experiences with porn

[Alice O]

hi everyone!

new to these message boards (this is only my second post!). i know video porn is a huge industry and is a big influence in our sexual culture. and it's a subject i'm always interested in talking/listening about.

i'm curious about your experiences, if any, with it. what have your experiences been watching porn? were there things that you liked or didn't like? if you haven't watched, do you have thoughts about or perceptions of video porn?

[wintergreen]

Tbh I'm not really interested in porn, but I think as long as it's safe for the actors and watchers that it's a really cool concept, both so people can learn about bodies and what they like and also get new, creative ideas. The main problems with it, I think, are that actors in porn are often treated poorly and that it can give people ideas about what sex should be which doesn't match up to what it is. Other than that, really, I think it's a fun thing and that a lot of people in this society need to stop making everything sexual into a taboo.

But yeah, I haven't ever seen it, so I don't know how much insight I have? I just like talking, I guess.

[Pasuch]

[Moderator note: later, it became clear this user was a spammer, so this post is highly unlikely to be genuine. ~Redskies]

I am not interested in porn but my best friend is totally addicted to it. I have tried my best to free her from the clutches of addiction. But my efforts were in vain. I recently came across a blog which explains about overcoming porn addiction. [spammy link removed ~R]

Will it work out?

[Sam W]

My first introduction was actually through a college professor who studied people who made feminist porn. It was an interesting angle to come at it from.

With addiction, it's good to note that unless someone is watching porn to the point that it's inhibiting their life (they're missing work or school, neglecting their relationships, etc), it's unlikely to be a cause for concern.

[Alice O]

wintergreen, i totally agree it's a cool concept! for both of the reasons you listed. but i'm also with you that as it currently stands, there are a lot of problems with mainstream porn...

one thing that frustrates me about what i've seen is just *how* catered to male viewers the videos are. if something is listed as "POV"--point of view--that means it's from a man's point of view. and in videos of hetero sex it always end with the man's orgasm. to name two of countless examples...

and sam w, i learned a bit about feminist porn in a class in college as well! it was really cool to learn about. & feels really important.

[EmilyDeeDubs]

When I was in my teens I found porn really alienating and even triggering. It was quite the journey from there to, well, actually performing in porn for a while in my early to mid twenties. I'm in my late twenties now, out of the biz for a few years, and I never watch it because I know too much about how the sausage gets made! Now when I see it I'm just like, "Ugh, reminds me of work!" I wish that feminist discussions of porn talked more about the actual labor conditions and not just about porn-as-media, looks-degrading vs. looks-empowering sort of thing. But I guess I'm kind of biased, huh? Anyway, if people have questions about the back-end of things (pun not even intended!) I'm happy to answer to the best of my ability.

[Mo]

I'd definitely like to hear more about the labor side of things when people have these discussions! I think a lot of folks in California heard more about that this year with the big push from performers against Prop 60. While there is a lot of content in pornography I'm not particularly comfortable with or happy about, I'd rather know performers are treated & paid well for their work no matter what the content is.

I do find that when people ask me something like "how do you feel about porn" it's a tough question to answer. It feels like "how do you feel about comedy" as a question - I am a goofy person and I like humor, but a lot of comedians are racist/sexist/otherwise bigoted to a huge degree, so I avoid a lot of comedians & comedy content. But of course there are movies and comedians I just adore - I can't make any kind of useful blanket statement about the genre as a whole.

[Alice O]

Emily DeeDubs, I actually used to work as a labor organizer! Even though I don't work in the union world, I can't turn off that part of my brain that is always thinking about the working conditions of the jobs I come into contact with...would love to hear anything you feel comfy sharing about your time working in the porn world. Two specific questions that comes to mind are: What are the biggest misconceptions about the making of porn that you've encountered from people who have only been viewers? What labor conditions would you have most like to see change?

[EmilyDeeDubs]

Oh, that's awesome, al1234. Hooray for labor organizing! The biggest misconception I encounter is that porn actors have sex the way people usually have sex off-camera. I think viewers see that the sex is real and assume it is happening as it's edited to appear: linearly, from (brief) foreplay to intercourse to orgasm. What's really happening is that there are multiple takes edited together, the same as in any movie (even documentary movies do this). So, for example, you initiate intercourse, have sex for three minutes, stop, the camera and lights change angles, you initiate intercourse again from the beginning, have sex for three minutes, stop, etc. Imagine if you tried to have sex this way in real life! So much stopping and restarting kind of makes 'genuine pleasure' beside the point. Bodies are also positioned in uncomfortable ways just so the camera can see what is happening. Cunnilingus in porn, for example, is nothing like cunnilingus off-camera. It would be pretty much impossible to orgasm from porn cunnilingus since the angles are 'cheated out' to let the camera see and very little direct clitoral stimulation is happening. Understandably, women's orgasms are almost always faked, including female ejaculation. Sometimes men's orgasms are faked, too.

There's been more of an attempt from various indie/ feminist/ queer porn companies over the last decade or so to show 'real' sex, and (here's misconception #2) viewers tend to assume that if the pleasure is genuine then the porn is ethically produced. However, these same companies (there's one in particular I'm thinking of but I won't name names) pay some of the lowest wages in the industry. Very many performers won't shoot for them because the wages are so unfair, sometimes as low as $200 for what would normally be an $1100 shoot. If someone is concerned about purchasing ethical porn, I'd recommend buying directly from performer-producers, because they control their working conditions AND keep the profits of their labor. This performer-producer arrangement is becoming more and more common as production and distribution costs become cheaper.

Misconception #3 is that porn actors make a lot of money, but there are maybe a handful of performers who can make any kind of living from porn. Everyone else has other sources of income, either within or outside of the sex industry (people who work in other segments of the sex industry often do porn to promote that business). There are a lot of reasons for this low income, but one that I'll point to-- both because it's a misconception and because it's something I think can be changed-- is that porn actors are the only actors who don't get royalties. That means we get one flat fee for shooting and then all the profits of future sales (whatever profit is left in this era of torrents) goes to the production companies. It makes me so mad that a movie I shot 6 years ago and made $600 for is still bringing in cash and I haven't seen any of it, even though the notoriety and stigma have followed me. Most porn actors have short careers, and once we stop working, we stop seeing any money from it.

I'd love to see the royalties situation change, but I think that will only happen if porn actors manage to unionize like other actors have! That's also the only way they're going to be able to control condom usage on set; laws will never accomplish that, they'll only push production underground or overseas.

[Alice O]

Hi EmilyDeeDubs,

Thank you so much for sharing about your experiences! So interesting, and helpful, to know about...

I think the world, or at least all the consumers of porn, would really benefit from a deeper understanding of what the behind-the-scenes looks like.

Good to know about seeking out porn-performers as a more ethical way to watch. And total bummer to hear about the royalties situation. I know there are similar struggles for people who work on reality TV. Their work makes tons of money and they see none of it.

I will keep my fingers crossed for unionization—for porn workers & all workers! ☺