send submissions in .doc or .docx format to both contact emails below. Submissions not conforming to these guidelines will not be considered.
The Editors are specifically interested in submissions on the following:
Foundations and Controversies in Pornography
Defining Pornography
The History of Pornography
Pornography and the Law: Historical Highlights
Cultural Trends and Changing Ideas about Pornography
Key Resources in Media and Cultural Studies of Pornography
Consumption Practices: Who Is Using Porn?
Global Porn Production: Practices and Revenue
Sources of Porn: The Marketplace and Changing Supply Patterns
The Porn Wars in Historical and Contemporary Perspective
The Politics of Porn Literacy and Social Control
Issues of Race, Ethnicity, and Pornography
Impacts of the Industry: Interviews with Porn Actors and Industry Workers
Studying Pornography: Research Methods and Methodologies
Impacts and Effects of Pornography
Defining the Terms: Problems with Content Analysis and Ideological Bias
Women Watching Porn: Issues in Data Collection and Self-Reporting
Pornography and Global Sex Trafficking: Separating Myths from the Facts
Pathologizing Porn: Questions about Addiction
The Impacts of Pornography on Intimate Relationships
Technology and Porn
Obscenity, Surveillance and Free Speech: Current Issues in the Law
Varieties and Genres of Pornography
How the Adult Industry is Organized: Issues of Production and Revenue
Masculinity, Violence, and Pornography: Correcting the Data
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Porn
Porn Studies in Global Context
Porn Use and Sexual Satisfaction
Send To: Please send cc’d submissions to Lynn Comella at lynn.comella@unlv.edu and Shira Tarrant at Shira_Tarrant@yahoo.com. Include Praeger NVOP Submission in the subject line. Submission queries should be directed to the above.
I spotted this photography project today on Flavorwire. Japanese artist “Photographer Hal” has created the Flesh Love iPad App featuring images of couples who have been shrink-wrapped. I love the concept and am feeling super inspired by the idea. Don’t be surprised if you see something like this coming for Karma Pervs this year…
What an eventful year it’s been! 2011 was great for me. It was a year jam-packed with travel and fundraising, films and artful activism. Here’s a short recap, if that can even give it justice!
2011 was a pivotal year for my college travels. I joined forces with some other queer porn performers such as Sophia St. James and James Darling to speak on the topics of Queer Pornography at Evergreen. I also traveled to speak about my experiences in porn, present screenings, and teach queer sex at Scripps College, UC Davis, Long Beach LGBT Center, and Harvard University. Other travel brought me to Good For Her’s Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto — to my surprise, I was featured in TWELVE nominations! I also traveled to Germany for the Berlin Porn Film Festival, where I was featured in SIX films and was also a panelist on queer and lesbian pornography, as well as participating as a celebrity judge for the Short Film Competition.
Photo: Nick Strite
2011 was a big year for fundraising, as local women/trans health clinic Lyon-Martin had a desperate call for help, and I was able to donate over $1200. I also was able to participate in the Shibaricon fundraiser for the Red Cross to help aid Japan with a signed framed image of myself by Shilo McCabe, as well as gift $1,000 to a girls’ program in Oakland through my work with Girlfriend’s films donation program.
2011 also saw a lot of Nina Hartley. I was thrilled to invite her to Crash Pad Series to film the site’s 100th Episode, streamed live to level 3 members. Then recently this year, another live scene I performed with Nina was released, Courtney Trouble’s LIVE SEX SHOW which is a fundraiser for the Center for Sex & Culture, and the FIRST explicit vaginal fisting scene I have on DVD. [If you want to buy this DVD from me, or others -- let me know!] Courtney and I collaborated on FISTING DAY, an international online and live day to honor, educate, and get off fisting. I’m very proud of our success, which includes many people being more accepting and sex positive about the act, as well as the DVD being sold by 5 courageous feminist sex toy stores: Tool Shed, Early to Bed, Fatale Media, She Bop, and Smitten Kitten, as well as directly from Courtney and myself.
I also did a fair share of modelling; for May was Masturbation Month I posed for Shilo McCabe’s Sex Positive Photo Project. I also posed for RH Denim, a new fashion company in Los Angeles. And a rarity for me, despite my dance degree and performance art background, is dancing on stage these days. Yet in 2011, I did it a few times. I performed a Black Swan inspired solo at a sex club called Velvet. And during SF Pride, Dylan Ryan and I collaborated to create a performance for QUEERLY BELOVED. In fact, we got so excited about it that we even made a trailer (thanks to Mickey Mod and Malory!).
The year is ending with a swell crescendo as I enjoyed my time in tights at the Fleshbot Awards, with lots of photos to prove it… and am pleased to be twice 2012 AVN Nominated for the AVN Awards as well as featured in several films and series recognized for AVN and XBiz industry awards.
