Lesbian Pornographer Shares Experiences During Sex Week

Jincey Lumpkin, BGLTQ activist and founder of feminist lesbian pornography studio Juicy Pink Box, gave a presentation Tuesday night about her experience breaking into the porn industry as one of the first female pornographers to go mainstream.

Her talk was organized by the Harvard student group Sexual Health Education & Advocacy (SHEATH) for the third annual Harvard Sex Week. The series of events is about sex, intimacy, love, and relationships, and was initiated in the spring of 2012.

According to SHEATH co-President Kirin Gupta ’16, Harvard Sex Week this year places particular emphasis on how intersectional identities such as race and ethnicity impact sex and relationships, as SHEATH has created new partnerships with various cultural groups. This sentiment of inclusion was echoed in Lumpkin’s talk, although it focused more on recognizing different sexual preferences.

“I saw a hole in the marketplace in terms of the kind of porn I wanted to see,” Lumpkin said. Lumpkin is a sex columnist for the Huffington Post and has been called the “lesbian Hugh Hefner.”

In 2009, Lumpkin founded the pornography studio with aims to highlight authentic lesbian porn—meaning no fake orgasms—for both homosexual and heterosexual female audiences.

“Women have been robbed of their sexual agency for thousands of years, and it was important to me to take control of that,” Lumpkin said. “That’s why I started this business.”

Lumpkin said that she strives to create only “ethical porn,” in which actresses are paid fair wages, scene boundaries are negotiated before filming, and stars are reimbursed for medical testing.

Jincey Lumpkin, founder of Juicy Pink Box, a company devoted to making porn for women, spoke about third wave feminism, porn pop culture, and the porn industry at Harvard Sex Week on Tuesday evening in Sever Hall. By Jennifer Y Yao

However, although personal agency is a driving force in Lumpkin’s business model, Sam A. Garin ’17 disagreed with the idea that a company can equitably profit from the use of women’s bodies.

“I’m not quite convinced that porn can ultimately be feminist, especially for queer women,” Garin said.

Lumpkin acknowledged the differing opinions of other self-identified feminists. She did note, however, that sex will become increasingly integrated into regular entertainment, which highlights the importance of starting conversations about sex.

“There’s not going to be a need for porn.... We’re going to see a lot more sex on cable T.V.,” Lumpkin said.

Lumpkin also argued that more money and time should be devoted to informational programming like Harvard Sex Week. The event series kicked off with an interactive workshop on South Asian sexuality last Sunday and will run until Saturday, Nov. 8.

—Staff writer Quynh-Nhu Le can be reached at quynhnhu.le@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Sara A. Atske can be reached at sara.atske@thecrimson.com.