Sex…it’s one of the oldest profession there is, and one of the most controversial. This week, for Porno Friday we will be looking at the sex workers themselves. While sex workers include everyone from call girls and rent boys to strippers and lap dancers, given the title of this series, we will be focusing on Porn Stars. People have a lot of strong feelings about porn stars, so we thought we would ask the question of whether or not what they do is ethical, and whether or not that matters.
A lot of opposition over the porn industry derives from concerns over the wellbeing of the stars themselves. Some people believe that these men and women are abused, violated, and exploited in order to make other people rich. However, I find these claims extremely condescending to the performers.
By objecting to porn out of concern for the performers you are undermining their freedom of choice. You are saying that the men and women of the porn industry are incapable of making decisions about their body for themselves. You are saying they made the wrong choice by entering the porn industry and that that decision has put them in a situation where they are unknowingly submitting to their own exploitation.
Porn is all about Autonomy. It is about empowering people with the ability to use their bodies however they want. Porn is about taking advantage of your own assets within the business world—the same as any other profession. The only difference is that the assets a porn star uses aren’t exactly the same skill set as a carpenter or a banker.
From my point of view, the most important possession a person can have is autonomy. I think it is important to respect others autonomy and the decisions they make. Whether those decisions lead them to sex work is irrelevant.
There is a lot to agree with Paul on this issue, I too, believe autonomy is very important and the right to do with one's assets as they see fit. I also do enjoy Porn, but I think Paul has generalized the "Porn Star" a bit too much. I could also rationalize my liking of porn to every porn star has make this conscious choice to capitalize on their best assets, but in reality is is not exactly like that.
It may be in the mainstream porn industry, which is a multi Billion dollar industry, that way, but we cannot generalize that all porn stars are there willingly. All you have to do is look at porn from third world countries. If given a choice to have a 9 to 5 job with a decent living wage, over spread eagle under hot lights and cameras rolling because they just can't survive on other living wages.
We can liken this to rationalizing that I just paid 12 dollars for a pair of sneakers at wally world and they assured me that the person who made them is some sweatshop making 10 cents day has made a conscious decision to do so. A conscious decision to do anything does not mean the person made that decision because its what they really wanted. It may have been an unwilling decision to fulfill an immediate need. I still like Porn.
True Dan...I agree with everything you said, I should have expanded my perspective before I wrote this.
You raise a really interesting and important point, Dan.O... and I think that's one reason (and a really good one, actually) why many people take issue with porn and the creation of porn. We know that in many cases, people can and do choose to engage in the sex industry because of need... and that for many of the individuals that do so, sex work isn't actually where they aspire to be. Especially, obviously, when people are brought into the sex industry without any choice at all... which is another issue altogether - a very serious one at that - and will probably be addressed at some point in more depth during this series.
But I appreciate you being honest and saying that although you recognize there are things that make you uncomfortable with some of the porn that exists out there, you still enjoy it. I think tons of people feel that way... and I think that's one of the things that lends itself to people feeling so conflicted around allowing themselves to enjoy porn. & I think that right there is the very reason why the feminist and queer porn movement was born, and is so appealing... because it isn't porn itself that is problematic... but sometimes it is the situations surrounding how it is made, who it is made for, and in turn the messages it sends to people about sex and sexuality, that may be problematic for some people.
Thanks very much for your comment.