In my view, the majority of porn that is out there merely depicts sexual activity amongst humans that real people already enjoy immensely; whether mere acts of beautiful women and handsome men masturbating and touching and groping and tasting and kissing; or whether it's a full blown orgy of mass fucking and sucking; or whether it's merely a couple finding each other's hot buttons. Unless you are of the view that the activities themselves are somehow "immoral" and a threat to "society" and "civilization", it would be highly hypocritical, in my view, to come down on the written or displayed depictions of consensual and mutally pleasurable sexual activity amongst adults.Since that time, this blog has gone through plenty of changes. Some of the original founders, such as Trinity, Amber Rhea, and Verte, have dropped out and moved on to other venues; the founding mother Ren Ev got so burned out by all of the controversy that she basically has opted out for the safety of her own blog; and while many of the other original contributors like Ernest Greene and Iamcuriousblue will comment on occasion, it sometimes feels like this is a one man (or more appropriately, a one 'Dog) show, especially since Ren Ev granted me the powers of head admin in April of last year. There was even a time during a relatively slow period when I was at my lowest point when I even considered just leaving and shutting the place down due to what I perceived to be a lack of interest.
Plus, those who are so quick to condemn porn so gravely miss the most important reason for its existence: to turn people on and get people off. In a world that can be quite lonesome, cruel, and unfeeling, anything that allows a lonely soul or two or fifty even some minimal measure of pleasure cannot be so bad after all....as long as no others are harmed by his/her actions.
Then the HIV/Porn Scares of 2009 and 2010, Shelley Lubben, Michael Weinstein, and The Great Condom Mandate Debate arrived to rekindle both my interest and the debate over the legitimacy of porn in general...and business picked back up enough for me to continue on.
And, thankfully, this blog has become more and more a go to place for a point of view that usually doesn't make the rounds of porn debate circles.
Even better is that it seems that the acceptability of porn has began to make some fundamental strides in the real world, too. The recent media circus over Charlie Sheen and his "goddess" Bree Olson (not to mention his past history with porn/erotica starlets) has brought forth the immense popularity (or noteriety, depending on your POV) of porn's reach, as well as the recent loving testimonials of actress Cameron Diaz -- who openly stated her love of porn in a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel's TV show -- and the recent victory of the porn-positive opinion in the recent Cambridge Union debate in England.
Nevertheless, it remains a long battle for people like us who see pornography as a potentially positive social and societal good to overcome the prevailing prejudices and assumptions about both the performers who create and produce sexually explicit media and the people who eagerly consume it.
I'll just give you two examples of what we are up against, and why we need to continue the struggle, so to speak.
When updating this blog this morning with commentary on the Shelley Lubben documentary post, I came upon a drive-by comment by an anonymous user that usually wouldn't find the light of day here, since it is not our perogative to give people who demonize and deligitimize us any more platforms than they already have. Nevertheless, his comment does say quite a lot about the prevailing attitude that folk like him have deep inside towards people like us, and just before I vaporize it to the Internet ether it belongs, I'll give it a bit of analysis. This was originally supposed to be a comment to Iamcuriousblue's initial post to the blog, "Why I'm pro porn..".
Not every Pro-Porn person is stupid...but every stupid person is Pro-Porn... So, if you are talking about a kid who knows her/his mom just have sex with all the men she met?? do you think that sexually positive?? porn people is selfish because they always talk about human rights, pleasure, etc...but there are so much people out there who want to have a great kid who make a good history of their country, not just to have sex with people.....So, that is why I said, only stupid people is Pro-Porn.
Once again, I wouldn't even post this nonsense, except to show what kind of mentality we are up against here. You can literally count on both hands and run out of fingers on all the usual assumptions and strawpeople that our Mensa relies on to prove our "stupidity". Of course, porn starlets aren't the only ones who engage in sex with different men; in fact, I'd bet that outside of the job they are paid to do in performing sex scenes, most performers are strictly monogamous. Heck, many performers are even monogamous within the scope of their jobs, only performing with their significant others or with women. (Funny how girl/girl sex escapes our commentator's mental grasp...I guess that he would see that as an asset for his voyeruism??) Besides, if a woman in or out of porn decides that she wants to engage in pleasurable sex with more than one person in her life, and she's willing to protect herself, what is it to us to deny or criticize her for that?? Even if it's more than one man at once??
