Bren Ryder

It’s always my intention to write more for this blog because I want to keep people up to date on what’s going on with my business: the website GoodDykePorn.com, and it’s a good forum for sharing my experience with making independent porn films and what my perspective is on the emerging queer porn genre. Last week I was writing a post about the Feminist Porn Awards and it felt so hard to do. It seemed to take me all frickin’ day just to write down who the winners were and how they relate to Good Dyke Porn and how grateful I am for the awards in general. So, I vowed to practise writing more. So here I am, practising my writing.

When I was in Firefighter College my instructor would say: “it’s not ‘practise makes perfect’, it’s ‘perfect practise makes perfect’”. Well, frankly I don’t think that this practise is going to make my blog writing perfect and this practise attempt isn’t perfect either. But, the word perfect is a funny word. Most people interpret it as meaning “flawless”. I don’t see it that way. I think of perfect as meaning “doesn’t need to be different from what it is”. So in that sense, this article is perfect. It’s perfect because I’m doing it. That’s really the hardest part for me – to just sit down and do it. The next hardest part is to let go of the idea that it needs to be great. It doesn’t. It just needs to be exactly what it is. I’ll do my best, but my best is what it is and it can’t be anything else. And maybe by practising I might get better at sitting down, writing, and letting go of the voice that says what I do isn’t good enough. We all have that voice and part of practising is simply doing, even when we think that what we’re doing isn’t perfect.

Time for me to post this and move onto letting go of the voice that holds me back in other areas. I am working on editing a film that I’m hoping will be making rounds in film festivals around the world.

When I say “we” won, I don’t mean me, or my website or blogs or anything. We were nominated but did not receive any awards. But WE won! We all won.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto this year. I ended up funding a bunch of amazing scenes that will be posted on Good Dyke Porn™ over the next few months, rather than fund a trip to Toronto. It all works out. However, I followed the action on Twitter #FPA2011 and met with Charlie Spats to plan a scene in Seattle with one of the night’s winners, Courtney Trouble – who also couldn’t attend – and Maya Mayhem, her Seattle co-star. Courtney, a multiple winner of FPA’s participated in another scene for Good Dyke Porn™ – “Slumber Party” – also available on HotMoviesForHer.com, a huge supporter of feminist porn.

An amazing standout at the FPA’s was Drew Deveaux – winner of the Heartthrob of the Year award. Last month, Drew starred in a scene with O Rae – the personal trainer – on Good Dyke Porn™ and became our first transwoman to join the team (finally!). Below is her acceptance speech. Congratulatins Drew DeVeaux!

Drew Deveaux’s acceptance speech on YouTube

When I think “we won” I’m actually thinking about the whole community of feminist, independent, and ethical porn creators, but there are actually a few more winners this year that are also a part of the Good Dyke Porn Team.

Lily Cade just sent me a scene with co-star Tina Horn that will be featured in May.
Lily Cade received an honourable mention for Art School Dykes. Tina Horn is the co-creator of QueerPorn.tv – one of the 4 winners in the only website category. Congratulations to you both!

Another honourable mention went to Sophia St. James’ film Twisted Getaway. She joined our team last fall with a scene that I got to co-star in when I was down in Portland, OR for Butch Voices Conference. That scene was featured in November of last year. Another hot scene on our website came in February of this year between Sophia St. James & Dylan Ryan (who is also an award winning feminist pornstar).

Continuing with honourable mentions, Tobi Hill-Meyer received a nod for her new film Genderfellator. Tobi filmed the scene that Sophia and I did in Portland. I’m so proud to have such a talented filmmaker on our team. Congrats Tobi!

And if that wasn’t enough, we will also be welcoming Madison Young to the GDP Team with her first porn shoot since giving birth to her baby. Madison Young received multiple nominations this year and always has her hard-working, talented, and sexy hands in queer and feminist porn projects all over the place.

I would also like to acknowledge Erika Lust who won “Movie of the Year” for Life Love Lust. Erika was my Feminist Porn Awards buddy in 2008 when I won my Golden Beaver Award for Canadian Content. An award which honoured my website GoodDykePorn.com.

Speaking of Can Con, the only other recipients (so far) of the Golden Beaver Award went to N. Maxwell Lander and Beau Charlie this year for Maybe He’s Gifted. I’m very excited to see some more hot queer porn being produced in Canada. Congratuations!!!

So, *I* may not have received a specific award for the work I do in feminist porn, but I’m fortunate to work with and feature porn from incredibly talented people who are themselves winners of this year’s Feminist Porn Awards. And besides that, I truly believe that when we recognize and award the people who are working to make porn ethical, consensual, queer, sexy and authentic then those of us who want it and make it ourselves are all winners.

Thank you Good For Her for once again putting on an amazing ceremony of sexy greatness.