A major argument advanced by our opponents is that we have no right to criticize the actions of consenting adults. On 3/16/07, Activist Scott commented:
I want consenting adults to be able to do, purchase, and view whatever material they want. I may not like what choices people make, or what they say, but I will not revoke their freedom.
In the spring of 2007, participants in Political Hotwire chimed in with similar sentiments:
“So long as the “actors” are consenting adults, and the products are being sold to adults, it’s none of your business what they do… Buzz off and go read the First Amendment again.”
“I think that the morality police have a problem with the concept of a free and open society. The distribution and sale of perfectly legitimate pieces of entertainment and art involving consenting adults cannot be limited by some faux moral pretext, and their creation and sale is directly protected under the American Constitution.”
“Women choose whether to be in porn or not. Women choose who they will perform with and who they will not. Women choose what sex acts they will perform and what they will not. Women set the pay scales. Anybody could go on and on.”
“Jesus H. tapdancing Christ, pornography has been around for millinea. It is nor going away. There are unfortunate cases of abuse within the industry. However, the majority of individuals performing in the porn industry are simply consenting adults who wish to make money. Having someone shove their own brand of morality down the rest of society’s throat is a hell of a lot more dangerous than dirty movies.”
And how can we forget last year’s appeal from Jeff Hobbs and Jennifer Ruggieri for us to leave town?
“Please do the world a favor too and neuter and spay yourselves so that you will not bring up children with your perverse attitude that sex between two consenting adults, whether it be for money or for fun, is wrong. You, Adam and Jendi, are a pox upon Northampton. Please do the local community a favor, sell your house and leave the area…”
Let’s grant, for the moment, that porn performers are indeed consenting adults. We’ll set aside the evidence of abuse in their pasts, the abuse on the set, the rampant addictions, the deception, the blackmail, and the performers’ often urgent need for money and shelter–these are all addressed in the articles below. Let’s look at the messages of the films themselves, as sold today at Amazing.net/Goflix.com. Not only do many of these films fail to foreground consent, they celebrate invasions of privacy, violence, exploitation, aggression, coercion, hatred, revenge and torture, selling them as sources of orgasmic pleasure.
NOW ON SALE AT AMAZING.NET/GOFLIX.COM – THE WAR ON PRIVACY AND CONSENT
Abuse of Power
A young athlete is taken advantage of by his own doctor! A perverted policeman… An innocent cop is bullied by a gang of hooligans!
[Residents of Hartford have recently become aware of a real-life abuse of power, as dozens of victims have complained of sexual abuse at the hands of Dr. George Reardon. 50,000 slides and 100+ video reels of child pornography have been found in Reardon’s former home. “The number of victims depicted appears to be in the hundreds. Police also said a large number of neighborhood children were sexually assaulted…” One of Reardon’s accusers “had been Reardon’s paperboy in the 1950s and committed suicide in 1978″. Molestation is not as pleasurable for the victims as porn merchants like Amazing.net would have you believe. ]
Blame It On Daddy
Look what daddy made them do. These chicks are fucked up and they just can’t get enough. Adopt these sluts today make them call you daddy and see what they won’t do!
Blame It On Daddy #2
Hi daddy look what I’m doing! Look at what you made me do dad… I’m all fucked up and I can only cum from anal!
Casual Brutality #2
Red assed lasses trussed up and tormented!
Corrines Painful Examination
Pretty 19-year-old Corrine submits to a painfully thorough very sadistic medical exam at the hands of Nurse Lolita
and the wicked “Doctor” Savage.
Domestic Disturbance
Master Ronnie Rock is at it again breaking into a home and ensnaring a mother and daughter into his demented
fantasies. Catching mom in the kitchen Ronnie the stalker uses some of the utensils nearby from metal spatulas for
beating her ass to pointy ongs to pinch and pull her skin.
Domination
There is a fine line between pain and pleasure and that line has been more than blurred this time. Pain can be our biggest pleasure tapping into our sixth and seventh senses…taking our sexual experiences to a new realm and darker dimension where the rules as we know them cease to exist.
Ex Boyfriends Revenge
Dedicated to exposing real ex-girlfriends.
Extreme Audition #6
What happens when you have a tiny little blonde walk into your studio? Well a lot of fun for Michael Kahn. This pretty little thing was in tears by the end of this video. She had no tolerance for pain and so it was great fun to beat her little ass.
[This reminds us of Jenna Jameson’s 25 Good Reasons Why No One Would Ever Want to Become a Porn Star (explicit language): “Most girls get their first experience in gonzo films – in which they’re taken to a crappy studio apartment in Mission Hills and penetrated in every hole possible by some abusive asshole who thinks her name is Bitch. And these girls, some of whom have the potential to become major stars in the industry, go home afterward and pledge never to do it again because it was such a terrible experience.” (Pg. 132 from Jameson’s book, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale)]
Grudge Fuck #2
There is a fine line between love and hate. We’ve all been there. But nothing cures the pains of passion quite like sex fueled by spite. Six twisted scenarios set the stage for eight prime pussy poundings as Grudgefuck #2 picks up where the original left off. Pick a bone in ways she’ll never forget and drive your point home with your prick. Why kiss and make up when you can f**k her and forget about it? A solid Grudgefuck will send shock waves through the standard sex scene and Guy Capo has master crafted six such scenarios of stellar quality.
House Of Pain
House of pain collects plenty of top bondage babes and submissive sluts that have been spanked flogged hog tied gagged suspended caned strapped to walls doors closets the pantry roped to eye bolts spread and humiliated.
House of Painful Pleasur Es
Mistress AJ is interviewing to hire a few good slaves for her dungeon. Her first applicant Shauna is made to strip
and submit to hot candlewax tit torture. The next interview features the unsuspecting Brianna who awakens
to find herself Chloroformed and helplessly bound as she suffers the rigors of a wicked dose of pussy torture. Finally amid the frustrations of trying to find good help Mistress AJ is forced to dole out a fierce ass-trashing and severe electrical torture to Magdelyn her house slave when she is caught touching her toys without permission. All in a good days work for the good Mistress. Enjoy!
Housewife Bangers #7
The Housewife Bangers are out to con gullible husbands into letting them fuck their hot wives – ON FILM! Watch as these loser husbands turn out their sweet wives when they think they’re threatened with jail time blackmailed or just need some extra cash. See once innocent and trusting brides get hammered by the massive man meat of strangers and splattered with cum all while their chump husbands look on.
Intense Fetish #712 Electro Pain Training
Tawny said she was afraid of pain. What is she doing in Master Len’s dungeon? She is learning to accept pain and
not be afraid. Tawny is whipped front and back. She has to put her tender nipple into the jaws of the pliers and d
not flinch. You will see her tender lips clamped and whipped untl she cums. The electro box is used and she is
shocked until she cries. It is like you are right inside her head getting every jolt. This one is for you the true BDSM
lover.
Kimberly Princess of Pain
Pain became her pleasure… Watch every stimulating moment of the young Kimberly’s metamorphosis; from head strong captive to a willingly submissive student of pain and torture!!!
Maid For Master Prelude To Pain
Master Aaron needs a new maid and the interview procedure is an arduous one. Bebe Licious and Shadow try
to keep up with Aaron’s rage but he always wins in the end. Bebe suffers an unbelieveably painful piercing and
Aaron even makes a string corset out of Bebe’s big natural boobs. Not for the squeamish!
