Feel-Good Friday: April Flores, You Can Make Me Feel Good Any Time
Are you feeling down, low, sad, lonely, lacking in happiness and needing a tiny little boost to get you through that last patch of Friday and boost you into the weekend? Are you feeling cynical, hateful, sure that the world is bigoted and there are no positive, body-friendly messages left on earth and that everyone wants you to hide asexually in a closet somewhere while science figures out a way to airbrush a living human being into a creature with no creases or crinkles?
I say: Fret no longer, and smile big and wide, because plus-size pinup and pornstar (or “muse, model and erotic performer”) April Flores is posing sexy (and in an unsafe-for-work manner) in this covershoot video for Bizarre magazine. This is her second time on the cover–and her first appearance was the magazine’s best-selling issue last year. She is hot, sexual, and she’s awesome, too.
When a recent piece in US porn trade magazine AVN [was insulting to] big girls…April spoke out. She posted a blog articulating her dismay, and a Twitter update titled, “This fat girl’s pissed off.”
She was delighted at the tidal wave of support she received. “I didn’t expect such a strong reaction from people who clearly feel passionate about their body size,” she says. “I also got a big response from men who are dating or married to bigger girls who were also highly offended.
I did it to vent and to say ‘Hey, this isn’t cool’ but I didn’t expect to get such a reaction.” Support also came from others in the adult industry, “A lot of skinny girls wrote to me – Kimberley Kane supported me and wrote to them also, and I got a comment from Stoya saying ‘good for you.’”
April points out that by attacking big girls, the magazine was badmouthing all women. She says, “These days you can’t be so degrading to women and not expect people to call you on it.”
Check out her interview (probably also unworksafe) for the magazine here, and her definitely not safe for work blog here. And I’ll be over here wishing I had a nickname as awesome as “Fatty Delicious.”
Posted by jenfu
Filed under: Advocacy, Art, Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, International, Magazines, Media, NSFW, Video
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Wow! Thanks for sharing that.
I…um… I need to go home now.
I love that she has the little double-tummy thing going on. I have it, and I had never seen it on another woman until I saw pictures of nude Beth Ditto. I was so self conscious about my double-tummy that didn’t even go away when I was a size 12. That was one of my benchmarks for weight-loss success. Too bad it’s just the way my body is built…
Hooray tummies!
Sloshie! I have a double tummy, too! I thought I was the only one! It’s so great to see others with it!
YAY!
Double tummy, too! Even when I was very thin, it was small, but it was there.
Double tummy here too!
So, I hate to be a buzzkill, but pornified big girls getting a little airtime in the porn industry doesn’t feel like much of a victory to me.
Let me add to the awesomeness (and try to keep it g-rated):
I recently met April at an art opening at the Museum of Sex in NYC and she is probably just about the nicest person you could ever meet! Very sweet and down-to-earth. The art opening was for an exhibit that consisted of “love toys” made from a mold of April’s ladyparts that were embellished by different artists. Toys like this are nothing new, but it turns out April is the first plus-size porn star to have a toy made of herself. Pretty cool!
Really? This is what we want? To be treated like meat-socks just like the skinny girls are?
Wow, Jezebella, who put you in charge of how everyone is supposed to express their sexuality? Way to think all fat women have no agency in their own sex lives.
Jezebella – I’m with you. The celebration of this makes a mockery of this entire website. She may be fat, but she still conforms to many of the other stereotypes regarding what is and is not sexually attractive.
And most of all – we are supposed to CELEBRATE the fact that fat girls can become Porn Stars too?? Sad.
While I am all for us fat women speaking up for ourselves and that is it totally not cool we get berated for our weight, I am with Jezebella. I am fat too and even when I was still thin I also didn’t enjoy having my sexually defined by men (in the sex-industry). I can define my own sexuality and it has got nothing to do with titillating men, thank you very much. I do have agency, but this stupid western idea of what makes a woman’s sexuality is shallow, ridged, narrow minded and offensive. If people don’t care to know the kind of person I am, then they can go fuck themselves, pun totally intended. My parts are not toys and neither are those of any person, fat or thin, woman or man.
