I don’t see it as automatic refuge for the damaged, as you call them. I think there are a lot of reasons folks get into the porn industry, and being damaged is only one of them.
Oh yeah, there’s something hot about watching grumpy sex, all right.
:smack:…
I swear, the spell checker feature on the iPad and iPhone are almost perverse sometimes in what they come up with to, er, help. Sometimes I think it deliberately substitutes in words that change the entire meaning of what you are writing just to fuck with people…
Reaction to OP:
Oh yes, just what we need. More abdication of any personal responsibility for one’s own actions. :rolleyes:
I don’t believe I have advocated any such thing.
You have not, but their position amounts to such.
I read into the pink cross a while back and had some reservations about watching porn.
Part of me realizes that many people who are artists are suffering and numbs themselves with substance abuse. The majority of musicians I listen to are mentally unbalanced drug/alcohol abusers. Many actors in mainstream film have emotional problems. Writers too (Stephen King said he was so drunk/high he doesn’t even remember writing Cujo). Painters, sculptors, etc.
While watching the video tribute to dead porn stars that is what kept coming up to me, many people in artistic professions are damaged, addicted or suicidal. The song playing in the background was written by Nikki Sixx, who is a good example of a non-porn star entertainer who had the same demons.
So you have to balance how unstable people in artistic profession B are from those in artistic profession A, C, D, or E. How much of the substance abuse and mental health issues of porn actors are due to the porn vs due to the kind of personality drawn to artistic pursuits?
Most of the other thoughts I’ve had were addressed by other posters (these claims were sometimes 20 years ago, these people have an agenda, what about the porn actresses who do not agree, etc).
But yeah, I don’t think anyone wants anyone manipulated into porn. I don’t understand the law or the legal situation, but would assume/hope there are outlets for women (or men if they feel pressured) who feel pressured to do things they don’t want to do.
Personal responsibility is such BS, it is mostly used by entitled, secure middle class people so they don’t have to feel empathy for people in a worse situation than themselves. If someone was sexually abused as a small kid, it is absurd to expect them to have worked it out by the time they are in their teens or 20s and avoid making any decisions they regret. That is the age of a lot of porn actors and actresses.
I don’t know what % were abused, but I would assume it is a higher % than you find in contemporary society. The only stats I can find tie back to the pink cross foundation, and they claim 60-80%.
Define porn though. There is so much out there now. I highly doubt that the 40ish MILF amateur from Wisconson on XHamster is motivated for the same reasons that the 19 year old in the San Fernando Valley is motivated.
Coincidentally this is why I now don’t like or view young girl (woman) porn of any kind. I prefer to think that older women are not being coerced by boyfriends, pimps, etc. Hey, the fantasy works for me and it’s not a boner loser.
I hope I’m like you when I’m old.
I turn away from anything too slick or stereotyped. I want my women to have pubes, for one thing.
Yeah. I have a daughter about to turn 15, who could pass for a couple of years older.
Think about it.
Double D?
I also take anything current actors in porn say with a grain of salt as well. After all, they too have some motivation to present the porn industry in a favorable light. I remember watching some documentary about the porn industry in the U.S. (HBO maybe) and one actress said that nothing bad happened to her when she was younger that pushed her into porn. But she also said she left home at 16 which is a big red flag indicating to me that there might have been a seriously problem. I find it incredibly hard to evaluate sources when it comes to the porn industry.
I am pro legalization and regulation of both porn and prostitution.
I am most concerned about human trafficking and sex slavery that is driven by demand in this country. I think this disappears in the USA if you legalize and regulate. This may not be true in a place like India where desperate poverty allows all sorts of abuses even if prostitution were legal but I think it’s true here.
(ETA: replying to Odesio’s and earlier posts) Yes, it is tought to figure out what’s what and where the credibility lies, largely from the very nature of sex work (porn, prostitution) where it’s assumed things aren’t what they seem and identity itself is commonly faked.
You also will find in opposition to this, pages and blogs from people in sex work who will take strong exception to the generalized casting of people involved in the trade as necessarily “damaged”, and to “help” that has witnessing strings attached – among them those who feel that the characterization hinders their future labor/social mobility because on top of the stigmatization of the sex work itself they get branded as all having “serious issues” in their heads to begin with; or because it takes away the personal autonomy of having chosen something and living with the choice, and lays it down instead to family and/or social dysfunction plus external coercion. They argue that legitimation of sex work would help by making it so sex workers can be recognized as having rights deserving of protection.
The reality probably is that in a place like the USA you would have the whole range from damaged girls and boys who are up against the wall, have run out of choices and are being manipulated into exploitation; all the way to folk who freely of their own initiative decide this is the scene they want to get into 'cause that’s how they get their kicks, and even better yet if you end up in all the Talk and Reality Shows like Jenna and Ron.
Not at all. But then, the porn I consume is strictly amateur or self-gratification. That’s not to say that it’s impossible for the actresses I’ve ogled to have been exploited, but I sincerely doubt that. And overall, I can’t get behind anything that limits the freedom of other women to pursue a career in porn. It’s a fairly lucrative job for attractive women who have few or no job skills (unless you count being good-looking and good in bed as job skills).* And besides, the porn industry today is much more hygienic and regulated as a rule than it used to be. Reputable studios regularly test their clients, clean toys, add a fresh condom between partner/orifice switches, etc. Disreputable pornographers aren’t going to pay attention to regulations anyway, so it’d be stupid to institute them. And I already steer clear of disreputably-produced porn, so my conscience is clear.
Perhaps THESE women regret their career choices and drug addictions. That doesn’t mean the industry needs sanctions any more than it means drugs should be illegal (which I also don’t believe should be the case). The freedom to choose what one does to/with one’s body is fucking sacrosanct. Even if that means your future self ends up with regrets.
*This isn’t to say that all porn actresses have no job skills. But if you’ve got a choice between doing a 5-hour shoot and walking away with 1k vs working at Walmart for $8 an hour or as a secretary for $12 an hour, the former is a much more attractive prospect to people who enjoy paying their bills and having leisure time to spare.
As we keep hearing, in real life size doesn’t matter, but in pornography it seems to, whether you are talking about breasts or dicks.
It most certainly is an exploitative business, I hear a lot of the men in porn don’t even get paid!
Yes, and I would venture a very large number of people who don’t see porn (which no, is not prostitution by definition) as refuge for the damaged. There are sites like abbywinters.com which are entirely staffed by females, only use amateurs, pay quite well and don’t try to force or cajole models into doing and shots or scenes they are not comfortable with doing.
Homemade porn between consenting adults has exploded with the advent of the internet and the dubious claim that all porn is prostitution since the actors are paid to have sex can hardly apply when the ‘actors’ are in fact amateur couples (or trios, or swingers) photographing or videotaping their normal sex lives with no money changing hands.