Erika Lust

Lust was born Erika Hallqvist in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1977.{{cite magazine|author=bobe.barsi |title=Porn director Erika Lust: 'I Felt Uncomfortable Like All Women When They're Watching Porn' |date=18 May 2012 |magazine=Café Babel |url=http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/lifestyle/article/porn-director-erika-lust-i-felt-uncomfortable-like-all-women-when-theyre-watching-porn.html |access-date=14 May 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170515000738/http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/lifestyle/article/porn-director-erika-lust-i-felt-uncomfortable-like-all-women-when-theyre-watching-porn.html |archive-date=15 May 2017 |url-status=live }} She harboured a passion for film and theatre.{{cite web |last1=McClure |first1=Kelly |title=Erika Lust Is Occupying Feminist Porn |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/erika-lust-is-occupying-feminist-porn/ |website=Vice |access-date=20 June 2015 |date=24 April 2012}}

She went to Lund University, where she studied political science.{{cite web |title=About |url=http://erikalust.com/about/ |website=Erika Lust |access-date=20 June 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lesinrocks.com/actu/erika-lust-la-reine-du-porno-pro-sexe-suedois-135434-28-12-2014/|title=Erika Lust, la reine du porno indépendant |first=Camille|last=Emmanuelle |work=Les Inrockuptibles |date=28 December 2014 |access-date=17 June 2021 |language=fr}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://erikalust.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lust-profile-for-distribution.pdf |title="Erika Lust: European Entrepreneur, Pornographer, and Feminist" by Richard Moreland 2010 |access-date=December 17, 2014 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070747/http://erikalust.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lust-profile-for-distribution.pdf |url-status=dead }} After graduation she moved to Barcelona in 2000 and started studying filmmaking.

Lust shot her first film, the explicit short The Good Girl in 2004, which became an instant hit.{{Cite magazine| title = Feminist Porn Director Erika Lust| magazine = Marie Claire| accessdate = 2021-11-30| date = 2015-09-23| url = https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/feminist-porn-director-erika-lust-on-why-the-industry-has-to-change-45971}} Released online for free under a Creative Commons license, it was downloaded millions of times in several days{{Cite magazine| last = G| first = Lynsey| title = Meet Erika Lust, the Swedish Pornographer Making Consent Sexy| magazine = Rolling Stone| accessdate = 2021-11-30| date = 2018-05-15| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/meet-erika-lust-the-swedish-pornographer-making-consent-sexy-628480/}} and two million times in two months.{{Cite magazine| issn = 1059-1028| last = Watercutter| first = Angela| title = Erika Lust: The Porn Director on a Mission to Get More Women Behind the Camera| magazine = Wired| accessdate = 2021-11-30| url = https://www.wired.com/2017/01/erika-lust-women-in-porn/}} The film was shown at the Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival the next year and won a Ninfa Award.{{Cite news |url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/darfor-blev-svenska-feministen-erika-lust-porrfilmsregissor/ |title=Därför blev svenska feministen Erika Lust porrfilmsregissör |work=Dagens Nyheter |date=16 December 2017 |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=sv}}

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,{{Cite web |url=http://ficeb.com/esp/premiados_2007.htm |title=Ganadores FICEB 2007 |work=ficeb.com |publisher=Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival |date=2007 |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=es |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203121500/http://ficeb.com/esp/premiados_2007.htm |archive-date=3 February 2009}} the Venus Berlin Fair's 2007 Eroticline Award for Best Adult Film for Women,{{Cite news |url=https://www.altoadige.it/cultura-e-spettacoli/erika-lust-la-pornografia-%C3%A8-donna-oggi-hard-time-al-videodrome-1.1324464 |title=Erika Lust: la pornografia è donna Oggi "Hard Time" al Videodrome |work=Alto Adige |date=8 September 2017 |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=it}} and the 2008 Feminist Porn Award for Movie of the Year.{{Cite web |url=https://www.feministpornawards.com/2008-feminist-porn-awards-winners/ |title=2008 Feminist Porn Awards Winners |work=FeministPornAwards.com |date=2008 |access-date=23 September 2020}} 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.{{Cite news |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/neue-filme-in-kuerze-die-starts-der-woche-1.5041794 |title=Die Starts der Woche |author=SZ-Kritikern |work=Süddeutsche Zeitung |date=23 September 2020 |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=de}}

