On the condoms in porn debate January 19, 2012

So, a porn actress has weighed in on the whole LA county mandating condoms in porn fracas… and I’m having a total facepalm moment.

I’m not steeped enough in the world of porn or sexual health to really comment on whether or not the motives behind this are purely altruistic, especially as it relates to the performers, or if there’s really a gaping safety need here. But I can’t help but feel legal codification of safety procedures is always a good thing, regardless of industry, to protect workers from unscrupulous management. But where I kind of hit the roof is where she says this:

I’ve heard too many times the claim that the adult industry is acting irresponsibly by portraying barrier-free sex when – as the argument goes – people of all ages are getting their information about sex from pornography. But the overwhelming majority of porn is fiction, and the world it portrays is one of fantasy.  I have to believe that most people who encounter porn know this.  We don’t generally expect other forms of entertainment to be responsible for disseminating health and safety information. If pornography is in some capacity replacing sex education for people in this country, then mandating condom use is a ludicrously indirect way of addressing that problem.

That shows a deep misunderstanding of how media works on our brains and influences us. She’s right, in that we shouldn’t be forcing pornography to also be a stand-in for sex-ed. We (as a country) have done a really great job of dismantling sex-ed in the name of puritanical hysteria, and there are studies galore that have documented the damage done by the abstinence-only lobby. But like it or not, the media that we consume influences and shapes our thinking, and to simply negate that away is irresponsible. I can understand the resistance to the nanny-ization of the world we live in, and metaphorically sanding down all of the corners and putting foam on the pointy bits. But the possible lifelong ramifications of STD’s are huge, and porn performers are influencers especially with youngers consumers of porn. I don’t care what side of the debate you’re on, you can’t negate that away by simply stating we should live in a better world – we don’t.