Ethical, Empowering
& Tasteful.
The Porn we like!
[wtr-time]
“Porn will be there whether you want it or not. And either you do nothing, stay passive and watch from the side how people get harmed OR you take an active stand and work toward creating an ethical adult media industry.”
Porn has a long history of being dirty and filthy. It is recognized as a non-artistic form of sexual expression. Often seen unpleasant in the eyes of the public and is associated with many negative words and thoughts. In 1972 a famous pornographic film was released, “Deep Throat”. The film (alongside with Andy Warhol’s “Blue movie”) was at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984) and (unfortunately) it didn’t gain much of positive fame for the adult media industry. We can debate about the ethics of its production, but one thing is sure, this pornographic film started a vigorous conversation about sexual equalities in pleasure. It showed that women, same as men, can (and should) orgasm and feel joy during sexual acts. It also initiated pornographic production on a massive scale. Taking into consideration the fact that sex is an enormous part of our lives and porn has been exploring its variations for a very long time, one would expect the screening of pornography to evolve into a sophisticated form of sexual expression. Still, instead, it turned into “charmless rendering of human sexuality”1.
These days, there is still too much porn that focuses on man’s pleasure exclusively; it doesn’t paint a realistic image of sexual behaviours and way too often has an unethical or suspicious production side. The lousy fame is being imprinted all over, again and again, leaving society with a bitterish taste about porn. But we must try to change it. Porn is so largely distributed and easily accessible. It becomes a part of our lives at a very early stage, often as early as puberty. It influences our sexual behaviour. It forms an understanding of what sex is and how to treat another human being during this very intimate encounter.
Quoting Linda Williams: “…our own sense of touch is invoked when we watch touching on the screen”2, pornographic films awaken many emotions within us, and it is in society’s interest to ensure it’s done in a tasteful, respectful and ethical way.
At some point, when working on content creation for RedCheeks.org I Googled for synonyms of “porn”, and this is what came up: Obscenity, Impurity, Lewdness, Impropriety, Vulgarity, Coarseness, Crudity, Immoral, Indecent, Dirty, Salacious …
And that’s just the first few results which popped up on my screen! The further I looked, the more annoyed I was. But despite me being annoyed, I knew that unfortunately there is a reason for it.
A lot of adult media companies are unprofessional and disrespectful toward their performers. They don’t have the intention of creating a socially responsible erotic media that will empower and encourage a positive image of sexual acts.
I have heard many stories of models not being paid, signing release forms while being intoxicated, being forced to perform under different conditions than what was discussed, and (the most terrifying, though probably not that surprising) being sexually assaulted! And that’s not the right way of running an adult media business. It seems like some of these individuals or businesses labelled themselves as an adult media company only to take advantage of vulnerable individuals. It’s not only harmful to the performers, but it’s also damaging for the consumers. These companies are there rendering distasteful images of intimate sexual acts that become toxic to our sex life.
Fortunately, there is a bright side, the side which should be promoted to the public more. There are adult media companies that put ethical treatment very high in their business hierarchy and understand their social responsibilities. Their human-centric approach helps in the creation of tasteful and more realistic erotica. The companies that have nothing to be afraid of will make the information available, enabling the performers and consumers to make meaningful decisions! These companies will care about models’ safety and comfort on the set. These companies aren’t interested in rendering a distasteful image of sexual acts, but they want to bring a change that will have a positive impact on society. In the end, having a fruitful intimate relationship awakes happiness within us. We often desire a hug, a touch or a kiss; we want to be happy and feel appreciated. If the porn films can evoke all these emotions, we as producers, models and consumers need to take responsibility for what we create or feed our mind with.
Luckily these companies are growing and setting up an example for others, creating more ethical work opportunities. Showing to the world that screening sexual acts can be respectful, empowering and beautiful.
Porn will be there whether you want it or not. And either you do nothing, stay passive and watch from the side how people get harmed OR you take an active stand and work toward creating an ethical adult media industry.
One final thought. Wouldn’t be amazing if one day, when you type in your search engine “porn”, instead of seeing a list of all filthy words the following synonyms would come up: Pleasure, Ethics, Empowerment, Purity, Morality, Honest, Real, Tastefulness, Decency, Rights, Manners.
Let’s work toward better and more ethical porn together!
References:
- About. (n.d.). Beautiful Agony. Retrieved December 6, 2020, from https://beautifulagony.com/
- Williams, L. (2008). Screening Sex (a John Hope Franklin Center Book) (Illustrated ed.) [E-book]. Duke University Press Books. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388630
