A mother of two who makes “ethical” porn has revealed she would support her daughters if they wanted to go into prostitution.
Erika Lust, from Sweden and now living in Barcelona, started making erotic films after being left in despair by depicting women in mainstream porn as “vehicles” for male sexual pleasure.
The filmmaker, who employs 54 people in the production company she runs with her husband, revealed that she is often asked if she would support her daughters if they wanted to become porn actresses.
She said, “But if they became sex workers, I would want to protect them, I would want the world to be as safe for them as possible.”
Named one of the BBC’s 100 most influential women in 2019, Lust argued that arguments against sex work only make it more difficult and unsafe for women in the industry.
Erika Lust, an erotic filmmaker originally from Sweden but living in Barcelona, has revealed that she would support her daughters, 12 and 15, if they wanted to go into prostitution
Erika entered the independent film industry after moving to Spain after college and shooting her debut film The Good Girl in 2004 as a side project while pursuing directing training.
The film, which explores the traditional “pizza delivery” cliché from a female perspective, won the award for best short film at the International Erotic Film Festival in Barcelona.
Speak against The timesshe argued that the porn movies she makes are an antidote to many of the hardcore, sometimes violent movies available on free sites.
However, the filmmaker expressed concern about legislation such as the UK government’s Online Safety Bill, which requires people to verify their age to access online porn.
Lust believes her small business and other independent porn sites may not survive if the legislation is passed.
The “ethical porn” director, who made her first erotic movie in 2013, says she was inspired to work in the industry after she felt uncomfortable watching her first mainstream porn movie.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lust revealed that she struggles to rent office space for her company because there is a “massive sigma” associated with her job. When she tries to donate money from her winnings to charity, the donations are often declined.
She also addressed the differences between how men and women are treated in the porn industry, arguing, “What is perceived as the difference between a good girl and a bad girl? It’s sex, right? But the difference between a good guy and a bad guy isn’t sex, it’s violence.’
Lust’s company was featured in the 2017 Netflix documentary Hot Girls Wanted: Turned, where a camera crew was invited to the production of a pornographic film.
In the documentary, a performer named Monica asks to stop filming and is asked by Lust if she’s okay. She responds by saying she is in pain, which gives the impression that even so-called “ethical” porn is harmful to female performers.
However, Lust hit back at the documentary’s depiction of her work, claiming it was “properly manipulated”.
She said the pain Monica said she was experiencing was due to ovulation, rather than sex, and that the actress had been upset about how the scene was presented in the film.
Lust has long spoken out against mainstream online porn for its portrayal of women. In 2021 she told Glamor about the first time she had seen a porn film, while studying political science at Lund University.
“Instead of being an enjoyable moment, it became a struggle,” she said.
“It felt stereotyped and aimed at the pleasure of the man, and the women were just vehicles for him to cum.”
She went on to explain how she hopes her films not only normalize sexual pleasure for women, but also shatter the image of men in pornography as “penetrative sex machines.”
Erika is perhaps best known for her XConfessions series, the first crowd-sourced project in adult cinema launched in 2013.
Each month, she chooses two personal accounts or fantasies from the many anonymous submissions she receives through her website, then transforms them into adult films.
In 2015, a theatrical version of XConfessions entries was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival and at the Raindance Film Festival in London.
She made headlines in 2021 for allowing her employees a 30-minute break a day to use a private “masturbation station” in the office.
The erotic filmmaker launched the initiative after noticing her collaborators were “slightly agitated” and “performing with less energy” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Erika describes her work as “sex positive” and told FEMAIL in 2015 that her primary mission is to show both men and women as “sexually liberated equals.”
Women who are in control of their sexuality, she says, and know exactly what they want and how they want it, are incredibly empowering—an ideal sadly lacking in most mainstream pornography.
She said: ‘It’s so important to make sure my films are creative, contemporary and realistic, with beautiful and recognizable sets, locals and artists.
‘My viewers like the realistic aspect of my films because they can see themselves, their partners, that boy or girl on the street or in a bar.
“And they enjoy characters who look like they’re having a good time, and a story with context, a life behind them.”