TRAILER - Digital Playground presents My Haunted House starring Stoya and Tanya Tate, Brandy Aniston, Baily Blue, Marcus London, Evan Stone, Johnny Sinns and James Deen.
My Haunted House is available on DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack 01-15-2013.
Hey look! It’s another porno!
It’ll be out just in time for AVN/AEE.
Have I mentioned that Bailey Blue is incredibly cute?
I used to be able to say that, for the most part, the sex I had on camera was very much like the sex I have at home. Sure, I don’t usually groom my pubic hair, shave my legs, and put on a full face of makeup for sex in my personal life. There’s also the attempt to avoid showing the camera nothing but the back of someone’s head or blocking penetration with one’s thigh and the interruption of makeup artists running in for touch ups. However, the pounding, biting, spanking, scratching, choking, slapping and shoving a dick so far into my throat that I gag are all par for the course at home. Fun fact: gagging produces a thick, clear fluid somewhere in between spit and vomit that works better as a lubricant than anything I’ve ever purchased in a bottle.
At least in my experience, there have always been guidelines for sex on camera. Four fingers in an orifice are ok but a full fist is largely banned. Rough sex should be continuously asked for and visibly enjoyed or accompanied by a disclaimer explaining that it’s a fantasy being acted out by consenting adults. “Squirting” or female ejaculation is acceptable in most parts of the world but urine is not. Feces and blood are not shown.
The ways that media is purchased and distributed have changed. Streaming video and downloads on the web are now more popular than DVDs. This means that we now cater to the tastes of the credit card and billing companies, which means even more guidelines. At the company I work for, as of a couple of months ago, we are required to refrain from biting, spanking, scratching, choking, slapping, and - while gagging has yet to be discussed - the hands of a blow job recipient on the head of a blow job giver are not allowed. Sex can absolutely be quite enjoyable without these things, but further rules being applied to the way that I copulate at work made me start thinking about some of the other differences between sex-for-pornography and sex-in-real-life.
For instance, let’s look at anal sex. At work, there’s a process of clearing out all traces of fecal matter before we start filming. Sometimes it involves sticking my finger in my rectum and making sure it’s clean, and sometimes it involves 20 minutes to an hour of enemas with bottled water. Sometimes all that water just makes the intestinal situation liquid and we only get five minutes of footage or the anal part of the scene has to be cancelled. In my personal life, I’m more casual about the whole thing. It’s a rectum, and while putting things in my rectum is fun its main purpose is temporarily storing feces. If you want to stick your finger or penis in an anus there’s a possibility that you’re going to encounter some poop and I believe you have to be ok with that. It’s buttsex. Small (or sometimes horrifyingly large) amounts of poop happen. Wash whatever has poop on it with soap and water before putting it anywhere else and move on with your life. Or fingerpaint with it if that’s your thing. While I’m sure my personal disgust for playing with feces is coming through, I’m not here to judge what you do for sexual gratification.
And what about blood? Germaine Greer, one of the luminaries of mid-20th century feminism, wrote in The Female Eunuch that “If you think you are emancipated, you might consider the idea of tasting your own menstrual blood - if it makes you sick, you’ve got a long way to go, baby.” Menstrual blood is a significant part of being a woman between puberty and menopause. I’ve spent almost a quarter of the past thirteen years with blood coming out of my vagina, and I’ve never let it stop me from having sex. Some people think menstrual blood is gross, others find it arousing, and I see it as yet another type of fluid that happens in my underpants. For the camera we have various techniques including cold water douches, absorbent sponges, and cutting multiple times during the sex scene to wipe up any traces of blood. Also, people may try not to book scenes when they’re likely to be bleeding heavily. If I wanted to play with context and phrasing, this could easily be construed as billing companies deeming the visible evidence of my natural fertility offensive.
Keeping my legs open in a particular way for the camera, twisting my torso so my face is visible, and refraining from certain acts that make a product more difficult (or impossible) to sell is part of doing my job well. Pornography is a business and the sales are the reason that I get my paycheck. However, when the portrayal of women in media and the cultural effects of pornography on sex are being talked about the (incorrectly perceived) lack of pubic hair gets plenty of discussion time but I frequently find talk about the realities of menstruation and anal sex conspicuously missing.
Wrapping up from parts 1 and 2:
Are you totally freaked out and considering never having sex again or only having sex with a completely faithful monogamous partner? Some of you definitely are. I know this because some of you have said so privately and publicly.
