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The Dark Side To Sex Work

I think we can all agree that free things are a major plus!? The word “free” has this positive connotation to it and most people love to hear the word. However, free isn’t always a good thing. What if something being free could do more harm than good? 

This weeks content helped me come up with the topic of this blog post. More specifically the two videos from Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act, Sarah Jaffe’s article on The Rise of the Digital Proletariat, and the readings on piracy..Hasan discussing how companies take advantage of talented workers and then disregard them when the work was finished sounded very familiar to me. In a Vox article on the damaging effects that free porn has on the industry has been very eye opening in the matter. “More specifically, The Butterfly Effect is a four-hour, seven-part exploration of the impact of the tech industry on the porn industry. It’s about the way free porn sites, notably PornHub, have made it very hard for porn workers to make a living.” (Bisley)

“So a lot of people are making a lot less money and are working much, much longer hours to make that money. That’s happening a lot. Whereas the people in charge of PornHub are making so much money they don’t know what to do with it.” (Ronson)

It’s easy for people to say “Well, having their content on such a popular porn site would help their career!” Let’s think about it for a minute. When you have the option of getting the same/similar content for free, why pay for it? I am sure they get a few people who end up buying content directly from the workers or actually clicking on their name and trying to interact with them directly without the porn site, but it rarely ever leads to much more financial gain for them. Especially when these sites offer unlimited free content on anything you can imagine. This reminds me of the music industry (I am studying Music Business so this is something I can really relate to) and how they suffer through similar things. 

“The music industry has gone through similar upheaval, but musicians get more sympathy than porn actors (and can make money doing live gigs), Ronson says.” (Bisely)

With streaming sites like Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Google Play, Amazon Prime, and Soundcloud to name a few where they offer a subscription based plan which is cheaper than buying a song or album every-time you want to listen to new music. However, why buy music if you can get it for cheaper or free? It’s not completely identical to what the porn industry is going through like Ronson mentioned. Bands have touring and merch to help them aside from the revenue of music streaming. 

“David Simon, creator of the sex work–themed television show The Deuce, believes a big problem with porn and sex work is poor labor rights.” (Bisely)  

This reminds me of the Video Game episode of Patriot Act when Hasan begins to talk about how they are starting to unionize the workers which is a huge win for those making the games. Would a union help sex workers in the porn industry? That might lead to less free porn which would be a huge win for sex workers, but what’s in it for the consumers? Better porn! When people are put in better work conditions, better safety measures in place, have more money to make a better production, and consists of happier workers can make a huge difference for both producers and consumers. 

Piracy is something that plagues the sex worker community and is something that can cause severe damage to ones career. By having your content stolen and posted elsewhere can put the sex worker(s) safety and anonymity at risk. Of course, you know going into this line of work that this is a downside but you rarely ever believe it will happen to you. 

As a person who works for themselves or an agency that gives you a lot of freedom, you set your own hours, rates, etc. you hold all the power and freedom. However, if someone uses your own work against you, you lose your power. You can choose to post to forums and sites that you trust but piracy takes this same content to places you may be unfamiliar with and the repercussions could be massive. Someone you don’t want knowing could find out. 

This leads me to internet trolling and harassment within the sex worker industry. With technological advances as well as being bold due to hiding behind a screen this has become a huge issue within the industry. Scarier than a STI/STD for some. 

Trolling/ internet harassment within the sex worker industry is exactly what it sounds like and is malicious in all forms. It is usually a person who sets out to find and leak all information about a sex worker. There are people out there whose only mission is to find out your legal name or personal info and then leak your work to future employers. Some have gone as far as to send your family members proof of your work. A lot of people who get in this line of work keep it a secret from their friends and loved ones due to the stigmas attached to it. Having them find out that way would be extremely traumatic and detrimental for a lot of them.

