To wonder why any woman would work as a 'pornstar'....

[Flashbangandgone]

...unless it was the only way
a) to make ends meet and put food on the table and secure a roof over their family's head, or
b) to pay for an expensive drug habit....

Surely it's not just prostitution in private (which is bad enough), but prostitution broadcast to the world! I just can't imagine why anyone would do it as a lifestyle choice?

It certainly seems to be a commonly held view that if you hate porn then you hate sex

I don't hate porn or sex but I think the problem comes from people not seeing porn for what it is...acting.
It worries me that teens will watch porn and think that's what sex is and that "performance" is what's expected. A woman in porn is not having sex because she fancies it, she's not screaming in ecstasy because she's enjoying it she's following a script during a choreographed scene.

It's money,it's a job and has little to do with loving sex!

I know a young man who is a gay porn model (pornstar). He was encouraged to apply by a friend. He works 2 days a month doing scenes which earns him the same money that his previous waiter job earned him working many more hours. So he has a lot more time for his studies and a social life.

I worry for him that there are avenues that will be closed to him in the future. Several men in his industry have committed suicide recently and many move in to escorting.

But for now he's loving it, all the models at his studio are tested before they can shoot and he's made a lot of friends with the other models who are a good support network. He's kept up with his studies and is saving.

If a women is truly choosing to do it and it makes her happy then surely she should be supported in her decision.

Theoretically, I agree... but in practice, is porn really one of those industries you can really say that about? Given that it generally seems to damage those who get involved, often serious and sometimes to the point of suicide, the 'if it truly makes her happy' argument doesn't seem to correspond with reality....

It's a bit like saying "If you really want to be a drug mule (with all the benefits of money and seeing the world!), then good for you, I'll support you all the way!" or "If crack makes you happy (chocolate just doesn't give the same 'rush'), go ahead, why not become an addict!"

I was going to name change but I can't be arsed! I didn't do 'proper' porn, but certainly was heading down that route many years ago.

I started glamour modelling at 18 because my boyfriend at the times ex did it, and I wanted to prove I was just as attractive as her (I know, I know!) I had been sexually abused as a child and had the cliched low self esteem stuff going on. I started out doing topless. Once you have started doing it, it becomes normal - for those who say they could never do it - taking your top off for photos just becomes so normal that it is a none event. From there, the jump to taking your knickers off isn't so huge. Then that becomes normal. It is incredibly easy to fall into this - and people keep offering you more and more money. Your agent will call and say we don't have any topless work but here's a really easy nude job and it's double the money.

I was paid to drink in clubs, would get recognised and ended up earning a lot of money (I bought my first house off it) but was increasingly hermit like. I was scared to leave the house, would get stalkers, my boyfriend loved the attention I got and our relationship grew more fucked up. It becomes a trap though - how do you go from the above, earning £100's an hour, to £8 ph in your local supermarket? You feel trapped and the only way is to carry on.

I lived with a porn star (a proper one!) at the time and we would watch out for each other, we spouted the same independent feminist crap, and then we would go home and behind closed doors often have heart to hearts where we tried to help each other out of it.

She is now a yoga instructor (we are 35 now) and I moved to a completely different area and reinvented myself as a 'normal' person. I had years of pschotherapy to deal with it, but it's hard to move on. I'm single, but how do I tell a new partner that? The guys who get a kick from it are binned straight away, the good guys often run a mile. Tell too soon and everyone knows your business, tell too late and you have kept a secret from someone.

So, that's my view anyway! I don't know if it helps the discussion any, j sort of ended up ranting! Sorry!

Femdom seems the gig, you dont even appear to have sex, spanking, tying whipping etc and of course all the amazon/etsy wish lists.

Oh yes spanking some grotty strangers arse would be so fulfilling

The rougher end of sex is not porn though sex and the porn industry is not the same imo

Swiggettyswoogety, posting amateur porn, no matter how out there (each to their own - I'm not judging people's personal tastes) is hardly the same as being a paid porn star, where you can't say 'actually I'm not in the mood tonight' or 'actually that really, treacly hurts - can we stop?'

I suppose in a way a lot of opposition (from women at least) is based on a rather Queen Victoriaish notion that 'women can't possibly enjoy THAT' just because the speaker finds the idea repulsive.

And that in turn comes from the notion that women can't possibly just enjoy sex for give sake of sex. Or casual sex. Or BDSM despite the fact their book buying habits suggest they like the idea. And that all women should like (that is, proper decent women) is plain vanilla sex in a loving relationship.

The idea that a woman might like sex with someone she doesn't know very well or as an exhibitionist or that hurts a bit somehow makes her a 'bad' defective woman who is damaged, impure and should be disapproved of.

Like I say, not really very feminist and very old fashioned. Well, unless you're the sort of feminist whose idea of feminism is 'You need to stop being told what to do by men and be told what to do by ME instead'.

posting amateur porn, no matter how out there (each to their own - I'm not judging people's personal tastes) is hardly the same as being a paid porn star

Yes, they differ, but I wonder how different at their core.... I wonder how many women enthusiastically consent as opposed to grudgingly consent because their DP is pushing it...

I mean, posting videos of yourself involved in sex acts online for your neighbours, family, boss, colleagues, friends to see?!? Yes, there probably are some genuine exhibitionists out there, but for every one of those I would bet there are many others who are far from happy about it but suffer in silence.

These women can do what they like but it is not very feminised to be seen as a wank tool which basically porn is nobody is watching porn for the arty scenes women in porn are seen as tits and a hole any hole will do. Being cool with pornography does not make a person a forward thinker and open minded it just means they have no objections to pornography whatever rocks your boat but doesnt make me an old fashioned pearl clutching fuddy duddy

I don't in any way disapprove of women who work in porn. I disapprove of the industry that exploits them. And I don't believe that all of the women who work in porn are exhibitionists who are doing a job they love . As a pp has said who worked in porn, she had been sexually abused as a child and I think this is likely to be a common story, sadly
People who think porn is a shitty industry that exploits the vulnerable are not people who don't like sex or think sex should only be limited to certain acts. What a stupid argument, that anyone who objects to porn is a prude.
Like saying that anyone who buys or watches porn couldn't care less about the people participating in it, and just wants to get a cheap thrill! Oh hang on a minute...

Flashbang That's an odd viewpoint. It's the same for their partners - and anyone who is posting porn. I think there's probably many women who prefer posting it...

I mean, look at Reddit. There's a whole section there where women post naked photos for free, just for the attention and "Gold" that they get. It's a little bit of fame. It's some attention.

At 15, a social worker who was talking to me about my siblings joked that when I finished school, I could do porn to buy myself a house. At the time, he was taking my siblings into care, but they felt that I was "safe" enough, and that taking all her children would push my mum over the edge. He said that there was nothing he could do, but that I should leave as soon as I could - and when I said I wouldn't be able to afford it, he suggested porn. He said it "wouldn't be pleasant" , but I'd make myself someone - and then someone would look after me, even if it was just because I made him money.

I thought about it and discarded it. When my mum beat me up and kicked me out at midnight, I considered getting a fake ID. When the council wouldn't help me because my boyfriend's parents had let me stay and that meant I had somewhere to live, I started contacting people on Gumtree.

I didn't do it because my boyfriend thought it was a horrendous idea and wouldn't entertain talking about it - he didn't stop me, but he strongly thought I'd regret it. He didn't want to discuss it and said if I did it, he'd pretend it wasn't happening, but he wouldn't want anything to do with the money or the job.

I've never been sexually abused. My self-esteem is what it is, it's okay most of the time. I don't have a Daddy complex or anything. I don't think my sex life is relevant but it's pretty good, I like sex. That's not why, though - the why is because people (society, men, however you want to phrase it) will pay a lot more for a naked woman's body than for a woman's mind. And much quicker, too.

Kim K and her "feminist" topless snaps prove this. She made herself off that sex tape. She might regret it now, or it might have all been planned, but she still strips every now and again - even now she's married and a mother - because whatever else she does, it's her naked body that got her where she is.

I won't rule it out. I'd end my career - my employer would almost certainly say I'd bought them into disrepute - but if I needed cash, the best way to get a lot of it in a short amount of time is either porn or prostitution, and porn seems safer, even if it's only that there are camera crews around & reputable places will obey sexual health laws.

I have a friend who has done it (maybe still does it, don't know) and worked as a pole dancer out of her own choice, partly for the purposes of her studies in Women's Studies. She said she enjoyed it and she is very vocal about rights for sex workers. She is a die-hard feminist as well.

There does seem to be this idea that women do porn because they just luuurve getting fucked in every hole all the live long day. Hmmm, I wonder where that idea could have been perpetuated from?

As for the comparisons to BDSM, sex parties etc - oh please! It's just a convenient way of shutting down debate around porn: 'oh you are just prudes, some women love this stuff!'. There is a huge difference between choosing to go to sex parties every so often, choosing which partners you do what with etc. and working in porn where you are told what to do and with whom and to ensure that you make sure that you look like you are enjoying every second at all times.

I haven't seen much porn, but looking back on the stuff I have seen, it was pretty awful. And this was mainstream 'DVDs swapped between normal blokes' stuff, not super specialist or anything.

AnchorDown that social worker should be struck off shouldn't he? What an arsehole

Anchordown. Interesting perspective, and I guess it's a 'price worth paying' for some... But I still just don't get amateur stuff.... If it's showing off your body then that's one thing and very much at the tame end of the spectrum (and unless you where a burka we all do that to an extent), but surely sex acts are in a different league... Why would anyone want to put that out there for all to see for nothing? Are they really all nympho exhibitionists?

'Wear' not 'where' obviously!

I think there is all sorts of reasons some will be highly damaged people who have low self esteem and some will see it purely as a job and have no problem disconnecting sex as business and sex as love.

I don't think it's fair to tell a woman that she's not a feminist because she makes a choice which many people don't think is the "right" one.

I strongly object to the idea that disliking porn has anything to do with thinking women can't enjoy BDSM or rough sex.

When I think of a woman enjoying rough sex, I think of it being consensual. I think of, ultimately, a woman being able to say stop when she's had enough. Of either no actual physical damage being done to a woman, or if it is, it being like a tattoo - something self-inflicted and again consensual (I'm thinking people getting off on having bruises on them or being cut)

In pornography a woman might have an anal tear, say. The camera is rolling, she's hurting, but she's being paid to be there and there's a deadline to continue filming and so really she has no choice but to continue or if she wants to stop there's a whole crew rolling their eyes, waiting to get on with the scene which needs finishing. Or maybe she wants to stop but she has no choice, because she's been coerced to be there and is scared on some level. Perhaps she gets exhausted to a degree from having sex all day but that's irrelevant, again there's a job to be done and tough shit if she's tired.

Perhaps there are porn stars who get hurt and enjoy it. But really - most women who feature in porn? Sorry, that's bullshit. Doesn't mean women can't enjoy BDSM and rough sex in their own bedrooms where they're in control. It's an entirely separate issue.

Most pornography seems to be rough to a degree to me now. Lots of (most?) women must be getting hurt when doing it.

Its very important to shout from the rooftops that women enjoy very rough sex because there's a whole generation of young people who have got no idea that they do.

Oh, wait...

That study is flawed.

A direct query "did you enter into making porn because you suffered an abusive upbringing" is not likely to get a positive response from someone currently in the industry even if it is true