Censorship In The Adult Industry
Censoring An Already Vulnerable Community
Censorship in the adult industry is not anything new. I have been making clips for around 2 years now, and there is something I have witnessed since the start. A mob of people will “call out” a performer regarding content they have created and demand that this person’s career be ended. They will harass these performers on social media, on their clip site profiles, and contact clip site owners. They will threaten to leave the platform if this person, or the category they are upset with, isn’t removed. Time and time again I have seen this play out. Humiliation, racial domination, blasphemy, coerced bi, ahegao, and BDSM. These are just a few categories that I have seen people take issue with and declare a call-to-action.
Unfortunately, time and time again I have also seen clip platforms give in to these mobs of people. They usually handle it by banning certain performers from their platform, or they start banning certain content. The bad thing about this is when you give in the first time, it opens a door for even more extortion in the future from these “woke af” mobs. If these platforms want to put their foot down in the future, it’s going to be even more difficult. It will lead to increasing harassment because these people know if they push hard enough, they will get what they want like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.
Another huge issue with this is that the adult community is already so censored by society and laws. Now our very own community is censoring itself even more. So not only does the adult community have to deal with societal stigma, it also has to deal with self sabotage within its own community. It makes fighting the stigma even more difficult because we as a community can’t even stand strong together.
Forward Thinking Or Infringing Upon Freedom Of Expression?
The people that participate in these mob attacks claim that they are making the adult community a more accepting and safe environment for all, but is that really true?
First off, they are causing harm to other people’s income by getting them removed from platforms, and slandering their name to potential clients. Many adult entertainers keep their personal life private. For all anyone knows, they could be providing for their entire family, and now they have less of a paycheck to feed their kids, elderly family members, pets, special needs family; who knows. This behavior is not progressive, it’s toxic.
Secondly, by estranging certain pornography categories, these people are actively kink shaming the customers that enjoy them. Something to keep in mind as I’ve talked about before in a previous article, is that there are a lot of people out there that feel guilty or wrong about having certain fetishes. So when these categories get targeted and picked apart as “bad” and “disgusting” and whatnot, that could very well be emotionally difficult for consumers to read and end up feeling even more confliction within themselves. We do not choose our kinks! It’s also frustrating to see performers get all the heat for supplying a demand set by customers. If a customer comes to someone and offers to pay their custom rate for a racial domination clip and the performer accepts, is the customer or the performer racist? The answer is neither, because porn is a fantasy, not reality.
The Hypocrisy Of Censorship In The Adult Industry
It’s a very well known fact, that porn is all acting and fantasy. Then why do these problematic performers forget that all of a sudden when it comes to fetishes? When we watch Hollywood films, we know it’s not real. When Leonardo DiCaprio played in “Django Unchained” he used racial slurs throughout the movie and did a lot of disgusting things in that role. Because that was the character he was playing. Playing that character does not make him racist. Christoph Waltz played a Nazi in “Inglourious Basterds” (can you tell I love Quentin Tarantino?) and gives a monologue in the first part of the movie where he likens Jews to rats. Does that make him anti-semitic? Again the answer is no, because he’s just playing a role in a movie. What’s the difference regarding porn? There is none. It’s still just acting.
What Can You Do?
I’m going to assume we are all adults here, because it is the adult industry after all. So why can’t everyone act like adults? If you see a clip that you are uncomfortable with, move on. If you see a category you don’t agree with, don’t interact with it. As long as there is no clear or obvious harm, of course.
You are able to block people and mute terms on social media and on clip platforms. More people should take advantage of that ability! If it’s not illegal or harming someone, there should not be any sort of intervention where we need censorship in the adult community. Doing so in return harms more than it helps! Instead of progressing forward, we end up moving backwards. In an industry already struggling for equality, the last thing we need is censorship from our adult industry peers. No one should be making it even more difficult to achieve that equality and respect, and furthering the stigma on adult entertainment.
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