Sex Positive Photo Project Interviews me and Courtney Trouble

My friend Shilo McCabe runs an excellent blog called the Sex Positive Photo Project. Here are some exceprts from an interview Shilo did with me and Courtney Trouble on the eve of the Queer Porn Tv launch:

http://thesexpositivephotoproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/exclusive-interview-with-courtney.html#more


ON QUEER PORN STARS:

"The idea was to ask our friends and our community to come out and do the hottest, most extreme scenes they could do; hopefully a scene that they might not get the opportunity to do in other forums.

In talking to them while building the personality of the site, we knew we were going to be asking them questions that they had very interesting answers for. We had under our very noses, not only all of this hardcore content, but also a documentary of this sexually transgressive culture right now, and how people feel right now.

So we asked them in the video interviews for the star pages: ‘What is your definition of queer and what does queer mean to you?’ and ‘Do you consider yourself an exhibitionist and what does that mean to you?’ ‘What does being a sex worker mean to you?’ ‘How has porn changed your life?’

I think there are so many misconceptions about all of those subjects, and so many more subjects that we asked them about, and here we have these primary sources who, thankfully, are willing to be so gut wrenchingly honest with us because of the real relationships we have with them.

In particular, I really hope these primary source interviews can be used as fodder against those who say that essentially porn is degrading to women, who say that porn essentially exploits the performers, porn is essentially negative and should be destroyed in our society.

We have people saying “We love this! Don’t take this away from us!” So hopefully we’ll be able to make fools of anti-porn people.

And to me, while I am totally proud of the smut we’ve made, those video interviews are the thing I’m most proud of and I can’t wait to see how people react to it."

ON DOCUMENTING A QUEER COMMUNITY

"We are documenting the Queer culture as it, but community isn’t static and culture isn’t static. Communities who are historically disenfranchised by society will thrive when they know, and see, a way they can proliferate, when they see their people being proud. In particular, the community that we are documenting is a community that is oppressed and suppressed.

We are extremely fortunate, and I think we take this for granted, that we can express ourselves without fear of judgment and it is almost our responsibility as San Francisco Queers to take what we have; which is the ability to walk down the street holding hands with our partners without fear of violence and hate, and use that to help Queer people who aren’t so fortunate. We get to create a worldwide network of people who can be proud of who they are and express their sexuality and get off and feel great.

A very important part of the definition of Queer for me is inclusivity. I am not a separatist in any way. So to open porn up and say: “Anybody can be a queer porn star!” we really do believe that.

Also, the truth is that queer porn thrives financially because there are non-queer people who fetishize that culture. We definitely made Queer Porn TV for Queer people, but also with non-queer people in mind. Not just as a financial demographic, but also because we’re hoping to turn that idea of fetishizing Queer culture around and reclaiming it by saying, ok, if you want to jerk off to us, you’re going to have to speak our language.

Even though there is some sensationalism in how we market the site, you know, “Hot queers at their hardcore horniest” it’s always a little bit ironic and a little bit tongue in cheek. It’s like a Trojan horse; a way to get into people’s minds and computers and bedrooms with our radical politics that are obvious on the site. And not just ours, but the politics of all the people who have been involved."


ON WHAT MAKES QUEER PORN TV UNIQUE:

"We are completely self-funded and unfortunately we can’t afford to pay our actors as much as we think they are worth. But, at the same time, as a performer myself, I certainly don’t get paid as much as I would in LA to be a porn star. But my experience has been, and as a director for Queer Porn TV the experience I try to create is, that you get to do whatever kind of sexual performance you want, without any kinds of limits.

We don’t tell you how to groom yourself. We don’t tell you how to present yourself. We don’t tell you what is sexy. We tell you that you are fucking sexy.

And we provide a forum for that. For me, that is a great way to make money, even if it’s a little bit of money. I think it shows in the performances that people are so happy to have the opportunity to be their honest sexual selves. I hope that that comes across. "