So if it’s true that April is the first fat woman to have her parts turned into sex-toys, then I consider that a step back for fat women the world over.
Porn destroys lives. Sexual freedom is freedom from objectification.
You know, it’d be nice to be all new pie on this, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with April making a living off of other people finding her attractive. If she truly enjoys what she does, finds power in it, and can make a little money on the side — more power to her.
No, I don’t want my parts or anyone else’s turned into sex toys. But at the same time, I’m tired of people being told that they should be asexual because they’re fat. I’m also tired of women being told they should be asexual because that’s the feminist thing to do. I thought the point was that we should be sexual on our own terms? Well hers are apparently for pay.
And you know, if there are people willing to shell out to see her, I don’t know why that’s something we should be making her feel bad about. A step back for fat women? Porn destroys lives? Jesus.
Can we take our judge pants off for a while? What she does to make a living — again, as long as SHE is okay with it — is none of our business. Plenty of people are having less-safe-than-industry-standard, casual sex on their own without getting paid, because they enjoy it…and we don’t tell them they’re being bad feminists or making fat people look bad.
On another note, the fact that she’s being accepted in such a one-note industry despite/because of her size should be a wakeup call to the media about what men and women really find attractive.
Let me ask a question here. If you saw me buy a pair of panties and a matching lace bra to impress my (admittedly female) partner, would you stop me on the street and tell me I was a bad feminist and a bad fat woman for allowing society and the patriarchy to define my sexuality? Would you tell me that I needed to go home and think about the lives I’m ruining by wearing that lingerie? If you would, that makes you someone kinda crazy and pretty rude. If you wouldn’t, good on you. You understand the concept of INDIVIDUAL agency.
Because agency isn’t about WHAT I WOULD DO WERE I HER. It’s about what she does with the cards she’s been given and how she finds empowerment in her own life. I can’t look at a woman with 5 kids and say, “Oh, another breeder, clearly a trophy wife and soccer mom,” because that isn’t MY DECISION. It’s hers. And just as that takes away agency from another woman (like the patriarchy does), so does judging a woman who makes pornography, so long as she chooses to and enjoys doing it for herself.
Maybe we should all go back to school, or the books, or wherever we first became feminists and empowered fat women, and think on what WE do to take power away from women working in the adult industry and how THAT ruins lives.
Great comment, Jessi. I agree completely. I was a little put off by the judgments about what this woman chooses to do with her body. I’m not a fan of the porn industry either but it’s not our place to judge what someone does with her body, her life, her sexuality. And yes, we’re celebrating a fat woman in the porn industry. It’s awesome.
… and I have a double tummy too. I didn’t even think about that until I saw the comments above. Yay for cute double tummies. :)
Hm, my last comment disappeared. Interesting.
Which comment is that, Jezebella? We don’t delete comments on BFD unless they’re spam or trolling. You weren’t trolling, and I assume you’re not a spambot.
I must be missing where anyone has said ” you are a bad feminist if”. Maybe someone could quote that? Or maybe women posting their opinions on porn aren’t actually judging your feminism and any issues you have that twist it into a declaration of bad are your own issues you might need to work on.
No one is making *her* feel bad either.
What’s being said is treating women of any size as sex objects isn’t progressive. Expanding the group of women treated as objects isn’t empowering..it’s status quo.
I get that crap being NA. We’re “exotic”.
Being recognized as fully human is great, all women of all sizes should have that. Being recognized as part of a sex class doesn’t = fully human.