“There was this hope that you could be anyone you wanted to be online. That you could pick an avatar and be totally liberated from your offline self. That was a real animating fantasy. That, too, was really misleading. Minority groups and women are often forced back into their real bodies, so to speak. They're not given equal access to the supposedly open space of the Internet.” (Jaffe)

Astra Taylor made a really great point when she said that. I think it can be related back to the porn industry. Minority groups and women are are often pushed to the side or shown as a stereotype in the industry. The porn industry thrives on keeping with the backwards thinking and stereotype. When you search porn you will mostly see a ton of content from blonde, skinny, tall, and fair looking girls. You will see them with a tall, buff, tan, white male. Representation in this industry is slowly (like turtle speed) getting better.

https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/10/6/16435742/jon-ronson-butterfly-effect-internet-free-porn

https://longreads.com/2015/03/16/why-the-porn-industry-cant-beat-the-pirates/

https://abovethelaw.com/2017/12/porn-piracy-forbidden-to-settle/

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Harmful Speech, Censorship, and Social Media

Episode 3 of Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On talks about empowering girls through the porn industry. Bailey wants to help guide girls through the industry and their bodies. She briefly mentions how Sex Education is rarely ever taught for more than 2 days in most schools. When it is taught it is rarely ever taken seriously.

I think it’s safe to say that we have all been victims of bullying and harassment of some kind. Whether that be at school, in the household, or being catcalled on the streets. We have all been through it at one time or another. However, since the introduction of technology along with social media, bullying and harassment have been a common thing that comes with using it. It can control the way we use social media, what we post, what we say, and so much more. The damage behind an anonymous person’s words or actions can have lasting effects of people, but more commonly teens and young adults. 

Dana Boyd’s “It’s Complicated” explores the ideas of how social media can be used as an asset and weapon for bullies to use against their victims. For example she recounts a time when she interviewed a girl named Abigail about bullying. “Abigail recounted stories of her sister getting in trouble at school and how Ashley would threaten to put embarrassing information on Facebook to humiliate Abigail in front of her friends.” (Boyd, p.129)

The episode “Don’t Stop Filming” from Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (Season 1) reminded me of another Netflix Original called Audrie & Daisy. On Netflix the film is described as, “Two teenage girls experience brutal attacks. But in the age of social media, their nightmares are only beginning.” So, in a time when all that matters to young teens is looking cool to others, how can something made to bring people together be the thing that tears them apart?

In an interview with NPR, Kelly McEvers talks with the co-directors of the documentary about how social media was just as guilty as the boys who sexually assaulted the girls. “I mean the girls have all said to us in various different ways that yes, of course the sexual assault was horrible and traumatic, and it's going to take them a long time to heal from it. But the worst part of what happened to them was the social media shaming and bullying that went on online afterwards. The aftermath seemed to completely outdo the sexual assault itself and the psychology of the girls.” says Bonnie Cohen. https://www.npr.org/2016/09/23/495226477/audrie-daisy-explores-social-media-shaming-after-sexual-assaults

Your pre-teen/young adult years are an exciting time for most people. It’s a time when you are given more freedom and trust, you are pushing boundaries, and on top of it all you are trying to figure out who you will be as you get older. Your image is everything to you, and you’ll most likely believe anything anyone tells you even if it’s not true. 

Spoiler alert for anyone planning on watching the film after reading this blog post. The film is based around two girls who didn’t know eachother, but their sexual assaults were eerily similar. They both attempted suicide, and unfortunately one of the girls attempts was successful. The documentary not only follows the prosecution of the boys who committed the assault, but one of the girls journey to finding healing while on a mission to help other survivors. Why didn’t Facebook immediately take the photo down? The photos of Audrie and Daisy had been up for hours being shared hundreds of times. These are underage girls which is illegal. 

