124/476 12 Feb 90 18:07:12
From:   Elise Krueger
To:     Kim Storment
Subj:   Re: Pornotica
Attr:   recvd 
------------------------------------------------
   Thanks for the recommendation of "Omaha the Cat Dancer" by Kate Worley
   and Reed Waller.  It's one of my favorite comix, right up there with
   Los Bros Hernandez' "Love and Rockets".  In fact, Reed and Kate are 
   friends of mine.  Back a few issues ago there was a scene in a lesbian
   bar that (in scene, anyway) was modelled on a evening of conversation
   and hanging out that Kate and I had.  And in ish 13, "Womantalk Books"
   and the handicapped section (placed out of reach of anybody in a 
   wheelchair)  really happened.... I was the clerk.   (Though I'm not 
   vain enough to claim that Mickey Hausenpfeffer is modelled on me.)
   Excellent comix.  Everybody oughtta read 'em.
  
   I just found a book of feminist erotica!!!!
  
   Herotica    from Down There Press, ISBN: 0-940208-11-3
   $8.50 this printing, available at fine bookstores  (heh, heh.....
   I used to be a managerial type at B Dalton..... they'll order it,
   although they do not carry it.  They may require prepayment, 
   though.  Best bet is a feminist, lesbian/bisexual/gay, or
   leftist bookstore.)
  
   It contains 21 stories, some straight, some lesbian, some bi, some
   totally unclassifiable..... all pretty good.  All consensual.   
   The editor, Susie Bright, (and if you recognize her name, what did
   you think of Liz O'Lexa's poetry in the last ish?)  quoted a
   bumper sticker she saw that said "HONOR LUSTFUL WOMEN".
     
   I like that.  
  
   
   If you hear of anything else nice, please pass word along! 
   Have a good! 
                     -Elise


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 * Origin: The Terraboard, Minneapolis, MN (Opus 1:282/341)


218/599 17 Feb 90 22:12:47
From:   Carole Ashmore
To:     Nancy Fox
Subj:   Re: Feminist Porn
Attr:   
------------------------------------------------
 * Cross-posted by Nigel Allen @ 1:250/438
 From: carole@rosevax.Rosemount.COM (Carole Ashmore)
 Orga: Rosemount Inc., Eden Prairie, MN

In article <925@calmasd.Prime.COM>, nef@calmasd.Prime.COM (Nancy Fox) writes:

 > Mother Jones' latest issue has an article on the new
 > feminist pornography - porn for women, by women.
 > An interesting article.  She discusses
 > a little, but not at any great length, the question
 > of whether porn can ever be feminist, and discusses
 > the issue of bondage in fantasy.  Anyone read the
 > article and want to discuss it?  I'd also like
 > to hear from anyone who has seen any of these videos.
 > She said most of the new videos were on the boring side,
 > with many women admitting that they skipped ahead to
 > the "good parts."  The videos put out by On Our Backs
 > were described as being a pretty far out, or something
 > to that effect.  Sorry if this subject has been
 > discussed here before.  I'm just back to reading
 > after a long absence due to a release...

Have not seen article or videos.  Will, however, go and check them out as the 
notion of pornography by women for women fascinates me.  I love explicitly 
sexual material, but so very little is available that is not directed at 
heterosexual men, and leafing through PLAYBOY does nothing for me.

It doesn't suprise me that videos by ON OUR BACKS would be 'pretty far out' as 
lesbian women seem to have more quickly or easily defied the cultural 
perception that women don't (or shouldn't) like porn.  Alas, I'm pretty much 
heterosexual, so most of this stuff doesn't really hit me on a gut (hmmm, is 
that the area of the anatomy I really mean?) level.  I'll admit getting 
something out of COMING TO POWER (greatest pun title in the history of 
publishing) but mostly it was rather wishing I were gay so I could enjoy it 
more.

What I'm really intrigued by are the just starting (or just being discovered) 
sources of female created porn directed at heterosexual women.  I'm thinking, 
for instance, of CAUGHT LOOKING by the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce 
(still in print, your local bookstore will order) where the authors used their 
favorite dirty pictures to illustrate their book of essays on the pornography 
question.  Or there was Joanna Russ' description of underground pornographic 
fan magazines by female Star Trek fans in her book MAGIC MOMMAS, TREMBLING 
SISTERS, PURITANS AND PERVERTS (out of print, my library had it) which got me 
to start contacting all the women SF fans I know to see if anybody's on the 
mailing list.  Anne Rice (of vampire book fame) has done some very nice female 
oriented porn under the pseudonyms Anne Rampling (EXIT TO EDEN, still in print) 
and A. N. Roquelaire (the 'Sleeping Beauty trilogy', two of them were THE 
AWAKENING OF SLEEPING BEAUTY and BEAUTY'S PUNISHMENT, can't remember the 
third).  And I'm told by friends who read them that I should re-examine the 
'supermarket' romance books, as there is a subgenre of them that has become 
explicitly sexual and is a very far cry from the 'one kiss in the moonlight' 
romances of my youth.
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 # Via Usenet Newsgroup soc.feminism
 * Origin: Echo Beach (1:250/438)