Paying for Porn.
SIXTY-FOUR MILLION. The number of visitors who stop by PornHub, every day. That’s 44,000 sets of eyeballs every minute. In 2016, PornHubbers watched a whopping 4,599,000,000 hours of content. And Pornhub is only the world wide webs fifth most visited porn site. It’s safe to say, we consume a hell of a lot of porn!
Many of us, who have the means, are conscious of where our goods and services come from. We care about environmental impact, working conditions and the corporations that we cast our ‘consumer votes’ to. Yet, we don’t hold ourselves (or each other) to the same standards when it comes to consuming porn.
Perhaps this is because we are uncomfortable engaging in a public dialogue about our porn-watching habits? Or perhaps it’s because our unjustified judgements of sex workers help us turn a blind eye? Or perhaps we just didn’t realise there were any alternatives?
Introducing…. ‘Indie-Porn’!
For a good chunk of my adult years, I thought the only people who paid for porn, were the 40+ males in our society, still visiting brick and mortar sex shops, who hadn’t quite figured out how to navigate the free-porn-laden Internet.
Amidst my own deep dive into sex positivity, I stumbled upon the work of feminist adult film Producer and Director, Erika Lust. As I plucked up the courage and added my first film to my online shopping cart, I was curious but wasn’t feeling particularly... excited. I honestly expected to find an averagely engaging film, similar to those found in the lame ‘female friendly’ categories on all large porn sites (content that is clearly made by men “for women”).
I was wrong. Instead, I found a film that portrayed real intimacy, real pleasure, and in no way contained inappropriate aggression to women. Until the end of that film, I hadn’t realised that watching mainstream porn had actually been making me feel a bit… guilty.
Much to my delight, women like ‘Lust’, are at the forefront of a movement in the adult film industry. These Producers and Directors are committed to depicting sex stories with consenting adults, that give/receive pleasure as equals and represent a diversity of body types. Tired of “chauvinistic and tacky mainstream porn”, ethical filmmakers pay their actors fairly and pride themselves on creating safe and healthy working environments.
I don’t get it… why should I care about where my porn comes from?
There is a deeply embedded misconception in our society, that if you pay for porn, you are some kind of creep. This is unsurprising, but it certainly isn’t true.
Here are just a few fundamental reasons why you should care where your porn comes from:
To protect the actors and the industry
Gone are the ‘golden days’ of porn, where big budgets were abundant and film releases were anticipated. Now, we mostly stream porn via “tube sites”. RedTube. YouPorn. PornHub. The vast majority of these viewers only access free content, which is generally comprised of amateur videos, snippets uploaded by producers, or pirated material. Not only does this model make it difficult to verify whether actors have consented to the publication of the content, but it also drives down industry budgets drastically. Making it more and more difficult for producers to pay artists fairly and to provide a safe working environment.
Miseducation, no more!
Indi-porn producers are widely committed to depicting real pleasure and telling stories about sex that are accurate.
It doesn’t take long to find porn that features inappropriate aggression towards women, on your favourite mainstream porn site. I’m not talking about a consensual BDSM play scene. I’m talking about the all too familiar narrative where women in adult films are portrayed only as a tool for a man’s pleasure.
It’s just... BETTER.
This is where the high resolution, thoughtfully curated adult films live. The films where you don’t automatically want to skip past the first ten minutes.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because it’s ethical, it’s bound to be lame. Sex, onscreen and off, can be consensual, respectful, dirty/hot/amazing as all hell, and still be ethical! Better budgets, better product. It’s that simple.
So… where can I find this good stuff?
Mainstream tube sites, generally have paid content available. So it must be noted, that not all paid content is necessarily sex-positive. But it can generally be concluded, that mainstream paid porn is licensed, and consented to.
But I want MORE for you, lovers. I strongly encourage you to do your research and dive a little deeper into the world of Ethical Porn. Here are a few places you might like to start with:
If you one of those ladies or lads, who skip through to all their favourite parts of a porno, Tumblr porn might be right for you! Start with the award-winning, fast-growing and absolutely free site Lady Cheeky.
Lucky last, Woodrocket. Here is a (not necessarily sex-positive) site that prides itself on paying for everything it features. Here you will even find a bunch of pop culture-inspired porno parodies! Titles include ‘Spongueknob Squarenuts’ and ‘The Humper Games’.
Let’s chat!
What are your favourite porn sites? Have you watched ethical porn? Do you pay for porn? Would you pay for porn? What do you think?