And, oh, how funny, this "make a good history of their country"...as if porn starlets or sexually active women aren't capable of being successful outside of their sexual exploits. I mean, I guess that Nina Hartley only slept her way to earning that magna cum laude degree in nursing at San Francisco State University, right?? And, Vicky Vette's success in her early life as a mid-level executive and home builder prior to her entering the adult industry was only a myth in her brain, because she can only function when she's on her knees sucking Scott Nails; dick...am I correct, Anon?? And, what about the many performers whom actually served their country in the military prior to entering adult...are they merely reducable to a bunch of silly sluts, too??
Maybe Anon needs to stop projecting HIS stupidity onto others and actually talk to and listen to active performers before he shoots his mouth off next time.
But, fools like our Anonymous usually come a dime a dozen, fueled by their willfull ignorance and refusal to open their minds to the world. Far, far more problematic and injurous are the progeny of so-called "rescue organizations" who exploit the same misguided beliefs and assumptions to exploit the many varied experiences of performers in order to both promote a reactionary, neo-Puritan agenda, and to get paid.
I don't have to reset the antics of Shelley Lubben since you know plenty about her....but you might not quite know about the XXXChurch.com ministry.
Founded by Craig Gross around 2008, this organization sells itself as a hip, cool, vivacious youth ministry who, like Lubben's Pink Cross Foundation, glams around porn conventions and awards shows attempting to sell their message of redemption and salvation from the evil dangers of porn. They also include a seperate ministry known as X3, which claims to "save" formerly promiscuous women back to a "Godly" life of sexual "restraint". In effect, they are the "ex-slut" equivalent to the "ex-gay" ministries, and their damage to psyches and escape from reality is equally recorded and appalling.
Unfortunately, they, like some sexual predators, will sense enough of a weakness from someone whom has suffered legitimate injury or psychological harm to be able to turn him or her against their better sense. Such is the case, I'd say, with Stephanie Swift, who is the latest former performer to fall victim to (or, if you have a different point of view, be saved by) the clutches of Gross and the XXXChurch.
Swift's story is indeed not a particularly happy one: an Hall-of-Fame performer who gained superstar status during the middle- to late-1990s with over 370 videos to her credit, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and began chemotheraphy treatments between then and the end o 2010. Apparently, while undergoing the therapy, she had a distinct change of heart and philosophy, and XXXChurch was able to impact her beliefs enough that she became "born again" and repudiated her porn past. The fact that the industry had pulled together to raise thousands of dollars to help her recovery apparently didn't factor into her ennui, since she doesn't even bother to mention such generosity; only claiming that "having breast cancer saved her life". As if porn had anything to do with her contracting breast cancer in the first place?
Ms. Swift was quick to join XXXChurch.com upon her "salvation", and they didn't take long to publicize their newest convert with a vengence; a section of their website dedicated to Swift includes not only a brief written testimony, but also a video clip where Ms. Swift shares her joy of being "saved" and converted to "the blood of Jesus" via Craig Gross' organization.
Now...this is in no way intended to be an attack on Ms. Swift or her personal conversion of faith; like many women who find comfort in religion at times of stress, she is totally entitled to her views and beliefs, and she deserves nothing but the best wishes for her recovery, both physical and emotional.
On the other hand, though...the role of XXXChurch and their methods of targeting impressionable performers for shaming and humiliating, and especially for distorting and denying the legal experiences and beliefs of other performers not so willing to feel shame for their profession or their personal lives, is more than worthy of analysis and even some derision.
Until recently, XXXChurch was though up to be the "good cop", feel good style of ex-slut evangelism, at least compared to the more ham-fisted, Bible in your face, off-the-wall, fire-and-brimstone approach of Ministeress Lubben. Recently, apparently due to either the competition and publicity of Lubben or the recent HIV scares, they have become far more aggressive in both their pursuit of candidates for conversion and their hard sell techniques. In particular, they have launched campaigns targeting active church members on their supposed "addiction" to porn, and how "porn addiction" negatively affects both individuals and the society as a whole. (During Super Bowl XLV Sunday, they hosted a campaign called "Porn Sunday", where they targeted churches throughout the country with testimonials from NFL players and coaches about the damages caused by "porn addiction".)
Their ministry is equally as aggressive in targetting young people who they consider to be especially receptive to their message about sexual shame and denial and the wonders of "modesty" as well as the alleged dangers of porn and mastrubation and all other forms of un-Godly sexual acts. The same webpage that featured Stephanie Swift also included another "story of grace" where Gross describes how his efforts to "save" Montana Fishburne from her recent porn outtings were taken to heart by another "18 year old girl" (funny how they are all "girls" even though legally they are adult enough to make their own choices, right??) whom supposedly was devastated when nude photos she did of herself on the Internet ended up becoming public against her will.
That in and of itself would not by much of a problem...except for the fact that like Ministeress Lubben, Gross and his gang are more than willing to stretch more than a few facts in order to sell their message of salvation from sexual sin. Lydia Lee (the former Julie Meadows) actually did a decent analysis of some of the more outlandish claims about "sex addiction" and porn's alleged connection with same, and came up with and throughly debunked some wild inaccurate claims. One such example:
Our interest, though, is in XXXChurch's essential denial that any porn performer could have an expierence or history in porn other than dire slavery or sin or shame. For obvious reasons, Gross' crew simply reduces the experiences of women in porn to its least common and most destructive denomination, as nothing less than the Devil's trial by fire. Apparently women whose experiences in porn were a bit more positive and fullfilling than Stephanie Swift's was are simply rejected as either tools of the Devil in need of prayer and shaming to convert them to "God's love", or simply dismissed as mindless sluts who deserve all the pain and hurd they're supposed to get...and the eternal damnation in Hell as well. Never mind that there are active performers in porn who are also regular churchgoers (Mary Carey, the former nominee for governor of California being an example), and there's also those performers/models whom have suffered tragic, traumatic life-changing situations and not quite moved to blame them all on porn or their sex habits (model Taylor Stevens currently fighting her own bout of cancer, for example). None of them will manage to make Craig Gross' salvation list...and that's quite unfortunate for him.If I Google “how many Americans visit porn sites,” the first link talks about privacy on the internet, the second talks about how the FBI uses fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects (bravo there!) – validating the first links suspicions about privacy? – and the third talks about how an adult entertainment company evaluated the backgrounds of people buying porn and, as it turns out in February 2009, anyway, more conservatives and religious people bought porn than anyone else. Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School states,
- 4.7 million Americans visit porn sites in excess of 11 hours per week
“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by.”This is the kind of thing that I find usually happens when I’m left to research other’s information.
Of course, there are those performers who absolutely stand by their decisions to do porn; who see their profession as not only a decent job, but also an empowering, even liberating influence on their personal
sex lives...not to mention the nice paycheck and the means to explore their sexuality and their exhibitionism. Problem is, though, these women don't quite get the attention or publicity of the tragedies and tales of "defiliation" and destruction and salvation through Jesus (or through radical feminism) that dominate the conventional wisdom that flows from the dominant media. A few brave souls attempt to sell the idea that porn can be just as much a source of public good and liberation as it can be a source of tragedy...but most likely, they are simply shouted down by the fierce volume of anger from the antiporn crowd...if they are even allowed a place to speak to begin with.
And that's the main reason why BPPA exists today...to offer at least one more place where those who believe in the positive potential of porn can at least have a microphone to speak our peace. We may not have the money of XXXChurch or the stridency of Shelley Lubben or Gail Dines or the censoriousness of the GenderBorg radfems or the Morality in Media cartel...but we do have the commitment to accuracy, truth, and pleasure on our side. And sometimes, that all that counts.
As for the XXXChurch...well, I'll let Lydia Lee have the last word on them, since she says things so well.