Medical Pain Sluts
Medical pain sluts goes behind closed doors to reveal…sex craved nurses and their helpless charges! Tender pussies are spread = clamped vibed and shocked. Heavy tits are roped groped whipped and tortured Sexy sluts cum and…
New Blood
Hold on tight and smile Bitch! The only difference between a filthy cunt whore on the street and a porn star is the
camera.
Pain 25
Remember when your daddy would come home from work and beat the living shit out of you? Remember how your
flesh bruised and bled at the end of his belt? Some days you thought your worthless life was over. My how you
begged and cried. Good times. Damn good times. Well now you can relive those special moments. Take Pain #25
home today!
Pain #26
Can you maintain ninety minutes of masochistic mayhem?! Watch today’s most worthless degenerates line up for abuse and debasement. On the street. In private. Female pigs have been stripped of all dignity. Listen to their wretched screams. Watch their distorted pained faces. Then jerk off to the brutal inhumanity of it all!
Pain 27
Can you withstand ninety minutes of S & M madness?! It’s an hour and a half of whimpering chicks burnt nipples
endless suffering. But some people think your taste in erotic cinema is sick. Well guess what? They’re right. But
that’s okay you don’t need them. You have plenty of friends. Your therpist calls them “the voices in your head…”
Pain & Tolerance
4 hours of whippin’ good fun! Non-stop spanking binding whipping and domination. This is filled with perversion and mayhem! Subjugate those pathetic little pigs and make them obey!!!
Pain Factor (4hr)
4 hours of stupendous spankin’ and submission! Ball gaggin’ hot wax pourin’ paddlin floggin and other luzurious forms of pleasurable pain pack this DVD to the brim. Submissive slappin’ good!
Painful Pleasures
Slave Derek Da Silva is put through an unbelievable set of pain adrenaline and endorphin pleasures that you just have to see to believe! Hard belly punching electric dildoes electrified needles and howling cumshots.
Pain In The Ass
The bitch has been naggin at you all fuckin day. Take out the garnage. Do the dirty fuckin dishes. Dont drink so much beer. Blah Blah Blah. Theres only so much a man can fuckin take so when its bed time make it your turn to be the major pain in her ass.
Real Hidden Coed Girls #1
The college coed cummundrum continues! In other words college chicks are getting filmed naked! Without their permission! Naked while they change dress shower get ready for bed or take communal showers with other girls at the…
Real Hidden Coed Girls #2
Real Hidden Coed Girls returns with part two of young ladies unknowingly exposing themselves for your voyeuristic pleasure. Tons of coed girls caught on hidden camera in the shower locker rooms in their dorms and other spots…
Real Hidden Coed Girls #3
Tons of coed girls caught on hidden camera in the shower locker rooms and in their dorms. Don’t miss them in other spots and around the campus cause this is Voyeur that’s real!
Real Hidden Coed Girls #8
Girls caught by hidden cameras! Sleepin taking showers in bedrooms in class and other places!
Real Hidden College Pussy #8
The best footage America’s schools have to offer. An entire hour of girls caught naked in dorms showers lockers doctors and more.
Real Hidden College Pussy #9
The best footage America’s schools have to offer. An entire hour of girls caught naked in dorms outdoor jacuzzis showers and more. Includes video of a girl caught masturbating!
Real Hidden Fitting Rooms #9
Hidden cameras in lovker rooms and fitting rooms around the world capture these young vixens in their best
state….nakkid!!!! Voyeur that’s real!
Real Hidden Locker Room #4
Hidden cameras in lockers dressing rooms fitting rooms and more!
Real Hidden Locker Rooms 5
Voyeur that’s REAL!! Gorgeous asses great pussies nice titties thongs spo
rts bras and lots more from some of the best college and gym lockers in America! All captured on hidden camera for your pleasure!
Real Hidden Panties #5
Lots of young ass exposed by hidden cameras! Payphones hair salons. They are caught by hidden cameras wearing tiny panties big panties cotton panties silk panties and for some no panties at all
Real Hidden Panties #7
Voyeur that’s real! Are we just lucky or really smart? You decide. Our hidden cameras sneak in all the places you ever dreamed of going. Locker rooms hair salons shoe stores schools and everywhere else we can get a glimpse…
Real Hidden Panties #8
Summer is here. Lots of young females caught by hidden cameras wearing nothing but the smallest of miniskirts. God bless the gashion industry.
Real Hidden Sex #23
Everday people caught fucking by hidden cameras while fucking their brains out. Filmed by peeping toms it brings the reality show craze to a new level.
Real Hidden Sex #26
Voyeur that’s real!Five couples fucking sucking licking and grabbing in the privacy of their own homes caught on hidden cameras. Filmed by friendly neighbors family members and other perverts.
Real Hidden Sex #29
Voyeur that’s real…
Real Hidden Sex #30
Caught again. Horny couples who got their groove on in all the wrong places. Backyards will never be dafe again and previous editions already prove you’ll get caught fucking in a dorm room. There’s always a family member or a pervert with a camera when a set of tits comes out!
Real Hidden Showers 9
Hidden cameras capture hot young ladies in their own showers.
Real Hidden Showers #13
Lots of college girls caught by their roommates. Budies or family memebers while in the shower. A real hidden camera view at beautiful girls… Naked!!!
Real Hidden Video #12
Loads of girls caught by hidden cameras sunbathing nude in their bedrooms showers at the spa and other places.
Sessions #8
Mistress Sonya takes Magdelyn to new heights of sensual awareness. Helplessly bound to an antique dental chair
Magdelyn is submitted to various forms of punishment. Electro-shock therapy and flogging are the order of the
day. However Magdelyn is subjected to a more intensified session as her breath is totally controlled while other
punishments are taking place.
Use ’em Abuse ’em & Lose ’em #2
Use’em:Pick up ordinary girls and persuade’em to get naked. Abuse ‘Em; Do what the fuck you like to ’em! They all love it anyway. Lose’Em:Dump’em and go lokking for your next victim. Ride along as we pick up ordinary young women fuck ’em senseless and dump ’em! It’s all good clean fun!
Violation Of Heather Gables
The pussy hole sluts are one of the hottest pop groups of all time. This is the story of a star stuck grouple who got to meet her favorite bend only to have her dream turn into a nightmare.
Vivian’s Painful Examination
Vivian’s painful examination! Vivian our favorite college girl has returned this time to “play doctor” with Galaxy’s perverse Rick Savage. With her big natural tits in his evil clutches the doctor gives Vivian a long painful…
As we wrote last April, porn gets into dangerous territory when it makes the appearance of a lack of consent out to be sexy. A common theme in porn is that many women will initially resist many of the practices it promotes, but if you persist, they will come to enjoy them. In other words, no means yes. This attitude seeps into many viewers:
Testimony of R. M. M.: …we would have incredible arguments with each other. I would tell him I loved him, I only wanted to love him, I wanted to be a good wife, I wanted our marriage to work, but I didn’t want to be with these other people. It was he I wanted to be with, and no one else. He told me if I loved him I would do this. And that, as I could see from the things that he read me in the magazines initially, a lot of times women didn’t like it, but if I tried it enough I would probably like it, and I would learn to like it. And he would read me stories where women learned to like it.