All women can choose whatever path they want for themselves, but it’s dishonest to claim a personal choice occurs in a vaccuum and no one else is affected, ever. It’s also dishonest to conflate pointing out sexism now includes big girls as “you’re a bad feminist” or ” you’re trying to make her feel bad”.
pheenobarbidoll said:
“What’s being said is treating women of any size as sex objects isn’t progressive. Expanding the group of women treated as objects isn’t empowering..it’s status quo”
If porn is treating women as sex objects, then is football treating men as sport objects? What does it mean to be an object anyway? Is it the looking at the person that makes them into an object? If so, where is the line drawn? Can a husband and wife take videos of themselves, are they objectifying each other? Or would that only happen when they trade videos with another couple?
What the hell is a “sex object” anyway?
sex object= thing that exists soley for male’s to fuck. That’s part of why big women are treated like crap. If you aren’t fuckable (ie doing your job by pleasing men with your looks) then you don’t matter. So now heavier women are considered part of the group of women existing to get men off.
wooo. What an accomplishment.
BTW- porn doesn’t treat women any way. The men watching it do. Nice try with the passive voice though.
For me there is no difference between being told to lose weight or die/be asexual and to pornify my body for male viewing pleasure. It is still men telling me what to do rather than the world accepting my own definitions of my sexuality.
It is my body so I have the right to define it and my life as I see fit. Trying to match myself with one end of the extreme, because I don’t like the other is the same shit to me. It is still not my personal choice, because when you are a woman (and fat) the world tries really hard to circumvent your personal choices and rewards you for conforming to what is considered “the norm”.
I don’t like the norm for thin women either. I think it sucks just as badly where sexuality is concerned. And for the record, I am not judging April. I am judging the society we live in that leaves women pretty much no choices in their sexuality and will punish them if they do try to define it for themselves.
Again, people treating April the same way they do thin women, is not progress. All women should be free to define their own sexualities and not just be forced to cater to what is considered “acceptable”.
When you go out and buy “sexy” lingerie or when you go pole-dance for your hubby, is that something you like to do or is it something you have learned is “normal”? If you have complete freedom over your sexuality would you still make those same choices? Ask yourself honestly if that is the case, because when I really started thinking about it, for me the answer was a definite no. But you might come to a different conclusion. Just don’t go around selling it as “empowering”, because for me “the norm” is nothing but an obstacle for my own choices.
I think the big point that many are missing is that she’s sort of fighting back against the porn status-quo by saying that just because she’s in pornography, she’s still a woman and not a “heifer”.
The really cool thing about this is that maybe we can change the way women who are openly sexual are treated where our sexuality on display is not only for some heteronormative reinforcement of the patriarchy.
So yeah, I do celebrate this as a victory because it’s fighting against the Howard Sterns out there.
She’s saying. Yes I’m Fat, yeah…I take my clothes off and do sexual things for money…but it’s on my terms and I’m NOT just an object.
That she’s recieving support for this from within the industry itself is pretty darn cool.
Maybe it’s okay to be proud of ourselves as sexual beings (straight, lesbian, bi, trans) and maybe we should be free to display that sexuality without being labled as “bad girls” “sluts” “whores” and the many other demening words that strip us from our humanity just because were proud of our sexuality as being one of the myriad complexities of our selves?
See…that’s what the real story is about, even more that her type of body frame she has.
There’s a lot of damaging porn out there, I think we should celebrate the changes that make Porn a positive thing.
Jen-Fu, I made a rather lengthy reply yesterday, that disappeared into the ether. I tried to post again, and it said I had already posted the same thing. And yet, it is not here. I will try again momentarily.
Trying again:
If you will please re-read my comments, you will note that neither was directed at April Flores. I note with interest, however, that her personal self-expression of her sexuality looks *exactly like* the patriarchy’s formula for the sexxxy, only a few sizes larger.
However, I’m one of those tedious radical feminists who considers pornography of all sorts destructive, misogynistic, and oppressive, not one of those wacky burlesque-loving fun feminists. I don’t believe we should consider plus-size pornography a feminist victory. If Ms. Flores wishes to make a dollar in the industry, that’s her choice, but ask her again in twenty years how empowering it was, how enriching it was, and whether it made her life better or worse. Look long and hard: you won’t find too many former porn performers singing its praises.