What did irritate me about the confession (or testimony, if you will), was the point where she said that if there had been someone from the industry encouraging her not to do porn, she would have listened. I’m sorry, but I can’t think of a more disingenuous statement. People in pornography are in it because they want to be there. It’s too easy to blame an anti-porn porn person for not warning her. This gives kudos to XXX Church for being present at an adult convention. This may not be the blatant Lubben testimony of “The Devil made me do it,” “modern day slavery,” “I have herpes but God cured me,” schtick, but it still takes responsibility and transfers it onto someone else. I have so many mixed feelings right now. Sad because she feels she has to publicly insult an industry that made her a super star, heartbroken that she suffered sexual abuse, disgust that XXX Church is stooping to the same Lubben-esque standards of exploiting the model for more publicity and donations, anger that the general public does not know, especially by videos like this, that the majority of industry people are not seedy, weird losers that prey on people, and resolve to finish The Devil and Shelley Lubben and point at the exploitative organizations that mirror the porn industry. Pornography is a blatant and honest exploiting of the body. Honest! It does not lie about glamour, it does not lie about STDs and risk, and anyone in the world would tell you that. You don’t have to be from the adult industry to know that it’s not glamourous and that there is risk of STDs. That is the dumbest argument these ridiculous people pose. I lost a childhood friendship for wanting to get into the industry. I had no illusions about my choice to be in porn. And what did losing that friendship teach me? That she wasn’t really my friend. But these people exploit the soul. They exploit the darkest elements of human nature and offer salvation through your endorsement and donations, but they lie in order to do it, and I will take the adult industry over these heathens ANY DAY! I feel dirty visiting their sites, I feel gross watching them and listening to them. I wish Swift the best in her life, but I’m grossed out by these people and their tactics and the way they infiltrate an honest industry and use it because no one knows better. It is the most misunderstood and least exposed legal industry. They want it to go away so they can attack homosexuality and single mothers and all the things that don’t fit into a picture posed by a book they couldn’t possibly understand because of how old it is and how many times it’s been translated. They are obsessed. They suffer from addiction. Addicts need an addiction, and if you give up one, you have to replace it with something else, because that is the nature of addiction. Now their addiction is religion.If only more performers could be as up front and unabashed as Lydia Lee. THAT, my friends, is why this blog keeps going...and thanks to women like her, will keep going strong.
I’ve already heard some pretty gross things about Craig Gross. I won’t publish it because I was told in confidence, but believe me, he’s in the same league with the Lubbens of the world. I wrote about him on Mike South’s site, and I don’t care how many people like him. He is an enemy of truth. And again, I’m not against spirituality, but I am against the mass hysteria these people promote and perpetuate, and I don’t believe the man that I have read about would agree that idol worship and judging and giving money to people who promote such things is the only way to experience salvation. You know what I would like to see? Someone from the industry not sell out and kick it around just because they need a new gig. If Stephanie is happy, great, but the blame-shifting is sickening. It just smacks of bullshit to me. The industry rallied around her to raise money for her. I can’t tell you how many internet posts I saw about fundraisers and how many “Help Stephanie Swift” announcements… Certainly her fans were supportive? Did she talk about that in the video? No. No love. No love at all.
Sad, Sad, Sad on all counts. I've known Stephanie for years and you won't hear or read a single derogatory word about her from me no matter what she says or does.
ReplyDeleteWhat, after all, would you or I do in her situation? Yes, it's true that many people in the industry came to her assistance when she got sick and considerable amounts of money were raised on her behalf. But that was mostly the work of fellow performers and a director or two. The people who profited most from her labors, the company owners, were no more or less caring toward her than the operators of coal mines are toward the guys who do the digging.
The fact is that, after all the feel-good solidarity fades away and the funds raised have been spent, she remains a young woman who gave a great deal to a career that has come to a screeching halt. The crushing reality is that the life she once had is lost for good and should some calculating snake-handler like Craig Gross come around offering what may look like a path out of the wilderness, it's hardly surprising that she might find some appeal in what he's selling.
What's nauseating is that Gross, whose superficial affability masks a far more sinister face that a few of us have seen before, would swoop down on a woman in such a state of obvious vulnerability to exploit for the expansion of his own influence. That is the very thing he accuses our industry of doing that we don't and that his industry claims to oppose but he does.
Nothing is more inviting to a bent preacher than a lost soul whose public salvation can be parlayed into publicity and contributions. There is no racket I find more despicable than faith healing for the way in which it preys upon the most defenseless among us.
