Women don’t enjoy or think about sex as much as men do. They prefer softer, gentler touches over hard and fast. Women don’t masturbate like men and they must feel an emotional connection to get off. And they definitely aren’t turned on by porn the way men are, because they are less visual creatures.

Ever hear these popular myths regarding female sexuality? Although sexual preferences vary greatly from person to person, these common beliefs lead to misunderstanding and frustration among women who are eager to express their sexuality to the same extent that men traditionally have.

At the recent annual Amateur Erotic Film Competition held by the female-friendly sex shop, Good Vibrations, local Bay Area women showcased, alongside men, their unique viewpoints on sexuality through pornographic films. Of the eight filmmakers debuting in the Castro Theatre this past October, half were women, illustrating that women too enjoy sex and porn.

In the ornately designed theatre filled with a rambunctious crowd and the aroma of buttery popcorn, four women’s sexual fantasies were brought to the big screen, ranging from erotic food images, intimate acts of kissing, rough hetero passion and artistic lesbian sex.

As the lights dimmed, hoots, whistles and laughter welcomed the opening film titled “Drawn into a Fantasy,” a creation by UC Berkeley Film Studies alum Angela Landin. Featuring two curvaceous women engaged in passionate and protected sex, the film showed Landin’s point-of-view on the reality and fantasy of sex through the use of humor and sensuality.

“Initially I made the film for fun foremost,” admits Landin, whose film won the award for best use of a sex toy. “I really wanted to do something that included safe sex between women because that’s always overlooked in this industry. And I wanted it to be from a woman’s perspective. I wanted it to be a little different than what I think you normally see in industry—hardcore movies.”

Seated in a cozy cafe near her home in the Excelsior district, Landin reveals that this is her first film outside of school. After finishing her day job at the U.S. District Court, she is dressed in a conservative dark coat and small-framed glasses—a contrasting image from what one may think a pornographic filmmaker would look like.

Landin, who has been with her female partner for four years, says she just couldn’t relate to the women portrayed in most pornographic films, even those featuring so-called lesbians, because they were made for a male audience. She laughs at the idea of blonde, big-breasted women making love to their female lovers while wearing 6-inch stiletto heels and twisting themselves into unnatural positions for the cameras.

Aside from wanting to promote safe-sex practices, Landin created her film to represent reality. She features real women, whom she found on Craigslist, with natural bodies and healthy female sexuality. By fantasizing about having sex while posing as a nude model for an artist, the actresses show the audience that art (as well as dental dams and finger cots) can be sexy.

“I think a lot of times women’s sexuality is kind of couched. On one hand you’re not allowed to have sexual fantasies or be sexually active, but then you are expected to be a mother and that only happens when you have sex,” Landin explains. “And then if you are too sexual or provocative you have a negative image—society puts this negative image on women who show any form of sexuality and that’s not the same for men.”

Good Vibrations began its annual competition last year to tap into the abundant local talent and to figure out what their customers, especially women, were into sexually.
The store, which was born in 1977 as a place for women to comfortably purchase sex products, has become a mecca for anyone wanting to learn about sex and express their individual sexuality. Good Vibrations is renowned as a fun and adventurous leader in the sex toy industry and has since grown into three Bay Area locations and an online store.

“Back when we first started we knew that women’s sexuality wasn’t any less important than their male partners,” comments Allison Goldstein, marketing coordinator of Good Vibrations. “Starting Good Vibrations was a way to answer those myths [about female sexuality]…Women do love porn and the rest of the industry is starting to figure that out. They realize there is a huge female market out there that is interested in expressing their sexuality.”

Although popular with everyone, the Good Vibrations stores are specifically marketed to the female consumer. The majority of their customers are indeed women, according to Goldstein, and this is shown through an array of pink and purple delicately shaped vibrators, a small, approachable section of pornography, artistic books and various other sexual toys and gag gifts geared toward women.
According to a recent study appearing in the Journal of Sex Research, sexual behaviors have more to do with how an individual views their sexual self rather than their gender. Although the study admits that gender roles play a part in sexual behavior, an individual’s sexual self-view ultimately has little to do with whether a person is male or female.

A 2003 survey presented in the same journal suggests that gender differences in sexual surveys often occur because women don’t always answer honestly when asked to identify themselves; they feel societal pressure to answer as what is expected of a “proper” female. When surveys were given anonymously, women and men answered similarly.

Although men are still the biggest consumers of the still largely male-dominated pornography industry, women are purchasing porn more frequently, creating a demand for female-friendly pornography like the films shown at the Good Vibrations competition.

“Porn is like any other market, it’s like any other business. They look at their largest buying audience and what sells,” says Madison Young, a competition contributor. “And yet the Adult Video Network just said that women are finally becoming a viable market—that there is an audience of women buying porn.”

Young, who has softly-toned red hair, clear blue eyes and a delicate “Marilyn” piercing above her lip, is the filmmaker and star of her entry, “Writers and Rockstars.” While she runs the feminist art gallery, Femina Potens in the Castro, Young also produces female and queer-friendly pornographic films to satisfy her own sexual desires.

Turned on by intensity, bondage and S&M (BDSM), Young aims to show how these techniques are an everyday part of some peoples’ lifestyle. Young, who grew up in a small, conservative town in Ohio, had to wait until she was 18 years old and able to leave her hometown to start exploring her sexuality.

“A major problem in general is that women aren’t encouraged to explore their sexuality as much as men are,” Young says, although she admits the
situation is improving. “Luckily the media is portraying more sexually open women now. Now my mom has bought a vibrator. And now they have little pleasure parties, which are like Tupperware parties but with vibrators.”

Stores like Good Vibrations and sexually open females, like the female Amateur Erotic Film contributors, are continually helping women overcome shame and embarrassment over exploring their own individual sexuality. Slowly this is putting to rest those popular myths about female sexuality that continue to haunt society.

Landin admits that she was taken to Good Vibrations when she first moved to San Francisco 13 years ago by her uncle who didn’t have a clue of what to say to a coming-of-age woman about sex. She regards the store as one of the most reputable sex-toy and education venues in the Bay Area particularly for women.
For Landin, showing more pornography is one of the best ways for society to gain better understanding about female sexuality.

“Even in mainstream movies, there’s always a double standard in the way women are shown and how they are perceived on screen. There’s all this film code, you’re not allowed to show this and that,” says Landin. “We’re so restrictive, as if sexuality is bad. And not to say that everything should be porn, but it’s okay to show the female body in a natural way without it being depicted the way they do in mainstream films.”