Anne G. Sabo (Photo: Agnete Brun)

I grew up in Norway where gender equality and substantial human sexuality education have been promoted for decades. After completing my Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle, I began teaching at a Lutheran college in a small rural Minnesota town, where it felt only natural for me to take on the unofficial role of sex educator for students who had all sorts of questions and insecurities when it came to human sexuality and intimacy.

“LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY IN NORDIC FILM TODAY” was a course I developed and taught for a number of years with just that in mind, using the popular medium of film to address cultural differences in attitudes toward sexuality. Students were always impressed by the more natural approach to youth and sexuality and different forms of intimacy in this context. When later developing another course focused on gender and sexuality, I realized the need for accessible, quality material about children's, youth's and adult's sexuality.

It was my research on literature that was accused of being pornographic when, really, it was trying to liberate sexuality from puritanical norms and patriarchal oppression which got me turned on to porn. For could something with such a bad rap as porn be liberating, even feminist? As I've found out, it can.

My first talk about porn by women took place at the college I was teaching at in the winter of 2004. A group of students had heard rumors of my research and asked me to give a talk about it. After my presentation, one of the students asked if there wasn’t something just a little less eighties looking available out there among the new porn by women, for women and men. Truth be told, there really wasn’t at the time.

But since then, porn from a female POV has become a strong and growing movement. Today each major city in the United States has its sex shop owned by and catering to women, encouraging women to take charge of their sexuality. Sex and the City popularized the use of sex toys, and with the social stigmas against women in porn dwindling they are fronted by talk show hosts like Oprah.

The mainstream porn industry has of course caught on to the trend, launching its own porn by women lines that tend to do nothing more than glossing up the picture and softening the plot. My book NEW PORN. BY WOMEN, FOR WOMEN AND MEN does not concern those films. I’m interested in the authentic porn by women, which shows a sincere commitment to change porn as a genre and portray female and male sexuality with respect and realism. NEW PORN concerns those films, how they’re different, and why it matters to us.

My book NEW PORN is currently being considered for publication by editors in both Norway and the United States. In the meantime, I will provide information about new porn by women in this site, and you can find some new porn by women in our LSF Shop.

In 2008 I became a mom. The birth of my daughter changed my life. Determined to make a positive change, I left my position as a tenured professor in order to focus on my family and the greater public. My research and writing is geared for a public audience of adults, parents or not, who likewise seek new positive healthy lifestyles and who value nurturing a positive and healthy sexual life.

LOVE, SEX, AND FAMILY is a work in progress. It is my hope that this site will grow to be a substantial resource for you all. In the meantime, you may also check out my blogs QUIZZICAL MAMA and NEW PORN BY WOMEN where I write more about love, sex, and family.

All the best,
Anne G. Sabo