I’ll wrap up this post with a New Year’s image for you all, a design from my special holiday cards, which I sent to the addresses of those who have supported my work through becoming members of Karma Pervs or purchasing DVDs and other items through me, as well as some co-stars and peers. The image below is based off a Karma Pervs photo by Courtney Trouble taken at EROS, visually redesigned by the clever and talented Vinh Luan Luu.
Happy New Queer!
Image: Vinh Luan Luu, Courtney Trouble & Karma Pervs
What I love about the toy is that it’s a great G-spot dildo for people who like a lot of girth really fast. For fans of that full “fisting” sensation, or those who like the “pop” motion of big things slipping in and out of small holes, this is the toy. In addition to the hard, curved, full feel, it’s also a beautiful clear glass which looks pretty incredible, magnifying and exaggerating the curvature of things inside like an old fairground fun house.
Many of you know that I like to use the Eleven like a kegel exerciser (ie in this photo — kegel pole workout!) Well, I also like to use this glass toy to work and tease the PC muscles too. One thing I like to do, which you can see in Vicarious, is tug gently on the handle to see who’s stronger, my arm… or my PC Muscles. Tug of war? How about tug of fun! In Vicarious, Bobbi and my cunt fought over the toy. She won, but then again, that just means we both won…
Anyway, for all those who have asked “where can I get that big curved glass dildo?”: it’s made by XHale Glass and is also available in the smallest version at GoodVibes.com or in all three sizes — including the one I own, the biggest size — at AllGlassSexToys.com. It’s high quality, affordable, and you can watch it IN USE right now through my digital streaming scenes in GUSH or Vicarious. If you get one, let me know what you think of it!
I found this genderqueer surreal safer sex campaign video thanks to our friends at Fleshbot.
It’s hip, bizarre, and ends with a good message. (Spoiler: wear a condom!)
We always hear about “saving the children” from things like porn and homosexuals… but judging from this video, it’s we who need saving from them.
(Behind the Music: The catchy song is by a mysterious band named Sdia Project (Sdia is AIDS spelled backwards), a cleverly designed *viral* campaign from the Israel Aids Task Force and Y&R Tel Aviv to promote Worlds AIDS Day, Dec 1st. Let’s hope their music and message continues to spread!)
Last October I shared 5 cool things. Here are five MORE cool things I want to share with you. Some of them were given to me, some of them I bought for myself. All were cool enough that I just had to share.
1. ROWDY BAUBLES: Adornment with Attitude
Sweet jewelry that’s “so queer it’s over the rainbow” by teukie jae.
I got a metal mini-bowtie resin pendant with a black glitter background. Love it, and Teukie’s mission: “I am a geeky glamdrogynous queer disabled Korean adoptee, mixed media artist and anti-oppression worker. Although I have been designing jewelry since 2004, Rowdy Baubles is my first attempt to create jewelry specifically for queer folks. I’m incredibly excited to be taking on this venture and hope to make many beautiful things for my community! I am joined in this venture by my partner Sky (you’ll see them modeling, they also help with production and shipping!) and the long-distance support of my friends. All items are handmade with love (& revolution) in my Seattle home.”
2. Freeing Ourselves: A Guide to Health and Self Love for Brown Bois
This is a fantastic health and sexuality guide created by Brown Boi Project.
While this guide is a great resource for everyone, it’s specifically created for people of color whose gender expression/identity are masculine-of-center, encompassing a wide range of experiences, and focusing on things such as testosterone and transition, mental health, surviving sexual abuse, parenting, and whole-body health needs. I love that it includes nutritional and exercise guides, as well as explicit sexual health info, including a shout out to Shine Louise Houston! Beautiful images, intimate personal stories, and invaluable information.
It’s no secret that I crush out on ukulele players.
I think it has to do with my roots, coming from Hawai`i where in 4th grade everyone and their dog played ukes, and if you were cool you could perform “Feliz Navidad” behind your back. Being a portable reminder of home, I bought one a few years ago, but I think I play even worse now than I did when I was ten. Anyway, put a charming person with ukulele skills and a witty mouth in front of me and fuck I melt into a puddle. Which is exactly what happened when I met Emilyn at the Fleshbot Awards last November and she gave me her CD. When I listen to it, I tap my feet to crafty songs that are the perfect percentage of everything that make music good.
Nenna‘s carved an impressive niche in the world of queer POC sex — in the Bay Area and cities beyond!
After the huge success of Tight Places: A Drop of Color, she’s produced her own next film, once again employing a cast of hot queer POC (cis)women and transmen from Oakland and Los Angeles in Hella Brown: Real Sex in the City. Following the good format of her last film, you get a lot of action out of a small fearless cast, as well as community interviews about porn. I love seeing Brookyn Sky from Nenna’s first film, and some familiar CrashPadSeries.com faces too! You can find the DVD online at sex-positive retailers.
