“Humanist Porn” or “Artcore” – Petra Joy talks about filming sex for women’s pleasure
Feb 19, 2009 | 2 Comments | ByRachel Millward
Petra Joy is an internationally award-winning porn director who will be part of the Sex on Screen debate to be held at the ICA on Wednesday March 11th. I caught up with her to get a sense of where she’s coming from. Love porn or loathe it, Petra has a refreshing and fascinating perspective…
Rachel Millward: To me, ‘porn’ means films of explicit sex, for purposes of arousal. What are your reservations about using the word ‘porn’ for your work?
Petra Joy: Based on the British Board of Film Classification ‘porn’ is indeed any film showing real sex and shot to arouse sexually. But in reality hard-core porn leaves a lot of people, especially women, cold, whereas feature films that feature explicit sex but received a soft rating as an ‘art house film’ turn these viewers on. We are all unique and what turns us on is very individual. What is art and what is porn and where do you draw the line? My main reservation to be called just a porn director is the associations that ‘porn’ evokes as being misogynist and featuring fake and unsafe sex. These are exactly the reasons why I do not like most mainstream porn. I call my explicit and artistic films “art-core” – it is a new genre that is neither your average porn film nor a soft, erotic art house film, but a mixture of both.
