Good article, very eye-opening made me feel sad. Being in the industry sounds absolutely awful.
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| Sunday, 27 December 2009 |
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What I would like to do in this article is to lay out the 10 myths, and expound on them briefly. Then, in the succeeding months, write a specific blog for each myth, going more into detail, laying out quotes and real-life examples pertaining to each topic. I trust that this will be a good way of laying an overall groundwork of explaining the deception of pornography, exposing the lie, and bringing all of these myths crashing to the ground. Myth # 1 – The first, and most commonly held, myth is that the girls in porn enjoy making the videos. Someone will say:They must enjoy it, because they choose to be there, and the way they behave in the videos – looking seductively into the camera, screaming and moaning and begging for more, they must really enjoy what they’re doing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. What people who hold to this myth fail to realize, is that these girls are acting, plain and simple. None of it is real. In all of my experience, I have yet to meet a single girl who actually enjoyed making pornography. Having been in the industry, I can tell you that it is not a pleasurable experience. The sex itself is painful, and the girls are exposed to all kinds of abuses, both by the pornographers and the people on set. It is beyond degrading, and for many of us, the only way we could endure the shoots was by numbing ourselves with drugs or alcohol, telling ourselves that it will all be over in a couple of hours, and completely zoning out, sort of disconnecting ourselves from the whole experience. Most of the girls who get into the porn industry do one or two videos, then get out. If the girls enjoy making porn so much, then why is there such a high turnover rate? Luke Ford said, in an interview with 60 Minutes: Most girls who enter this industry do one video and quit. The experience is so painful, horrifying, embarrassing, humiliating for them that they never do it again. Myth #2 -- The girls who do porn are nymphomaniacs who love sex. People believe this because that is what they are told by the porn stars: that they love sex and can’t get enough. Someone will say: Why else would they be in the porn industry if they didn’t have an insatiable sex drive? Well, there are several reasons why girls get into the porn industry, but a hardcore sex drive isn’t one of them. I know, because that’s what I used to tell people in interviews. I would tell my fans about my voracious sexual appetite, and how I couldn’t get enough. I would say it was all I ever thought about. The sad truth, though, was that I actually hated sex. Sex meant nothing to me, as it means nothing to anyone else involved in porn. It’s just something that you endure in order to get paid. I’m not saying that it is like that with every single girl in porn, but I am saying that this is the norm rather than the exception. In the case of every single girl I’ve talked to and have known, it’s the same thing. Myth #3 -- The girls are there voluntarily. Someone will say: No one twists their arm to make them do porn, so they must want to be there. This is not entirely true. A lot of times, the girls are threatened or manipulated by the pornographers. This happened to me, and I’ve seen it happen to other girls also. They are told they will be doing one thing, but when they arrive onset, they are told that they will be doing something else, and if they refuse, they forfeit their pay. A lot of the girls are young and inexperienced, and they feel like they are obligated to go through with the scene....a scene that they did not agree to, and do not want to do. They may be scared of the pornographers, or they may be scared that they won’t be able to work anymore. They feel trapped. Even if they are not manipulated, the truth is, no girl actually wants to be there. Just because they might have agreed to do it doesn’t mean that they enjoy it, and any girl who tells you otherwise is either outright lying, or isn’t telling the whole story. Myth #4 – If they are getting paid for it, what’s the harm? Someone might say: I know the money is good in the porn industry, and the girls are getting paid well, so what’s the big deal? While it’s true that the actors get paid a lot – typically hundreds of dollars per scene – the twisted irony is that once the porn stars end up leaving, they come out broke and with nothing to show for it. There are several reasons for this. One is the drugs. Drugs are all over in the porn industry. It’s rare to find a set that doesn’t have drugs or alcohol, and many of the people are addicts. Drugs are something you use to endure the humiliation and hardcore sex, and for many it’s what you use to numb yourself. The money that you make in porn you spend trying to numb yourself from the lifestyle. Another reason is that a lot of the money they make goes right back into porn, with makeup and clothes and just the general cost of upkeep. They spend what they need to keep themselves looking good. So, even with the hundreds of dollars they make per shoot, in the end, they are left with nothing.....emotionally, spiritually, and financially bankrupt. Myth # 5 - A lot of people believe that there are no health risks in the porn industry, because it is regulated and people are tested. Someone might say: I know that the people in the porn industry are periodically tested for HIV, so it’s got to be safe. This is absolutely wrong. People are tested for HIV, but not for all sexually transmitted diseases. The majority of porn performers have one or more STDs, and many girls have reported contracting cervical cancer and HPV from their time in the porn industry. The girls who come into porn are not made aware of these risks by the pornographers. Just this year, the L.A. County Health Department shut down production of the mainstream porn due to several reported cases of HIV. The porn industry knew about the HIV, but never reported it, because they didn’t want to shut down production. Most of the girls in porn are prostituted