Why Consent Can’t Always Be Guaranteed in Porn

Is there a viable way to completely guarantee that the porn you’re watching is truly consensual and abuse-free? Not exactly. Let’s discuss.

One common argument in defense of porn is that professional performers are all “consenting adults” who “love their jobs.” But unfortunately, that is virtually impossible to guarantee.

In the porn industry, the lines between abuse and consent are so blurred, that there’s no viable way to tell the difference. Performers can be coerced into participating and into lying about their experiences on set, and consumers wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell the difference even if they were watching something nonconsensual.

Related: How Porn Can Fuel Sex Trafficking

To start off, isn’t content created by official porn production companies and uploaded to well-known, mainstream sites more reliably consensual?

Well, take a look at their standard consent practices.

In an effort to soothe consumers’ worries about nonconsensual content and absolve the producers of liability, some porn production companies film “exit interviews” where the performers confirm whether they consented to everything that was filmed. But even these supposed confirmations of consent have proven to be deeply problematic.

Loopholes with “exit interviews”

While exit interviews are presumably filmed after production has wrapped up, they are often filmed before the performers are paid.

Even if they’ve already been paid, the guarantee that they’ll be booked for future jobs in the industry often depends on not “being difficult” or saying something they experienced was abusive, since production companies cannot use the footage if a performer states they were assaulted or abused.

Related: How Porn Can Normalize Sexual Objectification

With their paychecks and careers hanging over the performers’ heads, and surrounded by a production crew, it is not uncommon for porn performers to lie in their exit interviews. As one performer put it, “I was severely abused on set a few times… and had to say on camera at the end [that] I was fine. In fact, one time I said, ‘No, I am not okay,’ and they screamed at me that I couldn’t say that and get paid.”Fight the New Drug. (2021). Not all porn is consensual. Don’t believe it? just ask these performers.. Retrieved from https://dev.fightthenewdrug.org/these-performers-expose-abuse-consent-issues-on-porn-set/Copy 1

Is it any wonder that if a performer has already been abused or pushed too far during filming, they might be afraid of inciting further abuse or industry scorn by speaking out?

Can a performer truly revoke consent?

Then, of course, there’s the issue of the freedom to revoke consent even if it’s already been given.

Another performer described her experience of being whipped and caned for 35 minutes on set, saying, “I’ve never received a beating like that before in my life… I have permanent scars up and down the backs of my thighs. It was all things that I had consented to, but I didn’t know quite the brutality of what was about to happen to me until I was in it.”Conger, K. (2013 ). Gag order: Sex workers allege mistreatment at kink.com. SF Weekly. Retrieved from https://www.sfweekly.com/news/gag-order-sex-workers-allege-mistreatment-at-kink-com/Copy 2

Related: How Porn Can Hurt a Consumer’s Partner

Did you catch what she said there? “It was all things that I had consented to.” That’s the problem with treating consent like it’s “all-or-nothing.” She consented to do X. She didn’t consent to do X, Y, and Z.

This is important: true consent can be withdrawn at any moment, yet many performers are required to sign contracts prior to the actual shooting, making it incredibly difficult to revoke consent even if the situation becomes uncomfortable or dangerous. Is a truly “yes” valid if “no” is not a safe option?

The fact that they won’t be paid or their industry reputation will be damaged if they do revoke consent in the middle of a scene is an element of coercion that invalidates their consent in the first place, and could even be legally defined as a form of sex trafficking.

No formal system for reporting abuse

Unfortunately, abuse in the porn industry is incredibly pervasive. And when you look closely, you find that there is virtually no formal system for reporting and addressing that abuse in a way that holds abusers accountable while keeping performers safe.

What’s worse? Those who do publicly report or speak out about abuse are often blacklisted, threatened, dismissed, or further abused.Lange, A. (2018). This woman says authorities doubted her sexual assault claim because she does porn. Buzzfeed News. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/arianelange/nikki-benz-porn-defamation-lawsuit-metoo#.ldPVz1Yg0YCopy 3Clark-Flory, T. (2018). Porn actors Leigh Raven and Riley Nixon allege abuse, violence, and boundary violation on set. Jezebel. Retrieved from https://jezebel.com/porn-actors-leigh-raven-and-riley-nixon-allege-abuse-v-1823677195Copy 4 Plus, many performers struggle to find work outside of the porn industry due to the stigma of being a former porn performer. Performers are punished inside of and out of the industry, the accused perpetrators walk free, and the cycle continues.

Related: How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

Of course, we’re not claiming that all porn contains abuse or nonconsensual content. But in order for consumers to make informed decisions regarding porn, we think it’s important to point out that some pornographic content isn’t consensual—and it’s virtually impossible to guarantee which is which.

This is a selected excerpt from one of our Get The Facts articles. Click here to read the full article, “How the Porn Industry Profits From Nonconsensual Content and Abuse.”