Written by Jonesy @ 7:15 pm

I’m making an effort to profile (in no particular order) some porn performers whose work is worth checking out.  Here’s the second installment of my porn star round up!

Name: Christian (also billed as Maxx Diesel or Christian XXX)

DOB: May 8th, 1974

What he’s known for: Fans of director Tristan Taormino’s work will probably recognize Christian as that big, awesome bald guy that shows up in her work all the time, consistently delivering intense and entertaining performances in a variety of scenes. Christian started his career working in gay porn under the name Maxx Diesel. He identifies as heterosexual in real life, and now works in straight porn. In DVD interviews and on his blog, he speaks calmly and candidly about several brushes with homophobia in the porn industry, citing instances in which performers and directors have chosen not to work with him because of his supposedly “unhealthy” or “risky” past working in gay porn. Christian’s open, queer-friendly and sex positive attitudes toward the industry and his own career make him one of my favorite people in porn.

What to watch him in: Chemistry Vol. 2 starts with a pretty amazing scene between Christian and Kimberly Kane. Christian appears in many of Tristan Taormino’s other movies, including Chemistry 2 & 3 and several of her Expert Guide DVDs.

Christian’s performances often include an element of intimacy and connection that I personally find lacking in a lot of porn. He genuinely enjoys what he’s doing, and it makes a difference who he’s doing it with.

For a peek behind the scenes of Christian’s career and the porn industry, check out his blog.  Here’s a particularly interesting entry. He chronicles every shoot he goes on, and includes photos as well as tons of banal little details about the day to day workings of the industry. It’s an alternately boring and fascinating read.

In conclusion: Several of us Kitten staffers refer to Christian as our “porn boyfriend.” He manages to convey intimacy, sincerity and a genuinely sex positive attitude in his performances. He demonstrates professional and personal respect for his female colleagues on and off screen, and he makes fabulously intense, serious sex faces. He plays World of Warcraft and used to coach basketball.  Adorkable!  Two enthusiastic thumbs up for Christian.  Check him out asap.

Written by Jonesy @ 3:44 pm

“You know what the great thing about porn is?  Everyone’s a star.”  -B.J. Novak

While it’s true that almost everyone who performs in porn is known, at least semantically, as a porn star, anybody who’s watched a couple of pornographic movies knows that it’s not a genre of film dominated by A-list thespians.  Sure, a lot of performers have impressive, even virtuoso sexin’ skillz.  But it’s an exceptional porn performer who succeeds in entertaining an audience on top of titillating them.  In this ongoing series, I’d like to profile the porn actors and actresses who stand out from the rest of the naked, lubed-up crowd, tell you a little bit about why they rock and why they’re worth checking out.

Name: Steven St. Croix

DOB: February 24th, 1968

First thing you’ll notice: He looks a lot like Vincent D’Onofrio.  This, combined with his sense of humor and slightly above par acting skills, makes me really want someone to do a porn parody called  Law & Whore-der: Cocksucking Intent.  Also, I want to see a sex scene that ends with the *DUNG DUNG* noise.

The resemblance is clear.

What to watch him in: Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry vol. 3 is an awesome movie, period.  It’s like The Real World, but with less catty squabbling over who’s going to do the dishes, and more, you know, sex. The cast is comprised of porn stars who want to work together, and most of the movie is them either talking about their work or improvising sex scenes together.  St. Croix says some funny stuff in the interviews, but what’s really enjoyable to watch is how much everyone else digs working with him.

To find out why he’s apparently known as an awesome coworker and class clown around the porn industry, check out Pirates.  With a budget and production values on par with Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus (that’s a good thing in porn), a bunch of CG pirate skeleton ghost warriors (the only appearnce of them in porn, I hope), and jaw-droppingly bad “pirate grammar” falling out of everyone’s mouths, it’s already a treasure of a porn comedy.  But St. Croix’s performance as a sad sack ex-boyfriend is legitimately pretty funny.  Well, mostly the part where he curls up naked in a fetal position and cries after the sex scene.

