Tristan Taormino is, to use a well-worn cliche, an unstoppable force of nature. She's an icon within the adult sex education world (her porn-educational videos are widely-regarded as über-awesome), and is a pioneer of the feminist porn movement (check her bio here). Here website PuckerUp is a great resource for everything related to sex.
A while back, she posted a piece on feminist porn and its history. I'd say it's the go-to for an accurate and detailed account of the movement, and how and why it originated. Here's the opening:
What Is Feminist Porn?
Feminists have hotly debated pornography since the Women’s Movement began, and the debate reached an infamous fever pitch during the Feminist Sex Wars of the 1980s. While there is no one production considered the first example of feminist porn (and, in fact, there must be images and films created even before the term ‘feminist’ was first used), feminist porn has its roots in the 1980s. The modern feminist porn movement gained serious momentum in the 2000s thanks in large part to the creation of The Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) by Good For Her in Toronto in 2006, which put the concept of feminist porn on the map. The FPAs raised awareness about feminist porn among a wider audience, prompted more media coverage (see:Bitch, San Francisco Chronicle, and even MTV Canada), and helped coalesce a community of filmmakers, performers, and fans. There is no easy answer to the question, “What is feminist porn?” because there is no singular definition of feminist porn, but rather multiple ideas and definitions.
Let’s begin with a brief history. Annie Sprinkle began performing in porn movies in 1973. In 1981, she produced and starred in the film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle, which is described on her website as “innovative for its time, as it showed the women as sexual aggressors, focused on the female orgasm, and Annie spoke directly into the camera to the viewers from the heart.” She also starred in and directed two experimental, explicit, “docudramas” in 1992: Linda/Les & Annie: The First Female-to-Male Transsexual Love Story and Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop, which are considered cult classics and feminist porn prototypes.[1]
Go read the rest here.
Here's an excellent interview with her discussing ethical porn, female sexual agency and pleasure, and why porn isn't always anti-women: