The attempt to conjure pity for out of work pornographers doesn't wash. Credit: Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Whenever I agree to write about porn, it’s followed by an immediate plummeting of my soul: oh God, I’m going to have to look at PornHub now. PornHub is the second biggest website in the world for adult content by traffic, but in terms of public profile, it’s far and away the leader. And PornHub is horrible. For example, I just checked in on the homepage and was greeted by multiple clips promising mini-versions of Flowers in the Attic. Ugh. Why am I here? Oh yes, to find out if PornHub will let me search for racist porn.
Not that I really have to search. In the homepage thumbnails, everyone is white, unless their race can be sold as a kink. Japanese wife. Chocolate. In the sidebar, I can click on the category “interracial”, because this is 2020 and apparently two people of different skin tones getting down is still as niche an interest as “babysitter” or “smoking”. “Female orgasm” is also a category, for that subset of men who are interested in whether a woman actually enjoys it. Have I mentioned, I hate PornHub.
But I am a brave journalist, so I press on. (Is this sex? Do people like this? Are women people? No, we are sluts and milfs and bitches, according to PornHub.) Will PornHub let me search for racist porn? Spoiler: it will. I put the word “racist” in the search bar, and am served multiple videos, all of which are definitely racist.
Some of them, though, have a veneer of woke, which is very heartwarming. I search for Black Lives Matter: I get a video tagged “black cocks matter”, and one “ebony slut”. All this should be a surprise, because PornHub was recently vaunting its progressive credentials. “Pornhub stands in solidarity against racism and social injustice”, the company tweeted, along with links to Black Lives Matter-adjacent campaigns that followers could support. It’s not a surprise, though, because PornHub is horrible.
If I wanted to be chippy, I would call this a perfect example of the indulgence model of modern liberal mores. Pay your tithe to the bail fund as directed, get back to whacking off over racism with your conscience salved. But actually, I would probably be being both chippy and incorrect, because does anyone really feel bad about their porn? The generally agreed position is that porn exists somewhere outside morality. Things which, at a tenth of the strength, would be instant cancellation offences in any other medium are granted licence in porn because someone, somewhere got an erection from them.
The porn industry’s success in positioning itself beyond petty questions of good and bad is one of the great marketing triumphs of modern times. If it feels good, watch it. Heck, watch it at work if you want to. Here, I run into some tricky terrain, because what happens in the dark between our own heads and hands is really no one’s concern but our own, and if you want to think about that particular woman bent OTK in a lace chemise then what does it have at all to do with me. Hectoring our fantasies seems a spectacularly fruitless endeavour.
But porn is not fantasy. Porn is business, and a profoundly exploitative one. I don’t mean that in the no-doubt tiresome feminist sense that it exploits women, although it does. I mean it in the sense that, in its modern form, pornography is an industry where the capitalist rinses out the worker, then puts up a blogpost to mark International Sex Workers’ Day, which aims to “honor sex workers” and “push for better working conditions”. The fact that PornHub is a major driver of those working conditions is, well, wouldn’t you like to look at some tits instead of thinking about it?
PornHub belongs to the conglomerate MindGeek, which also owns multiple other “tube” sites for watching free porn. Where does this porn come from? From production companies, many of which are also owned by MindGeek. In many cases, if a performer wants to defend their royalties on a clip, they’ll need the help of the copyright holder, which just happens to also be the company drawing down a profit by serving it for free, so good luck with that. Another group of people have also struggled to get PornHub to remove content that violates their rights: victims of “revenge porn”, whose abusers upload their images to the “amateur” category.
At this point in the argument, people like to say: but what about ethical porn? Here’s what’s about ethical porn: it doesn’t matter. It makes up such a tiny proportion of the industry, it’s like putting a chicken in your back garden and claiming you’ve fixed factory farming. Apologies to those who twist themselves into astonishing shapes to produce the kind of porn they think should exist, but at best all they’re doing is providing a talking point for people who want to stall the discussion by saying “what about ethical porn?” so they can get back to their vertically integrated faux-incest.
If you want to talk about ethics in porn, let’s discuss why the industry has yet to have its #metoo moment. There was a possibility of one in 2015, when the performer James Deen was accused of on-set assault by multiple female costars; but the reckoning failed to come. (Deen denies any wrongdoing.) Journalists with an interest in the porn industry proved surprisingly incurious about following these allegations up. For example, writer Emily Witt met Deen during a set visit for an article published in n+1. The abuse claims emerged while she was revising that piece for inclusion in her 2016 book Future Sex: rather than address them, Witt cut him from the copy.
Now another porn celebrity has been not just accused, but charged: the performer Ron Jeremy faces three counts of rape and one of sexual assault. And perhaps this will, finally, be the occasion for a conversation about the attitudes inculcated by an industry which makes a show of brutality against women. Probably not, though. The porn industry could hardly survive if it went in for any self-reflection at all. But, then the hollowness of PornHub’s ethical credentials is obvious. It’s the credulousness of porn’s defenders that’s the really shocking thing.
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Subscribe“the US does not require illegal immigrants to be vaccinated to enter the country, and it does not demand they be vaccinated once they are in.”
This is kafkaesque
I agree, I can only hope that the execrable Nadal is too injured to play as well. Nice to know that the CDC, like the rest of Liberal government, remains out of touch and – what’s the word? – f*cking stupid.
Perhaps Djokovic can walk in and claim asylum and get bussed to the tournament by Texas.
Sports aside, there are thousands of US citizens whose families comprise non-US citizens. Myself and my family are not vaccinated, by choice. My husband cannot come to visit his children, or help with property maintenance, travel, etc. in the US, as he has been doing for many years now. Yet I can visit his country any time (an EU country). The poisonous disgust we feel for the current administration is immeasurable. I can abide a degree of evil, but when combined with sheer stupidity, no.
It is a joke. I won’t watch the tournament because of it and I am a tennis fan. That’s the only recourse, don’t watch and make your voice heard. They may not listen but maybe they will.
The only choice is in November when the elections will allow the new version of the Nuremberg Trials to begin gathering data as I recon the Bio/Pharma/Medical Industrial Complex, and all their captured Political and Commercial lackeys, are responsible for many millions of deaths, Billions dropping down a level in income, and the global economy to soon crash.
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force but when fraud has been exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” Orwell
We have reached a tipping point in the West, where “1984” is now our playbook.
Even Orwell’s novel didn’t reach the level of tyranny of this regime.
I will NOT watch one match. It is only an attempt to keep Mr. Djokovic from winning the tournament and from accumulating the most Grand Slams. It is VERY IMPORTANT for every one NOT to watch a Single match and definitely to NOT attend. Put your Money and Time where your Belief’s and Heart are.
Such hypocrisy! I won’t watch the tournament either. Might watch the final for a bit but this is absurd, unfair, un-american. Good luck Novak down the road be strong.
I wouldn’t watch Wimbledon because of the sleazy British governments outrageous influence to force the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian tennis players, and I won’t watch the US Open for their idiotic and grandiose vaccination rules for non-US players which defies any measure of logic or common sense (which is the norm for government bureaucracies). And I like tennis. Can the sport of tennis really afford to repel some of their somewhat select fan base over such stupidity?
Russian and other players were excluded because they refused to condemn Russian genocidal aggression in Ukraine.
There is no comparison with Djokovic being excluded from GS this year, when he was allowed to compete in 2021.
If these supposed vaccines really work (like in preventing transmissions and getting ill), why is his participation a problem?
It is purely legal and political covid porn.
Governments cannot admit that their policies were wrong without being sued by business owners and others who suffered economically for no reason.
This is a U.S. Government policy (spelled Biden Administration), and the tournament is hiding behind the government. It is an assault against society, among the many crimes this illegitimate regime has inflicted on its citizens since seizing rule.
Spare me the pearl clutching, he just needs to get a shot to play. What a fool. Total comedy.
