Candida Royalle
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Candida Royalle (born Candice Marion Vadala; October 15, 1950 – September 7, 2015) was an American producer and director of couples-oriented pornography,
pornographic actress A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinc ...
,
sex educator Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
, and sex-positive feminist. She was a member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame.


Early life and education

Royalle was born Candice Marion Vadala on October 15, 1950 to a working-class Catholic family in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. Her father, Louis, worked as a professional jazz drummer and had a hot temper. Her mother, Peggy Frazier, left the family when Royalle was 18 months old and Royalle never saw her again. Candice and her sister Cinthea were raised by their stepmother, Helen Duffy. Trained in music, dance and art in New York City, she studied at the
High School of Art and Design The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and more recently, its Midtown Manha ...
,
Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...
and the
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
.


Career

After graduating from the Parsons School of Design, she moved to California and began performing with the avant-garde theater group The Cockettes. In 1975, she played Divine's daughter in the play ''The Heartbreak of Psoriasis''. In 1975, she began her career as a pornographic performer, appearing in about 25 movies including '' Hot & Saucy Pizza Girls.'' Her final film was ''Blue Magic'' in 1980, which she also wrote. Royalle quit performing because she got married and was uncomfortable being sexual with other men. Moreover, she had increasingly felt that her strongly feminist views were at odds with the male-centric manner in which traditional pornography was produced and that she had been working in, giving virtually no attention to the female perspective, and making no effort to appeal to female viewers. The increasing availability of
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
and VCR around 1983 provided Royalle both with an incentive and opportunity to consider producing her own "feminist" pornography, aimed at women and couples who wanted to watch a different kind of porn from the privacy of their homes. Royalle returned to New York in 1980. In early 1984, she founded Femme Productions together with Lauren Neimi. Their goal was making erotica based on female desire, as well as pornographic films aimed at helping couple therapy. Her productions are aimed more at women and couples than at the standard pornographic audience of men, and have been praised by counselors and therapists for depicting healthy and realistic sexual activity. Royalle stated that she tried to avoid " misogynous predictability", and depiction of sex in "...as grotesque and graphic wayas possible." She also criticized the male-centredness of the typical pornographic film, in which scenes end when the male actor ejaculates. Royalle's films are not "goal oriented" towards a final "
cum shot A cum shot is the depiction of human ejaculation, especially onto another person. The term is usually applied to depictions occurring in pornographic films, photographs, and magazines. Unlike ejaculation in non-pornographic sex, cum shots typ ...
"; instead, her films depict sexual activity within the broader context of women's emotional and social lives. In 1989, she signed the Post Porn Modernist Manifesto. She was featured in Maya Gallus's 1997 documentary film '' Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality''.Janice Kennedy, "Exploring female sexuality: Documentary a revealing look at women's erotica". ''
Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...
'', February 10, 1999.
In 1997, she was presented with the
Free Speech Coalition The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is a non-profit industry trade group, trade association of the sex industry in the United States. Founded in 1991, it opposes the passage and enforcement of obscenity laws and many censorship laws (with the excep ...
Lifetime Achievement Award as a director. Royalle wrote regular columns for adult magazines ''High Society'' and ''Cheri''. She was also a public speaker, giving lectures at
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, the World Congress on Sexology, and numerous universities and professional conferences. In 2004, she authored the book ''How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do''. A five-track EP titled ''Candida Cosmica'', a collaboration between Royalle and Patrick Cowley from the mid-1970s, was released in October 2016 by Dark Entries Records.


Affiliations

Royalle was a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, and a founding board member of Feminists for Free Expression.


Personal life and death

In the 1980s, Royalle was married to producer Per Sjöstedt; they separated in 1988. In May 2006, she announced that she was engaged to be married. She died in Mattituck, New York on September 7, 2015, aged 64, from
ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...
.


Legacy

In 2019, ''Candice'', a documentary about Royalle's life and finding out what happened to her mother who left her as a child, was screened at various documentary film festivals. It was directed by Sheona McDonald and distributed by Mbur Indie Film Distribution. Royalle is the subject of the book ''Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History From Below'' by Jane Kamensky, a former historian at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. Kamensky describes Royalle's unique place in feminist history. "She is way too critical and self-critical for many of the sex-positive feminists... and she absolutely does not fit into an anti-pornography box", Kamensky told ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
.'' Kamensky worked to put Royalle's archive, including her photos, letters, film clips, and other memorabilia, into the
Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, it is "the ...
.


Filmography

During her acting career (1975–1980), Royalle performed in 25 traditional male-centred porn films, including ''Ball Game'' (1980) by Ann Perry, ''Hot & Saucy Pizza Girls'', ''Hot Racquettes'', ''Delicious'', ''Fascination'' by Chuck Vincent, and finally ''Blue Magic'' (1980), which Royalle also wrote and her then-new husband Per Sjöstedt produced. By 2013, Royalle had (jointly) written or directed 18 feminist porn films with Femme Productions since 1984, including: * ''Femme'' (1984) * ''Urban Heat'' (1984) * ''Three Daughters'' (1986) * ''Christine's Secret'' (1986) * ''A Taste of Ambrosia'' (1987) * ''Rites of Passion'' (1987) * ''Sensual Escape'' (1988) * ''Revelations'' (1993) * ''My Surrender'' (1996) * ''The Gift'' (1997) * ''The Bridal Shower'' (1997) * '' Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality (1997)''TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
"Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality"
synopsis: TCM synopsis.
* ''One Size Fits All'' (1998) * ''Eyes of Desire'' (1998) * ''Eyes of Desire 2'' (1999) * '' Afrodite Superstar'' (2006) * ''Under the Covers'' (2007)


References


Further reading

*


External links


Candida Royalle's Website
* * *
Papers of Candida Royalle, 1920-2017.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Royalle, Candida 1950 births 2015 deaths American pornographic film actresses American feminists American women writers Women pornographic film directors Feminist pornography Individualist feminists Sex-positive feminists Businesspeople from New York City Pornographic film actors from New York (state) Deaths from ovarian cancer in New York (state) Parsons School of Design alumni City College of New York alumni High School of Art and Design alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American women