It’s that time of year again when the weather gets warmer and the layers come off. What better reason to dress up in luxurious gowns and schmooze with sexy people?

So it’s a good thing Good for Her is hosting its seventh annual Feminist Porn Awards, and this year it’s spreading its legs over the entire week with tantalizing events.

The main event awards show is on Friday, April 20. This year comedian Elvira Kurt and Xtra columnist Ryan G Hinds will host the lascivious gala, which will include performances by CoCo La Creme and Olive-or-Oliver.

Feminist porn isn’t, however, an all girls’ club, but rather a community that celebrates porn as an art form. “I love that they recognize me as a feminist filmmaker. It is very important to me to be able to represent men at the show as a side of feminism,” says porn director and performer Buck Angel.

On April 18, Good for Her is hosting a workshop with Angel.

“I try to make porn that educates as well as gets you off,” he explains. “My newest film series, Sexing the Transman XXX, is a docu-porn. I am trying to give people a little insight into a trans man before he plunges into the sex scene or masturbation scene.”

If that’s not enough to get you off, take a breather from your dusty porn collection and journey through this year’s selection of erotic art films. Organizers are screening a series of porn, including work from Toronto’s own N Maxwell Lander, who will speak with other directors about her creative process.

“A lot of the porn I watch through feminist outlets has been quite graphic and harsh. Its intention is to reclaim really hot, genuine sex, and it’s that intention that separates it,” Lander says.

The Feminist Porn Awards began in 2006 when Good for Her recognized a demand to celebrate porn with a more artistic intent.

“The idea was that porn was really changing and there were more and more directors who were making things from a feminist perspective,” says Good for Her owner Carlyle Jansen.

Lander says it’s inspiring to see more people getting behind the camera who choose to take part in the porn industry and want to make a change.

“It’s totally acceptable for men to expose themselves to porn, both literally and figuratively,” Maxwell says. “But women don’t get that, so I think there’s still a lot of people that need a softer entrance into it.”

Check out Xtra‘s video interview with Buck Angel and Elvira Kurt: