“…porno people are a hard-grafting, ill-paid fraternity who, by and large, look out for each other and help each other through. They pay their rent, with the deaths of feelings.”
Martin Amis, British novelist1M. Amis, The Guardian (17.03.2001): A rough trade (part 2) | Books
In our hypersexualised world, “porn stars” are envied, admired and desired. Little wonder that there are no shortage of girls queuing up to enter the porn industry, lured by the hope of fame and easy money. But for most of these girls, the reality of working in porn is a long way from the fantasy they imagine. Few can anticipate its risks, harms and long-term implications for their future prospects.
“I meet woman after woman who went into this industry, thinking they were going through consent. They’re young. They don’t know what they’re up against.”
Dr Gail Dines, Culture Reframed2 R. Muller, Psychology Today (25.1.2017) Lack of Regulation in Porn Industry Leaves Women Unprotected
Wrecking body and mind
We all know that porn sex isn’t like real-life sex. Porn sex is scripted, and the scripts are shaped by market forces. Since the advent of free, limitless online porn, consumers are increasingly demanding more extreme, violent and hardcore content to scratch their ‘sexual itch’, even when it comes at the expense of the performers.3Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 3, Iss. 2 [2018], Art. 8
“…they do like one girl with you know like four guys and they just take over and destroy her.”
Anthony Hardwood, porn actor4M. Crabb, Victoria Government (07.2015) Why pornography is a violence preven on issue we can’t afford to ignore
Unlike in other movie genres, there are no clever photography, special effects or body doubles in porn. Everything we see is real. The slapping, choking, spanking, whipping, spitting and hair-pulling is not simulated. The anal sex, triple-penetrations, showers of ejaculation and urine, insults, degradation, humiliation and torture are played out on real women with real physical and emotional sensitivities.
“I know lots of girls get hurt. You have anal tears a lot. One of them, I let it go for about a week but then my stomach started distending and I got a really bad infection in my abdomen.”
Anonymous porn actor5R. Grudzen, G. Ryan, W. Margold, J. Torres, and L. Gelberg (01.2009) Pathways to Health Risk Exposure in Adult Film Performers,Urban Health. 2009 Jan; 86(1): 67–78. Published online 2008 Aug 16. doi: 10.1007/s11524-008-9309-4
Being virtually unregulated anywhere in the world, the porn industry often lacks robust occupational health and safety standards. Female actors suffer everything from cuts and bruises to vaginal and throat tears, anal relapses and STDs. Even precautions as obvious as condom requirements are frequently not enforced, as Dr Robert Muller explains: “Condom use is reported to be very low in heterosexual adult films, with only 17% of performers using condoms. And performers… reported feeling pressured to work without condoms [in order] to remain employed.”6R. Muller, Psychology Today (25.1.2017) Lack of Regulation in Porn Industry Leaves Women Unprotected Consequently, STDs such as HPV, herpes, gonorrhoea, and chlamydia are common.
“I’ve never received a beating like that before in my life. I have permanent scars up and down the backs of my thighs. It was all things that I had consented to, but I didn’t know quite the brutality of what was about to happen to me until I was in it.”
Alexander, porn actor7Collective Shout (24.7.2014) The Sex Factor: Mainstreaming and normalising the abuse and exploitation of women
Behind the fake smiles and groans, porn actors feel pain like any of us would, although many are relatively inured to the sexual violence they experience because of previous experiences of sexual abuse.8 J. Villarubia: Porn Companies Don’t Care if We Live or Die in M. Tankard-Reist and C. Norma (Eds.) Prostitution Narratives: Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade (2016 Spinifex Press) Depression, anxiety, dissociative disorders (where the mind disconnects from the outside world), bipolar personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder are common, as is drug and alcohol abuse. As one actor observed: “If [female porn performers] were completely sober, no alcohol, no drugs, I guarantee you most of them would probably have mental breakdowns.”9R. Grudzen, G. Ryan, W. Margold, J. Torres, and L. Gelberg (01.2009) Pathways to Health Risk Exposure in Adult Film Performers, Urban Health. 2009 Jan; 86(1): 67–78. Published online 2008 Aug 16. doi: 10.1007/s11524-008-9309-4
Unreal?
To the consumer, porn actors are ‘just bodies’ to be watched and enjoyed; we rarely consider their feelings, and the whole set-up of porn reinforces this disconnect. A 2010 study found that in response to the physical aggression (gagging, choking and slapping) directed towards them, the vast majority of women responded with either a show of pleasure or neutrality.10C. Sun, A. Bridges, J.Johnson, and M.Ezzell (03.12.2014) Pornography and the Male Sexual Script: An Analysis of Consumption and Sexual Relations Archives of Sexual Behavior 45, no. 4 (2014: 983–994) (DOI: 10.1007/s10508-014-0391-2) This encourages people to believe the “rape myth” narrative that women can be sluts who enjoy (or at least don’t mind or deserve) everything they get.
Porn involves trafficking, coercion and exploitation
In many cases it’s impossible to know for sure whether online porn is made with consent. We assume that women in porn are professional adult actors, but there’s often no way we can know for sure.
On most free porn platforms, users can upload virtually anything they want easily and anonymously. Thus, the porn videos we click on may feature children, victims of sex trafficking, or women being sexually harassed, assaulted or raped; or we may be watching image-based sexual abuse (so-called ‘revenge porn’).
What’s more, just because a woman is a ‘professional’ doesn’t mean everything is necessarily above board. Many women are trafficked directly into the porn industry, deceived by promises of “modeling gigs” or one-time agreements that turn into situations of blackmail and coercion.11Fight the New Drug (03.01.2020), How These 5 Porn Performers Were Trafficked Into The Industry In 2020, over 100 women came forward claiming that the GirlsDoPorn pornography channel forced them to star in sex films posted without their consent. Their lawyer, Ed Chaplin, said of them: “They were all devastated by it. They’ve had serious emotional distress, they’re embarrassed, they’re humiliated, they’ve been harassed, intimidated. Their lives have been altered and in many cases they describe it as their lives having been ruined.”12K. Ruiz, Daily Mail (07.01.2020), At least 100 more women come forward with claims against GirlsDoPorn scheme
The porn industry often attracts women who have underlying vulnerabilities: typically people who are young, financial insecurity with poor education, limited life options and a history of childhood sexual abuse and neglect.13M. Farley: Pornography is Infinite Prostitution, p.15, M. Tankard Reist and A. Bray (eds): Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry (North Melbourne, Victoria Spinifex Press, 2011) Tankard-Reist and Bray (2011) Where actors are strapped for cash, they can be easily exploited by pay scales that are determined by the level of pain, risk and degradation involved in the ‘work’.
“Drugs, alcohol, physical abuse, blackmail, threats, fake legal documents, deceitful enticing, promises of fame and money and so much more are used to get the girls to perform what and how the producers desire.”
Dawn Hawkins, National Center On Sexual Exploitation14J-H Westen, The Huffington Post (28.1.2015)Want to Stop Sex Trafficking? Look at America’s Porn Addiction.
The testimonies of women who have left pornography build a picture of an industry culture rife with coercion, exploitation and abuse. Actors are often under pressure to act out things they’re not comfortable with by using the incentive of extra cash, or with the threat of losing their job, losing pay, or being sued if they protest. Many have reported experiences of signing up for a porn scene as described for a certain amount of money but are then, “forced to do something else while the cameras roll.”15M.Somarriba, Verily Mag (05/08/2015) The Porn Industry Is Abusive, and These Women Are Telling It Like Is
Lifelong consequences
Rashida Jones, director of the 2015 documentary film Hot Girls Wanted,16Hot Girls Wanted, IMDB, 2015 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4382552/ observes: “When you’re 18 and you’re making choices for yourself, you’re not thinking about the eternal effects of footage online. You’re not thinking about the external and internal costs; the psychological, emotional, physiological, physical costs of having sex for a living. You’re thinking about the fame part.”17R. Muller, Psychology Today (25.1.2017) Lack of Regulation in Porn Industry Leaves Women Unprotected
“I thought this would be a part-time job, but I was so naive to think I could do that… you can’t just do a part-time job, you have to constantly be your porn alter ego.”
Miriam Weeks (“aka Belle Knox”), former porn actor18YouTube (03.03.2017) 4 Surprising Downsides to Being a Porn Star – Cracked Goes There With Robert Evans
Competition in the porn industry is fierce and the average career is extremely short. According to one major survey- the only comprehensive investigation of its kind in this area-, porn actors only work for an average 18 months in total.19‘Damn Cool Pictures (18.2.2013)Deep Inside- a study of 10,000 adult stars [infographic] When they leave the industry, they often take their financial insecurities with them, alongside any addictions and mental health problems they’ve acquired along the way.20G. Corita, G. Ryan, W. Margold, J. Torres & L. Gelberg (2008). Pathways to Health Risk Exposure in Adult Film Performers,Urban Health. 2009 Jan; 86(1): 67–78. Published online 2008 Aug 16. doi: 10.1007/s11524-008-9309-4
It can be very difficult to go on to lead a ‘normal’ life after acting in porn. As well as impacting future career prospects, involvement in porn leaves a lasting impact on relationships. As former porn actor Jennie Ketcham explains: “[a] performer becomes virtually incapable of experiencing authentic, intimate relationships; she bases her self-worth on sex, which reinforces the behaviour.”21J. Ketcham, The New York Times (11.11.2012) Pornography Does Lasting Harm to Performers – NYTimes.com
What’s more, because it’s difficult for pornography on the internet to ever be permanently erased, a woman who regrets her involvement in the industry may have to live with the risk of being discovered online for the rest of her life.22 M.Somarriba, Verily Mag (05/08/2015) The Porn Industry Is Abusive, and These Women Are Telling It Like Is For victims of sex trafficking, sexually-explicit images or footage can easily become a means by which pimps and traffickers exert control through blackmail and the threat of exposure.
“And even when I’m 60, I’m still going to have this porn on the internet, it’s like having a virus or something that never goes away.”
Vanessa Bellemont (aka Alexa Cruz), former porn actor23YouTube (2019) Porn Star Alexa Cruz Describes The Horror Of Being A Porn Star
When it comes to online porn, we’re so used to acting as uncritical consumers that few of us pause to consider the profound and lasting impact on performers.