15.8: Pornography
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Pornography is the ‘portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of arousal.” Pornography has been around for as long as human beings have been creating art. Before the internet, film, photography, and the printing press, there were people creating sexual imagery for the purpose of arousal, as depicted by ancient drawing, painting and sculpture.
Customer and a prostitute (Hetaira) (a money pouch is hanging on the wall), tondo of a red-figure kylix. Munich, private collection, ARV 923,29. Public Domain.
The professional porn industry is often referred to as the “adult industry.” Child pornography, or any sexual imagery depicting people under the age of 18, is illegal in the United States. We also see a lot of what is known as “amateur porn” on the Internet today. This refers to pornography that someone is creating on their own, not as a job, but often for their own enjoyment, and for others to enjoy as well. There are big differences between professional porn created by the adult industry and amateur pornography.
Professional porn does not represent reality, nor is it meant to. It is a fantasy. Just as in other professional films, many techniques are used to create that fantasy. Lighting, makeup, camera angles, photoshopping are all used to create visual imagery and to enhance how people look. As far as obtaining and maintaining erections, there are fluffers off camera (people to help with erections). The use of pills such as Viagra, penis pumps and penile injections are all also commonly used for this purpose. Keeping this in mind, it is best not to compare oneself or one’s sex life with pornography (LAD Bible, 2022).
For many young people today, pornography is being used as an unofficial sex education. Due to a lack of comprehensive sex education and porn literacy in the United States, it is easy to see why some young people may believe that real sex should look like sex in pornography. This creates a false sense of what real sex is like (LAD Bible, 2022).
Many sex educators believe it is important youth receive education about pornography, but not be shamed for being curious about it, or for receiving pleasure from it. Education should include teaching that it is illegal to consume pornography if you’re under the age of 18, that although the naked human body is not shameful, they should not take or share naked pictures of themselves or others, or pictures or videos that are sexual in nature. This could be considered child pornography, and there could be serious legal and social consequences for this.
The largest online adult content sites average about 3 trillion monthly visitors. This is more than popular sites such as Amazon, Netflix and Reddit. The annual revenue from pornography is anywhere from $6-$15 billion in the United States (Grant, 2020). Clearly, there is a high demand for pornography, and the industry is not going anywhere. However, it is going through changes. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, when everything shut down at first, many porn actors began working from home, offering their own content online. Some predict that this trend will continue to have an effect on the adult industry, as more people opt to work for themselves (Grant, 2020).
By Sam Zia, LMFT
In the Summer of 2013, the adult film industry was in flux. The industry was transitioning from the distribution of traditional, physical forms of media, such as DVD and VHS, to online streaming services. Los Angeles had just passed Measure B (requiring condoms to be used on porn sets) the previous year, a decision that was in the process of being appealed. The argument from the adult film industry, in defense of not needing condoms in porn, was based around the idea that with mandated, frequent testing of performers (every two weeks, at most 4 weeks), they could “police themselves,” and prevent major outbreaks of STIs.
This idea was put to the test that August, when an adult film star tested positive for HIV. The ripple effect was immediate. The industry called for a moratorium on all shooting, allowing for any performers testing positive to be removed from the talent pool before resuming production/filming. Over a period of a month, four performers were found to have contracted HIV. It was determined that none of the cases of transmission occurred on-set (the last known case of on-set HIV transmission occurred in 2004). This incident, however, highlighted a glaring problem within the Adult Film industry. Although testing is mandated by production companies on shoots featuring a man and women, or two women, some companies that shoot scenes involving two men do not require STD/STI testing. Despite this, the only times the industry had to shut down filming since 2013, was in 2017, when three performers tested positive for HIV, and in 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the 2013 HIV outbreak, the industry has continued to evolve. Many production companies left Los Angeles County, settling in surrounding counties, or Las Vegas. With the Covid-19 pandemic, shooting shut down temporarily, with many adult film stars creating their own websites and webcamming pages to continue to make money. However, since the industry has had experience with transmissible illnesses, it was not long before production companies adapted to the need for more stringent testing, and filming resumed.
My name is Lance and I began doing sex work when I was 29, and it has been my career for the last 12 years. During the 2008 recession, I was laid off from my retail management job, so I decided to explore my passion for massage therapy, and went to school to learn more technique. I was quite comfortable with my body and a very sexual person, and had previously attended a few all-male massage workshops that were rooted in The Body Electric School, which seeks to connect the erotic and the sacred.
Doing erotic work felt like a very natural extension to my massage work, though there was certainly a learning and growth curve.
One of the questions I often get from others is how do I have sex with someone that I’m not attracted to, and in all honesty, it took some effort in the beginning. I’ve observed that most people tend to look at themselves and rather than focus on all that is beautiful and blessed we focus on what is “imperfect” and we tend to place that judgment on other people as well. As I grew to love myself more, I began to see others differently. While in the beginning, focusing on what was attractive about a client was something I had to make a conscious effort to do, it soon became natural. I soon began to realize that the vulnerability and trust they showed me was not only beautiful but was also sacred and spiritual.
As a white, cisgender male at 6’3” I do recognize my privilege in this industry. I don’t have to be nearly as cautious or do as much screening of my clients as cis & trans women, and I’m rarely the focus of legal persecution, which unfairly equates sex work with human trafficking, as some feel that through their pious efforts, they need to “save” people from their work.
I absolutely love my work and even though making money is a motivator (just like any job) there really is nothing else I would rather be doing. I have had the honor to share erotic energy with a man in his 70’s, who was recently widowed and had never been with a man, though had been longing for it for 50+ years. I’ve laid in a hospice bed and held a man dying of brain cancer, because his best friend wanted him to experience one last time naked with a man (I’m crying while I type this).
Though everyone’s experience and motivation in this industry is different, for me, bringing deep intimacy in every session is my hope and intention. One can have sex and an erotic experience without much intimacy, but it’s intimacy that really gets to the heart and soul and, that’s where I hope to reside with my clients, even if it’s just for an hour or so. As I like to say Sex Work is Soul Work.
Because many types of sexuality work that engages with the body are currently illegal in most of the United States, workers face additional risk of legal prosecution for doing their job. While the issue remains complicated, this new pair of laws, FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act essentially pose greater risk to sex workers who rely on the internet to make a living.
Watch the following for more information, and also read FOSTA-SESTA, a law intended to curb sex trafficking, threatens the internet's future - Vox