Mainstream porn sexualizes cruelty

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Money is a turn on. I think it's actually a shame that by now there isn't a porn company as big as Disney, with an adult theme park and it's own adult web servers. Ya know?

You should attend one of the AVN conventions in Las Vegas. You'd be amazed at the size of these events and the exhibitors, many of which are mainstream american corporations and manufacturers, really go all out to sell, sell, sell. The camera makers generally have the best booths and Sony usually leads the pack.

You should attend one of the AVN conventions in Las Vegas. You'd be amazed at the size of these events and the exhibitors, many of which are mainstream american corporations and manufacturers, really go all out to sell, sell, sell. The camera makers generally have the best booths and Sony usually leads the pack.

Porn is used mainly by young men - most men outgrow it.

According to Pamela Paul, in her book Pornified, men who masturbate to porn can lose the ability to have an orgasm with a real woman - it's a kind of operant conditioning.

Also, reasearch on men who purchase sex in Norway found that the men's social/dating skills froze at the age they started to purchase sex.

And women doing research on johns in the US all got sexually harassed while interviewing them. People who purchase sex are about as common as people who molest children, and about as socially sophisticated (though it's not necessarily the same group of people).

In other words, porn/prostitution does get people out of developing social skills, but then you don't develop them. You end up having relationships with the porn rather than with real people. Is that what you want?

I think porn/prostitution is a remnant of an earlier more primitive mind set, and that some day it will go the way of human sacrifice and slavery. It intereferes with real authenticity, and most people would prefer authenticity given a choice.

In the meantime, the media is becoming increasingly sex- and violence- saturated. And there will be a backlash on the part of informed people who don't want society going down the tube as a result. And at the same time I found someone to help me get my data on sex in films published. It hasn't been accepted yet, but chances are looking better by the minute.
sex doesn't sell (in films)

That pornography and cruelty article was very hard to read. Pornography has always made me feel very small and usually scared on some level.

For those that are interested, Melissa Farley's research on the effects of the sex trade on sex trade workers can be found here:
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/

Somebody also posted a link to a study or perhaps an article where they have determined that the use of porn by young men is causing a measurable decline in guys who actually want to date real women.

Are we sure that the sex industry is the cause of these behaviours? I would think that the sex industry resulted from these patterns in men, and that sex business exploits these tendencies because they are pre-existing even if hidden or introverted. I know that mind games involving control and domination are rampant in the industry at large. Women in the industry love every aspect of dominance that they can have of the customers and clients. It means more repeat business, bigger tips, loyalty, and sometimes leads to marriage... BUT would all these women be in the industry if they had better opportunities? Probably not.

I personally believe that paid sex can be ok for both people involved. It's just a matter of how the decision is made to do it, under what circumstance, the attraction, attitude, and freedom to not make the decision rather than it be part of a job with expectations. Porn stars like Joanna Angel love to have sex for money, and be in the limelight all the time. I know that it's hard to get into the more female positive videos because there are tons of actresses who want to act in these popular vids. As far as doing it for the money, unless it's a regular gig, it's not that profitable. I've worked with a stripper who did a poorly made, one time, gang bang scene while her husband watched the shoot. Granted, although they were both really into it, she did have a nasty drug habit to support. I've made just as much without having sex, in a club, on a night or a day shift, multiple times. But hey, lots of people work normal jobs and support drug habits, even politicians.

Do sex workers psych themselves out to get through it sometimes? Yes, of course. Is sex work sometimes positive for the worker? Yes, of course. BUT that doesn't mean that it's positive for anyone else. However, there are exceptions to the Porn=Bad rule, and I think that sex advocacy for people in forced situations is a better way to spend time and efforts to help women and girls get out of sexual slavery. Voluntary sex work in America isn't the demon it once was, and the anti porn audience would be better if it shifted attention to the real world wide horrors of forced sexual exploitation. You know, the stuff that isn't legally caught on camera and starring people who want to be there, no matter what the scene itself portrays. Some people do like degrading sex. It's a fact, they love it.

