In Defense of the Porn Industry

We want to know– are porn and crime inexorably linked? We would like to say, “No”– there’s nothing inherently criminal about consenting adults filming themselves getting it on for our benefit, yet the facts keep lining up against the idea that the porn industry can keep itself away from scandal. Underage sex, rampant drug use, barebacking, the list just goes on and on.

This is a mode of argument that we’ve heard countless times from the Christian right about the gay community: that we leave a trail of misery, addiction and crime in our wake, that we take advantage of innocent children, that lives are ruined and that we’re ruinious to the good institution of marriage. So congrats, Queerty, on taking up that venerable banner.

The flaws in this argument are legion, and unlike Japhy, who we otherwise respect as a journalist, we’ll spare you our hand-wringing on this issue. A few small points though:

Is gay porn inexorably linked with drugs?
Not any moreso, we’d say, than gay social culture at large.  We’re not big fans of the drug-and-barebacking circuit parties, but we would never mistake them for a representation of all gay “culture,” such as it is.  There is drug use in the porn community the same way that there are drugs in the gay community and drugs in the Hollywood community and drugs in the straight community.  Personally, we saw more eager drug use working among New York’s media elite than we ever have among porn stars.

Is gay porn inexorably linked with crime?

A couple of times a year, a gay porn model (most often a minor one) will turn up in the middle of a crime — it’s sensational so the mainstream media seizes on the connection and ties the two together. It’s the only time gay porn makes mainstream news, so it’s easy to see why they might feel the two go together. One of our grandmothers, who paid no attention to Hollywood gossip, would frequently rail against the immorality of the entertainment business she’d see on 60 Minutes: the Anna Nicoles, the Robert Downey Jrs, the OJs, the Phil Spectors. (For that matter, every time she saw a report on crime in the black community, she certainly extrapolated it to the whole as well.)

Does the porn industry have a responsibility to protect the youth who join it?
Absolutely. We need to make sure working conditions are safe and that models understand their rights. This isn’t an afterthought, but a major struggle within the industry. As for taking care of the charges mental or fiscal health — could you ask Disney to bear responsibility for the thousands of starlets who flood their gates and don’t make it? We do our best, but it’s important to note that these guys are of the age of consent — we need to respect that, while you might not EVER choose to make porn for yourself, hundreds of guys don’t feel that stigma or shame.

Does the porn industry bear a responsibility to larger gay culture? Are we a harm to the gay marriage movement?
I don’t know — does Jenna Jameson demean straight marriage? Certainly the Christian right will say yes. But as gay men we’re supposed to have an enlightened view of sex. If porn — and for that matter the Folsom Street Fair, and go-go boys at bars, and drag queens — are demeaning to the gay marriage movement, then it’s a movement we want none of.  Gay life should be a joyous, liberal-minded, multi-faceted existence. Not every aspect may be to your taste, and it may be filled with heartache and pain as well as celebration, but to point at us and say, “Yours is wrong and ours is right,” well, then you’ve just let the conservatives win. Enjoy your place at the table.

Is gay porn legit?
As a question, this is the most meaningless. If you mean, “respectable” then we’d say it’s in the eye of the beholder. We can’t make you or  your mom think that it — or gay indie film for that matter — is legit unless you think it is. If you mean legit as a legal, viable enterprise: we’d answer wholeheartedly “yes” — most porn is produced by small and mid-sized corporations paying taxes, funding 401Ks and distributing legally. But most importantly, it’s a legitimate part of the sex lives of many gay men: it shapes our sexual aesthetic, serves as instructional video and is enjoyed by us without shame or apology.

[ed note: Thus ends our op-ed ranting on any similar subject for at least another year.

RELATED:

Porn Stars To Producers: Condoms Not Enough!
Fundie Christian Wingnut Gets Invited to More Gay Sex Parties Than You Do
Bareback Lawsuits and a Heart-Warming Engagement
Folsom Street 2008: Our Gallery of Dreams
Sarah at Folsom! (NSFW)

Friday Forum: Can Gay Porn Ever Be Legit? (Queerty)

0 thoughts on “In Defense of the Porn Industry”

  1. The main point to make (and I think WAS made) was that gay porn in general is linked to a part of gay culture but is not representative of ALL gay culture. The same way straight porn is not representative of all straight culture.

    However, (and I preface this by saying that I enjoy watching/purchasing gay porn) it is becoming widely accepted in the straight community to, almost, embrace pornography as part of mainstream culture and influencing mainstream media whose main demographic is impressionable youth.
    Gay porn can very well follow this model if it hasn’t already. Particularly when gay youth hasn’t many other means of pop culture influence other than pornography and the alchohol/drug/club scene.
    Most of whom do these things illicitly before they turn of legal age.

    So, although I full-heartedly agree that gay porn is NOT representative of all gay culture. It is to our benefit, as homosexuals, to maintain some kind of distance between our real lives and those fantasies we (adults) find appealing in pornography.

    It’s a slippery slope. One that, provided we stay aware of, shouldn’t inhibit us from enjoying the pleasures that are found between consenting adults on legal forums and displays of sexual behaviour.

  2. Well put. Too many people work too hard in this industry. I love when “journalists” like Japhy (or Tyra) use pre-determined question and then, voila, arrive at the very point they were pretending to interrogate. We’ve all got a long way to go, but I’m sick of the ignorance by the mainstream gay media. Well done, guys.

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