… to really not understand how so many women participate in porn?

[TwoBrownSugars]

I recently watched the Thyberg movie Pleasure. I liked parts of it. It showed a somewhat young and vulnerable girl, there were elements of friendship, some competitiveness, etc. But it did make me wonder who are all these women, they are real people, and think that they all have a story.

I just can’t imagine doing something like that, even when I was young and stupid. I also cannot imagine any of my friends doing it.

I’d assume that for some it’s a mixture of coercion, trafficking and drugs?

Money? But I’d assume there is very little for the participants?

Money.

A woman I know did/ does it.
She liked the money and enjoyed the job plus the slight celebrity status around town for a while

Why would you assume that there’s little money? Some women earn very little, but some earn an awful lot, and a great many are self-employed, working on only-fans for themselves.

There are different types. Studio porn, homemade by yourself, as a couple.

Some people make money, some don't
Some are coerced, some aren't

It varies widely, it's hard to tell what everyone's motivations are

I went to grammar school with a girl who stayed and did her A levels and then decided to go to London to get into porn. When I asked her why, she just said she wanted to. She wasn't into drugs but she did like parties - but then we all did and we all drank.

OP, if you can get hold of the documentary "Hot Girls Wanted", it's very revealing. It follows the fortunes of a group of 18 year olds that answer ads in their local paper for "Hot Girls".

Also C4 did a documentary about porn. They took 4 guys (3 straight, 1 gay) to California to watch it being made. I was quite an eye opener.
I'll see if I can find a link.

I also find it interesting that you say 'you can't imagine' doing it, even being 'young and stupid'. If you're being coerced, then you can't possibly say that you'd never do it.

You realise the vast majority were sexually abused as children? So your pearl clutching about how you could NEVER do that, I’m sure you had a reasonably normal life compared to them.

It's like with any job, mostly people do it for the money. There are some people who enjoy their role, but most people are doing it as a means to buy food and pay rent.

If you look at just the cold hard facts, in what other job can someone with no particular skills in a few hours earn more than someone else does for doing a basic admin or warehouse job for a whole week?

Of course there are people who make amateur stuff who aren't even trying to make money out of it, I guess in those cases it's mostly a sexual kink or fetish like exhibitionism that makes them do it.

imeout.com/london/blog/netflixs-hot-girls-wanted-documentary-series-is-as-scary-as-black-mirror-but-about-real-life-042017

The C4 documentary;

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2393655/Channel-4-documentary-men-obsessed-porn-meeting-women-star-films.html

Mumsnet will generally have you believe that every woman involved in porn must be forced into it in some way or have no other option etc - ie it always has to be an abuse type situation. My own experience is that is absolutely not always true. Some people simply enjoy sex as a mundane physical act and can separate themselves emotionally completely and are happy to be paid to do so.

There is a lot of abuse in the porn industry but it’s a huge mistake to assume that every woman working in it is abused or coerced in some way.

It's just a job? They're earning money to pay their bills and fund their lifestyle, whatever that may be. Some earn an eye watering amount and some don't - same as other jobs. Some have had issues growing up, others haven't and just genuinely enjoy the job and the flexibility it can offer. It's not for everyone, of course, or for most people, I dare say. That doesn't mean it's not a legitimate and, for some, enjoyable way to make potentially good money.

This isn’t true. The majority of women in the porn industry were abused as children. They aren’t just random women doing it for the money. It stems from childhood trauma.

I know a couple of women who work/have worked in porn. In all cases they were fairly sexually adventurous anyway and I think found it quite cool/exciting, esp at the start. They also did make more money than the alternatives - the one I knew best commented that she made as much in an afternoon as she would working weeks in a shitty call center and she felt she'd be treated worse in the call centre.

I didn't know anyone who was coerced or had a drugs problem. All of them did have various disabilities which made full time work hard.

This. I'm actually stunned people don't see the elephant in the room. It's abuse.

The majority of women in the porn industry were abused as children.

The majority? Is that a fact?

I don’t like the idea that anyone can fall into it, yes it is ok to say you would never do it, I don’t think it helps to make it sound like any woman can go into it, I would never do porn.

I’d quite like to see the research that relates to childhood abuse. Not that I’m particularly arguing for or against anything in particular but I’d be interested in how any research was conducted. There’s so much amateur content around now versus “studio” made content it would be interesting to see the parameters of any studies.

cherishedla.org/faqs

“Between 66-90% of women in the sex industry were sexually abused as children.”

If you aren’t somebody who necessarily associates sex with love or romance then it’s really just a hard, strenuous but well-paid customer service position (and considering how many retail and hospitality workers on another current thread claim they are sexually assaulted, punched and verbally abused on a regular basis by customers at work, I can see how some women might reason that porn isn’t any more physically dangerous.)

Maybe...maybe back in the old school days of porn childhood abuse of the performers was more common but now "porn" is such a wide ranging industry. A young mum doing webcam work at home or another woman with an OnlyFans account and many other types of porn are an easy and effective way of making money quick quickly. I very much doubt "the majority" of them are victims of child abuse.

@old

Do you have any supporting evidence for this, as I can find, in the Journal of Sex Research, a report refuting this:

Abstract
The damaged goods hypothesis posits that female performers in the adult entertainment industry have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman. The present study compared the self-reports of 177 porn actresses to a sample of women matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status. Comparisons were conducted on sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use. Porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, first had sex at an earlier age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of CSA. In terms of psychological characteristics, porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group. Last, female performers were more likely to have ever used 10 different types of drugs compared to the comparison group. A discriminant function analysis was able to correctly classify 83% of the participants concerning whether they were a porn actress or member of the matched sample. These findings did not provide support for the damaged goods hypothesis.

Sorry, the above quotes ilyx, and subsequently mrsterrypratchett.

Well your reckons aren't worth more than mine and the women I know who worked in the industry were abused as children.

You know sexual abuse is really common, right?