It’s Time to Stop the Unfair Violation of Porn Performers’ Rights
By: Mysterious Witt
Tags: Equality, Sex Work, Women, Pornography, Sexuality

It’s Time to Stop the Unfair Violation of Porn Performers’ Rights

The stigma attached to the adult entertainment industry has paved the way for porn performers to be raped, fired, and denied banking services with no apparent legal recourse Mysterious Witt Follow Apr 18, 2020 · 7 min read

Photo by Vinícius Estevão from Pexels

Porn performers aren’t respected in our society and nothing underlines this fact better than the Stormy Daniels/Donald Trump scandal. When the world learned that President Trump had tried to buy porn performer Stormy Daniel’s silence about their affair before the 2016 election, she was the one who was skewered in the court of public opinion. Trump, on the other hand, emerged unscathed.

This is business as usual when it comes to the treatment of porn performers in our society. Porn actors aren’t seen as worthy of respect.

As model Amber Rose told Marlow Stern, Senior Entertainment Editor of The Daily Beast:

“Porn stars are here for our convenience. Everyone uses them when they want to use them and then throws them away after. We don’t respect them enough.”

Stereotyped and stigmatized, porn performers are denied their humanity. It doesn’t make a difference that the stereotypes aren’t true.

Feminist porn director, Erika Lust, told Dazed:

“It’s often assumed that to be an adult performer you’re troubled, on drugs, have money problems and no self-esteem. Even though those cases certainly exist, it’s not a fair judgment to pass on to everyone who chooses to do adult films, and it’s not my experience at all.”

When society denies that porn performers are three-dimensional beings with the same needs and desires as other people, this creates a world in which it’s okay to deny them their rights.

The unfair treatment of adult actors is so commonplace that former porn performer Bree Olson tweeted an open letter to women who are considering entering the industry, advising against it.

“When you do porn, you automatically become a segregated part of society that is held to prejudice without the support of activists for your human rights,” Olson tweeted.

“I think it’s worse for women,” Lust told Dazed. “Some people just take the right to moralise over other people’s sexuality and choices.”

But the general public’s narrow views about sexuality shouldn’t impact whether certain humans are afforded their rights or not.

Lust adds: “It comes from a malicious urge to police bodies and sexuality.”

Women and men alike have the right to perform in porn videos if they want, and how they choose to earn a living should have no influence on whether their human rights are protected.

Banks refuse services to porn performers.

Making porn is a job just like any other. When adult actors get paid they need a place to cash their checks and keep their money. Many banks make this difficult for people in the adult-entertainment industry, denying them services.

Banks can get away with this because of “morality clauses” buried deep in the fine print “aimed at legal businesses with taboo reputations,” Witney Mallet wrote in her article, “How Banks Make It Hard For Sexy Startups,” which appeared in Fast Company.

But who decides which businesses and individuals are reprehensible and which aren’t?

Even if porn performers are able to create accounts with some banks, those same banks can close their accounts at any time without explanation.

PJ Patella-Rey, a sociology doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland focusing on the intersections of digital technology, labor, and sexuality, told Fast Company:

“We have to think about how straightforward moral stigma informs these policies. The personal politics of the people in the boardrooms has to be a factor to some degree, even if it’s not a conscious thing.”

While there’s a framework in place to protect individuals against discrimination based on their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, “no federal laws explicitly prohibit discrimination against adult businesses,” Witney Mallet wrote in her article for Fast Company.

But discrimination is exactly what’s happening when banks refuse to offer services to people who work in the adult entertainment industry. Survivors Against SESTA compiled an exhaustive list of financial institutions that won’t work with adult entertainers.

Even if porn performers are able to create accounts with some banks, those same banks can close their accounts at any time without explanation.

In 2014, JPMorgan Chase closed the accounts of hundreds of adult performers and directors without giving any reason why. Porn performer Teagan Presley was one of the performers whose account was closed.

