Let's Talk Sex: I am now an affiliate of Pink and White Productions

So you might have noticed three new banners have appeared on my blog, two on the side bar to the right and one along the bottom. If you click on them they will take you to the CrashPad Series and Heavenly Spire both produced by Pink and White Productions.

Pink and White Productions is an American pornographic production company, based in San Francisco, California, that focuses on explicit video web and DVD releases showcasing female and queer sexuality. The company's main director and producer is Shine Louise Houston. Shine Louise Houston founded Pink & White Productions in 2005, aiming to create a sustainable adult entertainment company that exposes the complexities of queer sexual desire. About her project to create ethical queer porn Shine has said “I believe there’s a lot of room and need to create adult content that’s real, that’s respectful and powerful … I think it’s the perfect place to become political. It’s a place where money, sex, media, and ethics converge.”

Pink and White Productions has made multiple stand alone films but their two major porn series are CrashPad and Heavenly Spire.

Crash Pad Series is Pink & White Productions’ longest running membership website. It won the 2012 Feminist Porn Awards “Best Website” and was nominated for the 2011 AVN Awards “Best Alternative Website.” Based on the Feminist Porn Award-winning dyke bestseller “The Crash Pad”, the site focuses on queer female sexuality but features queer performers of many genders and sexual orientations, in addition to diverse bodies, kinks and sexual expression. With over 300 Episodes and Behind the Scenes Videos and a model base of over 170 performers, it’s one of the largest and most diverse queer porn sites in the world. Memberships begin at $22 and include photo sets, streaming and downloadable videos, behind the scenes, and monthly live-streaming of the cast and crew as they film, and other special features.  

Heavenly Spire focuses on masculine beauty and sexuality, and how it manifests on different bodies, in a unique cinematic style. Directed by Shine Louise Houston, the site features cisgender males, trans men, and other performers of masculine sexual expressions. The website won the 2011 Feminist Porn Awards. Heavenly Spire now redirects to it’s studio on PINKLABEL, where videos are available video on demand. 

Pornography is a very fraught subject in our society in general and in the romance industry in particularly.

When the whole "Mommy porn" thing went down far more romance writers were upset by the insinuation that romance authors are the same as pornographers than the insulting gender politics behind the statement.

That being said I have nothing against ethically made porn. Far from it, ethically created queer live action pornography, queer erotic art and comics, and queer erotica is a community and an industry that I not only support but feel at home in.

I definitely grew up reading certain kinds of romance but queer porn like the CrashPad series has had far more of an affect on the way I write and the way I think about representing sexuality, gender and sex.

Throughout my teenage and young adult years I struggled with the fact that people like me were not represented in the mainstream media. Everything the wider world told me was beautiful and sexually desirable in no way reflect what I saw in the mirror. More than that it did not reflect the kinds of bodies and people I personally was attracted to.Watching first CrashPad and then Heavenly Spire though was an eye-openner. Here was people like me and the kind of people I found attractive being treated as if they were desirable --sexy-- deserving of and allowed to flaunting their bodies and their sexuality.

Finally I found images of masculinity that I found desirable:

Genderqueer androgyny:

Genderqueer femininity:

and just really, really hot people:

CrashPad Series is also dedicated to promoting safer sex and uses safer sex supplies and protection in almost every scene. CrashPad's performers are paid and treated ethically, their distributing sites are ethical and they have been on the cutting edge of welcoming all different body types, genders and sexual identities. They have also grappled with issues like creating work places which are disability friendly and working with performers who have a history of sexual trauma to allow them to have sex which is comfortable, safe and non-triggering.


Really I think they set the bar high not only for making ethical queer porn but also for ethically representing sex and sexuality. Something I think about all the time as an author who writes about both.

Heavenly Spire is a much newer project and doesn't have the width and breath of CrashPad yet. Even so I love it.

Not only are the guys hot but there is this moment at the beginning of every episode where they are interviewed and asked to reflect on what they think of as the most attractive parts of their bodies. The answers that the performers give are really interesting and in most cases fairly deep. Most of the answers had more to do with how each man sees himself as a person rather than with any ideas of traditional masculinity. In a really simple way it reflected how deverse and complicated masculinity really is. 

Plus hot fucking. 

Pink and White Productions is a small indie company trying to make a difference in a huge and too often horribly destructive industry.

Shine Louise Houston's statement"I believe there’s a lot of room and need to create adult content that’s real, that’s respectful and powerful" Pretty much sums up what I am trying to do everytime I sit down to write a romantic relationship or sex scene. Because I too think there is a real need for that.

I know this blog does not getting a lot of views or foot traffic but by becoming affiliated with Pink and White Productions I hope to do at least a little bit to support people who work hard doing something I care very deeply about.