That’s ok. You have this really awesome thing called free will. You have the privilege of deciding what you are and are not comfortable with in any situation. You have the right to tell your partner(s) and potential partners what you want and expect them to respect your limits and boundaries. They also have free will and may have desires and boundaries that are different than yours.
You can choose complete abstinence. You can choose to masturbate alone only after carefully scrubbing your hands with bleach. You can choose to kiss and masturbate together without exchanging any fluids aside from spit. You can choose to only have sex with partners who have been tested within the past three days and use every form of barrier protection available. You can choose to never ask about tests, never get tested, and never use a condom, much less a dental dam or latex gloves. In my opinion, that last one is an extremely unsafe choice, but you have to make your own decisions. Ideally, you make these choices after looking at the benefits and consequences of each of the possibilities. Ideally you only act on these choices after coming to terms with the risks you’re taking.
Sometimes people who you want to have sexual interactions with will not agree with your choices. You can choose to compromise but it’s really important to remember that you can also choose to say no. You can say no at any point. You can say no when you’re already back at their place and a part of you is inside one of their orifices or vice versa.
When you say no, you have to say it. If you don’t say it, they can’t hear it.
They might not want to take no for an answer. They might get offended or not like you anymore because you rejected them. It sucks when that happens, but here’s the thing: there are going to be people in the world who dislike you for no reason at all. There are going to be people in the world who dislike you for reasons that come from places of bigotry or misinformation. There are also probably going to be people in the world who dislike you for valid reasons. To me, deciding what you’re comfortable with sexually, expressing those limits, and expecting others to respect them doesn’t seem like a valid reason for dislike.
When you want to say yes, it’s pretty awesome to say yes, too.
Personally, I’m shy when it comes to the yes part. Most of my yeses are communicated through a wide variety of noises which are not actual words, body language, and text messages that actually cause me to blush when I push “send.” Let me reiterate: I, a woman who gladly has all sorts of sex for public consumption in front of super high-def cameras and regularly tells the internet (and friends/complete strangers who make the mistake of asking in real life) ALL about her menstrual cycle, get shy about expressing specific sexual desires. I can’t imagine how difficult it might be for people who grew up with sex-negative parents or were frequently shamed early in their sexual development without a helpful support system.
The point here is that after educating yourself and choosing the protective measures that you want to use in a given situation, the next step is to communicate.
Hopefully you’ve read part 1 and are ready to forge ahead into part 2 with me. Onward to trichomoniasis!
Trichomoniasis is a parasite that can live in both vaginas and penises. It doesn’t usually have symptoms. When there are symptoms, they may include itching, odd smells, or discharge. There is a test available that involves taking a sample of vaginal or urethral discharge.
Gonorrhea and chlamydia are bacterial infections that can occur in vaginas, penises, anuses and mouths. Like with trich, people infected with gonorrhea or chlamydia frequently do not show symptoms. When people with gonorrhea or chlamydia do show symptoms, the symptoms may include itching, burning when urinating, odd discharge, vaginal bleeding in between periods, and lower abdominal or testicle pain. There is a test available that involves peeing in a sterile cup. It has to be the doctor’s office’s sterile cup. They will not let you use your own. I know this because I’ve asked multiple doctors if I could pee in cups at home to avoid chugging water on the way in for my test and then nearly peeing in my underpants on the subway or while stuck in traffic and they have all said no.
Using latex male condoms is still the best way to prevent transmission of a trichomoniasis, gonorrhea, or chlamydia infection from one person’s genitals to another’s during penetrative sex. Polyurethane and polyisoprene male condoms are also approved by the FDA for prevention of STI transmission, but are not as highly recommended. They do cause fewer allergic reactions, and are definitely more effective than no condom. Internal (or “female”) condoms are considered less safe than latex or polyurethane/polyisoprene condoms, but are again better than nothing. Personally, I tried and failed at vaginal use of the internal condom. I haven’t tried anal use. I am sort of afraid it might get shoved so far into my rectum that I’d need a doctor to fish it out, and am still waiting on that hypothetical lady dressed in librarian gear to come explain what I am doing wrong.