Testimony of Wanda Richardson, Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter: If you look at a lot of pornography, it shows women being beaten, humiliated, tied up. It shows women tied and stabbed, poked, prodded and abused by devices, assaulted by several men or animals, and many ugly and degrading things. When you see a woman being battered, you see a lot of the same ugliness and violence at the same time. Not only do they portray women as liking and deserving this sexual abuse, it shows them as enjoying it, deserving it. And that is what one of the great myths of battery is, is that women deserve to be battered and that they enjoy it. If they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t stay…
Robert Jensen: When Examining Complex Social Phenomena, Scientific Method Has Limits; Listen to the Stories of the Victims (explicit language)
“I know all about you bitches, you’re no different; you’re like all of them. I seen it in all the movies. You love being beaten. (He then began punching the victim violently.) I just seen it again in that flick. He beat the shit out of her while he raped her and she told him she loved it; you know you love it; tell me you love it…” [Silbert and Pines, 1984, p.864]
See also:
The Capital Times, Madison, WI: Consenting adults, hidden camera: Can that be legal? (7/2/08)
“Walking around nude in one’s own bedroom, even in the knowing presence of one’s boyfriend, is perhaps the prototypical example of a circumstance in which the nude person is not expecting to be taped without knowledge and consent, even by the boyfriend,” Assistant Attorney General James Freimuth wrote…
[Psychologist Anna] Salter said the consensual presence of a lover does not do the trick for voyeurs.
“The thrill is the lack of consent, the lack of awareness,” she said…
Voyeurs’ victims feel an alarming sense of intrusion, Salter said. “Someone watching us in our most private moments — they suffer an incredible violation and emerge feeling very distrusting, very paranoid.”
…Control of where, when and to whom one exposes one’s body is “the most fundamental aspect of the right to privacy and deeply tied to the concept of human dignity,” Freimuth quoted from one of the many analytical legal writings that have plumbed the meaning of privacy in the Internet age.
Capital Video: Purveyors of Shame Feature a New “Celebrity Sex Tape Scandal” (explicit language)
Capital Video excels in the wrongful uses of shame. We have already discussed their prominent offering of “1 Night in Paris” at their website, Amazing.net:
Best price on the web! We are purchasing a huge amount of them and will fulfill all orders as soon as it arrives. This collectors item is a must have for your adult video library! Paris Hilton a blue blood celebrity now forever to be referenced by her 102 minutes of shame. Watched this surveillance film of the Hilton family’s worst nightmare. Rick in Paris’ Hotel… Rick’s tongue in Paris’ Pussy…Rick’s dick in Paris’ mouth…Rick’s cock in Paris’ pussy! The finale showcases Ms Hilton’s blowjob talents where Solomon jerks his load on her breasts.
Featured at the top of the Amazing.net home page today is “Kim Kardashian Superstar”. The movie box cover bills this as “The NEW Celebrity SEX Tape Scandal”. Amazing.net’s (typo ridden) sales copy reads:
Paris Hilton’s good friend socialite Kim Kardashian has been caught up in a new sex tape scandal after filming her sexploits with her ex, Whitney Houston’s reported new beau Ray J.A raunchy tape featuring the former couple engaged in various sex acts.Kim Kardishian, the daughter of famed attorney Robert Kardishian, reportedly has been offered a $2 million deal for the exclusive rights to the tape. But Kardashian insists she wants nothing to do with the sale of the sex tape, and insists her ex, R&B star Brandy’s brother, will not want to get caught up in the deal either.
Not only is this a bad use of shame, but the consent of the “star” to release the film is not apparent. Capital Video appears to believe that calling attention to this will increase sales, or at least not hurt them. Consent also appears to be missing, or at least not clearly apparent, with the release of the Paris Hilton video. Many of our opponents claim that consenting adults should be allowed to do whatever they want when it comes to porn. The truth is, however, that many elements of the porn industry show little desire to be scrupulous about the appearance or the reality of consent in their products.
Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Relationships (explicit)
Amazing.net is jealous of your human relationships.
It wants your attention and money for itself. With messages subtle or not, its movies encourage you to neglect and abuse your intimate partners, especially your female ones. If you must relate to another human, Amazing.net wants the experience to be exploitative, short and unstable, to better ensure your swift return to a porn-hungry state…
Some of our opponents claim the messages of porn are “harmless”. Another claims that if porn impacts a marriage, then “the marriage isn’t that strong to begin with.” Do you think the following films cultivate exploitation, abuse, infidelity, coercion, discord, and dissatisfaction with your partner? What is their attitude towards counseling? Judge for yourself…
NOW ON SALE AT AMAZING.NET/GOFLIX.COM – THE WAR ON WOMEN
…
Dumb Blonde Bitches (24hr)…
Just Some More… Dumb Fuckin’ Whores! #1, #2, #3…
Young Dumb And Full Of Cum
The Hottest In Hardcore! They’re Cute And Have A Mind Like A 20 Watt Bulb!…
Young Dumb & Full Of Cum #3
Back one again with the hot young sluts you like so see getting filled with cum. The best part is that these girls are too young to know that only bad girls do these kinds of things…
Young Dumb & Full Of Cum #4
They all swear to be over the age of 18?…
NOW ON SALE AT AMAZING.NET/GOFLIX.COM – THE WAR ON BLACKS
Big Black Ass Next Door #3
These bruthas know how to GIT SOME! Our cameras accompany them on their mission to score some Big Black Ass and as you’ll see they’ll say anything and do anything to get some! Including charming lying begging daring and generally talking any kind of shit they can! And amazingly it works! Watch the nice sweet black girl next door go from “NO WAY” to “HOE WAY”! Just when you think she’s gonna kick him out she ends up with a big black dick in her hands mouth and juicy black pussy! This shit’s unbelievable!…
Big Black Ass Next Door #16
Tag on box cover: “NAPPY-HEADED HOS!”
Homeboys dog the bitches out on camera. Watch as these hoes get tricked into sucking dick and giving pussy for free.
Now on sale at Capital Video: Jenna Loves Pain
Full-on bondage! Look who’s learning the ropes. It’s Jenna as you’ve never seen her. Restrained. Tied down. Submitting to the lash in one of the most exquisite displays of pleasure and pain ever put to film. Vivid presents Jenna Loves Pain the only time you will ever see one of adult’s greatest stars in a subserviant position as she takes a punishing look back at her most extreme fantasies. Get ready. This will hurt.
Rick Porras, Capital Video Executive, Would Rather You Not Know He Is a Pornographer (explicit language)
…Considering the role of porn in domestic abuse and child molestation, you might not be proud of some of the magazines sold by Capital Video, which include such material as:
Magazine: World of Black Bondage
Article: ONCE A Slave…
“Because this babe has a submissive personality and a heart-shaped behind, she makes the perfect slave. Be that as it may, she got the notion into her pretty head that she wanted to play dom.
“Well, her man quickly disabused her of the idea that she could dominate him. He got rough, took away her leather paddle, threw her onto the bed and tied her into a series of strict positions.”
Photo Caption: “The look in her eyes tells us that she would like this bondage session to end pretty soon. Forget it, girl!”
