posted a link to a recent feminist’s view of the porn industry from the inside. I don’t know much about the straight porn industry, but she paints a pretty grizzly picture of nasty treatment of women in many of the products. I’ll even bite that some gay porn is exploitative (though it was interesting to see Shannon (my ex roommate, and, like the author of the linked to piece, an asian female) avoid the question when I asked her how gay porn played into her theory of porn being at its fundamental base the exploitation of women by men).
I generally believe that no one is forced to do porn (or, rather, those few that are have a very valid legal basis for action), and even that not liking one’s job isn’t a good reason to declare that job off limits, because people are free to quit. Some standards for workplace safety ought to apply, certainly. And things like sexual harrassment should still be treated the same as any other job. In short, I guess, my take is, it’s work. Treat it like a job, because that’s what it is.
One key thing to look at when discussing exploitation is whether the person complaining about the so-called exploitation is (or ever has been) the person being exploited.
For example, in another context, are the people working at the “sweatshop” in El Salvador the ones complaining about their working conditions, or is the issue being trumped up by United States union leaders or activists?
It is possible that many of the people employed in working conditions you or I would hate view their current working conditions as a step up from what they had before. For a sex worker, perhaps the income is better than minimum wage, with more free time for raising children or pursuing higher education. What are the alternatives for that sex worker if you take her job away?
I’m not saying that horrible working conditions don’t exist. I’m just asking that you look into the motivations of the person who is complaining. Are they using somebody else’s supposed working conditions to support their own broader cultural critique?
I concur.
I’m going to open a lot of worm cans here. Be forewarned that these are not all well-formed thoughts.
I think that Americans, as a rule, are horribly afraid of sex (straight or otherwise—especially otherwise), and because of our stick-firmly-lodged-in-the-ass religious background and mentality, it often gets shoved as deep in the closet as possible, compounding and repressing our single most powerful and genetic urge outside of self-preservation to the point that we have spawned such perversions like women choking on cock, abused and abandoned BangBus women, and glorified bareback twink sex.
People have come to treat sex as they have been brainwashed by society to: as a disgusting, repulsive act that only the basest of humans do for recreation. We have vilified sexuality of all sorts, and our pornography has come to represent this vilification. We look down on people that have had “a lot of” sex with multiple partners. However, we don’t ask if they were safe when they had sex. If there was more education and more openness on the subject of nudity, sex, and recreational sex, then we would start to make some headway on our fucked up views of sexuality in this country.
Of course Jim Bob like BangBus—he’s been subconsciously programmed to think that sex should only be had with “the one you intend to marry”. So, to satisfy his need to procreate, his brain has developed a scenario where he copulates with a random woman and throws her out like the trash she is—since she’s not his “one and only true love”. Of course Jeffrey goes to the club, does Ecstasy to feel good about the fact that he likes boys, and then takes some cute couple home and barebacks them for hours in the living room, because he’s been told that sex is bad, that he should only like women, and that all gays are going to die of AIDS and go to hell. So, why not speed up the process and have a lot of fun in the interim, right?
Ironically, this country has focused so much on it’s perception of procreation and life that our own genetics are rewiring our brains to get what they were programmed to do: A) Self-survival. B) Survivial of the species.
Are we really supposed to “mate” for life? And what is a “mate”? I work with a bunch of people that all have “mates”, but frequently have sex outside of the relationship. Yet, the talk about how they love their mate …
I dunno … food for thought.
Please don’t flame me.
I think you are correct about americans being repressed. I tend to think of porn as being a reflection of culture rather than the cause of a culture.
Japanese porn is a lot more denigrating to women, but again that is a reflection of the culture. The japanese are fucked up about sex as well, but in a different way.
I disliked how she would say something like “at epidemic levels” and not back it with a statistic that could back it up.
It’s all heresay. She’s a professor? I could write better than that in high school.
that article really disgusted me.. i need to determine why exactly, and sum it up in an lj entry..
(i did _not_ like the article- i wasn’t disgusted because i knew nothing about the porn industry)
Bear is driving? How is this possible?!
I agree with the above comments about how you can’t really be outraged at an employer-employee-consumer relationship when all parties are willing. Yes, Nike factories in Cambodia are worse than assembly jobs in America, but that’s not the salient comparison–it’s still the best job in town. Sad but true.
I don’t share this writer’s disgust to the degree that I’d use words like “violating”, but I wouldn’t throw out her concerns about its societal impact either. With the wonderful internet and our not-so-wonderful education system, a lot of kids are learning about the birds and the bees from Vivid and Falcon. I would urge porn producers to make better porn that depicts wholesome hotness (see‘s latest). Things like BangBus are the Jerry Springer of porn. I’ll happily defend its legal right to exist, but I’d also like to see the cultural aesthetic move away from it.