Gonorrhea and chlamydia can both be transmitted through oral sex. Meaning, if your partner has chlamydia or gonorrhea and you put your mouth on their genitals, you can end up with an infection in your throat. I know there is at least one person out there who enjoys giving oral sex to people with penises and is thinking that they’ll be ok if they just don’t swallow the semen. This is incorrect. Pre-ejaculate or preseminal fluid (that yummy clear stuff that comes out of a man’s urethra when he is aroused) can carry both chlamydia and gonorrhea. You could use a condom for oral stimulation on a penis and a dental dam for oral stimulation on a vagina or anus. I have used condoms for blowjobs. It’s about 30 times more difficult, but if you really want to put your mouth on that penis and can’t wait until the person it is attached to has been tested, it’s better than nothing. I don’t know anything about dental dams other than the fact that they can be made by cutting a condom or medical grade latex or polyurethane glove down the middle. I don’t know of a single person who has successfully used a dental dam and would really love to hear from anyone who has. Maybe if I ask nicely I can get D to experiment with me later. Seriously though, if anyone out there can explain to me how dental dams work I will be all ears and immense appreciation.
Syphilis is caused by a bacteria and is transmitted through contact with a syphilitic sore. These sores do not usually hurt, and if you dig through pictures of them on google images you’ll see that while many examples look obviously diseased there are plenty of others that could be easily mistaken for a razorbump or bug bite. They can be hidden in a mouth, rectum, or vaginal canal. As with HPV and herpes simplex, condoms do reduce the risk by reducing the amount of exposed skin. Again, they do leave large expanses of skin uncovered and transmission is still entirely possible during both penetrative and oral sex.
Hepatitis C (the chronic hepatitis that there is no vaccine for) has a low risk of sexual transmission. It is mostly spread by blood to blood contact, which may seem unlikely but gets scarier when you think about it. Broken skin because of razorburn, small tears in the delicate tissue of the rectum or vagina from vigorous sex, menstrual blood, hangnails, and little invisible cuts in your mouth and gums from brushing, flossing, or eating captain crunch are all ways that hepatitis could leave or enter a body.
Intravenous drug use isn’t directly related to the subject of sexually transmitted diseases, but while we’re talking about hepatitis C and HIV I might as well mention it. If you’re going to shoot heroin, or meth, or whatever else the kids are shoving into their veins these days, please use your own needle. There are lots of needle exchange programs, like CitiWide in NYC and Clean Needles Now in LA. I know it’s kind of hard to care about health and safety when you’re high or going through withdrawal, but being chronically ill from either disease is going to interfere with your ability to afford your drugs and acquire them. Also, drugs are bad and stuff. But if you were going to listen to that you wouldn’t be shooting up in the first place.
HIV is the big, incurable STD that condoms do provide a high degree of protection from, as long as the condom is being used properly and does not break. I feel like we should all know this by now, but just in case: You cannot get HIV from shaking someone’s hand or letting them cry on your shoulder. You cannot get HIV from sitting on the same couch as an infected person. You can get HIV from having sex with a person who is infected with it. Unprotected oral sex with a person who has HIV and blood-to-blood contact also carry a risk of transmission.
Condoms, frequent testing, and requiring your partners to be frequently tested are all good ways to lower your risk of contracting HIV. In the adult industry, we use an RNA test which detects new HIV infections in 9 - 11 days. The RNA test detects the actual virus, as opposed to detecting antibodies like most (or possibly all) other HIV tests. As far as I can tell, antibody tests can fail to detect a new infection that the RNA test would catch. Planned Parenthood offers blood tests for HIV and testing for other STDs. The US Center for Disease Control has a great resource for other places to get tested. As misguided as the AHF’s push for Measure B is, they do provide free HIV testing in many places using the OraQuick Advance test. I wouldn’t have bareback sex with someone based solely on a negative saliva test, but it is also better than nothing.
I feel extremely comfortable having condom-less sex with fellow adult performers. I see this as the same sort of calculated risk a stunt person takes when they go to work. We are tested every 14-28 days and use the most sensitive tests available to us. When one person tests positive for HIV or syphilis, we call a full stop to all sex scenes and everyone goes into the clinic to get tested. Sexual partners are disclosed and people who are at risk are notified and quarantined. But what about outside of work?
If I’m having sex with a person who is not in the adult industry, I want them to have had a clean test in the past six months and use condoms. If they have something odd going on with their genitals (a rash, a sore, an odor) I don’t have sex with them. If they seem unconcerned about condom use, I don’t have sex with them. If they’re injecting drugs, I don’t have sex with them. If they’re engaged in other high risk behaviors or I don’t know them well enough to evaluate how high risk their lifestyle is, I don’t have sex with them. If I don’t trust them to disclose what sexual acts they’ve been up to lately, I don’t have sex with them. I’m being repetitive here because I really want to make sure this point gets made.