When accused of discriminating against people who make porn, Chase denied the claim.

Mortgage and loan companies have also declined to give loans to adult-oriented companies, and banks can do this simply because certain officials don’t approve of a particular industry or job.

Porn performers feel they can’t press charges when they’re raped.

In 2015, several porn actresses publicly accused fellow porn performer James Deen of rape.

Stoya was the first, tweeting: “James Deen held me down and fucked me while I said no, stop, used my safeword. I just can’t nod and smile when people bring him up anymore.”

Laurie Penny, author of Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution, wrote in Time of the courage it took Stoya to come forward, “…knowing that she would be accused of lying and attention-seeking, knowing the number of people who would claim that as a sex worker, she cannot expect to claim rape and be believed.”

Just because porn actors have sex as an occupation doesn’t preclude them from legal protection against being forced to have nonconsensual sex.

The running belief is that porn performers can’t be raped because they have sex for a living — or that they somehow deserve the bad treatment because they’ve made “immoral” choices.

This was the case of Tori Lux, who alleges she was also raped and beaten by Deen. Lux wrote in an open letter on The Daily Beast as to why she didn’t come forward earlier.

“…because people — including the police — tend to believe that sex workers have placed themselves in harm’s way, and therefore can’t be assaulted… Simply put: I was afraid.”

Just because porn actors have sex as an occupation doesn’t preclude them from legal protection against being forced to have nonconsensual sex.

Formal charges were never brought against Deen.

Porn performers get fired from jobs after leaving the industry.

Life doesn’t get any better once porn performers retire. Even when they start new careers, they face the danger of getting fired from their jobs simply for having appeared in porn in their past.

This is what happened to Stacie Halas, a California middle-school teacher, who was fired after students found one of her videos on the Internet. When she tried to fight her termination in court, her appeal was denied.

Kimberly Halsey, a former porn actor, was also let go from her real estate job after a co-worker recognized her. She considered pursuing legal action against her employer but decided against it because she didn’t want to get blacklisted from the real estate industry.

The true hypocrisy is that former porn performers are fired from their jobs when nothing happens to their co-workers who recognized them from watching porn.

Adult entertainment lawyer Michael Fattorosi told Salon that employment discrimination cases involving adult entertainers are “very, very difficult to win… [It’s] not like saying we’re letting you go because you’re black or Jewish or you wear a turban. Those things are not a result of a life choice you make, and being a sex worker is.”

Even if sex work is a life choice, this doesn’t make it legal to fire a qualified person from a job just because they made porn in their past.

The true hypocrisy is that former porn performers are fired from their jobs when nothing happens to their co-workers who recognized them from watching porn.

It’s hypocritical to disrespect porn performers while still enjoying the content they create.

The hypocrisy of discriminating against adult actors seems lost on most. The negative view of porn performers persists even when porn is enjoyed by so many.

Porn is a $97 billion global industry, according to sociologist Kassia Wosick, the author of Sex, Love, and Fidelity: A Study of Contemporary Romantic Relationships. Porn sites get more visitors per month than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

That’s a lot of porn viewing. According to Pornhub’s 2017 Year in Review, “The USA continues to be Pornhub’s country with the highest traffic by a long shot.”

When we each start to recognize porn performers’ humanity, we can help to change our collective consciousness and perspective.

Marlow Stern said it best in the Daily Beast:

“It’s time for Americans — who consume far and away the most porn of any country in the world — to start treating adult performers with respect…and to treat these people like goddamn human beings.”

Each individual who enjoys porn can begin to do this by changing the way they view adult performers.

When we each start to recognize porn performers’ humanity, we can help to change our collective consciousness and perspective.

We can’t stand idly by while adult entertainers’ rights are unfairly violated.

To learn more about what is being done to support porn actors’ human rights, contact organizations such as the Free Speech Coalition, the North American trade association for the adult industry, or the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee. Both organizations support and advocate for performers’ rights.