Setting the Record Straight
Table of Contents
When you think of the adult film industry, what comes to mind? Probably a bunch of old dudes creeping on hot young women in bikinis or maybe wild sex parties at the Playboy mansion. But if you go to an AVN or XBIZ show instead, what you’ll see is a room full of content creators looking to build brands, along with a bunch of tech nerds trying to drive traffic to the hottest new sites.
When I started afterglow, I myself had shared a lot of those common misconceptions about the industry and one thing I’m happy to say is, I’ve learned a lot in a short period of time.
So it’s time to set the record straight, here are some of the biggest myths about the porn
industry:
MYTH: Women are often exploited and trafficked.
TRUTH: Just because she’s being double penetrated doesn’t mean she’s not getting paid.
The average mainstream porn video can look well, fake and cheesy. Sometimes, you might not be sure if the women in the films are having a good time or not. But let me be clear about one thing: exploitation and trafficking in porn is extremely rare. Pornhub recently improved its content moderation standards, removing nearly all the risk of non-consensual content on the platform. Non-consensual content is not porn. It’s image based sexual abuse (IBSA), and it’s illegal. Let me repeat, IBSA is NOT porn. Facebook had 84 million self-reported cases of abuse material compared to Pornhub’s 118. So, do imbalanced power dynamics exist in the porn industry? Yes, of course they do. They exist in all industries, from finance to retail, and we all need to be working to make the world a more equitable place. This is why afterglow is committed to only working with creators that are committed to our ethical standards. That includes fair pay, a safe environment, and transparency to name a few.
MYTH: It’s really easy to be a porn star.
TRUTH: Sex work is work.
During the pandemic, the news was full of stories of women joining OnlyFans and then going on to make six figures only just a few months later. But the reality is the top OnlyFans stars already had an audience and used the platform to monetize themselves prior. Even some of the top 1% of OnlyFans earners earn less than $100k per year. Not only that, but earning that much is hard work — it’s similar to earning a full-time living as a social media influencer. You’ve got to be consistently posting new content, engaging with fans at all hours of the day, and supplementing subscriptions with add-ons and custom videos. To be a porn star in today’s world takes time, hustle, intelligence and strategic brand building. Most of the successful adult content creators
will strategically use multiple platforms from mainstream porn to clip sites to camming. So next time you make a joke about how you can always give up and make money in porn, think again. If it looks easy, it’s only because it’s great acting.
MYTH: It’s a bunch of old dudes in charge.
TRUTH: Who run the world? GIRLS.
The adult industry has more female executives running the show than Fortune 500 companies do. Yeah, that’s right. The porn industry has seen a huge shift the past 20 years with many old industry vets retiring or selling their companies and being replaced by young up-and-comers — many of whom are women. There’s Bree Mills, the Chief Creative Officer at AdultTime, Erika Lust, a pioneer of feminist porn, and Kelly Holland at Penthouse Global Media. There’s Shine Louise Houston at PinkLabel.tv. Opportunity has also come to many former performers who are now directors. Kayden Kross is a director at Deeper, and Casey Calvert is directing for Erika Lust. There’s even cam companies started and run by women
MYTH: It’s harmful to women.
TRUTH: Women love porn.
About 30% of porn watchers are women, and 73% of women have watched porn in the past six months. And even better, watching porn is correlated with increased sexual satisfaction. It’s also related to greater desire and arousal during sex with partners. So forget the worn out trope of “I can’t compete with porn.” Watching porn is highly connected to confidence, self love and orgasms which have also been proven to be good for our physical & mental health and to even make us better partners. It’s also a great way to explore fantasies and learn about what turns us on.
MYTH: It’s a job only the desperate would do.
TRUTH: Flexibility, autonomy, and money.
As an adult content creator, you make your own hours, choose who you work with, and how much you work. For many in the industry, they can make in a day what they used to make in a week. But remember, they work HARD to get there. Most porn stars enjoy what they do and the lifestyle that working in porn provides. The most frequent criticism of the job comes from the stigmatization from the outside world, not the work or the industry itself. So next time you criticize porn or the industry, think about who you’re really hurting.
About afterglow
afterglow is a revolutionary porn company on a mission to cultivate the unabashed enjoyment of sex through mouth-watering, sex positive content that highlights the pleasure of all participants.
This is a great article. I really like your emphasis on Facebook’s insane amount of ISBA videos versus PornHub’s. PH has made some mistakes, but it’s a pet peeve of mine that people turn a blind eye to social media’s lax content moderation.
Once I somehow got on the wrong side of the Facebook algorithm and was being shown LOTS of illegal videos. Don’t ask me how because I have no idea, and if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. I kept clicking “not interested” and reporting the videos, and even got a reply from Facebook once that the video “didn’t violate their community standards.”
Yet, I let a nipple accidentally slip out on Instagram and get threatened with being banned. Smh.
Anyway, thank you for the article! It’s good to continue educating people on the importance of sex work and advocate for sex workers’ rights.