What we see in pornography is so much about men controlling and dominating
and hurting women.
Men are consuming huge quantities of pornography,
they have no idea where it comes from at all.
They have no interest or concern about the performers.
Well I think people that watch it presume that it's acting.
They presume that people are performing something to a script,
something that’s been choreographed and that if they can go to the cinema
and watch a violent movie where people are being paid to act
then it isn't any different in pornography.
I think it's just a get out clause that people give to themselves
because they want to see pretty vicious things being done to women.
Think something that's really difficult for us to get our heads
round as ethical people, if we call ourselves that,
is that desire amoral.
Now it's not immoral but we might fantasise about things
that we'd never have-- we'd never dream of doing in real life
and so pornography tends to fill that void.
And if you could guarantee that that person wasn't harmed in the process
then is it wrong to want to watch that?
I think desire has to be moral right? If we're not putting our desires
to the test with our morals,
then what is even the point of having morals, right?
I do firmly believe that there are ways of protecting our performers
involved in the porn industry.
And I think it's really important to say that men can also be vulnerable,
to exploitation as well as women.
Even if we see men performing dominant acts and always being on top
so to speak in the industry, we know that sometimes they're forced
or encouraged to take Viagra way past the point of comfort.
The nature of sexism is that it does come down harder on women.
A woman's career is shorter, the kind of acts that a women has to do
in pornography to collect the big bucks.
Like, you are going age out of pornography at a very young age.
And for women, that means doing stuff
that is tougher and tougher on your body.
From the perspective of someone that’s been a sex worker
and done sex-- sexual things with people that I didn’t know,
didn’t necessarily like or find attractive but that they were
paying me to do those things with them...
I would say that, in those situations,
I was happy to take the money
because it was preferable to lots of other kinds of work and I was often,
you know, I was treated really well by and large.
Everything we did was consensual, I set the terms of it.
So, I don’t think sex is the same for everyone.
The levels of trauma among women who sold sex are really, really high.
The level of exposure to other kinds of violence are really, really high.
And that's true whether they're selling sex
on a person to person basis
or whether they're selling sex as part of pornography.
You know, ten years ago we didn’t have a discussion about ethical porn,
today we do.
Today there are numerous places you can go on the internet to find it.
I think ethical porn and the stuff that’s produced by women for women
and by LBGT performers and producers, prove that there's another way
to make material.
It's a really small coterie of people
who are trying to produce ethical porn.
The fact that they exist isn't making a difference
to the rest of the industry. You know, if I keep my own hens,
that is not going to change the egg industry as a whole.
We should be really championing the people that are trying to do
something better and I don't think it is just like keeping your own hens.
It's a grassroots movement at the moment but with momentum and
consumer pressure it can grow.
Thanks for watching! :)
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