If I believed in hell, I'd rather be there than among the "saved" if the latter group includes the likes of Pastor Gross
I have not heard of any coalminers who turn against the very existence of their industry, even if they get black lung disease. But for the porn idustry, such denunciation is par for the course.
ReplyDeleteSwift is an adult and needs to be held accountable for her actions. The industry did not give her breast cancer; it put food on her table for decades; she received elite status as a Wicked contract performer. She chooses to consort with the enemy at a time when the industry is fighting for its life in California.
Like Linda Lovelace, she omits any mention of the performers who donated money to help her fight her breast cancer. Think there won't be some second thoughts from potential donors the next time another performer contracts cancer and asks for help?
First of all, to clarify any confusion on this point, understanding does not equal approval. I agree that individuals are accountable for their actions, although I think mitigating circumstances need to be taken into account.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that it is par for the course for exiting performers to denounce the porn industry. Very few have, which is one of my arguments against those who insist that every performer is a victim. Most come in knowing their careers will be relatively brief and move on quietly when the phone stops ringing.
This is one reason why porn bashers still dig up Linda Lovelace after all these years, and why Shelley Lubben gets the ink she does. Dredging up angry victims of what is supposedly such a vile, evil and degrading enterprise seems rather difficult to do.
Like any other branch of the entertainment industry, few who enter porn get rich and famous, and some certainly do go away mad, but most seem to accept that this is the nature of trying to make a living singing for your supper.
This town is full of actors, musicians, comedians and other talented people who, for whatever reason, just didn't take away the rewards they'd hoped for, and many are quite bitter about it, though I'd say most are not.
I do think the porn industry shares some blame for the low opinion in which its widely held because unlike most industries, including coal mining and mainstream entertainment, it fails to acknowledge even a grudging responsibility for the well-being of those who make the money for its owners. Other than AIM, which was created by and for performers, there are no real resources here for helping them when they get in trouble. I have always thought that was both bad business and bad karma and I still think so.
No, this business didn't give Stephanie cancer and yes she is responsible for taking up with bad company.
But it doesn't help us that we have no institutions to which we can point with pride after all these years and say, honestly, "but no, it isn't true. We do look after our people as best we can with the limited means available (and they are more limited than most people suppose).
While we have to push back against our critics, it would be easier to do so if the bigger players here understood the importance of having some counter examples to present.
Right now, Nina is struggling with costly health problems at a time when work is scarce for both of us. So far, predictably, only other performers and fans have come forth to help out, despite Nina's vast contributions to improving the image of what we do, not to mention the vast sums she's made for so many producers over the years. Neither she nor I are about to change sides or turn on those who have paid our rent all these years, which would be anything but par for the course.
What is par for the course, however, is that those at the top are AWOL in hard times for performers and that's an issue worth considering when we're griping about how misunderstood we are overall. I think both our critics and the public at large gets it that porn is not a particularly generous or enlightened enterprise, any more or less than the rest of the businesses that consume and discard talent in pursuit of entertainment bucks.
And BTW, I seriously doubt anyone will take Stephanie's actions or statements into account the next time one of us appeals for assistance.
ReplyDeleteThose who have always been generous will continue to be and those who never were never will be. Since what charity there is here is essentially individual, decisions regarding who to help will be made individually, not on the basis of what someone in a similar situation said or did previously.
Any argument to the contrary presupposes a level of collective consciousness that simply does not exist in porn.
Going back over my iniital statement, I should have said, "But for the porn industry, such denunciation from the more recent well-publicized ex-performers is par for the course."
ReplyDeleteObviously, what I wrote should not apply to the silent majority of performers who drop out on a recurring basis. Sorry for the miscommunication.
Yes, that does make quite a difference. There have always been a few ex-performers who found it expedient in one way or another to trash the only gig that ever paid them a fraction of what they would have made any other way and afforded them recognition they could never have achieved on the basis of whatever other talents they might have possessed. Linda Lovelace certainly comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd lately, with a new crowd of porn-bashers from a different segment of the political spectrum trolling for fronts and shills, it's not surprising that some marginal players, short-timers or those beset with problems to which they can see no other answer would sign off on the standard pro forma denunciations.
