Mainstream porn includes audiobooks, audio files, books, erotic film, videos, web cameras, images, and more. Porn can be a way to explore sexual interests, satisfy sexual needs, and for some couples, it can be a tool to connect. Conversely, porn as an industry has historically been run and operated unethically and through systems of oppression such as misogyny, racism, and exploitation.
In this article, the aim isn’t to say porn is wrong or bad, or that people shouldn’t engage with pornographic content. This blog is to highlight the wrongdoings in unethical porn, and why ethical porn is worth engaging with an an alternative to mainstream sites.
What is Ethical Porn?
Contrary to mainstream porn, ethical porn, also referred to as feminist porn, is ethically produced adult films where actors and producers are compensated fairly, equally, are of age, and have consented to the entirety of the content in which they are performing. In ethical porn, the performers’ safety, comfort, and pleasure take priority.
Ethical, high quality porn sites like Bellessa, Bright Desire, and Lustery are proud of adhering to ethical standards where they show realistic depictions of what real sex can look like, what sex can look like between couples, and empowering subjects of pleasure and enjoyment amongst all participants.
In addition to the behind the scenes production process of obtaining consent, ensuring the adult entertainers are safe and are having an enjoyable experience, there is fair pay and proper safety protocols. Ethical porn sites work to humanize the entertainers and create a sex positive environment for all people involved in each scene.
Ethical porn can be sourced from various websites and platforms that provide free pornography, monthly subscription models, and one time payments for a specific piece of content. Paying for porn can be a way to encourage and support the fair pay of sex workers and adult content creators. Supporting ethical porn sites can also increase the businesses’ success, which means being better able to run and operate an ethical site to dismantle the unethical porn practices and platforms.
Ethical vs. Unethical Porn
On screen, unethical porn depicts sex, and specifically women, through the male gaze to maximize consumer views. The male gaze is the sexual politics that suggest peak sexual attraction and attractiveness is when men are empowered sexually, and women are objectified.
The male gaze in unethical porn can look like focusing on penetrative scenes, fetishizing sexual fluidity in women, depicting women in nearly solely a feminine and submissive role, limits diverse body types to maintain an unreasonable beauty standard, minimal focus on female pleasure, and frequently falsely depicting how most labia owners achieve orgasm.
Off screen, unethical porn makes a profit off of minors being victims of child porn, revenge porn that is uploaded and shared, fetishizing LGBTQIA+ folks, people of color, and interracial sexual dynamics, coercive behavior towards the performers, and uploading content of rape and sex trafficking victims.
In unethical porn, many female identifying performers are not paid fairly to their male counterparts, nor are they fairly compensated for any physically strenuous scenes or the prep work that goes into their work. Additionally, sexual health safety with STD’s and STI’s are not highly prioritized within unethical porn.
As a consumer, visually distinguishing between unethical porn and ethical porn can be difficult if the consumer isn’t well versed in the nuance of sex and sexual expression. However, to determine if the free porn website being used is ethically run and produced, doing the appropriate research can provide the necessary information.
Why is Ethical Porn Important?
Many people grew up watching the typical porn sites, which is what people often think of when they think of watching porn. Such sites can be problematic for the previously listed reasons, but beyond the fetishizing, normalizing the eroticizing of violent sex that incorrectly depicts sex, consent, and pleasure.
Through watching ethically produced porn, dismantling the power unethical porn has on society can start. Viewers watching ethical porn can start to learn the visual distinction between consent and coercion, pleasure and the male gaze, and sexual exploration and fetishizing.
Moving Towards More Ethical Porn
Over time, porn sites that upload videos with minors, revenge porn, assault, and unequal pay could become less popular giving space for the safety and proper regulation of the porn industry.
Ethical porn is a way to access realistic sexual content, holds space for pleasure, and ensures all acts performed and actors are consenting and compensated properly.
0 Comments