Photo Caption: “Her Master has told her, ‘Don’t you dare move.’ She’s finding that immobility is in itself a form of torture…”
Story: My Father, The Hero
First He Protected Me, Then He Porked Me!Story: Getting Gooey With Uncle Louie
His Huge Cock Made Me A Woman!Story: Portrait Of A Hot Pussy
My Brother Painted Me Nude, Then We Got Lewd!Story: Two On A Tool
I Gave Both Of My Daughters A Good Fuck!
Exposure to Pornography as a Cause of Child Sexual Victimization
The incest started at the age of eight. I did not understand any of it and did not feel that it was right. My dad would try to convince me that it was ok. He would find magazines, articles or pictures that would show fathers and daughters or mothers, brothers and sisters having sexual intercourse. (Mostly fathers and daughters.) He would say that if it was published in magazines that it had to be all right because magazines could not publish lies… He would say, “See it’s okay to do because it’s published in magazines…”
Now on Sale at Capital Video: Watch Women Eat Their Own Poop (explicit)
Here’s a film on Goflix.com (affiliated with Amazing.net) that emphasizes how humiliating ass-licking and cum-swallowing can be, at least when the target of the humiliation is a man. (The film’s also racist to boot.)
Cum Eating Cuckolda
THE ULTIMATE HUMILIATION Your wife says you don’t satisfy her in bed. She needs big black cock. And she wants you to watch! While her black stud is pounding her pussy she adds to your humiliation by ordering you to lick her dirty asshole. You do it because you don’t have a choice. You’re a wimp… The coup de grace comes when she lets the black savage ejaculate inside her then positions her pussy over your face and says: “Lick up every drop Sweetie!”
Ask Blue Razor to decline Capital Video’s website registration business (explicit language)
“The domain Amazing.net is registered with Blue Razor. This domain is used by Capital Video Corporation to sell pornography that violates your Terms of Service…”
Blue Razor
Domain Name Registration Agreement [link added]Revised: 11/1/2006
7. RESTRICTION OF SERVICES; RIGHT OF REFUSAL
…You agree that Blue Razor, in its sole discretion and without liability to You, may refuse to accept the registration of any domain name. Blue Razor also may in its sole discretion and without liability to You delete the registration of any domain name during the first thirty (30) days after registration has taken place. Blue Razor may also cancel the registration of a domain name, after thirty (30) days, if that name is being used, as determined by Blue Razor in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities. Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to: activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which You conduct business; activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; activities that are tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable…
Punishment Porn: “Whether-She-Wants-It-Or-Not” (explicit)
Strictly Speaking Spanking, a magazine on sale at Bookends of Enfield, calls itself “entertainment for consenting adults”. On reading the magazine, however, one could be forgiven for becoming confused about the role of consent in the entertainment…
Abusive Relationships and Porn: The Similarities (explicit language)
At Bookends, a large porn shop in Enfield, we found more material that emphasized violence, domination, lack of consent, and manipulation of the victim:
“YEEOWWCH! STOP IT!!” I screamed and shot a hand back to protect my blazing behind. David’s failure to concede to my pleas or to say a word in reply scared me to death!…
“OUCH! Y-YES DAVID! AND I AM SORRY!! REALLY I AM!! OWWWW!”
“Not as sorry as you’re going to be!… Maybe you’ll listen to me next time and not act like a spoiled brat… I love and respect you, Allison…but I won’t stand by and let you do something dangerous and stupid. Do you hear me?”…
Kink.com: Bondage Porn Gone Chillingly, Cheerfully Corporate (explicit language)
“Our powerless girls scream as they are tied up and forced to have sex over and over. Are they screams for help or do they really just want more?”
Lizzy Borden: We don’t shoot “all the lovey-dovey stuff that there’s not a big market for” (explicit language)
Q: So what is this scene going to have in it that’s controversial?
A: A girl being kidnapped, being forced to have sex against her will, being degraded. Being called “a cunt, a whore, a slut, a piece of shit.” Then being butchered at the end, and spit on. She’s being degraded…
Improv Resource Center: True Porn Clerk Stories (explicit language)
The Anime section is the one that really makes me cringe. It’s upstairs in the general releases since it’s all, you know, cartoons, and some of it is charming fare like My Neighbor Totoro. But a lot of it is incredibly hardcore stuff – way worse than we’ll allow in the real-people porn downstairs. My position on porn is that I’m fine with whatever floats your boat, as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult. Manga throws both of those rules out the window. Sure, all the boxes claim that all the characters are at least 18, but a lot of them are clearly drawn to look about 12. And there’s a lot of raping. Not just run-of-the-mill raping, either – we’re talking about triple-penetration rape by demons…
Testimony in Indianapolis: Porn Wants You to Believe Women Secretly Love Bondage and Torture, that “No” Means “Yes”
The stories involve “Tanya Learns the Ropes”, “Tanya’s Initiation into the Exotic Joys of Bondage”… This particular story, though most of the magazine had graphic pictures of women, nude women, tied up in obvious expressions of pain, now this particular story didn’t have any pictures, but it was all about a women who had described herself, supposedly, at the outset of the story as an avid women’s-libber, and she said that she’d never had a good sexual relationship with anyone because she was accustomed to going out with what she called wimps who respected her… The whole storyline indicates that she told him she was scared, and she told him she didn’t want to do any of this, and she told him it hurt, and she asked him and begged him to stop and yet, the storyline indicates that secretly she loved it. Secretly, she was aroused and it was the most wonderful experience of her life. This tends to be the story that is retold and retold in this literature. And at the end of the story, of course, she describes herself as the man’s willing slave. All she wants is to do any humiliating tasks he assigns to her. She has learned her lesson.
Another story in the same magazine is called “The Rich Bitch”, and it was about teaching a snobbish female who, this man had felt, put him down in the past, a lesson, by binding her to the wall with chains and inflicting physical pain upon her. The last sentence indicated that, rather than Sally is now going to go [to] the Prosecutor’s Office and file charges against Frank, it said, Sally, from now on, will treat Frank more special because he’s taught her a lesson.
Finally, two more magazines. One is entitled “Tied Up”. And there’s a story in it called “Bound Bitch”, and there’s a lot of reference to bitches, tarts, whores, women who deserve this sort of treatment. Another is titled “Black Bondage”. The two stories featured in the magazines, in this particular issue, were called “Black Bitches: Bound, Gagged, and Loving It”. And the second was “Roped and Raped”…
Smith Sophian: “Definition of ‘no’ should not be debated in cases of rape”
Why is the meaning of “no” even debated in cases like this? And is this the start of a slippery slope? Will “no” eventually cease to actually mean anything, to have no power? No means no and rape is rape, regardless of when it is said or for what reason.
Free Book Download: Diana Russell’s Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (explicit)
A particularly important feature of my definition of pornography is the requirement that it appears to endorse, condone, or encourage abusive sexual desires or behaviors. These attributes differentiate pornography from materials that include abusive or degrading sexual behavior for educational purposes. Movies such as “The Accused” and “The Rape of Love”, for example, present realistic representations of rape with the apparent intention of helping viewers to understand the reprehensible nature of rape, and the agony experienced by rape victims.