I’ve never hit on or been propositioned by someone who is HIV positive, but I would not feel comfortable having sex with them even with a condom. This is because condoms do fail sometimes. I also would not feel comfortable having sex with untested adult performers even if condoms were being used. Again, this is because condoms do fail sometimes.
These are the risks I am and am not willing to take. I am aware of most of the risks and available methods of protection. I have spoken to my doctor. I have made my own decisions. If you are or are going to be sexually active, you should probably educate yourself through research, talk to your doctor, and make your own decisions about the risks you take and how to lower them. It’s called being a mature adult. People who are not adults are children… and if there’s one thing I’m sure of it’s that having sex with children is a totally not cool thing to do with your genitals.
Clothing and accessories can be fashionable, trendy, or cool, but their main practical purpose is to protect our bodies from the world. Bathing suits protect our tender genital skin from sand. If you burn easily like I do, parasols add a helpful extra layer of protection from the sun. Hats, scarves, and coats protect us from cold weather and wind. Shoes protect our feet from sharp things on the ground. Waterproof or water-resistant boots protect our feet and ankles in rain, sleet, or snow.
I think it is safe to assume that most of us have this concept down pretty well. We wear heavy coats and other necessary winter gear during the cold season. We wear lighter fabrics and shorts in warm places so we don’t overheat. Sometimes, we (well, specifically me) forget that San Francisco is not Los Angeles and end up freezing our butts off while wondering why we didn’t properly research the weather before we went on a trip. The point here is that different weather conditions require different forms of protection. Protection depends on the environment or context.
If you think we’re headed on another analogy adventure, you are correct…
…and yes, of course it’s about sex.
Having sex is like going outside. Before you can do it in as safe a manner as possible, you need to figure out what the conditions are like and what combination of methods you believe will best protect you. The safest would be to abstain from all sexual contact with other people. No penetrative sex, no oral sex, no kissing and no nude or semi-nude contact with others. This is the sex version of never leaving your home and avoiding sharing the same air with other people. If you never leave your home, your chances of being hit by a vehicle, catching an airborne virus like bird flu, or being mugged are very very low. Most people are not going to go with the never leaving the house plan and most people are not going to go with the absolute abstinence plan either.
So let’s discuss some of the risks that come with sexual contact:
Pubic lice or crabs, scabies, molluscum, hepatitis A, B and C, HPV, herpes (HSV1 and HSV2), trichomoniasis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV. There are probably others that I am not aware of. Crabs, scabies, and molluscum are also transmitted in non-sexual ways, such as sharing bedding or towels with an infected person or skin-to-skin contact. Hepatitis A, B and C can be also transmitted in non-sexual ways.
I suggest that you put the above STI/STDs into the google machine and spend some quality time reading about them. While you’re doing that, think about where the information you’re looking at is coming from. Consider how qualified the person who put it out there is, how old an article might be, and whether new information may have been discovered since it was written… but I know some of you probably aren’t going to do that.
If you aren’t going to completely abstain from all sexual activity, a good step towards safer sex is to get all the available vaccinations. There are vaccinations available for hepatitis A and B. I don’t know about other countries and states, but there is a free vaccination program in NY for people who are at risk and who either don’t have insurance or have insurance that doesn’t cover the A and B vaccine. There is also a vaccine that prevents some strains of human papillomavirus (HPV, which causes genital warts, cervical cancer, and may cause cancer of the rectum, vagina, penis, throat and tongue). According to the CDC at least 50% of sexually active people will get HPV at some point. Cervarix vaccinates against two strains of HPV and Gardasil vaccinates against the same two strains and an additional two.
I had the hepatitis A and B vaccine at 13 and completed the Gardasil vaccine before the end of my first year working in hardcore porn. As long as the vaccines were administered properly and work like they’re supposed to, that’s two kinds of hepatitis and four kinds of HPV that I will not get. This means that my risk of sexually transmitted infections is lowered slightly. This is awesome, but there’s still the whole rest of that list to be concerned about.