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.{{cite web |title=Erika Lust: Changing the Porn We Watch |url=https://www.liberator.com/unzipped/art-life/erika-lust-changing-porn-watch/ |website=Liberator Unzipped |access-date=December 1, 2021 |date=January 23, 2015 | author=Angela Lieben }} 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.{{Cite magazine| publisher =Condé Nast| title = 15 Feminist Porn Sites That You'll Really, Really Enjoy| magazine = Glamour| accessdate = 2021-12-03| date = 2017-03-13| url = https://www.glamour.com/story/5-porn-sites-for-women-that-youll-really-really-enjoy}} In 2019, Lust was named as one of the BBC's 100 Most Influential Women of the Year.{{Cite news |date=2019-10-15 |title=BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50042279 |access-date=2022-12-21}}

Lust has written several books on eroticism and sexuality;{{Cite web |url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3157011.Erika_Lust?from_search=true&from_srp=true |title=Books by Erika Lust |website=GoodReads |access-date=December 2, 2021}} her first book Good Porn was published in 2009 by Seal Press.{{cite book |last=Lust |first=Erika |url=http://www.sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580053068 |title=Groundbreaking Books. By Women. For Women |date=25 May 2010 |publisher=Seal Press |isbn=9781580053068 |access-date=2011-09-10 |archive-date=17 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917044823/http://www.sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580053068 |url-status=dead }} 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.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/23268743.2015.1051913| issn = 2326-8743| volume = 2| issue = 2–3| pages = 174–191| last = Liberman| first = Rachael| title = 'It's a really great tool': feminist pornography and the promotion of sexual subjectivity| journal = Porn Studies| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2015-07-03| url = https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1051913| url-access = subscription}}

Lust runs an online store offering her books and films, as well as sex toys and other erotic wares.{{Cite web |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/body/article/49256/1/erika-lust-guide-favourite-sex-toys-wellness-beginners-budget-lelo |title=Erika Lust on her favourite sex toys and how to use them |author=Erika Lust |work=Dazed |publisher=Dazed Media |date=18 May 2020 |access-date=23 September 2020 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523152556/https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/body/article/49256/1/erika-lust-guide-favourite-sex-toys-wellness-beginners-budget-lelo |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/magazine/teenagers-learning-online-porn-literacy-sex-education.html| title=What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn| first=Maggie | last=Jones| date=February 7, 2018| newspaper=The New York Times}}

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.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/23268743.2015.1056458| issn = 2326-8743| volume = 2| issue = 2–3| pages = 290–292| last = Meier| first = Anika| title = 'Pornography into Bright Daylight': a review of the Berlin Porn Film Festival, 23–27 October 2013| journal = Porn Studies| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2015-07-03| url = https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1056458| url-access = subscription}}

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.

In 2014, Lust and other directors began producing short pornographic films based on crowd-sourced stories.{{Cite news |url=https://www.welt.de/icon/article135303468/Ich-will-eine-andere-Art-Erwachsenenfilm-machen.html |title=Ich will eine andere Art Erwachsenenfilm machen, Die Welt, Nicola Erdmann |date= 2014-12-17|newspaper=Die Welt |last1=Erdmann |first1=Nicola }} Viewers can leave anonymous confessions on the project's website. Each month, Lust handpicks two stories and turn them into cinematic short films.{{Cite news |url=https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/porno-voor-vrouwen-geloofwaardig-en-expliciet-maar-geen-knuffelseks~be29993a/ |title=Porno voor vrouwen: geloofwaardig en expliciet, maar geen knuffelseks |author=Maxime Smit |work=Het Parool |date=7 August 2016 |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=nl}} XConfessions has been presented at the Berlin Porn Festival 2014.{{Cite web |url=http://www.pornfilmfestivalberlin.de/screenings/xconfessions/ |title="XConfessions von: Erika Lust" Screening |publisher=pornfilmfestivalberlin.de }}{{cite news |url=http://next.liberation.fr/sexe/2014/12/15/pourquoi-je-continue-a-regarder-du-porno_1164246 |title=Pourquoi je continue à regarder du porno |date= 2014-12-15|newspaper=Libération }} 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{{cite interview| last=Lust| first=Erika| interviewer=Maria Finitzo| url=https://vimeo.com/143475958 |title=xConfessions - A Conversation With Erika Lust | publisher=51st Chicago International Film Festival | year=2015 | access-date=December 2, 2021 | url-access=registration}} and at Raindance Film Festival in London.{{Cite web | url=http://calendar.raindancefestival.org/films/erika-lust-xconfessions | title=Erika Lust:XConfessions | access-date=2015-11-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208191905/http://calendar.raindancefestival.org/films/erika-lust-xconfessions | archive-date=2015-12-08 | url-status=dead }}