In conclusion: He’s funny in Pirates, hot in Chemistry vol 3, and looks sort of like your bachelor uncle, John C. Reilly in Boogie Nights and a certain fictional cop with a genius IQ.  Due to some kind of sexy injury earlier in his career, his penis curves  at almost a 90 degree angle when erect.  It’s also reportedly insured for one million dollars by Lloyd’s of London.  For these reasons and more, Steven St. Croix truly is a Porn *Star*.

Written by Leo @ 11:58 am

Conan recently featured a short about Sweden funding the production of feminist porn. Here is the clip:

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brein

“Feminist porn is different because it focuses on pleasuring the female.”

I’m glad that mainstream media is starting to bring up that there are other options for porn besides the detrimental crap that saturates the industry. However, quite obviously, he was not representing feminist porn.

Feminist porn is as diverse as feminists themselves: romantic, kinky, adventurous, sweet and everything outside and in between.

I’ve been watching porn since I was a teenager. Blessed and cursed with the internet, I had access to all the free smut a sexually curious Leo could dialup download. Unfortunately the only images in my memory are white women, skinny or toned bodies, fake breasts, shrill screaming, and other detrimental images to my teenage sexual identity.  As I got older and my identity grew farther away from the women and the sex in the porn I had access to, I stopped watching.

I missed it though. The learning, the voyeurism, the analysis, the getting to know porn stars, and again, the learning. Even before I decided to become sexually active, I had committed to myself that I was certainly not going to be having missionary sex on a bed once a week with my partner - no dice.  I just couldn’t bring myself to watch this homogeneous group of people fucking and fake screaming each other.  Eventually I was introduced to porn with people of color, but the majority of what I saw was/is over exotified, downright racist and hurtful.

It wasn’t until I got introduced to the Smitten Kitten that I realized that there is so much more. Well, the industry is still, in my opinion over-saturated with bad porn, BUT the stuff out that is different is really good.

I recently watched Candida Royale’s Afrodite Superstar. It was one of the best porns with people of color I’ve seen. The protagonist Afrodite is working her way through the rap industry and is allowing record executives to mold her into a false hardcore image, when that is far from her organic personality. The film doesn’t have a lot of sex in it, but it does have sweet, mostly romantic, couples sex. I enjoyed the Afrodite critique of today’s rap industry and the false exotified images of street life. There is one character in the film (who doesn’t have any sex) that quotes powerful women like Bell Hooks and Janis Joplin to inspire Afrodite to be herself.

I also am GA-GA for the Comstock Series. It is documentary porn that features a real couple, real bodies, real sex, real orgasms and a connection between the couple that Merel Streep herself couldn’t mimic.  My favorite is Ashely and Kisha: Finding The Right Fit. The film starts with an interview, talking about how they met and the awkward feelings many couples go through when they are feeling each other out - literally (hardy, har). Then they feature a sex scene with the couple. It is so adorable and incredibly hot. You can really see how in to each other the couple is.

Thanks, Conan. Good try, but your porn sucked.

Written by Bear @ 11:30 am

I have big love for Tristan Taormino projects. Big love for Vivid Ed, Chemistry, her books, and her sex positive style. So when I received the screener for her new porn “Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex” I, loving Tristan and rough sex individually, was ready to have big, big love. And I did. As with other projects by Taormino, “Rough Sex” creates what appears to be an easy combination of mainstream porn scene with a radical look at porn, pleasure, and consent. “Rough Sex” follows the fantasies of five women, delving into fairly architypical fantasies, the likes and dislikes of the performers, and the method that Taormino, as the director, uses to create the scene. The entire creation seems rooted in performer-directed play. Taormino acts as facilitator, moderating negotiations and providing avenues for the performers to explore their fantasies. In the first scene, Adrianna Nicole, a good friend of the store, discusses how she was able to request who she would be working with. The film then cuts to Nicole’s scene partner, Marco Banderas, discussing why he likes working with her. This kind of genuine connection is a keystone of Taormino projects. And, there is something inherently relaxing knowing that the stars were enjoying themselves, especially when it comes to rough sex.
Rough sex is often misunderstood, placed in a nebulous category of “kinky”, making the average woman or man believe that they should maybe get their head examined. Yet this film very clearly shows the normalcy of these desires, made more believable by the performers intelligent commentary and relaxed, playful attitudes. The final scene drives home the radical foundation of this film. Sasha Grey and Danny Wylde engage in a fairly detailed negotiation of the sex they are about to have, including a discussion of their likes, dislikes, and establishment of a safe word. Talk about consensual sex!!!
If you want to watch rough sex without consent echoing in the background, this film is not for you. The ladies are clearly enjoying the scenes they have created, so if you are looking for something where sexual pleasure is not a priority, this is not for you. Also, although clearly feminist, this film falls pretty soundly in the straight porn genre. So, if you are looking for a bunch of rough queer sex, this is not the film for you. (We’ve got some good stuff that falls under rough and queer though).
Tristan Taormino continues to work towards, what I see as, a radicalization of the porn industry. “Rough Sex” challenges who and how we should be having rough sex, making consent and desire sexy. Check it out. You can rent or purchase this film at the store or buy it online.

