Exploitation
If porn ruins women, it ruins them with their eager consent. Contrary to myth, few persons, if any, are forced to perform in sexvids.Females in the industry are the most likely to complain about it, but women in all areas of life are more likely to express negative feelings.
After a PBS Frontline documentary on the suicide of porn star Shauna Grant, women eager to perform explicit sex on camera deluged porn talent agencies.
Porn production companies receive intimate photos every day from women desiring to meet producers and even sleep with them for the chance to perform.
Many women seek auditions on the cashing couch. Few, if any, are seduced against their will. The industry is diverse, so women who don't like one entrance to Porn Valley can choose another or another.
Talent agent Reagan Sentner is generally looked down upon in the industry, particularly by Adult Video News, for his practice of sleeping with the talent. But none of them are forced to sleep with him. He is no powerbroker. Many persons, including myself, respect Reagan for being so open. What's the big deal if he sleeps consensually with talent?
Bill Margold says he discourages nine out of ten women who see him from joining the industry.
Most female performers, and almost all male performers, tell me they haven't had a problem with sexual harassment from the bosses of Porn Valley. I can't say the same thing for the actors I know in mainstream entertainment.
As many men appear in porn as women, so why does no one cry that porn ruins men?
The answer is that in today's America, only women and "minorities" can ever be victims.
Because the squeaky door gets the oil, men, who are less likely to squeak about their problems, lose out in today's mad race for victim status.
One leading argument against porn says that it exploits women. But no one is forced to perform in sexvids. Women do it voluntarily and usually get paid well. It's hard to argue that the sex industry exploits women when they consent to shed their clothes for the camera, and when many who do so wind up on TV's Tonight show and other programs. Many actresses view posing nude for Playboy as a career advance.
Many women who hate all forms of porn feel exploited because other women disrobe and perform sex for the camera. But there's no inherent reason for all women to feel demeaned because of what a minority of their sex do. Why not feel demeaned as a woman because other women gossip and destroy lives? As Dr. Robert Stoller put it, "only those who can be humiliated, can be humiliated." I don't know any man who feels demeaned because other males have sex on camera. Any man who said he felt exploited by that would be laughed at.
Nadine Strossen, the president of the ACLU, reveals in her book Defending Pornography why many persons believe that porn exploits women.
Central to the pornophobic feminists - and to many traditional conservatives and right-wing fundamentalists, as well - is the notion that sex is inherently degrading to women (although not to men).... Consensual non-violent sex is an evil from which women, like children, must be protected.
MacKinnon puts it this way: "Compare victims' reports of rape with women's reports of sex. They look a lot alike. The major distinction between intercourse (normal) and rape (abnormal) is that the normal happens so often that one cannot get anyone to see anything wrong with it." And from Andrea Dworkin: "Intercourse remains a means or the means of psychologically making a woman inferior." Given society's pervasive sexism, she believes, women cannot freely consent to sexual relations with men; those who consent are, in Dworkin's words, "Collaborators... experiencing pleasure in their own inferiority."
Female performers earn twice as much as their male counterparts. In what other fields is that true?
Porn does chew up unhappy unbalanced men and women. But such persons are vulnerable to crack up anyway, especially if they do drugs. And there's little evidence that pornographers do any more drugs than mainstream entertainers.
The porn industry saves as many performer's lives as it destroys according to its most popular member - Nina Hartley. She notes that porn provides opportunities for the sexually confused or adventurous to work out their sexuality.
As for those who feel dragged down by porn, they are free to leave. Moreover, those who are truly unhappy about performing sex on camera will perform badly and will not be rehired.
Most if not all the well-known suicides in porn came from persons who led drug-filled lives - Savannah, Alex Jordan, Megan Leigh, Shauna Grant and Nancy Kelly.
The frantic pace of porn predisposes some persons to unhappiness, but many professions are unhealthy - such as journalism.
Given traditional values, performing sex on camera is demeaning, but so are many acts, such as pretending to be someone's friend to get information from them. Performing sex is especially demeaning only if you view sexual sins as especially wicked.
Porn provides a home to many of society's misfits. To the lonely and psychicly homeless who join its ranks, porn provides close community.
Many performers, if not most, love what they do.
"I can't believe that I get paid to do this," says Tyffany Million.
Male performers are the most disposable persons in porn production and are the least likely to bond. The male performer has the toughest job, for there can be no intercourse without an erection, and the penis is the one muscle in the body that can't be voluntarily flexed. Porn is hardest on men physically and women psychologically.
The careers of the leading men in pornos last much longer than those of the women. Performing sex comes more naturally to men and they are willing to work for less. As Holliday puts it, men are in porn for the sex and the women are in it for the money.
Women tend to have more negative feelings about porn than do men, just as polls show that women more strongly oppose abortion than do men. Both porn and abortion run counter to the female desire to bond.
George Weaver, a prominent prosecutor of pornography from Georgia published Handbook On The Prosecution of Obscenity Cases where he gives the characteristics for the ideal jurors he'd like to be facing while prosecuting an obscenity case. In order of preference, they should be: female; older; from small communities; from less metropolitan areas; lower income; read less and see movies less; less socially and politically active; more conservative politically; attend more religious services; less education; from Southern or North Central states as opposed to Northeastern or Western states; white as opposed to a minority; with families, especially daughters or granddaughters and/or small children or grandchildren; blue collar; conservative religious beliefs; little or no expose to explicit materials...