But I'm glad, Sheldon, that you and I agree these are the exceptions and notable mainly as such. For every one of them who turns up on the evening news, there are a hundred who passed through, got what they could out of the experience, found at some point it wasn't for them and just got on with their lives. Contrary to myth, many of them still have friends in the XXX community and remain generally supportive of its right to make its living as it does.
Having been here so long, we have a number of still-close associations with people who worked in porn, many for years, and then ended up doing something else for a living. They've been known to get married, have kids and start new careers and new lives in other parts of the country without so much as sharp word tossed back over the shoulder on their way out the door.
The problems tend to come from those who either can't or won't work in this industry anymore for whatever reason and therefore don't think anyone else should be able to either, or find advantage in saying so at the very least.
Fortunately, these are few in number and get the attention they do precisely because they are such rarities.
Besides, they make better sweeps week material. Someone who does a few years here, then moves on to live a perfectly satisfactory life doing something else without regrets and resentments just doesn't make for good ratings.
Gentlemen:
ReplyDeleteIt should be duly noted, though, that just before she passed away from an auto crash, Linda Lovelace was in the process of repudiating much of her antiporn rhetoric; and turning on her radical feminist "allies" with the same intensity that she had originally endorsed them.
Nothing says that by next year or next month or within 5 years, Stephanie Swift won't have another change of heart...or, more likely, when the people of XXXChurch and the fundamentalists have used her up enough and pulled her under the bus for the latest propaganda model, and just as quickly rediscover her porn past as not quite so deadly. People can and do go through life altering changes, and nothing is totally set in stone.
Plus, as Ernest said so well, you'll always hear from the two extremes (the "I absolutely LOVE porn; it's the most empowering, liberating job in the WORLD; all that cock and pussy and I get PAID, too!!!" side, and the ("Porn was nothing less than 24/7 high tech slavery and rape!!" side). Those are the sides that hog all the publicity. The majority in the middle who simply do their job, get paid, and then get out unscathed and move on to relatively quiet ablivion don't quite make for spectatular propaganda, so they tend to get ignored.
Plus, the black/white bipolar paradigm of "either you are abused and raped, or you're a paid slut of The MAN/patriarchy" plays well with the predominant cultural presumptions about porn and sexuality. You're not going to get on Dr. Phil or Oprah or get that prime book contract simply by saying: "Meh...it was fun, but I outgrew it; I got out and now I'm a normal soccer mom."
That's the main reason why voices from ex-performers like Lydia Lee are so important; to fill in that gap and show people that porn can't be reduced to the superstars and the washouts; or "the supersluts" vs. "the abused". There is a vast middle ground out there.
Anthony
Ever the optimist, eh?
ReplyDeleteWell, you could be right. I've already mellowed a bit on the Swift One, as anyone who has read my posts on the Stephanie Swift thread on AdultDVDTalk forum will have noticed.
Stephanie Swift becoming a born again Christian is just another example on what the industry that is bigger then the porn industry which is religion will do to get new followers. One tactic that religious groups do is go after people who are vulnerable and in Stephanie's case having cancer, the religious groups tend to go for people who have problems whether they are medical, social, financial, mental, drugs, abuse, the list goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteReligious groups use a very good brainwashing tactic that not only works on pornstars who may have problems or going through a tough time but also on people who also have similar problems or going through a tough time, that is 'religion is the only way to achieve inner peace, to a good life, have a fresh start and the only way for you to overcome your problems', that is the usual bullshit that comes out from these groups. It makes me sick that religious groups are getting so desperate to get what they want and get new followers they will do anything to do it. There is always one then one way to overcome your problems and religion is one solution out of many but of course religious groups never admit this cause they won't be around any more if they did.
These poor people in the porn industry who have been taken advantage of by these religious groups when they are having a tough time either in the porn industry or out of it leaves one industry which makes billions ever year (the porn industry) for an industry that makes billions every week which is the religion industry.
Whether or not Stephanie will remain a christian for the rest of her life is uncertain at this time, maybe eventually she will snap out of the brainwashing and realise she has been taken advantage of and leave religion but on the other hand maybe she won't.
I think the porn industry and pro-sex and pro-porn groups need to set up organisations to stop religious groups from taken advantage of people in the industry and urging people in the industry who may have problems to come forward. This has gone long enough of religious groups taken advantage of vulnerable people in the industry.