Bellesa is a Canadian internet pornography website founded in and marketed towards women. It produces original pornographic films under the company Bellesa Films, with Jacky St.
James as a director. Bellesa Boutique BBoutique offers sex toy products, and the website also features webcam models , pornographic fiction and other media. Under the name Bellesa Plus, they have a tiered subscription service. The company was initially founded to host pornographic videos and other content shared by women, but after a positive profile in Bustle , it was widely criticized by sex workers for embedding content without consent from the production studios, directors or performers, and without paying them.
Bellesa later began working with St. James to produce films in which the pornographic actors had agency over storylines, outfits and who they would work with. Additionally, the company produces sex toys with BuzzFeed , who promote the products on their website, and they sponsor BuzzFeed's Sex and Love section. A review of the website in The Daily Dot was mostly positive. The company's first sex toy, the Air Vibe, received mixed feedback from critics. As a result of the company's research, Schnaidman said that the site was designed to highlight "authentic" performer pleasure and "relatable" bodies in pornography, with an increased focus on male bodies and noises.
The website began by hosting user-submitted videos, pornographic fiction and other media. Schnaidman believed that host websites should have taken down the videos, but "bigger tube sites don't care whatsoever" about piracy. The owner of Takedown Piracy, Nate Glass, said that the website was not hosting the content, instead "curating" the "predominantly pirated content". Pornographic director Jacky St. James , whose content was used on Bellesa, criticized that the website was "faux-feminist" for making statements about ethics but using others' content without credit.
Sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals wrote a piece for AVN that was strongly critical of both Bellesa and Suzannah Weiss's positive Bustle profile of Shnaidman; Tibbals said the profile was what brought scrutiny to the site.
