Pornsaints.org is the art side of porn and the porn side of art. It is an artistic approach to porn, a pornographic approach to art, a pornoartistic approach to religion.

Artworks are based upon the idea that porn stars may be “sanctified” by their performances.

Founded by the artist Francesco D’Isa in early 2007, Pornsaints is based in Italy, and made up of artists from around the world working in an array of mediums ranging from digital video to oil and canvas. The art group lives out of the web too, with exhibitions and parties through art galleries worldwide: in Firenze (Italy), Berlin (Germany), Philadelphia (USA), San Francisco (USA), London (UK) and Austin (USA), Zurich (Switzerland). If you’re in Zurich, check out the current exhibition at Porn in Art Museum!

To me, Pornsaints illustrates the importance of an intersection of art, pornography, and spiritualism to cultural inclusion. I see pornography as a way to educate, entertain, validate, and connect people; I think Pornsaints do this as well. My pornsaints image is by artist Jeff Faerber, and I love the angles, tones, and underlaying sensuality he painted.

Recently, Pornpope Francesco D’Isa announced the release of a catalog of the images, which features friends including April Flores, Syd Blakovich, Justine Joli, and many more. Today it was picked up by Good Vibrations. Check out the Pornsaints Catalog at GoodVibes.com!

This collection has been fantastic thus far. I have a love of vampires as I’ve blogged about in the past, and am also catching up on the popular series “True Blood” though I have to admit it’s not nearly as twisted as I’d like.

If you’d like to pick it up, here’s the link to Susie’s Amazon page of Bitten. Of course, you can also purchase it at other stores (like Chronicle Books, or your local bookstore), as Amazon.com has had a recent history of being particularly sex-negative and homo/trans-phobic. Anyhow, I’ll have the review done by the end of this month so look forward to seeing it up at CarnalNation.com soon!

Though every femme story is unique, there are a few themes which illuminate common struggles. Topics such as ‘passing’—being recognized as one’s identity, be it a queer woman, a bisexual woman, or a femme, prove to be challenges that unite the authors’ experiences. Further complexities such as health, sexual abuse, economic standing, and racial and cultural oppressions also define life experiences and the authors’ relation to their femme identity, however it is defined. [read more]

Please do click over to check it out, particularly the comments. And if you have a moment to rate it, that’d be nice!

It was such a validating collection of very different works coming from very different experiences. (And, if you checked out the review, you saw that perhaps not everyone’s voice was included.)

What I took from reading all those different stories was a stronger defined perspective and attitude about femme pornstars. More specifically, the inspiration to reconsider the language with which I use to talk about femme pornstars in queer and ‘not-exactly-queer’ porn. The concept of passing as femme is extremely interesting to me in my identity as a genderqueer pornstar and how my gender has been expressed and experienced within the work that I do. Femme for me pushes various topics… on ‘fitting in’ when in comes to mainstream porn, girl/girl work, the visibility and bisexual women and transwomen models, the identity of femme trannyfags, and the gendered perception of hair.

I’ll write a post about my thoughts on that soon! (Hence the title… I couldn’t help but get started on some thoughts!

In the meantime: take a glance, cause I really enjoyed writing this for CarnalNation.com

Sex with trans women can be a challenging experience for new partners, and even for the trans woman in question. We learn things about our bodies as we go because there’s no instruction manual, no guidebook for how we’re supposed to be fucking. All sorts of assumptions about
our bodies and how we have sex or fuck can keep potential lovers wary or from expressing the interest they feel for us. And we don’t all fuck the same way, so even if someone has been with a few of us their experiences might be totally different and not helpful to the next,
and the next.

It can be hard to name our bodies in ways that we feel are authentic but that also feel sexy. It can be difficult to claim our bodies and our pleasure for ourselves when we might not feel as much ownership for them as we would like. Sometimes, at least for me, I can feel very frustrated trying to explain myself through metaphor, analogy,
and comparison because there simply is no vocabulary to explain my body the way I want to explain it.

I want to start a serious conversation between trans women to share information about how we’re fucking, no matter *who* we’re fucking or what fucking means to us. I’m not naive enough to believe that this hasn’t been attempted before, but I am humble enough to admit that I
haven’t been successful at finding those previous efforts. I’m also smart enough to know that I can’t be the only one out there who feels like she is routinely reinventing what should have, and probably was, already discovered, documented, and discussed. Old information is *definitely* welcome; this is about sharing information, not
(necessarily) sharing new information.