The Science Behind Pornography Addiction
Permission-Giving Beliefs are a set of beliefs that imply that my behavior is normal, acceptable, common and/or doesn’t hurt anyone so I have permission to continue to behave in the way that I am. In all types of violence and addiction, Permission-Giving Beliefs are involved. Examples would include “All men go to prostitutes”, “Women like sex mixed with violence” and “Children enjoy sex with adults”. These particular Permission-Giving Beliefs are also common in pornography…
[Performers in the sex industry] have high rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder which is a particularly serious disorder and dissociative identity disorder which used to be called multiple personality disorder. The experience I find most common among the performers is that they have to be drunk, high or dissociated in order to go to work.
Why We Reproduce Pictures from Pornography
…sometimes there’s no other way to make a point but to show a picture. Describing scenes of torture and misery with words is one thing. Pictures are more compelling, less mediated. It was the photographs from Abu Ghraib that made it such a scandal.
Pictures are important part of how porn works. Countless images from porn show abusers what to do and help them believe abuse is normal. Pornographic pictures are also used to season victims–especially children. We want people to see the raw truth and judge for themselves.
Intentions are important. Our purpose is not to make a commercial profit, or stimulate ourselves with pictures of others in pain. We are trying to get people to feel compassion for their fellow humans in the pictures and stop feeding the sex industry with money.
Testimony in
Massachusetts: Johns who like porn are the most dangerous and potentially violent (explicit language)
Some of the most violent pornography that I saw was in the houses of customers that I saw through escort services. Sometimes they had magazines with women being gang raped, urinated on, defecated on and being penetrated with inhuman objects like scissors. A lot of times these men were high on cocaine or other drugs and would watch pornographic films for hours and hours while having sex with one woman after another. I considered the men who were into pornography to be the most dangerous and potentially violent since that is what aroused them. One time a customer took out a heavy leather belt and started beating me across the stomach and breasts. He was into pornography which showed young girls tying each other up and whipping each other. I tried to remain calm and keep it like a game even though I was in a great deal of pain. I convinced him to reverse roles and let me whip him instead. I had large purple bruises on my body the next day.
Testimony in Minneapolis: Prostitutes and Porn (explicit language)
Pornography was our textbook. We learned the tricks of the trade by men exposing us to pornography and us trying to mimic what we saw. I could not stress enough what a huge influence we feel this was. Somehow it was okay. These pictures were real men and women who appeared to be happy consenting adults, engaged in human sexuality…
Men would constantly want to do what they have seen in pornography. If pornography was not actually in the room with the client, there would be constant reference. One example is that a woman was in a room with two clients, one man told the other that he had seen some pictures of women who had shaved their pubic hair and that it had turned him on. They then proceeded with a jackknife to remove the woman’s pubic hairs, plucking and burning what the knife had missed. They made comments of how her hairless vagina reminded them of their young daughters’ genitals. They then, of course, engaged in intercourse.
Women were forced constantly to enact specific scenes that men had witnessed in pornography. They would direct women to copy postures and poses of things they had seen in magazines and then they would take their own pictures of the women…
When Deep Throat was released, we experienced men joking and demanding oral sex…
This is another story of a woman who is currently working downtown in Minneapolis.
“I was the main woman of a pimp who filmed sexual acts almost every night in our home. The dope man, who supplied us with cocaine for free in exchange for these arranged orgies, was a really freaky man who would do anything. They arranged to have women, who I assumed were forced to be there, have sex with dogs and filmed those acts. There were stacks of films all over the house, which my pimp used to blackmail people with.”
Testimony in Minneapolis: Prostitutes Blackmailed with Porn
…on many occasions, my clients are multi-, many-, rape victims. These rapes are often either taped or have photographs taken of the event. The young woman, when she tries to escape or leaves, is told that either she continues her involvement in prostitution or those pictures will be sent to her parents, will be sent to the juvenile court, will be used against her. And out of fear, she will continue her involvement in prostitution.
On several occasions, not many but on several occasions, these young women have found that later that their pictures have been published in pornographic magazines without their knowledge and consent. This is very traumatic, especially when I have been working hard with this young woman to make things in her life better. She is involved in the straight lifestyle and finds out there are published pictures of her engaged in various sex acts.
Linda Lovelace: When people see the movie Deep Throat, “they’re watching me being raped” (explicit language)
Linda Lovelace starred in the movie. Later, she said she had been coerced into doing it by her husband at the time, Chuck Traynor. “Virtually every time someone watches that movie, they’re watching me being raped,” she told the Meese Commission on Pornography in 1986. Wikipedia reports, “Traynor and [director Gerard] Damiano confirmed in interviews that Traynor was extremely controlling towards Boreman [Lovelace] and also hit her on occasion. In the documentary Inside Deep Throat…it is claimed that bruises are visible on Boreman’s body in the movie.”
[Amazing.net/Goflix.com sells this movie today as “the funniest sexually explicit romp to come along in motion picture history.”]
Video Presentation: A Content Analysis of 50 of Today’s Top Selling Porn Films (explicit language)
A number of porn defenders claim that anti-porn activists harp on unusual, violent, women-hating examples of porn, and unfairly downplay the existence of ‘artistic’ porn on sites like Suicide Girls. anthonyjk_6319 believes that porn sites like “Gag on My Cock” and “Anal Suffering” are the “exception”, and that the “overwhelming majority of porn (something like 99.8%) deals only in consenting nonviolent sex acts.”
To clear up confusion about what porn is generally about, academic researchers Robert Wosnitzer, Ana Bridges, and Erica Scharrer, together with coders like Michelle Chang, analyzed 50 recent top selling porn films selected from lists compiled by Adult Video News, the leading trade journal of the porn industry…
Porn actress: “…I think he saw the opportunity to kind of take advantage that…I wasn’t really going to say much, I wasn’t going to stop the scene altogether because I’m still new and I don’t want to be blacklisted…”
Ana Bridges: “…I’m going to begin to talk about what it is that we found after looking at these 304 scenes in these 50 top selling pornographic films. In total in the 304 scenes we coded a total of 3,376 acts of aggression. That ends up averaging…to an aggressive act every minute and a half. The scenes on average contained eleven and a half acts of verbal or physical aggression…
“So how many scenes didn’t contain aggression? About 10%…”
Martin Amis: “A rough trade” (explicit)
“Rocco has far more power in this industry than any actress,” said Stagliano, pleased to be pulling one back for the boys (generally speaking, men are the also-rans of porno). “I was the first to shoot Rocco. Together we evolved toward rougher stuff. He started to spit on girls. A strong male-dominant thing, with women being pushed to their limit. It looks like violence but it’s not. I mean, pleasure and pain are the same thing, right? Rocco is driven by the market. What makes it in today’s market place is reality.”
…Regan Starr who worked on the second film in this “line”, Rough Sex 2… “I got the shit kicked out of me,” she said. “I was told before the video–and they said this very proudly, mind you–that in this line most of the girls start crying because they’re hurting so bad…. I couldn’t breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset, and they didn’t stop. They kept filming. You can hear me say, ‘Turn the fucking camera off’, and they kept going.”
