The latest porn-related headline fodder and worst parenting nightmare come true: Laurence Fishburne’s 19-year-old daughter Montana Fishburne making her very public XXX-rated movie debut in order to get famous and successful. Her inspiration being Kim Kardashian’s claim to fame after her leaked sex tape.
Oh, really? This is the sort of twisted causal logic I would imagine for The Onion to come up with than an actual human being.
The less scandalous news that you may or may not be aware of: more and more women are working in the porn industry behind camera, even as higher-up executives. For many women, as the ones detailed in an old news article “Women On Top: Female Execs Rise In Porn Biz,” working in the adult industry is just another 9-to-5 job. That part of your industry that involves naked people getting it on in front of the camera? Whatever.
A while back, the no-limits documentary team Vanguard did a fascinating episode on the changing face of porn in their episode “Porn 2.0,” which also acknowledged the increase of women joining the industry as non-actors.
So is it a good thing that more women are in the porn industry a good thing? Are the increasing numbers of women in the XXX business an opportunity to make adult film more women-friendly, or are they simply being brainwashed by an inherently misogynistic system that exploits women?
Allison Vivas, president of her own adult entertainment company Pink Visual, asserts in her opinon piece in The Daily Princetonian that being a feminist and working in porn are not mutually exclusive. After all, in gay porn and lesbian porn, heterosexual male desire is not even a part of the equation.
Certainly, more women working in the industry makes for more diverse interpretations of sexuality that aren’t about drunk sorority girls showing their titties for free. But no matter how progressive and gender-equal the porn industry becomes with more female directors, executives, writers and marketers calling the shots, trying to get famous for a pre-emptive “leak” of a sex tape and announcing your intentions for doing so probably isn’t the best strategy for a long-term career that lasts more than your 15 minutes of Warholian fame.
Originally published August 2010
To me, porn has always been an acceptable career choice for women. It's legal.
It's wrong to look down on women in porn. Ironically, most of the condescension comes from feminists.
Irationally, feminists also blame men for watching and supporting porn, yet leave no blame for the women who work in the industry.
The reality is that there should be no blame because porn is not wrong. It has always been an acceptable career choice and the women who work in the industry should not be made to feel less than human.
Condemning women in porn is cruel and needs to stop.
Irrationally*