This is a preliminary call for submissions for a pamphlet or zine, to be distributed as widely as possible in every and any format available, with very humble goals: to start a conversation about how trans women are having sex. This is meant to be a conversation that includes trans women and our lovers. It can be as specific as you like, and it is NOT a problem if you want to contribute anonymously.
All sorts of contributions would be and will be valued, including drawings and schematics (!!!), sex stories about good sex, essays, “what to do” and “what not to do” lists, safer sex guides, … anything really, but with the acknowledgment that while a lot of us will learn something about ourselves or find some really helpful advice, there’s no *one way* to fuck a trans lady, any more than
there’s any *one way* to fuck anyone else. Our goal should be to learn as *many ways* to have good sex as possible.

The first issue of this zine will be distributed electronically and in print by request; submissions are due *really really soon*: July 21st for the first issue, which will be released August 1st, no matter how much or how little content has been collected.

Please send your contributions to M. Darling at: fistycupcake@gmail.com

I’m personally excited to read it because I’ve been skirting around the issue of my own femmeness with lots of self-exploration and sharp questions.

After cracking into femme academia with works like Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl and live readings by some of Visible: A Femmethology‘s contributors such as Sherilyn Connelly, Gina de Vries, Daphne Gottlieb, and online inspirers Amy André, Cherry Bomb, Sinclair Sexsmith, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (her site is down…) I’m stoked to get in even deeper.

Lucky for me, I also have the additional online framing via Visible: A Femmethology‘s April Virtual Tour which gained the book added, er – visibility, including an intriguing post by my friend Essin’ Em. I can’t wait to delve into some of the questions she poses… and those I discover on my own. Want to read it with me? (My deadline’s in a month and I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about by then.) Visit the publishers HomoFactus Press for a copy.

Anyhow, on the sorta plus side it’s making me not work, which is really hard for me because I’m a workaholic and have about 7 jobs/projects all happening right now. I’m trying hard not to do them. Earlier I picked up the book Third Base Just Ain’t What it Used to Be by Logan Levkoff, M.S.  (You can find it at Good Vibrations if you’re interested.)

At the moment I’m 1/2 way into it. The book is a quick read, personally written from the point of view of a sex ed teacher (youth through college). The author shares commonly asked questions which are always interesting. Like most of us, my sex education was limited.  Awkward pieces here and there until I was in my twenties. How would our sexual identities have been different if we better knew our bodies while we were forming our own goals in our young lives?

I am using this book as a branching off point to reconsider some of my earlier experiences. Also, I do have younger keiki in my life and though I don’t see them everyday, I hope to be that cool older sibling to openly answer their questions about sex, gender, sexuality, etc… and maybe teach myself a thing or two in the process.

Alright, back to the book, and some more R&R.  : /

Needless to say, I’m very excited about it. And really flattered, because the book will also include an interview that Morty did with me.

In the interview, I talked about gender and sexual expression, nudity vs. passing, and making the leap to go into porn. There’s not many porn performers out there who are genderqueer, or trans (masculine spectrum). Of those I know, a quick shout-out to Papi and Wil who appear in Morty’s most recent film Trans Entities, which you can order the DVD through Babeland or watch now via HotMovies4Her. Papi and Wil identify as being ‘Trans Entities’ and if you’re not interested in the film for their fucking, you definitely should be interested in watching it for their gender expression which is spiritual, raw, and absolutely beautiful.

Anyhow Morty just shared with me and some of the other writers and interviewees — just you wait to see who’s included! — some fantastic blurbs about the book! So I share with you. And I’ll let you know the second I find that it’s available.

Which interviews, chronicles, and This is a bold, brave, beautiful collection of work. The stories and interviews are windows into some of the most misunderstood and underrepresented people in our community: trans and gender-variant folks and the people who love them. Diamond has collected the voices of a diverse group of writers, and their words inspire, challenge, and incite. This should be required reading for anyone interested in what love and relationships in the 21st century “really” look like.

-Tristan Taormino

———————————————

Having been around the trans and genderqueer scene for nearly two decades, I sometimes slip into thinking that I’ve seen and heard it all before–then something like Morty Diamond’s latest anthology comes along to remind me that that’s simply not true. Representing an erotic range that runs from steamy to stony, the writers and interviewees showcased in Gendered Hearts make it clear that gender, embodiment, and sexuality continue to evolve, but that (cheesy as this might sound) love persists in ever-emerging forms.

