April 15, 2015
In response to some questions and concerns about this year’s Feminist Porn Awards, the following are our thoughts based on multiple personal conversations amongst various interested parties.
Our jury is made up of sex educators, sex writers, academics and film professionals. We draw on their expertise in their various fields as well as collect their feedback as fans and consumers. It is important to us that the Feminist Porn Awards ultimately represents the unbiased interests of porn consumers. This is why we do not ask porn industry professionals to judge their own and each other’s submissions. Jury members are present at FPA events and their biographies are usually published to our social media. We also however, wish to create a space for jury members where they can honestly give feedback without unfair influence or fear of repercussion. There are ways that we can and cannot divulge our processes. We understand the community’s desire for transparency and will endeavor to provide it to the extent that juror privacy is respected and personal information is not divulged.
We have had many conversations over the years via email and by phone with folks who wish to discuss our processes and decision-making. We believe that social media is not an appropriate venue for nuanced conversations. We do not generally respond to serious inquiries over social media other than with links to longer explanations. All our staff are accessible by email or phone and we are happy to engage respectfully with concerned parties. We choose to do this privately rather than publicly because we strongly feel that complicated conversations require our full engagement. We have consistently committed ourselves to difficult conversations.
When we evaluate a film, most often, all that we can fairly review is the end-product of the film itself. We cannot be on set, nor can we realistically evaluate the off set behaviour of performers or production staff. We have always been open to, and have received, direct feedback from various performers over the years as to their on-set experiences, positive and negative. This matters to us. If a concern arises, we do our best to research and talk directly to all parties involved. This represents best practice for us.
We are honoured that folks believe in us and choose to sponsor our event. We appreciate diversity not only in the films that we award but also in our sponsors. We love developing relationships with all types of people interested in supporting feminist porn and hope that our practices and values are positive influences on their businesses as well. Sponsors have no influence over the direction of the awards as a whole or over any selections for nomination or awards.
While we especially love and admire films that include diversity, we also recognize that many films, directors and studios have specific markets and brands. We believe that is important that people create stories and scenes that represent themselves and their chosen audience. We also recognize that individual desires may be influenced by society’s prejudices and historical values of who is deemed “sexy” or not. We are so pleased to see an increasing number of submissions with a greater diversity of images of sexiness that challenge society’s narrow and limiting norms. Our goal is that our event, as a whole, contributes to the discussion around definitions of “sexy” so that consumers have a wider selection of desires and images to watch that hopefully reflect their own.
Finally, there are concerns about our inclusion of production quality as an important judging criteria. We understand that this may create an impression that we only value large studios and those with access to finances. This is not the case. We have always used quality of production as an important element of our decisions. We have also awarded many films made on very limited budgets that nevertheless showed attention to detail in terms of editing, lighting, storyline and creativity. We posted our judging criteria online because we felt our old statement was not specific enough about what we are looking for. We will continue to award films made on limited budgets that are still interesting to watch, sexy and creative.
We want to thank our community for their tremendous support over the years. We appreciate your shared enthusiasm for embracing excellence and activism through feminist porn. We look forward to seeing you and celebrating sexy smart smut together!