There are many other strains of HPV. Over half of americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have HSV1, and over 16% of americans in that same age group have HSV2. I haven’t found any data discussing the overlap, but there probably is some. Even though HSV1 is known as oral herpes, it can infect and cause blisters and sores on genitals. There is a blood test for herpes, but is not entirely accurate and has been known to give false negative results. For instance: earlier this year I had shingles. Because of my sexual history two separate cultures and a blood test for herpes simplex were run. Both cultures indicated shingles, and my blood test came back negative for both HSV1 and HSV2. According to the blood test, I do not have oral or genital herpes… But let’s think about that one for a minute. I have had sex with more than 100 people and will usually catch a cold if someone sneezes on the opposite end of an airplane I’m on. I don’t particularly want a herpes simplex diagnosis, but you do have to question whether it is more likely that I’ve been very lucky and beaten the odds or that the blood test failed.
HPV and herpes simplex can be spread from genitals to genitals and mouths. This means that you can get HPV or herpes from putting your mouth on an infected person’s genitals. HPV and herpes can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, which includes activities like dry-humping in your underwear. Neither of these infections have to have visible symptoms to be transmitted. HPV and herpes can both live in the skin surrounding the penis or vagina. Vulvas (all the outside lady-parts), testicles and anuses can transmit and be infected by both of these viruses, meaning that a condom does not entirely protect you or your partner(s). Condoms do reduce the risk by reducing the amount of exposed skin. There is no HPV test approved for use on men.
If you’ve been following my twitter and tumblr in the past couple of weeks, you’ve hopefully seen my explanation of how pornography’s self-imposed safety regulations work. You’ve also hopefully seen Kayden Kross’s practical discussion of Measure B on xbiz.com and James Deen’s blunt opinion on his blog. To my knowledge, Nina Hartley has not felt the need to weigh in on the subject recently, but as a veteran performer who started working in porn in 1984, is still in the adult industry, and is a registered nurse, I believe she has the most credible and educated opinion on the subject of safer sex in the straight porn industry. I’m not linking to anything that the AHF or Yes on Measure B has to say because I have faith in your ability to google it and I kind of just don’t want to.
Ideally, you’ve ingested the information and formed your own opinion. Likely, some of you have done this and others are blindly cheering us on or wholly swallowing the opposition’s propaganda. I frequently struggle to come to terms with it, but I can’t force people to listen, fully comprehend, or think critically.
Our point is that Measure B and other condom laws attempt to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. We do not have rampant HIV transmission in pornography. We have not had a single case of performer to performer HIV transmission since 2004. In my experience, we openly tell each other when something may not be right with our genitals. Digital Playground has replaced talent the morning of a scene because the performer called in saying their genitals felt or smelled off and they needed to re-test before exposing others to them.
I work at the glossy, couples-oriented contract performer end of the industry. I choose not to use condoms at work. I do choose to use them in my personal life when I have partners that are not in the adult industry who I am non-monogamous with. I did four girl/girl sex scenes before signing my contract with Digital Playground. I have never worked with an agent. I cannot speak for the women and men who perform in the majority of the sex scenes produced each year.
Wicked Pictures requires condoms. Most companies say they are condom optional. From what I hear, with some companies the option is to use a condom or not, and with others the option is to not use a condom or not work for that company. Ideally this should be an industry-wide actual choice. Requiring that all performers in a section of California, or even all of California or the USA use condoms at work does not give us that choice. It either forces us to use condoms when some of us do not want to and find it less safe than the testing system we already have in place, or strongly encourages the adult industry to move to places where condom use is not mandatory.
Here’s the thing though: Performers who are unhappy with the amount of condom-optional or condom-mandatory work don’t have to work in hardcore pornography. There are softcore and solo options. Nude photo sets for websites and magazine spreads are options. Also: webcamming, solo or masturbation scenes, and niche fetish-oriented clips involving (sometimes non-nude) acts like tickling, wriggling of toes, or consumption of phallic shaped foods. One day I’ll tell you about the time I was hired for a day of “sweater fetish” work, but that’s way off topic right now. Sure, there isn’t as much money to be made and it is more difficult to build a popular or recognizable brand, but disposable income and notoriety are not a right.
