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October
Porn, HIV, Freedom, Responsibility
The adult entertainment industry in Los Angeles
(the porn capital of the world, thank you) has been
hard hit by news that two of its stars have
recently tested positive for HIV. Some companies
have shut down production entirely, others are
continuing business as usual, some are shifting to
a "safer-sex" format.
Some folks might respond to this story with
schadenfreude, or at the least, with a certain lack
of compassion for the people involved. "What else
should they have expected?", a reasonable person
might ask of those who perform in porn; "they are
reaping the consequences of their actions",others
might -- with some justification -- say.
The one woman known to be infected with HIV is
an 18 year-old porn actress (who has only worked in
the business three months) named Lara Roxx. She
contracted HIV through unprotected anal sex with
two men during the shooting of one particular film
in March. What she was doing was perfectly legal,
as it was in the workplace and she was over 18. No
one -- least of all the producers of the film --
showed the slightest regard for this young woman
who is still, for all psychological and spiritual
purposes, very much in adolescence. (For obvious
reasons, I'm not going to link to any porn sites --
all my information about her has been gleaned from
mainstream, non-x-rated media.) Brian Flemming, who
apparently works close to the industry, put it best
in his blog:
Lara Roxx had zero protection by government
agencies. There was no cop on that set. No fire
marshal. No doctor. Nobody had a license. And
nobody broke the law by paying a teenager to accept
the uncovered penises of two men into her anus.
Roxx showed poor judgment, yes. She isn't
blameless. But there are plenty of neophyte stunt
performers in L.A. who would also be delighted to
show some poor judgment and get themselves hurt or
killed on a Hollywood movie set--but the government
regulates those sets. I've auditioned plenty of
eager young actors who would no doubt be willing to
do their own dangerous stunts if it meant getting a
good role and getting paid--but the LAPD, the LAFD
and the Screen Actors Guild would all have
something to say about that.
The 18-year-olds flooding into the porn industry
have just about nobody. The porn companies label
them "independent contractors," so the performers
don't even have the workplace safety protections
that fry cooks at Burger King do.
Lara Roxx, who is too young to legally drink in
a bar, has HIV not just because she participated in
a dangerous sex act. She also has HIV because there
was nobody to stop the producers from dangling
money and other inducements in front of this young
woman to get her to take that risk.
It's important for porn to be legal. The
government has no business outlawing sex or sexual
fantasy. But this principle is not so sacred that
we need to allow an industry to exploit and
endanger its workers. There's no fundamental right
to express HIV. There's no right to pay someone to
play Russian roulette for your entertainment.
But we Californians have decided that the sex
industry is the one industry that is allowed to
lure young women and men and use them as it
pleases. No politician speaks for these workers. No
union imposes conditions on their employers.
The mainstream film industry, while making
billions from distributing porn on the QT, doesn't
have any use for the dirty people who actually make
it.
The porn industry has become increasingly
mainstream, so much so that on the same day that
the HIV story broke in LA, the New York
Times did an "at home" feature in its House and
Garden section on porn star Jenna Jameson's 6700
square foot palace in Arizona. But this
increasingly accepting attitude towards pornography
is still another example of how our society is
abandoning its responsibility to care for and
protect all of its citizens.
I know firsthand how destructive porn can be. I
cannot say I have not enjoyed looking at it; I can
also say with confidence that exposure to it has
invariably left me feeling ashamed, alienated, and
sad. That may not be a universal experience, but it
is certainly a very common response! Like in so
many other areas (abortion, plastic surgery) we
frame the debate about pornography in terms of
choices. Women should have the choice to work in
porn. Men should have the choice to work in porn.
Women and men should have the choice to consume
porn as well. As long as everyone (performer,
producer, marketer, consumer) is over 18, where is
the harm?
The harm is in my soul when I view it. The harm
is in Lara Roxx's body right now. Lara Roxx no
doubt has another name, which we in the public
don't know. Porn stars, almost without exception,
change their names when they work in the industry.
"Lara Roxx" is not a person in the male porn
consumer's mind, she's an object for fantasy and
objectification. But beneath Lara's violated and
brutalized flesh is a young girl who has what I
imagine is a far humbler name (a Nicole, a
Jennifer, a Maria, an Elizabeth perhaps). I don't
know her, but I'm pretty damned confident that in
1996, when she was TEN, the little girl who would
become Lara Roxx (HIV-infected porn actress) did
not dream of becoming famous and wealthy for having
anal sex with two men on camera. Her hopes for
herself were, I suspect, simpler, warmer, and
filled with infinitely more longing and
promise.
The fact that Lara is 18 and consented to the
making of this film means no crime was committed
under California law. I'm not interested in ranting
about the law. I'm grieving because Lara's story
reminds me of how much damage porn does to so very
many lives. Lara's very life is now in jeopardy.
You can say she has some culpability, and I agree,
she does. But the only reason the money is so good
for young women in porn is because men are willing
to pay quite a bit to see girls like Lara naked and
exposed and penetrated. I confess that in the past
I have been guilty of that very sin. My dollars
have fed an industry of death, and I grieve that.
And I know that I too -- and countless other men --
have been damaged. When men like me lust after
girls like she who is called Lara Roxx (she's 18,
I'll be damned if I'll call her a grown woman), we
scar our spirits and tarnish our relationships with
all the other women in our lives as a consequence.
I have worked hard to make certain that when I see
teenage girls and young women (and I work with them
daily), I see them as people worthy of my respect,
friendship, and -- yes -- my protection.
I know there are women who work in the porn
industry (the aforementioned Jameson chief among
them) who are proud of what they do, who refuse to
see themselves as exploited, who have reaped large
financial rewards. While I accept their experience
as valid, I am convinced that they are rare and
over-hyped exceptions. I am convinced that the
reality of the porn industry -- for performers of
both genders -- is pyschically, physically,
emotionally and morally far bleaker than its few
superstars will ever admit.
As a man, I am called to do the hard but
essential work of looking beneath the
hyper-sexualized surface image that young women so
often adopt in our society today. I owe it to
myself, to the woman with whom I share my bed and
my life, and to these young women themselves. The
fact that many young girls and women choose to make
themselves objects of desire does not lessen for
one second my obligation to look past that veneer
and see them as my younger sisters whom I need to
honor, love, and care for. The girl who is called
Lara is sick today. I imagine that tonight she's
scared beyond words, filled with regret and fear.
I'm praying for her, and I ask God for forgiveness
because I know that in some small way, my money has
in the past helped to fuel the industry that has
done this to her.
Porn kills many things: innocence, hope, trust,
health, bodies, spirits. I know it is hip today to
proclaim it harmless, but the unfashionable fact is
that this is an industry built on distorted
fantasy, loneliness, and despair. And we on the
left need to stop hiding behind the First Amendment
issues and articulate this untrendy but vital
truth.
©2005, Hugo
Schwyzer
* * *
Women really must have equal pay for equal work,
equilaity in work at home, and reproductive
choices. Men must press for these things also. They
must cease to see them as "women's issues" and
learn that they are everyone's issues. - essential
to survival on planet Earth. - Erica Jong
The assorted
musings of Hugo Schwyzer: a progressive,
consistent-life ethic Anabaptist/Episcopalian
Democrat (but with a sense of humor), a community
college history and gender studies professor, an
avid marathoner, aspiring ultra-runner, die-hard
political junkie, and proud father of a small
chinchilla. hugoboy.typepad.com
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