What Porn Is: Selections from Mainstream Porn (explicit language)
Let’s investigate with Robert Jensen what passes for “entertainment”, “art” and “happy actors” in today’s mainstream porn industry:
This analysis is based primarily on three qualitative studies of pornographic videos I have conducted since 1996. I use the term “mainstream” to describe the tapes because I excluded what many would consider the non-representative fringe of the pornography market — bondage and sadomasochistic tapes; any tape that advertised explicit violence, urination, or defecation; and child pornography (the only material clearly illegal everywhere in the United States)… I visited stores that sold “adult product” (the industry’s preferred term) and asked clerks and managers to help me select the most commonly rented and purchased tapes. I wanted to avoid the common accusation that feminist critics of pornography pick out the worst examples, the most violent material, to critique. In one of the stores I visited, the section from which I rented tapes is actually labeled “mainstream…”
“Two in the Seat #3” is a 2003 release from Red Light District… The two men who…enter the scene begin a steady stream of insults, calling her “a dirty, nasty girl,” “a little fucking cunt,” “a little slut.” After the standard progression of oral and vaginal sex, she asks one to “Please put your cock in my ass.” During the double-penetration on the floor, her vocalizations sound pained. She’s braced against the couch, moving very little. The men spank her, and her buttock is visibly red. One man asks, “Are you crying?” which leads to this exchange:
Claire: “No, I’m enjoying it.”
Man: “Damn, I thought you were crying. It was turning me on when I thought you were crying.”
Claire: “Would you like me to?”
Man: “Yea, give me a fucking tear. Oh, there’s a fucking tear…”
“Gag Factor #10” is a 2002 release from J.M. Productions. The company’s web site notes the Gag Factor tapes’ awards as “best oral series” and answers the question, “What makes Gag Factor different than all other blowjob tapes out there?”…
…Every girl gets throatfucked until she gags and almost pukes!…
The pornographers want to label any collective discussion of the meaning of intimacy and sexuality as repression. They want to derail any talk about a sexual ethic. They, of course, have a sexual ethic: Anything goes. On the surface that seems to be freedom: Consenting adults should be free to choose. I agree they should. But in a society in which power is not equally distributed, “anything goes” translates into “anything goes for men, and some women and children will suffer for it…”
Gail Dines Presents: Pornography and Pop Culture (explicit)
[From porn websites:]
“We fuck them in the face ’till they cry!”…
“SWEET TEEN ASSES FUCKED N SUFFERING FROM EXCRUCIATING ANAL PAIN!”…
“WHOOAAH!! that fucking hurts!”…
“When [Boink magazine] started, women were clamoring to get into this… What is going on in this culture that so many female students from BU want to go into this?… Now this is a story on the ‘donkey punch’… This was some sex tips in the first edition of Boink, and the donkey punch is a sexual technique developed specifically by men because women have the potential to become ‘loose as a goose’ and it’s hard to do what you want to do, i.e. ejaculate. So let me tell you what this suggests. This suggests you enter her from behind, and if she’s loose as a goose then what you do is pound away, and then, at the pivotal moment, you smack her hard on the head. She’ll get a shock, pull her muscles up, and then you get to ejaculate…”
The Psychology of Porn for Men
Bill Margold, one of the industry’s longest-serving film performers, was interviewed in 1991 by psychoanalyst Robert Stoller for his book Porn: Myths For The Twentieth Century. Margold made no attempt to gloss over the realities. “My whole reason for being in this industry is to satisfy the desire of the men in the world who basically don’t care much for women and want to see the men in my industry getting even with the women they couldn’t have when they were growing up. So we come on a woman’s face or brutalise her sexually: we’re getting even for lost dreams…”
Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution, Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs
In 1995, Human Communication Research reported on a meta-analysis of 33 different studies. Researchers found that “Exposure to pornography increases behavioral aggression. While there are many factors that influence this effect (for example, the content of the pornography viewed), the researchers conclude that a connection between exposure to pornography and subsequent behavioral aggression exists.”
In 2000, researchers reported in Annual Review of Sex Research that “A relationship exists between frequent pornography consumption and sexually aggressive behavior. This relationship is especially strong for those with the highest “predisposing” risk level for sexual aggression. Those who are at high risk for sexual aggression and who frequently consume pornography have sexual aggression levels that are four times higher than those who do not consume pornography frequently.”
The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research
[In a meta-analysis of 46 studies published in various academic journals,] Oddone-Paolucci, Genuis, and Violato found that exposure to pornographic material puts one at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies [e.g., excessive or ritualistic masturbation], committing sexual offenses, experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and accepting rape myths. In terms of the degree of risk, the analysis revealed a 31 percent increase in the risk of sexual deviancy, a 22 percent increase in the risk of sexual perpetration, a 20 percent increase in the risk of experiencing negative intimate relationships, and a 31 percent increase in the risk of believing rape myths…
Northampton Shelter Coordinators: Porn a Factor in Many Cases of Domestic Abuse
Women who work with battered women say they also are convinced that pornography creates violence against women. At Necessities/Necessidades, a Northampton shelter for battered women, advocates are so convinced of the link between porn and violence that they have started asking women if their batterers use pornography.
Often, according to Gail W. Kielson, a direct service coordinator for the group, they do.
“The man will do something he has seen in pornography or ask her to replicate something he saw,” said Kielson. “Women will say they’re being forced to do things that make them feel dirty, or that they believe is wrong.”
Testimony from Northampton Shelter for Battered Women: Half of Abusers Use Pornography as a Part of the Abuse (explicit)
My name is Gail Kielson and I work at Necessities/Necesidades, an organization in Northampton, Massachusetts that provides services to battered women. I am a Licensed MSW, and for 17 years have worked with women and children who were living with abuse. I am unable to testify in person today be
cause we at Necessities/Necesidades are short-staffed and it is essential that I be there to work with the women using our services, many of whom are living in life-threatening situations.
We have recently begun to formally ask the battered women who call us whether the abuser uses pornography and from this we conservatively estimate that at least 1/2 of the abusers use pornography as a part of the abuse. Battering is based on an issue of power and control, with the abuser using all kinds of methods to continually assert his power and control over the woman. Throughout, he is persistently working to deny her of her ability to make informed decisions about her life and through threats, coercion, and continual terror succeeds at clearly establishing himself as “in control”. We frequently hear a woman say that she feels like a prisoner in her own home, and in fact, she is.
The use of pornography is but one means that an abuser uses to degrade and humiliate the woman. The stories that I hear are horrific and just when I think I’ve heard it all, I hear another horrifying story that sends me reeling. Women frequently state that abusers bring home pornographic videos and make them perform the acts depicted in the video. One woman described endless days and nights of this, with her husband demanding that she leave her place of business, a shop that she owned, and come home and enact the sexual tortures depicted on the videos… Another woman said that her partner used pornographic books and read portions to her and then made her perform the degrading sexual acts described therein. Another woman said, tearfully, that her husband brought home pornographic videos and made her have sex with other men as he watched her and the videos simultaneously. Another woman said that her partner, while watching pornographic videos, raped her with all kinds of objects–pipes, sticks, knives…
Pornography is but one example of the underlying societal sanctions of violence against women that is endemic and epidemic in our country. I am working, daily, minute by minute, to arrest this epidemic.
Statement of Rev. Susan Wilhelm: “…the sex became especially abusive after he started using pornography” (explicit language)
He exposed me to the pornography, too. Once we saw an X-rated film that showed anal intercourse. After that, he pressed me to try it. I agreed to once, but found the experience very painful. He kept trying periodically. He told me my vagina had become as sloppy as an old sow’s and he could not get pleasure any other way. He also used to pinch and bite me. When I said “it hurts,” he would say, “no, it doesn’t.” I became numb. I lost track of my own feelings. One time, he said in reference to himself sexually, “it’s supposed to hurt.”
