There’s one fail-safe way to know the sex workers you love are actually getting the money they deserve: Pay them!Criminalizing or moralizing porn isn’t the answer. Instead, many sex worker organizers advocate for a porn industry that is legal, safe, and pro-worker. Since the 1990s, a small but fierce group of self-described queer, indie, and feminist porn producers has also emerged, centering women and queer performers and crafting an aesthetic meant to cater to people beyond just straight, cis men. Many of these companies, like Shine Louise Houston’s Pink & White Productions, are a good bet for consumers who want to feel confident that the performers they’re watching are experiencing healthy and equitable working conditions. But what matters most in determining whether porn is ethical isn’t what’s onscreen—it’s what’s in workers’ pockets. As Allie Oops, a queer porn director, producer, and performer told Dame, “You’ll never be able to judge a porn as being ethical by what you see on the screen.” Mikey Way, an Australian sex worker and activist, echoes this sentiment in an essay on Tits and Sass: “Here’s what my feminist porn looks like: independent models working the way they want to work; making money; and setting their own hours, limits, and standards." There’s one fail-safe way to know the sex workers you love are actually getting the money they deserve: Pay them! With so much porn available on the internet, it’s tempting to get your sexy media for free, especially when you don’t have too much money in the bank. But most of the clips on these sites are stolen, meaning the cash from your clicks ends up going to site owners, not performers. Instead, you can think of paying for porn the same way you’d pay for sex toys and SFW video steaming services: as an investment in your pleasure, and a small way to make the world more equitable. Wondering where to start? Here are four porn performers we love, whose work will both turn you on and educate you about the many ways workers are making a better sex industry.
Sexual Wellness
Our Favorite Porn That's Both Sexy and Ethical
Created on 11/09/2019
Updated on 13/10/2022
Saying that porn is a contentious issue is like saying the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs was a space rock: It’s not wrong, but it doesn’t reveal the scope of the damage. From the “feminist sex wars” of the 1980s to current anti-porn crusaders, many have argued that filmed sex is inherently wrong, regardless of working conditions or whether performers consent.
But these arguments share a big, glaring problem: They ignore the voices of sex workers, most of them women, who actually create porn. Instead, people from all over the ideological spectrum have labeled all sex work a form of trafficking and stigmatized certain kinds of consensual sex. The result: less agency for performers, less sexual freedom for consumers, and a more repressive atmosphere all around.
For the past several decades, the sex workers’ movement has pushed back. From porn actors’ advocacy groups to sex workers’ unions, these activists remind us that sex work is, above all, work. Like other kinds of work, performing in porn can be degrading, exploitative, and sexist. Like other kinds of media, porn can represent women, queer people, and people of color in a stereotypical or degrading way. These facts raise real ethical questions for the 71% of women who watch porn, the Dame community included. So how can we keep our porn viewing both ethical and hot?