I say again: this is not a victory, not for fat women or women in general. The day women’s bodies are not treated as currency, as literal fuck-toys without agency or desire, the day pornography disappears: THAT will be a victory. In the meantime, alas, women need to make a living, and the sex industry is one way to do that. I just hope she comes out of it with her mental and physical health intact.
Really, y’all, this is Feminism 101.
It disappeared again. Perhaps the use of the term pornography landed me in the spam filter?
If you will please re-read my comments, you will note that neither was directed at April Flores nor any of the commentariat here. I note with interest, however, that her personal self-expression of her sexuality looks *exactly like* the patriarchy’s formula for the sexay, only a few sizes larger.
However, I’m one of those tedious radical feminists who considers pornography of all sorts destructive, misogynistic, and oppressive, not one of those wacky burlesque-loving fun feminists. I don’t believe we should consider plus-size pornography a feminist victory. If Ms. Flores wishes to make a dollar in the industry, that’s her choice, but ask her again in twenty years how empowering it was, how enriching it was, and whether it made her life better or worse. Look long and hard: you won’t find too many former porn performers singing its praises.
I say again: this is not a victory, not for fat women or women in general. The day women’s bodies are not treated as currency, the day pornography disappears: THAT will be a victory. In the meantime, alas, women need to make a living, and the sex industry is one way to do that. I just hope she comes out of it with her mental and physical health intact.
Really, y’all, this is Feminism 101.
Sorry for multiple posts – I just figured out that my alternate spelling of the term “sexay” (except with three x’s) was putting me into the spam filter.
That’s exactly what happened. I’m sorry about that.
Maybe this is a Feminism 101 question, I’m interested to know why you feel porn is destructive, misogynistic and oppressive, and why exactly is April Flores going to regret her life and her choices.
I am not sure it is a feminism 101 question, but Robert Jensen has written extensively about pornography and the harm it does to our culture and to porn performers.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/articles_gender.html
I would rather not speculate on April Flores, the individual, and her life choices, since I know nothing about her but what I’ve read in this post.
Much bandwidth has been devoted to this very topic, but I will try to be brief. I also recommend the actual “Finally, Feminism 101” site for an in-depth treatment.
Misogynistic: Pornography is the fetishization of human female bodies at the expense of female human beings. It is always, ALWAYS, in the service of patriarchy. No matter how much we may wish to “reclaim” our sexuality, any visual record of it can always be re-purposed by the male gaze once we put it in print, on video, or on-line. And the patriarchal male gaze sees the female body as nothing more than a meat-sock, designed for pronging and more pronging. No agency, no desire, no will.
Dangerous: Porn performers rarely are allowed to use condoms, and are therefore at very high risk for STIs, several of which are fatal. Porn performers are also pressured to engage in more dangerous and painful sex acts as their career progresses. Simple penis-in-vagina penetration is not enough for today’s porn consumer. Porn is growing more violent, more degrading, and more dehumanizing every single day.
Oppressive: Porn culture, and its twin brother rape culture, radiates outward into the whole culture. Teen boys think gang-rape is okay if the girl is drunk (why? porn.). Grown men think women want to be pounded for hours with a Viagra-hardened dick (why? porn). Walmart sells “porn star” t-shirts and thongs in children’s sizes. Young men expect their partners to engage in the expensive, painful, and potentially dangerous practice of the Brazilian wax. Maxim magazine calls anal “the new third base”. The mainstreaming of porn affects all of us, close to home, in our own personal sex lives and our own personal beauty habits. We find ourselves expected to enjoy the things that women are paid to endure, because porn teaches men that women actually like it. Not just some women: ALL women. And women who don’t like it? We’re prudes, or hairy, or uptight, or need therapy, or need a good deep-dicking, or, in sum, are Less Than the women who choose to pornify themselves. Porn oppresses everyone.
Not so brief, and not thorough, but I gave it a try.
Jenfu, I lost another lengthy post responding to your question, probably because it said “porn” so many times. Any chance you can rescue it from the filter?
