Feminist icon and porn pioneer, Candida Royalle, will be missed – even if you don’t know why…

On Monday, Candida Royalle died after a long, painful battle against ovarian cancer.

She was the pioneer of feminist porn. While that medium might not appeal to us all, it’s important to remember women like her.

She portrayed women enjoying sex from a perspective that was completely novel at the time.

She did not concentrate on ‘the money shot’ – instead she showed her female protagonists’ pleasure and eventual satisfaction.

If you have sex now and expect to ‘get off’, if you think of sex as a reciprocal process, if you don’t feel guilty about satisfying yourself, then you have more to thank Candida Royalle for than you know.

Women like her offered people a visual depiction of the possibilities of good sex. That has to have a trickle down effect.

Sophie’s Voice is sex positive – I write with the stated aim of encouraging people to love themselves. I usually talk about learning to embrace our physical appearance. I love offering readers the opportunity to vote on my pedicure. Readers offer me great feedback on fashion that they’ve spotted.

However, as everybody knows, some of life’s greatest pleasures are free…I propose that we all remember that the next time we take a ‘mummy nap’, enjoy ourselves with a partner or read a chapter of erotica before bed.

Yes, we live in an overly sexualised environment. Yes, I think the young aren’t allowed to be children for long enough but, no, I don’t think that my qualms about that should impact upon my enjoyment of the amazing – and, sometimes, therapeutic – experiences that my body can give me.

And, you know, I am self conscious about my appearance. What I’m pleased to say is that I don’t even notice the fact when I’m having an orgasm.

I’m pretty sure that Ms Royalle would be happy to hear that.

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