Part 2
Sex work is work. But our society has difficulty recognizing it as such. It’s as I keep saying. Pornography is not sex. Pornography is performance. The people who work in the industry are doing it to earn a living. Because people don’t see the sex industry as industry many of us react to the terrible work conditions with a shrug. If they don’t like it, why don’t they just quit and get “real” jobs? As Sinnamon, a performer interviewed in the Cosmopolitan article Black Performers Make Millions for Porn Sites—While Being Underpaid, Verbally Abused, and Subjected to Racism “…what we’re really talking about here are labor rights issues.”
In many circumstance creatives are at a disadvantage. The recording industry is notorious for tying its artists up in contracts that are the legal theft. Film companies claim no profit from films making hundreds of millions of dollars to avoid making payouts. In the porn industry contracts routinely deny creatives any say in how their work will be used. This is how, among other things, a Black performer can find themselves being marketing as a Confederate loving “Ebony” or a domineering thug based on a shoot that they viewed as completely innocuous.
In studies even the most conservative estimates are that over half of American adults watch porn on an at least semiregular basis- several times a year. Both men and women are increasing their consumption. Of those almost half seek out content with negative racial connotations. Popular series on the Interracial (IR) category on Pornhub include Oh No! There’s a Negro in My Wife, and Oh No! There’s a Negro in My Daughter! Needless to say, the content is neither passionate nor romantic. It doesn’t help that most of those behind the camera, from directors, to producers, to distributers are cis gendered, straight, white, men. In our society in which it is morally valid to pursue profit at all costs it really isn’t shocking that porn routinely seeks out the lowest common denominator.
We are what we absorb. And in the porn industry we are absorbing racism, bigotry, misogyny, and violence. In “Why Does Porn Get a Free Pass?” by Fight the New Drug, it is noted that some of these videos are ranked by abuse level. Seriously. Wtf? I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, as the kids say, but why is porn excused from accountability? I am fine with folks embracing their fetishes as long that does not include the dehumanization of people to their respective body parts. Or worse.
There is already an unfair racial economic hierarchy that more heavily compensates white performers. Performers of color are pigeonholed into stereotypical roles like Asian Submissive, Black Brute, or Black Slut, and Spicy Latine. They are often not even named. Even in porn white people are depicted as the norm. As more human. White people are named. People of color are body parts.
What does this say about the industry? What does it say about us? Too many use porn as a sex education substitute for the teachings that are lacking in most American schools and households. From Birth of a Nation to Greenbook the media continues to influence not only the way white America sees Black and other people of color but the way the world sees us. I am going to quote directly from Fight the New Drug’s article:
“But what happens when a fantasy is reinforced over and over, rewarded by feelings of arousal and pleasure, retraining what the consumer finds sexy?”
Porn gets a free pass to profit from these 5 unacceptable categories. Fight the New Drug. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://fightthenewdrug.org/why-does-porn-get-a-free-pass/
I don’t know, but I don’t see anything good.
Sources
https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/7/7/our-nations-kink-for-racism
https://prostitutionresearch.com/why-does-the-porn-industry-get-away-with-racist-portrayals-of-black-people/
https://fightthenewdrug.org/porn-content-normalizes-promotes-racism-racist-stereotypes/
https://fightthenewdrug.org/the-brain-science-of-how-porn-consumption-reduces-a-consumers-empathy/
https://fightthenewdrug.org/get-the-facts/
http://pornharmsresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/24163417-Racism-in-Pornography.pdf
http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/CRAPP_E_LIB/leftissue.html
https://fightthenewdrug.org/how-mainstream-porn-perpetuates-racist-stereotypes-of-black-men/
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a34642666/racism-porn-industry/
https://www.newsweek.com/confronting-racism-pornography-industry-opinion-1601228
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/07/pornhub-black-lives-matter-genre-racism.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/asian-porn-racism-discrimination-1148275/
https://www.wired.com/story/porn-racist-metadata-hurts-adult-performers-of-color/
https://mashable.com/article/porn-racist-tropes
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-rise-of-racist-porn
https://iwantrest.com/blog/racism-and-pornography