Susan Stryker
Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Indiana University
Author, Transgender History (Seal Press, 2008)

Spanking has not always been my friend. Why not?

#1 It reminds me of my mother who used to spank me as punishment. Even the possibility of thinking of my mom during an erotic moment kills the mood.
#2 I didn’t know during my budding experiments as a spanking bottom that I could have any control over the way I was being hit. Without getting what I wanted, it just hurt. There was also the ex whose bedroom smacks escalated into physical abuse. Yup, there’s no eroticism around that kind of pain.
#3 I didn’t know the difference between a thud and a slap. To me, a spank was a spank; I did not know the possibility of subtilty, variation, fantasy, eroticism, different materials, or a well-versed top who listens to your needs. I didn’t even know until more recent years that I too could dish out the smacks, and find a powerful excitement about that role. And that this power could be consensual and clearly communicated.

Learning about impact play was like learning there is more than one kind of cheese than Velveta. It happened over the course of good lovers and google. All spanks are not created equal, and that’s the beauty of them. I’ve since learned to appreciate the spank. Here’s a little of what I know:

To me, a spank means a strike with a flat object like an open palm and includes the butt as well as the thighs and entire genital area. Sensations can run from sharp stinging slaps to deep penetrating thuds. It all depends on the force and shape/material of the implement. With a bare hand, there are lots of variations — you can grab the ass after the slap, use nails to make impressions or scratches, or make fists to punch. You can have bare dry or wet palms or even wear gloves – latex, rubber, or another one of my favorites: boxing gloves.

Besides tangible things like rhythm, implements and bruises, there’s mental environment as well. The fantasies, role-playing, and variety of situations where spanking can occur whether it be pure wall-to-wall spanking, or if a simple spank is slipped in during sex to help enhance the mood. I like to smack partners as I near climax to encourage them to fuck a little harder. Slapping from the bottom?

Tips for Tops include asking a new spanking buddy to rate the initial slap from 1 to 10 (1 being ‘not enough’ and 10 being ‘way too much’) or, to give two options and ask which feels better, the first one (slightly lighter) or the second one (slightly harder). Like taking an eye test at the optometrist.

It was my recent interest in spanking which caused me to jump at the opportunity to read Spanked: Red Cheeked Erotica, a collection of short stories edited by renown editor/author Rachel Kramer Bussel on the theme of spanking. Education and erotic stories like those in Spanked: Red Cheeked Erotica help me understand my own fears and fantasies associated with spanking. Here are some sections I identified with for various reasons:

Spanking You – Spanking has the ability to empower, particularly in terms of body acceptance. It took me a long time to accept my curvy ass, which I had long despised for being too feminine. Reclaiming it has been part of my overall acceptance of my body particularly in how it relates to my gender and sexual identity.

The Depths of Despair - As a degradation bottom, I was pleasantly shocked to read and understand the main character’s progression throughout the story. And even though I quickly recognized the scene and knew what was coming, it still made me cry. Gawd I’m a pushover.

Logan - Your classic ‘gay girl wants straight girl but can’t have her so she pretends to be the boyfriend when straight girl is blindfolded’ story. Plus I LOVE thud-type spanks so here’s a hot excerpt that made my right butt cheek flinch when I read it.

“Yeah, I felt like shit. But I couldn’t take anything back. Not a fuckin’ thing. And the thought of this made me whack her with that skateboard… I aimed at the dead center of her buttocks and caught it just right. This caused the entire chair to move, and the flesh on her ass sprang back and forth… the wheels went spinning on the skateboard, the ball bearings mimicking the raindrops that sprinkled against the windows.

“Uhmmm,” she moaned. “What the fuck is that? Shit, damn, that’s good,” she said.” – excerpt from Logan, by Rosalind Christine Lloyd

It’s not often that I read erotica cover to cover. However this book, for me anyway, was a bit different because it provided fantasy, validation, and some really hot sex in the context of spanking. Thank you RKB!

Links:
Get Spanked! on amazon *How many times do you get to say that?
Visit the book’s blog AND watch the trailer – Yes, a video trailer for a book. And it’s so cute cute cute.

Bonus: A great video I’ve watched with Gina Grant, which shows some good rules about Impact Play is available at BehindKink.com. You may have to register to view it, it’s free. Gina Grant helps Annette Schwarz Dom