Why It’s important to talk about porn
You only have to look at the statistics to understand the enormity of the porn industry. Last year, according to PornHub, there were 28.5 billion visitors with 81 million a day and 50,000 searches a minute. And that’s only one site. Yet, most people will publicly shun or not even talk about it. Look around, don’t you now wonder who isn’t looking at porn as opposed to who is?
Have you also ever questioned why on the customs declaration form it asks you if you are carrying illegal pornography and what that even means? In a nut shell, anything violent and where someone looks underage is illegal. So even if the person in the film is over age, if they look young, it’s not allowed on our shores. But isn’t ‘looking young’ a matter of opinion? Is a tartan skirt and pigtails all it takes? When I investigated this, I was told no politician would touch these laws out of fear of it impacting their career. I was also told of the same politicians openly admitting and discussing their porn use (off the record of course).
And it’s not just those who fail to speak about it, but those who speak about it in the opposing way. The irony is that often the same people who rally against porn are the same people who download it. In 2011, an Indonesia politician, Mr Arifinto who belonged to a political party that promoted anti-pornography legislation, resigned after being caught looking at pornographic images. And we know there are more of these types of “incidents” out there.
What about discussing porn on social media? Or even porn influencers? Stars like Angela White (2.8 million followers on Instagram) and Mia Khalifa (8.1 million followers on Instagram) have more followers than your average instacelebrity flaunting products and overseas trips. But unless it’s directly adult related, we don’t see porn stars showing sponsored posts? Why not? An audience is an audience and many influencers who pose in little clothing would have some cross over in those clicking follow and like. Whilst we give an influencer a platform and a voice commonly after flaunting flesh in a skimpy bikini, a porn star is often shunned and criticised in the main stream and complained about online due to the presence of too much breast (which in many cases the influencer also has and is showing more).
We do have a problem in our society with children and teens accessing porn and its overuse, however is that the fault of the industry or thanks to a lack of adequate sex education to counterbalance its impact and not enough restrictions on the net? It seems most parents think it’s safer to tell kids not to look at porn instead of having conversations with them. It’s this fear of talking about it that not only makes looking at porn more enticing, but leaves a young impressionable mind with misconceptions about sex and porn use when they are an adult.
Porn is not made to educate the world on how sex should be done, just entertain consenting over age adults in a sexy way. But we are living in a society that is looking to these films for ideas and even as instructional movies. Is it again the fault of porn for being there or the fact that we don’t commonly talk about porn’s actual intent? And here’s a hint, the intent is not to show us a realistic side of sex. No one in the porn industry tries to flaunt the intent as this, but simply entertainment. Would you learn how to drive from watching The Fast and The Furious? So why think porn should teach you how to have sex?
Investigating the industry, I have seen porn that embraces different body types, sexual identities, ethnicities and race. There is diversity (unlike mainstream media) and a place for everyone, but I suppose you don’t often hear about that. Speaking about the positives of porn is a risk. Even publishing articles about the industry is a struggle. And as much as I’m a friend to the industry, I also understand exactly where things go wrong. But there are enough people out there criticising what’s on screen. We need to actually understand the industry for what it is, warts, anal prep and all.
It is an industry far from perfection, but is there one industry that isn’t? Even lawyers and police are capable of drugs and fraud. Your job is not always an indicator of the person you are and an industry cannot define everyone that is in it.
Early this year, I was welcomed onto my third porn set. Being associated with this world and investigating it is full of risks, but I’m willing to take the risk to help educate in the hope that we can have the right conversations to not only understand porn but also its intent.
Instead of degrading and blaming the porn industry for every wrong doing in our sexual lives, maybe we need to learn how to live beside it so as adults we can consume it’s benefits and counterbalance its dark side. With 28.5 billion visitors to porn hub in one year, whether you like it or not, it’s here to stay. Maybe we should start to try and understand instead of hiding it away?