Not wearing underwear is pretty hot, but so is wearing cool undies.
There’s a jizillion different designs and patterns you can put on a pair of underwear, and they automatically become a funny or poignant statement, simply because they’re on your crotch. Take for example, Melissa Dowell‘s brilliant Vagina Dentata Glow-in-the-Dark Underwear. When she posted this on Twitter, I hadn’t even clicked on the link yet and my fingers were already forming the word “WANT” on the keyboard. Best part, I’ve got a pair coming and you bet your privates I’m gonna wear them for something sexy soon! Ommn Nom Nom…!
The 2012 AVN Award Nominations have been announced, but this year I’m not attending the event. I’ve been traveling so much in the recent months that I haven’t had a moment to go back home and visit my family. So I’m taking the opportunity to go back to Maui, and do all the things I’ve been getting homesick about. I know that I’ll miss all the fun parties and celebrating with some of my industry and queer friends who will be networking in Las Vegas. Being able to meet people was the reason I’ve gone to the shows, and so far it’s brought me a lot of opportunities.
Nominations I’m a part of include:
Best All-Girl Group Scene Taxi 2, Juicy Pink Box/Girlfriends; Madison Young, Jiz Lee & Nic Switch
Best All-Girl Release Cherry 2, Jewelbox/Digital Playground Taxi 2, Juicy Pink Box/Girlfriends Films
Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene Cherry 2, Jewelbox/Digital Playground; Jiz Lee & Andy San Dimas
Best New Line
Jewelbox Films, Digital Playground
Juicy Pink Box, Girlfriends Films
Best New Series
Taxi, Girlfriends Films
By the way, you can buy these films and others directly from me — just email jiz@jizlee.com.
That’s a whole lotta porn!
Award shows in themselves are interesting to me because they offer a reflection of the industry. I remember learning that the Feminist Porn Awards chooses not to post categories, yet the films are given a title for their win. Such as “Movie of the Year” or “Most Tantalizing Trans Film”. The AVN Awards seem to build categories that relate to the way the movies are marketed, which makes sense and also shows trends and changes in the industry. For example, this year there is a “Best Celebrity Sex Tape” category, and several Porn Parody categories. Also, we see “Best Female Performer of the Year”, “Best Male Performer of the Year”, “Best Transsexual Performer of the Year”, and “Best MILF of the Year”. Huh.
Queer pornography tends to fall under the Specialty Release – Other Genre, which this year includes Crash Pad Series Volume 6: Wide Open and Carlos Batt’s Sola — which was an independent limited time release that my doll April Flores would mail wrapped in her colorful fishnet stockings.
My explorations into mainstream pornography have placed me in “Girl/Girl” categories, which as another performer explained is simply based on my female sex and “female/female” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I suppose she’s right, still, the categories will continue to fascinate me. I wonder if there will ever be a queer porn category, as many websites are doing to create a new space for porn that has a blend of sexual identities and gender expressions, or if queer content will continue to exist in “Other Genre” or “Alternative” sections, or, if that’s even a categorization that will also be problematic. (Who’s to say what’s queer?) So far the awards are boxed as Girl/Girl, B/B/G and G/G/B, various straight sex acts, transsexual (usually just Trans Women), and Other/Alternative. For cisgender gay men, there’s the GayVN Awards, which have been inclusive so much as to nominate films featuring transmen, such as Trannywood’s movies. So it’s a pleasant surprise to see Buck Angel’s SEXING THE TRANSMAN XXX nominated for not only “Best Transsexual Release” but also “Best Sex Education Release” for the AVN Awards.
Though it was shot about 2 and a half years ago, I’m really interested to see TAXI and Juicy Pink Box nominated now that they’ve partnered with Girlfriends Films to distribute DVDs from the web content. I had the pleasure of watching my scene with Dallas Fivestar while at the Berlin Porn Film Festival, and it really conveyed the chemistry between Dallas and I, who were lovers at the time it was shot. Juicy Pink Box and their DVDs through Girlfriends received a lot of nominations, including a Best Girl/Girl scene between Justine Joli and Syd Blakovich, and another nomination for Justine in the “Best Solo” category. I look forward to seeing what’s next for Juicy Pink Box, as they’ve cast another genderqueer performer, Papi Coxxx, in an upcoming production, as well as Drew DeVeaux, another popular queer porn star and outspoken, boundary breaking, transwoman. Will Drew be the next nominated New Starlet? I hope so.