women, which means that they can contract HIV or some other disease from one of their johns, and give it to one of their co-stars whom they work with. The pornographers will say that the performers always use condoms, but that is a lie. It is very easy to catch a sexually transmitted disease in the porn industry, although the pornographers and performers will tell you that it is completely safe. Myth #6 – Porn is liberating. A lot of people actually believe that porn is sexually liberating. Someone will say: Pornography is sexually liberating, because you are openly expressing your sexuality. It is people expressing themselves sexually, without inhibitions, which is liberating for everyone involved. People have actually used this as an argument for porn, defending it as “healthy expression.” They believe that it is good for porn stars to express themselves freely, without inhibitions. I know that this is an argument that a lot of the porn stars use – that they are expressing themselves sexually. In actuality, though, that’s not how it works. The girls are not “expressing themselves” sexually – they are acting out what they are told to do. It’s the complete opposite of liberating. On a porn set, you don’t get to pick and choose what you want to do, even if you did want to be there, you have very little control over what goes on. Instead, you are told who you will be with, in what position, for how long, what to say, etc. It is not freedom, because you no longer have any say so in regards to your own body. You are told by the producer how to use it. Not only that, but oftentimes, if a girl is in the middle of a scene, even if she wants to stop, even if it is hurting her, they will keep rolling despite her wishes. This is not liberty – this is forced penetration. There is sexual and physical abuse that occurs, and girls are often coerced into doing things that they don’t really want to do. There is nothing liberating about being in porn, no matter what some may tell you. Myth #7 – Porn is free speech. Someone might say: Porn is protected by the First Amendment, as Freedom of Speech; therefore, if people want to make porn, it’s their right. Dr. Judith Reisman, in the movie Traffic Control, said “Porn is not speech. Porn is stimuli.” A person does not need to talk in order to make porn. I guess it would be more along the lines of “freedom of expression,” but as far as I know, the First Amendment (in the USA) doesn’t protect freedom of expression. A person cannot walk down the street and expose himself/herself to someone, then just say they were expressing themselves. The porn industry hides behind the First Amendment, and many people argue that we can’t do anything about it because we need to uphold freedom of speech, that everyone is entitled to say what they want when they want, but what if that freedom is imposing on the liberty of others? It is a myth to believe that porn is merely a form of speech. On the contrary, porn enslaves people, those who watch and those who make it. Myth #8 – Porn does no long-term harm to the performers. Someone might say: What’s the big deal if a girl makes a couple of films, gets out, and gets on with life? She made some good money, and no harm done That is absolutely untrue, and anyone who would use that argument has no understanding of the negative secondary effects of porn. A person cannot just do a porn and forget about it. The experience is so humiliating and degrading that it takes months, even years (depending on the severity of the experience), to recover. There are several factors at work. First of all, there is anxiety of knowing that your movies are out there for anyone to see. Then there are the emotional effects. You feel violated and ashamed. Many of the girls go through some form of PTSD, and there’s the fear that someone they know might stumble upon it. Guilt and fear are the main causes of post-porn anxiety. Myth #9 – The sex is completely consensual, and the girls know what they’re getting into when they get into porn. Someone might say: Well, everyone’s looked at porn. Obviously, the girls know what they’re getting into when they sign on to do it, so it’s got to be okay. Actually, you have no idea what you’re walking into. It’s not uncommon for the pornographers to tell you one thing when you sign on, then have you do something completely different, and horrific, when you get to the shoot. The only thing that keeps you there is the fear of not getting paid, or some sort of retaliation. The day of the shoot, you have no idea who you are going to work with. He could be a complete monster, or really rough. You trust that the the producer will protect you should something go down, or that nothing will happen with that many people on set, but even so, abuses on porn sets are not uncommon, including physical abuse and even forced penetration, that you never would have even agreed had you known. Many of the girls go through with it out of fear more than consent, and many of them are taken advantage of by the pornographers, because they are young and naive, and many of them don’t know any better. Myth # 10 – What goes on in a porn is an accurate representation of the experience that is portrayed on the video. In other words, it realistic. This is a huge lie. Porn is a fantasy, plain and simple – an out-and-out lie perpetrated by the porn companies to make you think that you are watching something stimulating and exciting, when in actuality, it is uncomfortable and humiliating. The videos are edited and doctored so that the end product is nothing close to what really went on. They don’t show you all of the disgusting details such as excretion of bodily fluids or cleaning up after a scene. They like to make you think that it is sexy and erotic, when in actuality, it is neither. If you have held to one or more of these myths, then you have been sucked into the deception of porn. I hope that laying out these myths has opened your eyes to the reality of porn...a reality that is dark, disgusting, and destructive. In the months to follow, I will explain each myth in more detail, and I pray that you will be educated and helped. God bless you!!
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