Laws about what we can and cannot post have become a bit tighter, but not anywhere close to how restricted China has become. This is discussed in the Berkman Klein Center article on Online Harmful Speech. “Today, pressure on major internet platforms to remove content is sharply rising. During the same week as the event, lawmakers in Germany approved a bill aimed at forcing major internet companies to banish “evidently illegal” content.” (Talbot & Fossett)

Facebook censorship and algorithms are far from being fair and just. The Berkman Klein Center article discusses how Facebook’s way of deciding what is problematic and what is not is a bit controversial. Certain words are protected and others are not, and certain rules can be bent. So many racist and racially insensitive posts are clearly inappropriate, but Facebook rarely ever steps in to remove the posts. They just slap a warning sign over the post that any user can still view what’s under after reading the warning. 

However, the new censorship policies imposed by Instagram have received some backlash from medical professionals and parents from all over. Instagram implemented these stricter community guidelines in hope to reduce the amount of nudity and inappropriate content to make the app safer for younger users. There is an Instagram account called Empowered Birth Project that has been on Instagram for years. Katie who runs the app is a nurse who posts all things pregnancy, birth, motherhood, post-partum, and everything in between. Katie’s (@empoweredbirthproject) Instagram has always been an educational one, but it never strayed away from the nudity and gore that comes along with childbirth, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. 

As soon as Instagram’s censorship policies got tighter Katie started a petition to stop censoring something that’s not only educational, but natural. More and more women, mothers, daughters, and medical professionals joined her in the fight against the censorship and eventually won. However, you may still see Instagram’s warning on the post before you see the photo. In the end they aren’t having their photos deleted for “going against Instagrams policy.” 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/facebook-instagram-censoring-motherhood_n_5578300

https://nurse.org/articles/nurse-changes-social-media-nudity-policy/

In my opinion, I see how Instagram and Facebook were trying to do good by censoring it all. They just needed to realize that not all nudity is bad. We need to realize that not everything needs to be sexualized. That some of this is for educational purposes, but I think we can all agree that Sex Ed is to blame for that.

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The Evolution of Media And Porn

I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in a sex positive household. No anatomical question was off limits, and as i’ve gotten older I am understanding why this topic was talked about more often than most families do. Being open to discussion about sex and sexuality comes with a bunch of pros for everyone. You feel more in tune with your body, better body acceptance, confidence in saying “no” to something you are uncomfortable doing sexually, safer sex, and a better sense of self love, etc.  For most young women and men the idea of their sexuality and what sex is like is such a daunting, but exciting thing to tackle when the time comes. Typically, before most people experiment with sex they watch porn, read an erotic magazine, or go to the strip club. By doing this they are discovering what their preferences are; men or women, short or tall, athletic build or skinny, feet, butt, or breasts type of person. Are you a tattoo person or do you want the skin to be clear and smooth? 

After watching a few episodes from the series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (Season 1) it really made me realize how much media controls our consumption of porn, and the dangers of media crossing over to the adult industry. The adult film industry wasn’t always so reliant on media just like most things porn needed to grow with the times too. This made me think about the consumption of porn in each generation and how the media has helped us evolve into such a successful industry today. 

Baby boomers had fewer resources to educate themselves on sex and sexuality. Things like Playboy magazines, strip clubs, call girls and VHS tapes were their only options. In an era where sex wasn’t an open topic for conversation it made it harder to learn and explore your seuality in privacy. 

It’s not until the Gen X era that you see the internet as another accessible resource for sex. During this time, porn became more readily available to viewers in a much more discrete way, or so we’d like to think. The internet era made it a dream come true for people who were ashamed of what they found sexually arousing. You no longer needed to go to an adult store to buy or view (and steal???) porn. You had it all inside the comfort of your own home. Because of all these additional technological advancements there's more access, openness, and privacy about sexuality. 

Gen Z is when technology, media, and peoples desires to stay more discrete created much more opportunities for people consuming porn and those working in the industry. The porn sites became more advanced to what people liked, the adult film industry started hiring more diverse women and men, and camming became a popular hobby for most young people who wanted to make some money without ever needing to leave their homes. 

