Nan Kinney is the president of Fatale Media and producer of Fatale Videos. She is one of the founding publishers of the highly acclaimed and notorious On Our Backs magazine.

A native of Austin, Minnesota, she began her foray into the world of lesbian pornography in the early 1980s when she moved to San Francisco to check out the S&M scene. When she realized that there was no venue for lesbian sexual imagery made by and for lesbians, she and two partners, Debi Sundahl and Susie Bright, solicited material and published their first issue of On Our Backs in June, 1984.

With the success and popularity of the magazine, Nan and Debi jumped into videos. In January, 1985, they released Private Pleasures and Shadows, two videos that starred real-life lesbian lovers and presented for the first time sexually explicit footage made by and for lesbians. Later titles included Suburban Dykes, starring Nina Hartley and Sharon Mitchell, Hungry Hearts, Dress Up for Daddy, Clips, and BurLEZk Live! & BurLEZk II, starring Shelly Mars.

By 1994, with On Our Backs being published bimonthly and the circulation at an all-time high, Nan and Debi decided to sell the magazine and pursue their separate interests.

Nan runs Fatale Media full-time and has expanded the company’s mission to include a broader representation of sexual images and experiences. Fatale’s bestselling release, Bend Over Boyfriend, starring sex-educators Carol Queen and Robert Morgan, addresses women giving men anal pleasure. Two new releases, Full Load! and Take Her Down! Lesbian Erotic Oil Wrestling Party, explore the fun side of lesbian sexuality.

“My goal has always been to present alternative images of sexuality,” Nan says. “Sex is an important part of people’s lives, and women, and lesbians in particular, have always been portrayed in a very limited way in traditional pornography. I want people to have other images of themselves, a way to bust out of the ingrained images in mainstream porn. We’re offering another view.”

To encourage lesbians to get behind and in front of the camera, Nan began Real Lesbian Sex, an annual lesbian video contest. The winner of the first annual Real Lesbian Sex contest is Afterschool Special, a wild ride shot in black-and-white. “The video features a great group of sexy women having fun. That’s what it’s all about,” Nan says.