Written by Rex @ 10:47 pm

Whether you are a porn-watching newbie or connoisseur, nothing’s worse than getting a video home only to realize in the first minutes that it’s not what you expected or wanted.  Feeling like picking out satisfying porn is sometimes a shot in the dark?

When trying to articulate what kind of porn we’re looking for, many of us feel like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when he famously said that although he could probably not intelligibly define pornography, “I know it when I see it.”  To increase your chances of picking porn you like, we’ve created the following guide to The Three Ps of Porn.  This guide will help you consider the features of a porn flick that are important to you, and will help you verbalize what you’re looking for when getting recommendations from the Smitten Kitten staff.

The Three Ps of Porn

• Performers
• Performances
• Production

Performers
Key question: Who do you want to see in your porn?

This category is all about people — which performers get you hot, and which turn you off?  If you haven’t found performers you’re into yet or want to branch out, think about what aspects of porn casting are important to you.  For example, some people only enjoy watching films that feature actors who share a genuine chemistry or are real-life couples.  Do you prefer to see a diversity of body types, ethnicities, gender identities, and orientations, or do you have more specific tastes?  Is there a particular aesthetic (alt, retro, fantasy/historical, etc.) that turns you on?

Performances
Key questions: What do you want to happen in your porn? How do you want it to happen?

Consider what sex acts you love to watch (or think you might) and how you would like those scenes to unfold.  Does your perfect porn include vaginal or anal penetration?  Oral sex?  Are movies that feature safer sex practices a turn on?  Some people prefer two-person scenes while others think solo masturbation scenes or orgies are just the ticket.   Are you looking for films that portray some aspect of BDSM/fetish practice, such as flogging, bondage, latex, medical settings, etc.?

Now that you know what you want to see, think about how you want to see it. Do you prefer wall-to-wall-style films, that get right to the action?  Or are films that have a heavy emphasis on story more your speed?  Is docu-porn, with its mix of sex and on-camera interviews fascinating and hot?  If you want to learn more about a particular technique and get off, many of our educational films are great at fulfilling both goals.

Production
Key question: What filmmaking aesthetics make or break your porn?

This category may not seem important at first, but some customers become more successful at picking satisfying porn titles once they realize that low production quality turns them off.  So take a moment to consider if lighting, setting, and camera work are important to you when watching porn.  Or perhaps a grittier production style is a turn on; films that feature video voyeurs or gonzo-style camera work may be just what you’re looking for.

Consider how important the presence (or absence) of music is to you.  Porn films have not historically been known for their soundtracks, but some recent films are bucking this trend.

Do you like to jump right to your favorite scene or skip over a section that turns you off?  A small detail like DVD chapter settings may not make or break your porn-watching experience, but may be a post-production feature to look for when browsing for a new movie.

Don’t forget that your tastes may evolve over time. Think of these guiding questions as helping you pick the porn you want to see now, not forever. Also, remember that Fourth P of Porn: Purpose. The films that are right for you might change depending on why you’re watching: to get yourself off, connect with a partner, or learn something new.

Just as it’s easier to get a glass of wine you like when you can describe your perfect Chardonnay as dry and oaky, we hope that considering these aspects of porn films will help you get the best recommendations from us, whether in the store or over email.