Erika Lust (born 1977) is a Swedish
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
pornographic film director, screenwriter and producer. Since the debut of her first indie erotic film ''
The Good Girl'' in 2004, Lust has been cited as one of the current leading participants in the
feminist pornography movement,
asserting that an ethical production process sets her company apart from mainstream pornography sites.
Lust has stated that she finds no issue in calling her films porn, since she expects viewers to be sexually aroused.
In addition to directing and producing a number of award-winning films, she has written several books.
Background
Lust was born Erika Hallqvist in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1977.
She harboured a passion for film and theatre.
She went to
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
, where she studied Political Sciences.
While there, she came across
Linda Williams' 1989 book ''Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible"'', which would influence her filmmaking later.
She graduated with a BA in 1999, with a specialization in human rights and
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
. After graduation she moved to Barcelona in 2000 and started studying filmmaking.
Career
Lust shot her first film, the explicit short ''
The Good Girl'' in 2004, which became an instant hit. Released online for free under a
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
license, it was downloaded millions of times in several days
and two million times in two months.
The film was shown at the
Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival the next year and won a Ninfa Award.
In 2005, after this initial success, she founded her video production company Lust Films.
The company has produced erotic short films and compilations steadily from then on. ''Five Hot Stories For Her'', an anthology of five vignettes including ''The Good Girl'', won the
Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival's 2007 Best Spanish Screenplay award, the
Venus Berlin Fair's 2007
Eroticline Award for Best Adult Film for Women, and the 2008
Feminist Porn Award for Movie of the Year. Since then she has been a regular on the adult cinema festival circuit, and in 2020 one of her films came to the cinema in the regular process for the first time.
Development
Lust's films are characterized by carefully cast actors and high standards of production in adult film. Lust believes explicit film can be an educational tool besides being pleasurable and can help us better understand our sexuality, to live more freely and naturally. She hopes to influence viewers' conceptions of gender roles in sexuality. She considers pornography to be the "most important discourse on gender and sexuality".
In 2010, Lust opened an online erotic cinema called Lust Cinema, exhibiting her own films and those of other authors of the new wave of explicit films.
She started the first crowdsourced project in the history of adult cinema in 2013, calling it ''XConfessions''.
It has become her main source of work in the years thereafter.
In 2017, ''
Glamour'' listed Lust Cinema as one of the ''15 Feminist Porn Sites That You’ll Really, Really Enjoy''. In 2019, Lust was named as one of the
BBC's 100 Most Influential Women of the Year.
Other projects
Lust has written several books on eroticism and sexuality; her first book ''Good Porn'' was published in 2009 by
Seal Press
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and his ...
. In it, she lists such common myths associated with ‘phony, predictable porn for men’, including: #2. Men can always get it up; #6. When a man is choking a woman with his dick, she always smiles and enjoys it; #7. Beautiful young women just love to have sex with fat, ugly, middle-aged men; #13. Every lesbian is tall, thin and pretty and has long hair and nails.
Lust runs an online store offering her books and films, as well as
sex toys
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate Sexual stimulation, sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or Vibrator (sex toy), vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and ma ...
and other erotic wares.
In February 2016, her company had about 15 employees.
In 2017, in consultation with sex educators Lust created a porn-education website for parents, "The Porn Conversation". The site provides links to research and tips for talking to kids about the unrealistic nature of mainstream porn.
Films
Her film ''Cabaret Desire'' (2011) won her the
Feminist Porn Award for Movie of the Year in 2012 and the CineKink Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature. It was cited as an example of the diversity of porn at the 2013 Berlin Porn Film Festival providing a space for rethinking sex, sexuality, and pornography.
In 2020, her film ''The Intern'' received three film nominations for the XBIZ Europa Awards including Feature Movie of the Year, Best Acting (won) and Best Sex Scene in a Feature Movie. Her film ''Super Femmes'' was also nominated for Best Lesbian Sex Scene (won) and was the first time in the history of XBIZ Europa Awards where a
Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) or trans performer were nominated in a non-genre specific category. Erika Lust Films was also nominated for Global Studio Brand of the Year, and her online streaming platform XConfessions was nominated for Erotic Site of the Year.