No, he would be forced to inject an unproven substance that has potentially very serious and adverse side effects, including myocarditis, which also has no benefit to the public (since we now know it doesn’t prevent spreading it or catching it), or to himself (since his natural immunity from having had it previously is stronger). Seems as if you’re the fool. Making a choice based on his long term health and his principles of liberty, over the pursuit of a historical legacy of major championships (as he obviously no longer needs prize money) is admirable, and most of us take pride in knowing there’s still big time athlete’s who value principles, health, and common sense over their own vanity and records.
Why must he? What difference will it make to anyone else if he doesn’t?
Guess you wouldn’t recognise a principle if it got up and hit you in the face.
If this seems irrational, and it is, the CDC got this nonsense rolling in the first place.
Clearly Djokovic stance on covid vaccination is quasi religious.
It is not difficult to get vaccine certificate without actually being vaccinated in many countries.
With Novak being National hero in Serbia, it would be very easy for government to make him vaccinated.
So i really admire Djokovic for taking this stance thus missing on two chances a season of winning GS.
As to idiocy of Australian and USA governments covid policies?
They are total fraud and disgrace.
“Science is not supposed to be religious dogma etched in stone, it is an ever-evolving knowledge base that changes and improves thanks to dissent and skepticism.”
The policy now applies solely to non-US citizens visiting via legal channels.
It was dropped for US citizens when the courts struck it down, and the fact that the border control cannot refuse entry to US citizens.
The problem is that border control officers have been granted way to much discretion to violate constitutional rights. They will seize phones and laptop computers capriciously, to rummage in them, and use the blackmail of summary deportation to get their way.
Such behaviour by government officials within the USA is prohibited on constitutional grounds, regardless of the citizenship of their victims. It is high time to abolish toleration of official caprice at the borders.
This policy is not only a disgrace to American sport it’s a disgrace to America. The CDC has declared that there is no difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated yet the unvaccinated still cannot enter and Novak Djokovic (a man I greatly admire) is not the only one affected. Can anyone tell me why my daughter (double vaccinated over a year ago – caught covid in April 22) can enter the States whilst I, unvaccinated, caught covid in April 22, cannot enter the States? Quite honestly, the US appears a foolish, deluded and rather pathetic country at the moment and needs to get its act together pretty quickly.
Biden’s Democratic Party clearly hates America and is at war with her culture. People who love their country would never think of doing the things this regime is doing.
Has anyone else noted that the “US Open” is being sponsored by Moderna this year?
Hopefully his issue shines some light on the craziness of not being aloud into America if unvaccinated I’ve gotten COVID twice but still am not aloud to travel to the us and am in my 20s so not much risk either for my age group time to change the rules
there is no right to participate in a tennis match
get the goddam vaccine, or stfu
BooHoo! Poor little snowflake is not above the law. All of you clearly are experts in Infectious Diseases and Public Health.
I assume you are double vaxed and triple boosted Franky? Good luck with that as you await the fun part. Can you say deep vein thrombosis? Another libtard who watches too much CNN and worships Fraudci.
Fluckin idot…
Well, Park MacDougald may not be an expert but Dr Vinay Prasad, Associate Professor , Hematology Oncology Medicine Health Policy Epidemiology certainly is and he’s saying exactly the same thing about this stupid ban.
see: Let Djokovic Play – by Vinay Prasad – Common Sense
“Frank” reminds me of those die-hard Nazis who headed to Argentina after WWII. The poor little jerk actually still believes all the crap he was fed when the very “experts” he quotes are all ducking & diving & claiming they were just following orders.
can’t wait to see the actual greatest player of all time, rafa nadal, rack up another slam next month.
Nadal couldn’t beat Coric in Cincinnati last week, don’t hold your breath, as he’s not in top form. Djokovic will always have the edge on Nadal for all-time best, as even with Nadal’s large clay surface edge vs. him (and everybody else because he’s a clay court God), Djokovic still has the edge head to head and in finals. It’s close though, no question, Nadal’s a legend. Who really cares who ” the “greatest of all time” moniker gets bestowed to anyway, that’s all opinion and that will never be settled. It makes for fun bar arguments, but there’s nothing of value in it. They’ve both had amazing careers, it’s a shame we can’t see more of them in the twilight of their careers over government edicts of sheer stupidity.