SILICON VALLEY – These days, I’m not sure a single day goes by without some aspect of the porn industry receiving at least a little mainstream media ink. Sometimes a porn star makes headlines due to her dalliance with a professional sports star. Other times, the headlines emerge from the decidedly “bad news” side of the industry’s ledger, like an HIV-driven moratorium on content production.

This week in the media, the porn-industry-related theme appears to be “Ladies Night” in the form of a lengthy group Q&A with four female porn directors hitting HuffPo (by way of Ravishly.com) and a profile of “entreporneur” Cindy Gallop running on BizJournals.com.

As always with mainstream treatments of porn subjects, there are aspects of the coverage that left me scratching my head, including the headline on the Gallop profile: “Porn baroness finds Silicon Valley’s stance toward sex tech rather curious.”

For starters, a “baroness” by definition is a woman who is, or was at one time, married to a baron, and whoever the Baron of Porn might be, I’m pretty sure he’s not married to Cindy Gallop. (Unless…. Larry, Cindy: Is there something you’ve been meaning to tell us?)

Such minor gripes aside, however, these two articles are great press, not just for the impressive set of trailblazers featured therein, but for the adult industry as a whole. Among other things, nothing more effectively rebuts the notion of the adult industry being a business sector devoid of intelligent, independent and self-directed women than hearing from women currently working in the industry who clearly embody those traits.

This is not to say I agree with everything said by Gallop, Anna Frolicme, Erika Lust, Angie Rowntree and Jacky St. James—the women interviewed in the two articles—but I didn’t find myself embarrassed by any of it, either. I also experienced no forehead-slapping moments of stunned disbelief—something all too common in my past experience reading extended interviews of significant adult industry figures.

Sure, at first blush it might sound a little highfalutin (or “rather grand” as she puts it) for Anna Frolicme to say she likes to think she “could redefine erotic entertainment for adults and stand apart from the crowd on the internet,” but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having lofty goals.

This is no different from a star athlete talking about his or her potential to “change the game.” Of course, most people who say such things fall short of their very ambitious goal, but it’s also true nobody ever changed a game by not reaching for the stars.

Put another way: If you think you’re mediocre, then trust me, you will turn out to be right.

If Anna Frolicme believes she can change the game in porn, I say more power to her. In striving to do so, she’ll do great things and make movies that resonate with her fans, even if the ultimate paradigm-shifting goal is never reached.

No doubt critics of the adult industry will say these five women are outliers, exceptions to the general rule of an industry steeped in misogyny, objectification and exploitation—if such critics are willing to acknowledge the existence of women like them at all, that is. The most common refrain I hear from anti-porn people about women like Rowntree, Gallop, Lust, St. James and Frolicme is such women don’t really exist.

To hear our critics tell the tale, women like these are mere props, brainwashed stooges, puppets attached by invisible strings to the guiding hand of some behind-the-scenes male chauvinist who is actually calling the shots. To that, we in the industry can confidently respond: “No way, you condescending, patronizing, presumptuous dickheads.”

Nobody is pulling strings for these women. No way. These are strong personalities; driven, passionate people who really believe in what they do, and who likely don’t give an upside-down flying fuck whether or not anybody else approves of their chosen vocation.

Ultimately, women like these will change the porn game. For that matter, they already have changed it, and the proof is found in the very existence of articles like those published this week. The more voice women have in conversations about the porn industry, the more voice they have within the industry itself, the more the horizons, contours and fortunes of this industry will shift—in a good way.

Let’s face it: Porn revenues could use a shot in the arm right about now. One of the best ways to improve revenue is to grow and diversify the market for our products, and nowhere is there more potential for growth than by cultivating a larger female audience.

The even better news from an industry-wide perspective is women like these have no interest in giving away their work. As you will find in the interviews, they are not advocates of tube sites, and they are not advocates for unfettered free porn. They are advocates for taking your work seriously, for injecting actual artistry into the medium, and for getting paid in equal measure to the effort they put in.

The industry would be wise to embrace and encourage the rising force women represent within the ranks. It would be wise to listen to their “insider” critiques of the industry as well. Women present a perspective we’re damn fortunate to have. It’s also a perspective that largely hasn’t been available to us, historically, in what has been, admittedly, a male-dominated industry.

In a very literal way, the adult entertainment industry has been built on the backs of women. As articles like these show, it is way past time the industry started paying attention to what women have to offer from between their ears, as well.