What about ex-actors who have favourable things to say? People like Sasha Grey or the aforementioned Asia Carrera.
Me, I think it takes all sorts, and while some porn may be a magnet for a certain kind of damaged personality, there’s also plenty of people who do it because they like sex, they’re exhibitionists, or it’s easy money and they don’t have hangups.
It’s not like these ladies aren’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, I just don’t agree with them that they’re representative.
I don’t think they are that way much if at all any more than any other job. And while I’m sure they can be exploitative, so can a whole lot of other jobs; and much of the worst aspects of prostitution come from it being illegal, not from it being prostitution.
That’s only true for particular sectors of the sex industry; street work, for example, which is a minority of all prostitution. Women in the escort and legal brothel sectors (at least, legal brothels in jurisdictions where the workers have health and safety protections) are far less likely to have these issues. I haven’t looked into the pornography research, but I’d imagine there’s a similar type of hierarchy, where for example the entrepreneurs who put up their own webcam in their bedroom probably come from a much different demographic to the women who answer ads for low-budget porn films.
As for Lubben, she may well have had some horrific experiences; I don’t think anyone doubts they exist. But I think adults have to be allowed to speak for themselves, and what they say about their own experiences should be believed unless there is a good reason not to. And “I don’t understand how anyone would do that willingly” is not a good reason.
I don’t remember the name of it, but there was a story on NPR about a year ago that told the story of a woman who took a job answering phones for a high end call girl service. The clients were mostly business professionals with some celebrities. According to her there were a small handful of women who were just doing it to build up a decent bankroll (one was a single mother with a kid who wanted to afford the house) but the vast majority were disturbed drug addicts.
But like I said earlier, the vast majority of musicians are disturbed drug addicts too but I still listen to music.
I put them in the same boat. Evaluating a source isn’t just about whether someone is lying it’s also about how representative that source is. Let’s say Sasha Grey had a fantastic experience acting in porn. Is she a good representation of the experience women face in the porn film industry? I don’t know. Also, both Grey and Carrera still have motives for presenting the porn industry in a positive light. Carrera sells stuff on her website (doesn’t she) and Grey is trying to break into mainstream acting.
And I just don’t know. Which makes it difficult for me to evaluate anyone as a source.
I’m with Der Trihs on this one. The moment you mix religion into the equation, I have every reason to be extremely suspicious of the motivations. Additionally, the vast amount of amateur material alone is enough to invalidate the bulk of their claims. I suspect that the experiences they cite might have been true for a small slice of the industry at that time/place. They’ve made the usual mistake of confirmation bias, and are now happy to hawk the Jeebus to get lots and lots of donations.
Seems to me that other, higher-profile actresses have also claimed coercion, force, and outright rape and beatings were part of their porn star days – Marilyn Chambers, maybe?
This again doesn’t prove the prevalence, but it proves the existence.
Is it? In a capitalist society with little or no safety net and few restraints on employers, people are routinely going to be pushed up agaisnt the wall and forced to do all sorts of things to survive … working at McDonald’s, doing telephone sales, and sex work. How is sex work different, if the mechanism by which it becomes a logical option is no different from other fields?
It CAN BE a refuge for the damaged, but it’s not NECESSARILY that. For example, Kink.com which produced a lot of hardcore kinky porn, is also noted for its fair treatment of the actresses and actors who perform there. In fact, they often promote from within, with several of their actresses becoming producers. Maybe some of the women who act for them have had traumatic lives, but Kink is not responsible for that. I imagine that that applies to other porn firms as well. The obvious answer is to help damaged people, period.
Heh. Off topic, but I wrote a post on my blog about a Kink.com actress who was promoted and used it as an opportunity to parody standard corporate press releases about promoted corporate types. Here’s the text, photos omitted for reasons that will be obvious if you read the cutlines:
Claire Adams Named Director of Hogtied and Device Bondage at Kink
Cutline 1
Claire Adams (top, not upside down, not gagged, not cuffed or shackled) works on personnel relations at Kink.com.
Kink.com has announced that Claire Adams has been promoted to Director of its Hogtied and Device Bondage websites, according to a report in Adult Video News. (Link is safe for work, but does come from Adult Video News.)
“Like any modern corporation, we are always on the lookout for employees who will prove to be exceptional managers,” said Kink.com Vice President and Corporate Slug Dremel von Mototool. “Ms. Adams has demonstrated skills in fucking and tormenting her fellow employees that clearly shows she is management material. She is very proactive and forward-thinking in the area of rendering employees completely helpless and then using them like animals,” added von Mototool. “We look forward to her continued contributions to our firm.”
cutline 2
Adams (rear, wearing strap-on) demonstrates her skill in getting the most out of subordinates.
You’re making my point for me now. And exploitation of the vulnerable isn’t exactly the high moral ground. Viewing pornography and participating in prostitution can certainly be viewed as exploiting the vulnerable/damaged.
I have seen the light and shall henceforth refuse to watch any porn with potentially exploited women. Should be easy enough since I prefer there not be women in my porn at all. 
Only if you are willing to also include low paying service sector jobs that don’t pay a living wage as exploiting the vulnerable. And all those other creative professions where drug abuse and mental instability are common. All businesses exploit human beings in various ways, they are just machines for making money, after all.
There are some very high paying jobs where drug abuse and mental instability are common. Fashion modeling, to name one, though one might also argue that in the case of modeling, these maladies are as often an effect of rather than the cause of, the career choice. But AFAIK no one has quantified either drug abuse or mental instability by profession (which would be a very interesting read!).
Linda Lovelace made those claims, and I believe that the guy who managed her prostitution/porn career also managed Chambers’ career.
They were both married to Chuck Traynor. Unlike Linda, Marilyn stayed in porn after divorcing him.
Yeah, I couldn’t remember his name, and I certainly didn’t feel like Googling for it. Thanks.
Traynor was by all accounts a complete scumbag, but then, nobody in this thread is arguing that abuse hasn’t existed, or even that it does not exist. Just that it is not the standard way things are done in the industry.
So can enjoying music written by people who used their pain and suffering as creative energy.
Hey, everybody gets to draw their own line, it’s a free country.
If you think a musician, who draws on his pain, whatever it’s stripe, to write hit songs, is the same as, a woman turning tricks, due to a childhood of sexual abuse, is the same, then go for it.
But for some people, it’s just not a disconnect, they can make, that’s all.
So if women can’t turn tricks then childhood sexual abuse will end?