According to the US Department of Labor, 2,289,010 people in our country wait tables. I waited tables for a little over eight months when, unhappy with my working conditions at Digital Playground, I made a choice to use one of the loopholes in my contract and stop working in the adult industry. Part of using that loophole meant that I wasn’t able to write, perform on stage or appear in front of a camera as Stoya or under any other name without putting myself in a more precarious legal position. It was scary and I spent the entirety of my savings on lawyers. My boss was aware of my employment history when he hired me and, due to the size of the town, a significant portion of the patrons knew as well. It was actual work every day, it wasn’t glamorous or exciting, sometimes my hands got burned because I didn’t know how to hold a plate, and my entire life smelled like old duck sauce. This is called a job. I kept doing this job until the (now former) owners of Digital Playground and I were able to work out something acceptable to both of us. Some people make a profitable life long career of serving food. Most people in the US work jobs that aren’t glamorous or lucrative. Working two jobs or working while getting a college degree or vocational training is common.
Now that we’ve established why the problem that Measure B attempts to fix does not exist, and briefly discussed the fact that most adult performers unhappy with the work available to them are capable of finding some other type of employment, there’s another concept in this mess that really stands out to me.
It isn’t the pornography industry’s job to provide sexual education. If you look back through my archives here on tumblr though, you can see that I feel and act on a personal responsibility to try. In the US we have this intense squeamishness about sex. Practical, easily understood information can be difficult to come by even for someone who makes a career out of sex. The same line of thinking that led to anti-drug PSA’s from Pee Wee Herman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles leads me to believe that there are cases where an adult performer would be seen as a more credible source than say, Dr. Ruth (who, by the way, is AWESOME). As discussed in the post I linked to at the beginning of this paragraph, some performers and companies do try to raise awareness about and encourage safer sex practices, some of us do try to further discussions on sexuality and sex performed for entertainment vs. sex performed purely for personal enjoyment. We just aren’t as effective as we could be, and I’m not sure how to get there.
Monday, Sept 17th:
I woke up. I showered, washed my hair, and carefully shaved my underarms, legs, and genitals… avoiding any cuts or razorburn. I gently brushed my teeth and skipped flossing as dental floss can cause small cuts on gums. I went to the location where we were filming my newest pornographic movie for Digital Playground.
My test hadn’t been uploaded to the APHSS database yet. The APHSS database replaces the extremely difficult to tamper with STD/STI test viewing system that the adult industry lost when AIM was shut down. We were already transitioning over to this database when Mr. Marcus recently became infected with Syphilis and faked his test results, and most of the major production companies are now requiring that all performers be listed in the APHSS database as cleared to work before performing a scene. Even though my test (which was negative for HIV, Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia) had been emailed directly from the testing facility to the production manager, we waited about an hour until my test results were uploaded and the database showed a green check mark next to my name before shooting anything.
Makeup was applied to my face and things involving a straightening iron were done to my hair. I was dressed by wardrobe. We began shooting the story part of the movie. James Deen, the male performer I was working with that day, arrived on set. Manwin is the company that owns Digital Playground. Their PR person arrived on set with a science correspondent from the New York Times named Donald McNeil and his photographer. Mr. McNeil was there to observe what we do before shooting a sex scene. He said he was interested in the adult industry because we haven’t had a single case of HIV transmission within the industry in 8 years and there is no other community he knows of that has that low of a transmission rate. A couple of performers have been infected with HIV outside of the heterosexual oriented porn industry and been identified as positive before passing it on to anyone else. Others who wanted to enter the adult industry have been identified as positive before entering it. Since the infections of Darren James, Miss Arroyo, Jessica Dee, and Laura Roxx in 2004, there has not been a single transmission of HIV on an adult film set in the US.
After we had filmed everything James Deen and I were needed for aside from the sex scene, we filled out our paperwork. This includes a performer release, tax forms and 2257 documentation to prove we are over 18. The production manager printed out a copy of each performer’s page in the APHSS database. I signed my own copy and James’s, indicating that my results were mine and accurate and that I had seen James’s and was comfortable working with him and his clean test which had been taken less than 14 days prior. He did the same. Then the production manager performed an inspection. He looked in our mouths, at both sides of our hands, and at our genitals to make sure there were no visible sores or open wounds. There was another paper to sign stating that we have no sores or open wounds on or in our mouths, hands, and genitals and had been inspected. We also looked at each others genitals, mostly for fun but if either of us had seen (or smelled) something odd we would have called off the scene ourselves. Then we said goodbye to the reporters (who didn’t seem interested in sticking around for the fun part) and had fun, uninhibited sex together while the camera crew filmed it.