Lust held two sold-out screenings of the XConfessions Theatrical Cut at Kino Babylon in Berlin in February 2016,{{Cite news |url=https://www.newsweek.com/feminist-porn-lives-434511 |title=A Woman's Fight to Prove Porn Can Be Feminist |author=Nadja Sayej |work=Newsweek |date=8 March 2016 |access-date=23 September 2020}}{{Cite news |url=http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/2016/02/06/xconfessions-interview-with-erika-lust/ |title=XConfessions: interview with Erika Lust |author=Virginie Sélavy |work=Electric Sheep Magazine |date=6 February 2016 |access-date=23 September 2020}} and went on to win the Best Narrative Short CineKink Award for short film An Appointment with My Master.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cinekink.com/programs-and-events/awards/ |title=awards |work=CineKink.com |date=9 February 2015 |access-date=23 September 2020}}

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.{{cite web| url=https://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/05/01/the-handmaids-tale-offers-a-terrifying-warning-but-hijacking-feminism-just-as-dangerous/| title='The Handmaid's Tale' offers a terrifying warning, but the hijacking of feminism is just as dangerous| date=May 1, 2017| website=Feminist Current| access-date=November 30, 2021}} 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.{{cite news| url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15554320.female-gaze-directors-like-sky-deep-erika-lust-bringing-feminist-revolution-porn/| date=September 23, 2017| title=The Female Gaze: How directors like Sky Deep and Erika Lust are bringing a feminist revolution to porn| author=Vicky Allan | newspaper=The Herald}} 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.{{cite news| title='There's Not Just One Type of Porn': Erika Lust's Alternative Vision| first=Mary Katharine | last=Tramontana| newspaper=The New York Times| date=January 14, 2022| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/movies/erika-lust.html| access-date=January 16, 2022}}

In a study of feminist pornography, Carmen Pena Ardid, Professor of Literature and Film at the University of Zaragoza, 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.{{Cite journal| issn = 0277-4356| volume = 41| issue = 1| pages = 102–125| last = Ardid| first = Carmen Pena| title = Significantes Ambiguos De La Libertad. La Reflexion Sobre El Sexo, El Destape Y La Pornografia En Vindicacion Feminista (1976-1979)| journal = Letras Femeninas| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2015-06-22| url = https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&issn=02774356&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA583894988&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs}} Álvaro Martín Sanz, professor of film studies at the University of Valladolid, while recognizing Lust as pioneering the rejection of the heteronormativity present in traditional pornographic cinema, also finds limitations in the pursuit of beauty and the focus on fantasies rather than more realistic portrayals.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.24310/Fotocinema.2018.v0i17.5117| issn = 2172-0150| issue = 17| pages = 343–365| last = Sanz| first = Álvaro Martín| title = Belleza e irrealidad en la nueva pornografía feminista: la imagen pornográfica de Erika Lust| journal = Fotocinema. Revista Científica de Cine y Fotografía| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2018-07-20| volume = 17| s2cid = 240382508| url = https://revistas.uma.es/index.php/fotocinema/article/view/5117| doi-access = free}}

Lust argues that no sexual acts, including temporary and consensual self-objectification, BDSM, risk-aware violence, or extreme fantasy, should be labeled "non-feminist".{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/23268743.2014.888251| issn = 2326-8743| volume = 1| issue = 1–2| pages = 189–192| last = Mondin| first = Alessandra| title = Fair-trade porn + niche markets + feminist audience| journal = Porn Studies| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2014-01-02| url = https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2014.888251| url-access = subscription}} Richard Kimberly Heck, Philosophy Professor at Brown University, 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.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.5206/fpq/2021.1.10609| issn = 2371-2570| volume = 7| issue = 1| last = Heck| first = Richard Kimberly| title = How Not to Watch Feminist Pornography| journal = Feminist Philosophy Quarterly| accessdate = 2021-12-02| date = 2021-03-01| s2cid = 233801831| url = https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/fpq/article/view/10609| doi-access = free}}

File:Erika Lust - La canción de Nora.webm

• 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){{cite web| url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7406043-porno-para-mujeres| website=GoodReads| title=Porno para mujeres: Una guía femenina para entender y aprender a disfrutar del cine X| access-date=December 2, 2021}}
• 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){{cite web |title=Jak nakręcić porno. Praktyczny poradnik filmowania seksu |url=https://www.kinkywinky.pl/jak-nakrecic-porno/ |publisher=Kinky Winky |access-date=12 January 2016}}
• 2011: Six Female Voices with Antia Pagant
• 2013: La Canción de Nora (Nora's Song)
• 2013: Let's Make a Porno

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|http://erikalust.com}}
• {{IMDb name|id=2848796|name=Erika Lust}}

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Category:Feminist pornography

Category:Sex-positive feminists

Category:Swedish pornographic film directors

Category:Swedish pornographic film producers

Category:Women pornographic film directors

Category:1977 births

Category:Living people

Category:Lund University alumni

Category:Businesspeople from Stockholm

Category:Individualist feminists