Given the popular support that billionaire Donald Trump continues to receive in the polls on the run-up to party nominations, it comes as no surprise that the adult industry would select him out of the 17 Republican candidates to immortalize. That’s right. There’s going to be a Donald Trump porn parody.
Meet Shine Louise Houston, an award-winning director and a vital part of an incredible revolution happening in pornography right now. This revolution, centered in San Francisco’s indie porn scene, is focused on creating more inclusive offerings for consumers and opportunities for performers. And you can be a part of it. You’ve been needing something on your IMDB to feel proud of.
The mainstream porn industry has shown it has something of a knack for using serious health and social issues as a way to market itself, but it seems as though indie porn’s hard politics and social conscience are starting to rub off. Suddenly, one of the biggest mainstream porn studios is keen on dipping a toe into porn with conscience by including a testicular health how-to in their high-production Game of Thrones-inspired flick.
Every company on the planet has jumped on the lucrative charity bandwagon, and porn is no different, though the industry’s contributions are not always received with the enthusiasm enjoyed by mainstream companies. A couple of years ago, the National Education Association refused a donation from the studio Assence Films, for instance, so it comes as no surprise that the tube giant PornHub is focusing on an initiative that won’t easily turn them down: saving the planet.
A few days ago, the adult online destination Wood Rocket announced it was casting for a Doctor Who porn parody, due out sometime in May. The media jumped on the story, but from AV Club to io9, it seems the axiom “you never forget your first Doctor” doesn’t extend to porn. This isn’t the first time the long-running popular BBC show will make an adult detour. But who was the first porn Doctor?
On April 2, the Labor and Employment Committee of the California State Assembly voted almost unanimously in favor of Assembly Bill (AB) 1576, which would mandate condom use, testing protocols and require adult companies to keep detailed health records of performers. The bill was sponsored by assemblymember Isadore Hall III. Tomorrow, it goes to the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee for a vote. If it passes, it will head to the Appropriations Committee, then hit the state legislature floor.
Pornography is a form of entertainment created for the purpose of arousal, but in many cases, in can serve also as a way of looking at our evolving social, economic, and gender attitudes. In a sense, pornography is an artifact as tangible as a culture’s earthenware, and never has this been more clear to me than in a recent clip released by Girl Bullies, featuring the abuse of subjugation of a male performer portraying a Google employee.
When the trade magazine Adult Video News, better known as AVN, was founded in 1983, there was very little in the way of attention from the mainstream media when it came to issues facing the adult industry. That’s no longer the case — we now live in a world where sex is often reported in high-profile, mainstream places. What does that mean for AVN and properties like it?
Porn consumption has received a fair amount of attention in the media, but unfortunately, so far the conversation has only managed to divide people. One camp sees porn as a social blight and the other sees it as a legitimate form of entertainment that’s being unnecessarily attacked by a hysterical minority. In conversations like these, it’s very easy to miss the nuance, which we need.
It’s true that there are several porn producers who are stepping up to help out with the crisis of sexual illiteracy, but they’re doing this as a service. It’s a lot like the Science and Entertainment Exchange, which connects people in science with people in Hollywood to bring some accurate science into movies and television. These are services I’m grateful for. But it’s neither Hollywood’s nor porn’s duty to do what education should be doing.
But it’s neither Hollywood’s nor porn’s job to do what education should be doing.