Everywoman Center Coordinator: Porn Damages Women; Porn Addiction
Stacey Roth, coordinator of an educational outreach program at Everywoman Center, a women’s advocacy group at the University of Massachusetts, said that, based on accounts of area women speaking about their experiences with domestic abuse, she agrees with recent arguments that pornography damages women.
“Typically, a woman will say that her boyfriend is into very violent forms of pornography and likes to act out specific aspects of that, and she doesn’t know how to stop it,” Roth said, “or a battered woman might perceive a connection between the pornography in her household and the bouts of violence…
“In no other case [of media communications] are people so quick to discount the argument about the human cost, which I think reflects how low protection of women ranks in our priorities. We’re quicker to protest media (material) that depicts the mistreatment of animals than of women,” Roth said. “A society does need to make choices about what attitudes it wants to condone.”
Porn Confuses Young Men about How to Behave
There’s a professor of psychology at UMass Boston who has done his doctoral dissertation and subsequent research on sexual aggression among young college males, and he’s found that in dozens and dozens of interviews that young guys will sit there in a room with him, and they’ll admit to or talk matter-of-factly about, “I did this to her, I did that, and we did this and that,” and they never once refer to themselves as rapists, of course, and they never once refer to the behavior that they’ve engaged in as raping behavior, or in any way criminal. But this psychologist will tell you that he knows that if they were under oath in the court of law, they would be admitting to first degree felonies, but they think it’s normal, perfectly natural herterosexual relations.
I travel around the country and speak to college audiences, both male and female, and mixed audiences, and one thing I find over and over again, in frank discussions, is that pornography is extremely influential in the lives of young boys growing up today, and girls, but specifically I speak to guys. This blizzard of images of women in degrading and humiliating positions, guys just come to think of that as normal.
Young New Yorkers Talk about Porn’s Effect on their Relationships (explicit language)
Over beers recently, a 26-year-old businessman friend shocked me by casually remarking, “Dude, all of my friends are so obsessed with Internet porn that they can’t sleep with their girlfriends unless they act like porn stars.”
Influence of Porn on Sex Practices: Dispatches from the Field (explicit language)
Jezebel is a busy website devoted to “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion. Without airbrushing”. It’s a Gawker property and hardly a bastion of anti-porn sentiment. Here are excerpts from a December 12 post, “How About You Don’t Ask To Come On My Face On The First Date?”, followed by selected comments from Jezebel readers…
Sarahmc: Men are so focussed on what’s happening in porn, they are no longer able to get hot over the living, breathing woman right in front of them. Porn has completely skewed men’s expectations of sex, of women, of relationships…
It scares me to realize that a lot of guys want to fuck you ’cause they hate you, not ’cause they think you’re sexy…
My ex-husband loved to talk about how he wanted to fuck his hot young female coworkers that annoyed him, like it was some sort of punishment or something.
It always made me wonder what he thought about sex with me…
Testimony in Minneapolis: Prevalency of pornography amongst our offenders
I would first like to comment on the incidents in which we have seen a direct relationship between pornography and crime… I can tell you about a young married woman who we saw whose husband had the house so filled with his collections of pornography, she was too embarrassed to allow her in-laws or her family to come in. She finally came to us for help when she was left hanging upside down in the bedroom, even though the baby was crying and in need of nursing.
The second case I will tell y
ou about is the kidnap of two young junior high school women in my county who were kidnapped on their way home from school and taken out into the woods and held captive over night by a young man who had constructed a very interesting tree fort in which he had papered the walls with pornography, and spent two hours assaulting these two fourteen-year-old girls following illustrations from the pornographic magazines that he had collected.
The third one I will tell you about is a gang of juveniles who papered the attic to their parents’ garage with pornographic magazines. They kidnapped an eight-year-old neighborhood girl and gang-raped her.
Testimony in Minneapolis: With Growth of Porn, Rapists Show Less Remorse
[L]iterally hundreds of women have mentioned to me the anger and despair they feel when their husbands, lovers, or other male partners press upon them specific sexual acts which these men learned from pornographic materials–acts of bestiality, sodomy, “swinging”, forced group sex, etc. The men feel such pressure on women is acceptable because porn is acceptable, and pornography was the so-called “educational” source…
[T]he work of Dr. Natalie Shainess (psychiatrist of New York) and Dr. Frank Osanka [sic] (psychologist and child-abuse specialist, Chicago) show that convicted rapists who, even five to seven years ago, expressed remorse about their acts of violence, recently show no such remorse and often cite as a reason for their guiltlessness that “everyone knows women want to be raped; all the porn stuff proves that.”
New York Times: “The Girls Next Door”; Worldwide Sex Trafficking; Role of Porn
If anything, the women I talked to said that the sex in the U.S. is even rougher than what the girls face on Calle Santo Tomas. Rosario, a woman I met in Mexico City, who had been trafficked to New York and held captive for a number of years, said: ”In America we had ‘special jobs.’ Oral sex, anal sex, often with many men. Sex is now more adventurous, harder.” She said that she believed younger foreign girls were in demand in the U.S. because of an increased appetite for more aggressive, dangerous sex. Traffickers need younger and younger girls, she suggested, simply because they are more pliable. In Eastern Europe, too, the typical age of sex-trafficking victims is plummeting; according to Matei of Reaching Out, while most girls used to be in their late teens and 20’s, 13-year-olds are now far from unusual.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Cyber Crimes Center in Fairfax, Va., are finding that when it comes to sex, what was once considered abnormal is now the norm. They are tracking a clear spike in the demand for harder-core pornography on the Internet. ”We’ve become desensitized by the soft stuff; now we need a harder and harder hit,” says I.C.E. Special Agent Perry Woo…
Testimony in Minneapolis: Likeness of TV Star “Rhoda” Misappropriated by Pornographers; Aspiring Actresses Vulnerable to Being Enticed into Porn
[Valerie Harper, star of the TV show Rhoda:] “I was told about an advertisement in Hustler magazine which I saw. It was for T-shirts called Shock Tops that people could send away for. The buyer had their choice of seven famous women pictured in the nude; all of our full names were listed and, of course, choice of color of T-shirt. I was appalled and angry and had meetings with a lawyer regarding what action I should take. All my then advisors, this attorney, my personal manager (regarding career) and my business manager (regarding accounting and finances) advised strongly against taking any action whatsoever. They all concurred that it would be extremely costly and would draw attention to and sell more of the shirts.
“I retained another lawyer who in several phone calls seemed to scare the magazine sufficiently as to discontinue the advertisement. He checked the magazine the following issue and the ad was not there. From there I dropped the whole matter, hoping it was over but feeling quite incomplete and unsatisfied about it.
“As a young dancer-actress-singer in New York City, I experienced first-hand (and have heard countless accounts from many other women in these fields and modeling) continual attempts to convince, that pornography, photography, films, et cetera were a stepping stone to stardom. Young people and children are particularly vulnerable to this kind of enticement in New York City and Los Angeles as they are show business centers. A common statement was, and may still be, ‘Marilyn Monroe did that calendar and look what she became.'”