So what about erotica? Will it be a good day for feminism when that’s eliminated too? Silly me; I thought that feminism was about choice, one of those possible choices being sex worker. Or in my case, writer. And as someone who watches dirty movies from time to time, watcher, too.
I’m not ignorant; I know the damage that porn can/do(es) to psyches and expectations. But I’m really uncomfortable when a conversation about the extremely narrow field of ‘acceptable’ sexiness/sexuality morphs into how that sexuality should be corralled and controlled.
Just try finding healthy depictions of African- American (or hell, any other minority)sex or even attraction! Practically impossible and virtually nonexistent. But that doesn’t mean that I should stop watching/reading/writing in hopes of finding it.
Do I think there are problems with the industry and the society that perpetuates those problems? Absolutely. Do I think there is no place for depictions of sex and sexuality in visual/aural/written media? Absolutely not.
Porn DOES ruin lives. It ruins the lives of women who are coerced into making it. Maybe the coercion is low grade pressure to live up to the sexyfun ideal of some asshole boyfriend or director. Or it is as intense as being kidnapped and enslaved by sex trafficker pimps.
There are real women getting violated by men who think spooging in women’s eyes, double penetrations and ass to mouth are HAWT. They think that because they think violently degrading women is HAWT. To hell with that that at any size.
And Alice:
“I’m not ignorant; I know the damage that porn can/do(es) to psyches and expectations.”
What the HELL? So how do you justify it then?
Also, who has been coralling sexuality here? Since when does porn = sex? Does there have to be a “healthy depiction” for that sexuality to exist. That’s how entrenched the porn mentality has become– if we don’t see a titillating image of it, it might as well not exist.
Alice, if you’re watching a “dirty movie”, and you have no way of knowing whether the woman in it is doing so willingly or under coercion, how can you stand it? I’m serious. How can you get off knowing that the woman you are looking at might very well be being raped at that very minute, right in front of the camera? That she may be in the sex industry because she’d been groomed since childhood, because she’s been raped multiple times and is purposely reliving her trauma as so many victims of PTSD do, because a pimp got her addicted to drugs, or because she’s been sold into sexual slavery? Maybe, possibly, MAYBE she’s a healthy adult making a buck off of her exhibitionist personality, but the odds are against it.
Because you don’t know the truth of it. You can’t. So, is choosing to get off while watching another woman be raped a feminist “choice”? NO. No, it’s not.
I think I may be the first male to post in the comments for this and I hope I have something to add to the discussion. My girlfriend told me the other other day she didn’t think pornography was a big deal and that it wasn’t degrading. I told her she hadn’t seen much pornography.
You know what one of the most popular porn webistes is? Bangbus.com. It’s where a group of a-holes drive around in their van, pick up a girl, fuck her in the van and then dump her on the side of the road and leave her. It’s all staged of course, but it’s really interesting that the climax of their videos isn’t the typical “money shot” you get in most porn. It’s the part where they dump the girl on the side of the road and leave her stranded and drive off laughing at her after having fucked her. It scares me to say that, but when I see that it has a stimulating effect on the most animalistic part of me, seeing a woman treated like dirt and discarded afterwards.
That’s porn, and it’s one of the more tame and popular examples of it. It’s not fit for any woman to be a part of that. It’s de-humanizing to the woman who endures that (even if she is getting paid for it), it’s dehumanizing to the males who view it and it’s dangerous to us all as a society.
Jezebella, I found your comment and approved it. You’re right; it did get stuck in the spam filter! Thanks for the heads up, as well as for the thought-provoking comment.
Everyone else, just read up a few posts for the Feminism 101 comment. It’s worth reading!
That made my day.
I was having an interesting conversation with my fiance about the female body in mainstream porn. He said that while most larger women start in fetish porn specializing in large breasts or big butts, many of the more successful have made their way into mainstream pornography. The strict standards of body type that we see in modeling and media is changing in porn.
Also, April has lovely yabbos. haha
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