Femme Chocolat

Back in 1984, Candida Royalle started a company called Femme Productions because she thought that some level of feminism needed to be introduced into the porn industry which is how feminist porn was born! The truth is that there are a lot of ‘isms’ in the porn industry. There was and is sexism, there’s some level of feminism, but one ‘ism’ that no one pays attention to is racism. Candice changed the way women were perceived in the porn production business and tried her best to get rid of sexism. It’s only fair that she did the same to eliminate racism. That’s what Femme Chocolat is all about.

Candida
Candida

This post will talk about how Candice created Femme Chocolate to be a racially-diverse and even more realistic than the previous films from Femme Productions. Without further ado, let’s get right to it.

The Vision Behind Femme Chocolat

Candida
Candida

Femme Chocolat was meant to create porn films specifically for the people of color. It doesn’t matter whether the actors in question are African-American, Latinos and Mexicans; the production specifically excludes white performers to create a platform for people of color in the porn industry.

That’s just one aspect of Femme Chocolat. Back in the day, Femme Productions created realistic porn to disperse those false scenarios crafted by mainstream porn producers. Chocolat takes this one step further by portraying ‘imperfect’ human beings. Modern day porn productions usually only cast men with the perfect abs, bigger penises and women with breast enlargements and perfectly round butts. On the other hand, Chocolat tries to portray natural beauty instead of showing individuals with medical enhancements (mostly). The women are extremely pretty, but they have what the adult industry calls imperfections. They have stretch marks, natural breasts and in a big way, the beauty in these productions in much more significant than showing folks with perfect bodies. Candice was a huge supporter of the fact that we, as a society, need to broaden our definition of beauty. While she doesn’t think that women or men wanting to have better bodies through hard work or even surgeries deserve to be humiliated, it’s wrong to criticize people with imperfections.

Candida accepting an award
Candida accepting an award

Even though Candice is no longer with us, it won’t be wrong to say she is still revolutionizing the porn industry years after her death.

Aphrodite Superstar

Aphrodite Superstar was the first movie made under the franchise of Femme Chocolat. It was released in 2007 and was directed by Venus Hottentot, someone that also shared the vision of Candida Royale, the producer. It was basically an experiment on how the audience perceives this type of erotic content. And, as you can probably guess, Aphrodite Superstar was a gigantic success. It was nominated for seven AVN Awards including categories like Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Video Feature, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Musical Score. Simone Valentino received the award for Best New Star as her role in the lead of Aphrodite Superstar.

You can’t really call it a porn movie and that is what makes Aphrodite Superstar a true piece of art. Hottentot said herself that you can’t call this film porn, as it is an insult to what the movie actually is and how well it can raise the self-esteem of people of color.

 

Public Response

“As a young man of color, I was impressed. The film portrayed our women in such a beautiful, classy yet stimulating light that I never thought was possible. I can’t describe it any other way but as a work of art…This was very inspiring and uplifting, and I look forward to seeing more films from your Femme Chocolat line. Finally, I own an adult film that I can actually display with my other movies rather than tuck away underneath my bed, and can actually enjoy with my partner.”
– Letter from a Fan

 

The movie was an enormous hit. It was exceptionally popular among people of color and at the same time, liked by white folks as well. It wasn’t just liked as a movie, it created a lot of public admiration for Femme Chocolat and Femme Productions in general. It was perceived as a sincere symbolization of how much Candice and Hottentot aims to eliminate racism from the industry. And, it isn’t an over-exaggeration when we say that they might be soon on their way to doing just that.