Lust by Erika Lust
Seminal feminist porn director Erika Lust's eponymous book is part-manifesto, part-memoir on the ethics of pornography
It is always tempting to draw fixed, immovable conclusions about sex work: that it is always a last resort, never a genuine choice. This is precisely where Erika Lust’s Lust: Pleasure, Performance and Power stands as a powerful intervention. A pioneer of the adult entertainment industry for the past two decades, Lust debunks the persistent myths, stereotypes, and sexist double standards that continue to plague the production of ethical, performer-led pornography.
To read Lust’s blend of manifesto and memoir is to come face to face with the transformative potential of sex and sexuality. Sexuality, she argues, possesses the power to restructure our lives through the sex worker’s invitation to realise our desires, opening a portal to happier and healthier versions of ourselves.
Lust makes compelling points regarding ‘erotic capital': the reality that many of us, to varying degrees, trade our sensuality or sexual energy for quotidian material gains, whether that means free drinks at a bar or everyday favours. These cultural tensions exist largely uninterrogated, accepted as a fundamentally human way of relating with each other. The strength of Lust’s work lies in interrogating our own awkward and hypocritical social infrastructures.
Ultimately, Lust frames ethical porn as an art form, understanding it as a collaborative craft rather than a series of crude, randomised acts. This is Lust’s open invitation for us to see sex work as a legitimate performance, a dance that can ignite our introspection and offer the radical promise of connection.
Bonnier Books, 5 Nov