The millennial era is where you start seeing major changes to the adult industry and the connections to what we have learned in our Humanities class so far. The best way to describe the millennial generation in terms of sexuality and the sex industry is how customized it has become, and how sex has become a very common topic in media today. Your sexual experience could be customized to the point where it could replace an actual human. Vice’s show “Slutever” covered this idea in Slutever: Inside the World of VR Porn. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the media has completely taken over the porn industry in ways that it has never done before. With stripclubs and adult industry studios being shut down until further notice, creators are needing to use media to their fullest potential in order to lessen the financial blow. How The Porn Industry Is Being Affected By COVID

Have you ever noticed how sex scenes in films made in the boomer generation differ from those in the Gen X era? Or how those differ from the ones we see now? I’d say that the sex scenes that we see today are much more realistic and raw which is why it is so akward when they come on during family movie night. Media has evolved in showing sex, but it’s also evolved in how they show and portray same sex couples, trans, non-binary people, and more! I think we’ve almost seen it all people!!!

OnlyFans is a subscription-based platform that allows for creators, influencers, and business owners to sell their content. However, sex workers have accounted for most of their finnacial sucesses in the past year. For most adult film stars this is the site that they have migrated to while the adult film industry is on temporary shut down. If not on OnlyFans they are camming, or making their own amateur films. People who have never have experience in sex work are using the plartform to get into it, and making a lot of money by doing it! How OnlyFans Changed Sex Work Forever

So how does all of this relate to the things we are learning in class? I think this relates more to all of Week One’s materials because it had to do with social media and technology. The two articles on smartphones in our generation relates directly to what we are seeing in the adult industry now. We are in a time that has forced everyone to learn and use social media in order to stay connected to everyone. Now that work and school are mainly remote our human interaction is little to none. This has been weeding out the people who know how to use it and those who don’t. Same goes for the people in the adult film industry. Those who don’t have much experience in the technical/media side of porn are probably having a harder time adapting to the new way of the industry. Younger people who have grown up using technology are succeeding during this time and possibly making more money than they did before. You see kids who are freshly 18 partaking in camming and OnlyFans because of how similar the algorithms and platforms are to the social media we’ve been using for years. OnlyFans is what I would call a hybrid child of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

However, when you mix young adults, sexuality, and media together it isn’t always sunshines and rainbows. There are plenty of cons to this industry and just sexuality in general. For example, in this past week's readings on Dana Boyd's "It's Complicated" she studies teenagers behaviors and consumptions of social media. She covered topics like unhealthy sexual encounters and leaked nude images which ties into being harassed/bullied online. Most young people aren’t always aware of the trouble they can get if they are messing around with someone younger than the age of 18 or vice versa. Being young and having access to social media can be dangerous to both parties involved. Younger people can be easily tricked into believing that the person they are talking to is who they say they are. Most young people don’t find it sexy to ask if the other is at least 18, but it’s so important to do. 

Boyd also discussed sexual solicitations which can be used to blackmail or harass someone. 

“With the rise of social media, many safety advocates presumed that sexual solicitations would spike. Repeating their study in 2006 with an identical definition to allow for comparisons, CCRC found that one in seven minors had been sexually solicited online, a 5 percent decline from 2000. 32 Other scholars also found that youth were far more likely to be problematically solicited in online environments that were previously popular but were no longer considered cool.” (Boyd, p. 112)

This reminds me of an Episode from the Netflix show Sex Education in which a photo of Ruby’s genitalia gets sent around the whole school by an “unknown person” to “vagina shame” her. (Spoiler alert) the unknown suspect ends up being Olivia, her best friend who got a hold of the picture and began anonymously sending it around to everyone in the school to get back at her for being a bully. With the creation of phones, smartphones, and social media nudes have been a popular form of communication between young teens and adults. Especially so with the invention of Snapchat in which you can send media and it will go away within 20 seconds. If you screenshot or screen record the other person is notified which has deterred many from partaking in that action, but not everyone. Many people have had their nudes leaked that way which goes to show how social media can have a negative impact on teens and young adults' lives. 

Emma Mackey On The Specific Episode