''XConfessions''
In 2014, Lust and other directors began producing short pornographic films based on crowd-sourced stories. Viewers can leave anonymous confessions on the project's website. Each month, Lust handpicks two stories and turn them into cinematic short films. ''XConfessions'' has been presented at the Berlin Porn Festival 2014. The first two compilations of her ''XConfessions'' series have won her the Feminist Porn Awards for Hottest Straight Vignette in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
In 2015, a theatrical cut of ''XConfessions'' was screened at
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...
and at
Raindance Film Festival
Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove ...
in London.
Lust held two sold-out screenings of the ''XConfessions Theatrical Cut'' at
Kino Babylon in Berlin in February 2016,
and went on to win the Best Narrative Short CineKink Award for short film ''An Appointment with My Master.''
Criticism
Lust was one of the female filmmakers featured in "Women on Top", the first episode of the Netflix documentary series ''
Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On'', focusing on the filming of "Hysterical Piano Concert" (XConfessions 2016).
Gail Dines writes that rather than being a film of empowerment in which a female pianist fulfills a fantasy, the woman with no prior film experience is subjected to stereotypical porn sex that leaves her traumatized and in pain, but is persuaded by Lust to continue.
Kat Banyard states that "feminist porn" as promoted by Lust is another brand that does not challenge the mainstream, but serves as another entry point for potential customers. While not in favor of any type of censorship, which she views as having greater effect on the powerless, philosopher
Amia Srinivasan says that sex on film impedes the development of sexual imagination, which has a greater impact on the young.
In a study of feminist pornography, Carmen Pena Ardid, Professor of Literature and Film at the
University of Zaragoza
The University of Zaragoza, sometimes referred to as Saragossa University () is a public university with teaching campuses and research centres spread over the three provinces of Aragon (Spain).
Founded in 1542, it is one of the List of oldest u ...
, cites Lust as opening a way for women as inventors of fantasies and producers of pornographic sexual representations, but her work does not resolve the models of femininity imposed by fashion, advertising or the cosmetics industry, and the constrained social situations within which fantasies are lived. Álvaro Martín Sanz, professor of film studies at the
University of Valladolid
The University of Valladolid is a public university located in the city of Valladolid, Valladolid province, autonomous region of Castile and Leon, Spain. Established in the 13th century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. The ...
, while recognizing Lust as pioneering the rejection of the
heteronormativity
Heteronormativity is the definition of heterosexuality as the normative human sexuality. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between peo ...
present in traditional pornographic cinema, also finds limitations in the pursuit of beauty and the focus on fantasies rather than more realistic portrayals.
Lust argues that no sexual acts, including temporary and consensual self-objectification, BDSM, risk-aware violence, or extreme fantasy, should be labeled "non-feminist". Richard Kimberly Heck, Philosophy Professor at
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
, defends Lust from criticisms by
Hans Maes. Maes finds ''The Good Girl'' little different than mainstream porn due to the generally passive behavior of the female character Alex, and the performance of a "
facial" in the final scene. Heck finds the behavior of Alex more realistic than the stereotypical nymphomaniac of porn movies, and notes that Lust's view is that any sexual activity, including those assumed to be degrading, may by enjoyed by some, and are feminist if done by consent.
Books
* 2009: ''X: a Woman's Guide to Good Porn'' (alternate title: ''Good Porn: A Woman's Guide'')
** First published 2008 in Spanish as ''Porno para mujeres (Porn for Women)''
* 2010: ''Erotic Bible to Europe''
* 2010: ''Love Me Like You Hate Me'' with Venus O'Hara
* 2011: ''Shooting Sex: How to Make an Outstanding Sex Movie with Your Partner'' (ebook also available in Polish)
* 2011: ''Six Female Voices'' with Antia Pagant
* 2013: ''La Canción de Nora (Nora's Song)''
* 2013: ''Let's Make a Porno''
Honours and awards
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lust, Erika
Feminist pornography
Sex-positive feminists
Swedish pornographic film directors
Swedish pornographic film producers
Women pornographic film directors
1977 births
Living people
Lund University alumni
Businesspeople from Stockholm
Individualist feminists