It was a beautiful and somewhat surreal experience to work with Digital Playground and Jewelbox Films, because Digital is such a mainstream company. The production quality of their films is outstanding and the script for Cherry is dark and complex. I was thrilled to be cast as an androgynous DJ “Carson”, and felt so accepted on the set — shaved head and all! Cherry received a slew of nominations, from “Best Cinematography” and “Best Screenplay” to “Best Director” for Kay Brandt, and the star of the series, Judy Thompson, received a nomination for her Non-Sex Performance. Kay asked me who I’d like to work with, and I suggested Andy San Dimas, who I’d had a crush on, and still do. We had a quick and dirty scene that takes place in Cherry 2 — I loved that I could wear my realistic cock, and neither Andy nor myself took our tops off during the scene, something that you might expect from porn created with a straight male audience in mind. So it’s really cool to see our scene nominated!
One of the first mainstream companies I had the pleasure of working with was Vivid, with multi-talented director and self-identified 3rd genderation queer, Tristan Taormino. My first shoot with her was Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Female Orgasms. She welcomed me on set and everyone was super respectful of my gender pronouns. The film has a diverse cast and I appreciate that it is focused on education around the female anatomy and sexual pleasure — so it’s not specifically womens’ orgasms, but anyone with female sexual anatomy. Tristan’s other nominated film is Rough Sex 3: Adrianna’s Dangerous Mind which I was lucky to be a part of. Tristan is nominated for “Best Director”, and the film has a number of nominations including “Best Vignette Release” and I got to watch the filming of the Best Threeway scene with Adrianna, Keni Styles and Danny Wylde.
Other interesting things to me about the nominations are the slew of Crossover nominations, which includes Yasmin Lee who performed in Hangover 2. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m interested in it specifically to see her performance. You can read an interview with her about the role on translabyrinth.com.
Also of note are what looks to be growing similarities of nominated titles between this list and those of the Feminist Porn Awards, which make me think that the mainstream industry is shifting its marketing a bit, to create films like A Little Part of Me, and to submit it to places like the FPA’s, where it was awarded “Steamiest Romantic Movie” last April. For AVN, it’s nominated for “Best Feature” and “Best Screenplay”.
Just celebrating 1 year on the internet is QueerPorn.TV, which is nominated for “Best Alternative Website”. With CrashPadSeries.com being nominated last year, it’s great to see some familiar sites getting recognition. Congrats also goes to queer friends Bren Ryder (GoodDykePorn.com) and “Transsexual Performer of the Year” nominees Aly Sinclair and Juliette Stray. (One of Juliette’s first scenes was with CrashPadSeries.com.) And also to Bobbi Starr (BobbiStarr.com) and Nina Hartley (Nina.com) for their website nominations, Belladonna and Joanna Angel, Julie Simone, Kimberly Kane and Dana DeArmond for tons of nominations, and Lee Roy Myers who has a nomination for his Katy Perry Parody, for an outrageous scene between Kimberly and “Elmer”. It looks like a wacky flick. Here’s the Youtube Trailer. Tickle me, Elmo!
I hope everyone has a great time in Las Vegas. I’ll catch a wave for ya — A Hui Ho(s!)
UPDATE: Cherry 2 (Jewelbox/Digital Playground) won “Best All-Girl Release” — congrats to Kay Brandt and everyone on the production!
I’m excited to share that it’s time for the nominations period for the Feminist Porn Awards.
The event is hosted by the sex toy store “Good For Her” in Toronto. Each year the screening and awards ceremony gets bigger and bigger, grabbing the attention of international media and raising important discussions about pornography. And bringing visibility to filmmakers working within new ways of producing and marketing pornographic movies and websites.
I’m very proud to be the 2010 recipient of the “Boundary Breaker” Award, and have also performed in films which have been awarded “Hottest Trans Sex Scene”, “Hottest Dyke Sex Scene”, “Most Diverse Cast”, and “Movie of the Year”. You can read about my experiences at the 2009, 2010, and 2011 ceremonies, or check out the posts tagged Feminist Porn Awards.
The official nomination period for consideration (they accept film AND websites) opens on December 1, 2011 and will close on February 17, 2012. In order to be considered for a Feminist Porn Award, submissions must meet at least 1 of the following criteria:
* The work depicts genuine pleasure, agency and desire. These movies may also include a focus on connection, communication and collaboration between the performers and/or between the performers and filmmakers.
* The work expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film, challenges stereotypes and presents a vision that sets the content apart from most mainstream pornography. This may include depicting a diversity of desires, types of people, bodies, sexual practices, and/or an anti-racist or anti-oppression framework throughout the production.
You can find submission, rules, and other information at Good For Her.
Thank you to the brilliant minds at Good For Her, to all the directors and people in front and behind the camera, and to bloggers, reviewers, fans, and supporters who are helping to fuel more diversity, consent, and expressions within these adult mediums.
Sweet jewelry that’s “so queer it’s over the rainbow” by 
This is a fantastic health and sexuality guide created by 
It’s no secret that I crush out on ukulele players.
Not wearing underwear is pretty hot, but so is wearing cool undies.
I’m excited to share that it’s time for the nominations period for the 