This Trans Porn Site Wants to Show You Real Sex, Not ‘Shemale’ Stereotypes

According to Montreal-based model and entrepreneur Luna Loveless, mainstream pornography only thinks there is one kind of trans woman: a chick with large breasts and a big dick.

Disenchanted with this one-dimensional portrayal, Loveless decided to create her own production company. Its first site, TSNaturalsXXX, features trans women and nonbinary people who have not undergone major surgery—a requirement implemented to counter what Loveless says are unrealistic standards propagated by most trans porn offerings.

The point is not to condemn surgery, she explains, but rather to normalize a wider range of natural transgender and nonbinary bodies, promote positive body image and fight against the industry's fetishisation of trans women and nonbinary people. The site also gives complete creative freedom to its models, eschewing the formulaic narratives used by mainstream porn companies in order to offer a more nuanced and realistic look at trans sexuality.

We met with Loveless as she was wrapping up a shoot with American model Jessica Fappit to chat about sex, stigma, and the role they believe some trans porn is playing in the controversial bathroom bill conversation.

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VICE: Tell me about your stance on surgery. Why don't you allow people who have had major surgeries to pose for your site?
Luna Loveless: Anything involving big boobs or facial reconstruction, I don't allow. I think it's important because a lot of people around the industry feel that girls have to go through surgery, and the reality is that most trans girls I would say are relatively comfortable just taking their hormones and going through a couple of minor surgeries and just living their lives.

I feel like in some sense it sets an unrealistic bar on what a transition is and what it's about. It's not about surgeries and changing your body to look like something. It's about being comfortable in the body that you unfortunately got given. Trans women are women, there is no doubting that. And it's important that they are seen in their more natural form. I feel like that contributes to the normalization of trans women in society.

So there is a lot of empowerment?
Yes, for sure. When they're doing the shoots they have the freedom to do whatever they want, to express themselves however they want. They're portrayed exactly how they want to be portrayed.

Is this to rectify a problem you identified within the industry?
I feel like a lot of people explore their curiosities regarding new people and minority groups through pornography. And that's an observable trend; there's definitely been a boom in the trans porn industry and I feel that it's important to provide a real impression of what trans girls are about, further than the genitals and making it a fetish.

Jessica you work in the industry, tell me about the evolution of trans porn?
Jessica Fappit: What the industry calls trans porn isn't really trans porn, it's shemale porn. They push a very specific narrative, they want you to do certain things, they want you to act a certain way. They won't hire you if you won't. I'm like the gleaming example of that: I get booked very, very infrequently because there are a lot of things I won't do, because I don't think they're positive to the image of trans people as a whole. To get really nitty gritty with it, I do have a penis, and I don't use it in any of the porn that I'm in. And for most production companies, at minimum, they need you to jerk off, but at maximum they either want to blow you or they want you to fuck a dude in the ass. When you met actual transgender people, there is a lot of dysphoria involved in being transgender and it almost completely stems from your genitals, because after you've transitioned that's really the only part of you that isn't fully female.

I want to say that almost every single trans girl I have ever met, especially outside porn, they don't like that, they don't like being focused on for having a dick, they don't like using their dick. The number of girls that are genuinely into it is really, really small. The vast majority of them just do it for the money.

Tell me how the current industry warps the public's image of trans people?
Jessica: For starters, all of the major [porn] girls have had considerable amount of surgery. They've had their faces feminized, they have fake breasts and in a lot of cases they even have fake butts. The industry definitely pushes to create a certain type of performer.

And these are also unattainable standards, I mean those surgeries costs tens of thousands of dollars…
Jessica: Yeah, at least that. And that's gotta really mess with young trans girls.

Luna: There have been some people who have dropped out of the industry in the past year because they are not impressed with the standards the industry puts on them as far as both the surgeries and what they have to do to be involved in porn.

Jessica: Meanwhile, one of the most important surgeries you can have as a trans person is getting what's called bottom surgery, or vaginoplasty. And that's like, you do that and you are done. You're no longer welcome in porn if you do that. There are tons of girls who have completely lost their careers because they went with their bottom surgery.

How did you feel when Luna reached out, what do you think of this endeavor?
Jessica: I don't think producers realize that the market [for trans porn] isn't exclusively guys who secretly like cock. Like Luna was saying, people kind of discover new people through porn and trans visibility is at the highest point it's ever been and there are a lot of dudes right now that are learning about trans people and they are learning about them through porn. One thing that has been huge for me my entire life is like "OK, I am this way but I don't really like the interaction with this part," and that's really confusing for a lot of guys. What ends up happening is that straight guys are like "I can't be into you because you have a dick," and really closeted, bisexual and gay guys are like "Oh you're perfect for me because this is exactly what I want." But I don't want anything to do with the closeted guys, I want everything to do with the straight guys and I don't want to have that interaction. And they are not seeing that through porn. If any of these dudes have ever checked out [trans] porn what they're seeing is some chick who has been completely facially and bodily reconstructed to look as womanly as possible, banging a dude in the mouth or in the ass.

I took a break from the industry at one point, and I came back on the terms that "OK, if you're gonna shoot me, I'm gonna be a girl on camera." The way I see it girls don't jerk off, girls don't fuck guys in the mouth, girls don't fuck guys in the ass. And those were my stipulations: I am completely natural, like this is my face, these are my tits, and I can't get on camera, people really don't want to book me. My position in this industry is, you know there are some girls that are like that and cool, more power to them, but absolutely no one is showing the other side of the story, which is that there are a lot of girls who don't want you to fetishize them as a secret way to enjoy cock or rob them of their femininity and use them as a means to get cock.

Do you think the way trans people are portrayed in porn is dangerous?
Jessica: What I think is really dangerous about the way we are portrayed in porn is that it make us look like sexual aggressors, which is the whole thing where bathroom bans come from, where people say "Oh they are sexual aggressors, they are deviant and they want to fuck people." The truth is the vast majority of us don't, I don't want to fuck anybody. I'm a bottom, I want to date big strong men that tell me I'm a pretty girl and then bend me over a sofa and give it to me. I don't want to go into a bathroom and creep on women, at all.

Does this all affect your interactions with people in real life?
Luna: Um, yeah. Any trans girl on Tinder can tell you that.

Jessica: Yeah I've been on Tinder since I got here and guys are like "Um, I'm straight." And I say, that's cool, I really don't want you to touch my dick, I want you to have sex with me like you would with a normal girl. All the mechanics are the same, it's just a different hole. But people don't realize that there are relationships like that that can happen, because that's definitely not the narrative that's being pushed by porn.

A lot of trans women feel the need to have their bottom surgery, just to get guys to stop with the obsession over their dick. It can get so maddening and frustrating when all you want to do is be female and they just won't let you, they won't let you be sexualized in the same way that a genetic woman is and so girls end up getting their bottom surgery. I know girls that have been in the industry for a while, doing all the things the industry wants them to do in order to make money, that are constantly saying "I hate this and I can't wait to get a vagina so that these guys will stop."

What impact do you hope your website has on its audience?
Luna: I hope that people who have been purveyors of trans porn for a long time take the time to really realize there are a lot of aspects to the girls they see, that it's important to learn more about who they are and what they're about. I think that for those people who are only just coming into [trans porn] now, know that it's ok to normalize things in your life through porn, but it's important to make sure you're getting a good narrative when you do it.

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