I have yet to make it to Vegas, Gary. I do attend sex industry related events, though. There are a ton of conventions catering to BDSM and Fetish groupies. This year, I'm trying to make plans for FetCon in Tampa and ShibariCon in Chicago. I regularly attend D.C. BDSM events, they are so frequent. I take classes from Master rope bondage workers, like Lew Rubens, who works for Kink.com (a huge umbrella BDSM porn company with multiple themed pay sites). The industry pros that I meet are solid with safety skills, reputation, consent, and experience. I've meet one actress who is a frequent Kink.com actress, and she got out of doing regular porn and into serious bondage and submissive scenes. She loves it, loves the people she works with, and loves all the surrounding events that allow her to demonstrate to other people that it is ok for her to do her job. It's not for everybody, and sometimes ladies get involved in scenes that they can't handle, but they can call it off at any time.

Like Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat. Problem is, how do you tell which stuff is voluntary and which isn't, when there are so many ways of coercing a person?

I think the only way you can tell if there's no coercion is if there's no money or other reward involved and no opportunities for paid work down the road. And no physical or social coercion, either, if it's possible to tell. In other words, when the only reason to do it is because you want to.

Just like children get forced into porn - being filmed

Maybe this is why I'm more arroused by erotic literature and some forms of gay soft porn.....

I don't know...I'm just not real into objectifying when it comes to sexual acts. Mainstream porn is mostly aimed at men anyway.

I do worry about the ages in such things. There have been a number of sites closed down because of minors and underage children that were used.

Anyway, it's a very controversial issue and always will be. Some people have it easy by making gobs of money off of something they actually enjoy doing while some have other various reasons that're not too thrilling.

Traci Lords was one good example of an underage porn star who did not come from an exactly happy home as she claims her "step father" got her into modeling and other jobs with fake IDs. This kind of thing does still happen although they try and make it safe probably moreso than they use to.

Not sure if Traci Lords autobiography is all that true but I don't see anything justifiable about an adult who knows what they're doing to involve a child.

Right, but that's not off the shelf porn, nor is it legal.

I think that responsible porn watchers tend to look at movies made by companies that they trust. It's just like any industry that manufactures a product. You buy the stuff that is ethical, if that is what you are after. It's really common for lesbians to watch porn these days. Lesbians in mainstream queer cultures aren't looking for crappy porn in general, but they do want to see porn. Referrals within social scenes are usually how the good stuff gets passed around. For instance, Babeland of NYC, a female owned and operated sex toy store chain, would be the place to go to ask around for female positive porn. They don't sell it online, but I'm sure they know where to get it. Another way to find it is to search through the sex-positive feminist community of bloggers online, until you come across a film called, The Bi Apple.

http://www.thepornoisseur.com/main.html This is a good porn blog.

Sure, but what percentage of porn watchers is this? My impression is that the vast majority of sex purchasers (porn, prostitution) don't think of the objects they're using as people - they're not responsible. They're paying money so someone else can worry about that. So how do you allow porn and protect people from exploitation at the same time? And what if research indicates at some point that even responsible porn still makes the world unsafe for women?

The recent documentary on Deep Throat glossed over the part where Lovelace had to be beaten into doing the job. I'm not optimistic that there's a way to have porn and protect vulnerable people at the same time. Some things need to be regulated rather than left to market forces. But I understand sex workers want to try the market route. How long are we supposed to give you to get it to work?

Keep in mind however that since the bulk of both amateur and professionally produced porn is presently being generated by women the problem is that women in the business are being exploited by other women. One reason for this change is that the profile of porn consumer is changing over time and today avout 30% of 'paid' or subscription porn is bought by females. estimates are much high for females using 'free' or 'amateur' porn.
In fact 'amateur' porn has almost become truly mainstream on most college campuses where a whole new wave of 'free sex' is making the 60's look pretty prudish.

I think if more of this stuff were out in the open we wouldn't have people being forced into it. When's the last time you heard about someone being kidnapped and forced to work in a factory? Surely not very often at all. And if porn had a better reputation, people would go into it more openly, and others would avoid it easier.

To address the main point, watching actors act out brutality does NOT lead to performing brutal acts yourself unless you already have a messed up mind, in which case the films are not to blame (same with video games and anything else for that matter).

Not to mention there's plenty of "erotica" (which seems to be another word for "classy porn") that's shown in a more romantic light. And that's as "mainstream" as the stuff you're talking about. Heck, that gets into Hollywood movies, only they have to construct a non-XXX plot around it because of ratings rules.

And then there's the internet, where the porn tends to mostly be badly written fanfics, but that's a separate issue.