Porn Company Puts 14-Year-Old Girl on Box Cover
Porn defenders rally around the cry “consenting adults”, but once again we find one or both of these elements missing in the porn industry. As reported in the Daily Mail on August 13, UK citizen Lara Jade Coton is suing a US porn producer for putting a picture of her aged 14 on “Body Magic”, one of its DVDs.
Coton’s lawsuit “accuses TVX Films and its president Bob Burge of copyright infringement, civil conspiracy, misappropriation of her image, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Coton’s lawyer, Richard Harrison, said Burge was not contrite after he received a complaint from Coton about the misuse of her image. Harrison said Burge emailed Coton to say, “Actually, removing your image will help improve the sale of the DVD. So far it bombed.”
Testimony in Los Angeles: Peter Bogdanovich on Porn and Hollywood
Since Dorothy [Stratten] was killed, a lot of women have written to me or told me what Playboy has done to them [Stratten, who appeared in Playboy, was murdered by her pimp husband]. Even if they manage to avoid personal liaison within the sex factories, they spend the rest of their lives trying to forget it, or live it down, or cover it up, or get away from it. Other young women have been tricked, pressured, blackmailed into pornography, and they have trouble, there’s trouble getting them out. Actresses who have consented to some nudity in legitimate films, pictures of this have been put into pornography without their consent. Cybill Shepherd had that happen to her when, from a picture we did together–and believe me, if I had that scene to do over again, we’d just as soon not do it naked, because it wasn’t really necessary.
There are lucky ones who won lawsuits. They could afford lawsuits, but didn’t repair what happened to them. Since my last testimony, I’ve been in touch with many people in the entertainment field… They, along with the people that I’m mentioning, the silent people, they’re all afraid to come down here and tell you exactly about their experiences… Women who were in pornography are afraid to speak out because it will call attention to their past, which will destroy the margin of legitimacy that they have been able to establish for themselves. These women live in fear of exposure, and there are a lot of them.
Testimony in Los Angeles: Pornographers Place Recruitment Ads for “Models” in Newspapers
Our opponents chant ‘consenting adults’ like a magic formula to ward off all criticism, yet time and again we see pornographers making a mockery of the idea of informed consent, let alone informed consent from people unpressured by money troubles…
“…she proceeded to tell me her friend, who’s on welfare, has three children, saw an ad in the newspaper. It said, ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ And she brought it in and showed it to me, and it’s very typical in all the newspapers: Modeling, $300 a day.
“…when the woman I know did not get involved, the young woman who was involved in all of this was given ‘punishment’ for not having the friend come along. She was then, began to be threatened. The young woman came home with welts on her arms and the young woman I know kept saying, ‘they’re beating you.’ And she’s saying, ‘No, no, it’s all right. It’s all right.’ She pulled her shirt up quickly and saw there’s welts all over her back. There’s track marks on her arm, and then she confessed to her that she was told there would be harm to her children if she didn’t cooperate.”
Los Angeles Times: “In California’s Unregulated Porn Film Industry, an Alarming Number of Performers Are Infected With HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. And Nobody Seems to Care.”
[I]n studios in the San Fernando Valley…actors and actresses were working on movies. They put in long hours, commonly without meal breaks. They often worked without clean toilets, toilet paper, soap or water. More importantly, they were exposed to a host of infectious, and sometimes fatal, diseases…
But California regulators and political officials don’t believe the public is worried about protecting the porn stars themselves– despite the enormous popularity of the films they produce. As David Gurley, staff attorney for the California Labor Commissioner’s office, says: “Porn stars–people think they’re not worth the time. The public sees these people as disposable…”
Kara Nox, adult film star, on “What don’t you like about porn?”
A: …Mostly, it’s the attitude among many men that I’m subhuman. The degradation of women is getting worse. Conditions for women on set are becoming more and more dangerous. As porn grows, more men with Neanderthalean views of women are getting power as talent, and producers. The results are increased acceptance of violence onset. Women face enough danger outside of porn. It seems as though many of the men we fear are now doing porn, and they legitimize their misogyny by saying it’s for entertainment value. That scares the shit out of me, because it means there are even more troglodytes watching this, and geting off on women being hurt.
Jenna Jameson’s Tragic Backstory; Seeking Virgins with Paris Hilton
COOPER: …[I]f you had a daughter, if she came to you and said that she wanted to get into that industry?
JAMESON: I’d tie her in the closet. Only because this is such a hard industry for a woman to get ahead and get the respect that she deserves. I fought tooth and nail to get to where I am, and it’s not something that I would want my daughter to go through. It’s not something that any parent would choose for their child.
Carol Smith, former porn performer, quoted in Not For Sale
Cited in Biting Beaver; see our reviews of essays in this book
“What I saw were women just like myself who were desperate, addicted to drugs, homeless, and I’m sure probably at least 80 percent of them suffered from sexual abuse as children. I saw them re-living their childhood experiences by getting into that industry. They were looking for attention, pleasing men, and being abused. And that’s all they know. They think it’s great. They think it’s wonderful. I could’ve looked you in the eye ten years ago and told you that I loved being in pornography, was proud of what I was doing and that I was having a great time. But now I can tell you that it’s so far from the truth. I was very convincing. I could convince you. I mean, I could walk up to a porn star today and she could tell me the same story and I can remember being in that place.”
Porn Actresses: Most Careers Are Short, Few Are Lucrative (explicit language)
Raffaëla Anderson and the French Porno Industry (explicit language)
Raffaëla also wrote about the sexual exploitation of women and the human suffering she has witnessed in the porno industry, including the case of Eastern European women, who are trafficked into the French porno industry (these women are poor and forced to “work” to pay their pimps):
“I consider those scenes [of double and triple penetration] as real ‘hardcore’ […]. Other girls had to do worse. Starting with double vaginal penetration, double anal penetration, then both at the same time. Imagine four guys, North-South, East-West, and the girl on doggie-style, barely able to breathe, during a two-minute close-up, the minimal time required […]. I’ve seen those girls [from Eastern Europe] suffering and crying […]. Imagine a girl with no experience, not speaking the [same] language, far away from her home, sleeping at a hotel or on the set. She’s got to do a double penetration, a vaginal fisting, along with an anal fisting, sometimes both at the same time, a hand up her ass, sometimes too. At the end, you’ve got a girl in tears who’s pissing blood because of lesions, and who generally shits herself because noboby explained to her that she needed to have an enema.[…] After the scene which they are not allowed to interrupt, and anyway nobody listens to them, the girls get two hours to rest. They get back on the set […]. The director and the producer encourage those practices […] because the consumer asks for them.”
— Raffaëla Anderson, in Hard, published by Grasset (Paris), translated from French…
Interviewed by IFQ, Shick Garcia also said:
“There are very heart breaking and horrible things about the pornographic world. But, most of those things happened to actresses and actors long before they arrived in the pornography world. The pornography industry is just a place where a lot of victims relive their abuse, where they can continue to destroy themselves like their abusers destroyed them. That’s what is the most disturbing to me. The incest, rapes, child abuse and neglect that become the springboard for a lot of participants to enter the industry. People in the industry will tell you this isn’t true, but I learned everything to the contrary. This excuse makes it easier to go to work, that’s all.”