We were able to have fun, uninhibited sex with each other without a condom because we both knew that the chances of either of us being infected with an STD are very low. Far lower than, say, a stranger at a bar or a person who hasn’t been tested in a year or more. Our frequent STD testing, the APHSS database (and AIM before them), and the skin inspections are self-imposed. The adult industry created these procedures to keep themselves safer. I follow these procedures to keep myself safer, and because it is required in order to be able to work. When any performer tests positive for HIV or Syphilis, we stop production voluntarily. When I (fairly rarely) have sex with someone outside of the adult industry, I use a condom (Full disclosure: unless we have both been tested very recently, I am on a hiatus from the adult industry, and we are only having sex with each other - also known as monogamy) because I don’t want to catch anything and bring it into our talent pool. I don’t want to catch anything and be unable to work.
Measure B claims to be attempting to fix a problem that doesn’t really exist, and ignores the highly successful health and safety measures that the adult industry already has in place. If everyone in the world got tested every 14 to 28 days, was as educated as we are about the risks they take when they have sex, and called a halt to sexual activity any time one person tested positive for an STI until the incubation period had passed and everyone had been re-tested, there would probably be a lower rate of infection outside the adult industry as well.
A production assistant on a music video shoot I did recently works with children during the week. She said that, for her, the most effective way to get the attention of a group of kids is to stand at the front of the room, loudly say “If you can hear me, touch your nose” and then wait for everyone to have their finger on their nose. She uses this method for large groups of adults, too.
So: If you can read me, touch your nose.
Thank you.
Pornography is entertainment. Pornography is a business. Pornography is not a substitute for sexual education. The scenarios in porn plots are not a guide to dating or picking up partners for casual sex.
I always figured that anyone old enough to be legally viewing pornography would be able to comprehend the difference between entertainment and real life. I forget that we don’t all understand that a movie like Forrest Gump is not the same as a History Channel documentary on the Vietnam War. I also forget that we don’t all understand that a History Channel documentary on the Vietnam War may not be entirely accurate. I forget that even though pornography is made to be entertaining and portray fantasies, there is a large void in practical sexual education that people sometimes attempt to fill with porn.
I want to believe that people use critical thinking skills. I want to believe that people see Brazzers/Manwin’s Get Rubber campaign and the safer sex/condom use speech at the beginning of Vivid’s DVDs. I want to believe that people watch the pre and post scene interviews included in Kink.com’s videos. I really want to believe that people don’t need to see these disclaimers and interviews to understand that what they are watching is done by tested, consenting professionals. Apparently, though, this comprehension is not always the case.
As adult performers, our job is to show up with a clean STI test and act/perform in an adult production to the director’s satisfaction. It isn’t our responsibility to take on the task of educating people about sexual technique or safer sex practices. Our job description does not include worrying about the people who can’t differentiate between what they see on a screen and what is acceptable behavior in real life, the same as it isn’t Bruce Willis’s job to go around reminding people that action movies are super cool but shooting actual people with real guns isn’t, or that calling 911 is a much better tactic than shooting someone full of adrenaline in the event of a heroin overdose. But some of us do…
There are adult performers and sex workers who talk about these things: When Nina Hartley recounts a recreational sexual encounter on her blog, she regularly mentions the use of condoms and gloves. Sometimes she mentions less standard practices, such as having a specific pair of boots for BDSM that don’t touch the ground outside so that they can be licked without concern for what they’ve walked through. Danny Wylde writes frankly about his experiences in sex work and openly discusses his thoughts and emotions. There are countless others who do frank interviews or keep blogs discussing topics relating to sex work, the adult industry, and sex-for-work vs. sex in personal lives. If someone actually wants to know about porn, there’s a wealth of information online from a variety of perspectives.
We just don’t get nearly the amount of traffic or visibility that a major news outlet gets. Our voices need to be louder, because we are talking.
Here’s a production still from UnSEXpected. It comes out on August 7th. Meanwhile, please consider watching the trailer or pre-ordering it from somewhere like AdultDVDEmpire or TLAraw. They’re both very nice companies who also carry my fleshlight.
digitalplaygroundxxx put up the trailer for Unsexpected.
Purchasing an adult movie is kind of like voting with your wallet for more of them to be made. Actually, I’m not even sure if that makes sense. I had a really long day involving rigging, signing, performing on the hoop and then a pillow wrestling match with Tanya Tate for Fleshlight. Now I am going to faceplant on the hotel bed and sleep because I probably shouldn’t be writing things on the internet when I’m this tired.
