Jade: Why I Chose Porn- BBC documentary.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Firstly,this is very uncomfortable to watch or listen to. If you access it via a phone with headphones you can listen without watching it. It is very explicit in places but the gist is clear from the audio only.

Jade says at the beginning "porn is nice" and the men involved "respect" her unlike men in real life.

Unfortunately "nice " means having unprotected sex ; ending a shoot frequently in tears, and, in one case, sex which leaves her bruised and bleeding. It is also painfully clear the male actor in a shoot in Prague does not "respect" her in the slightest.

For a 14 hour shoot in Prague she got £500 or around £35 per hour. Factoring in the travelling time to and from Prague reduces that to £10 per hour.

The film maker asks her at one point if she's never thought of getting an office job to which she replies something along the lines of "and lose my soul?" As it is, being a porn star seems to consume her life; it seems incompatible with sustaining any non-porn relationships.

Oh and as for "ethical porn" it would be impossible to argue Jade is not consenting to this; at least one of the shoots was directed by a woman but I'm struggling to see anything ethical in it.

I attach a link, but as I say you may prefer to listen to it rather than watch.

Jade: Why I Chose Porn: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p042kl1v via @bbciplayer

I hadn't seen that advertised, thank you for the link, I will see if I can stomach watching/listening.

Thanks for this Lass. I haven't seen it yet, but it does seem from what you say that what constitutes 'respect' from men is a very low bar indeed.

I saw this. I found it really tough to watch.

She reminded me of me when I was younger. I could easily have gone down the porn route.

I wanted to shake her and make her see you was worth so much more. She looked so unhappy and lost despite her words.

Thanks for the link. Will have a watch when I feel a bit stronger.

I saw this and it was awful, at one point she stated she is a feminist because she's in control.

Like Untilthecowscomehome said she was so unhappy and seemed to be saying what she thought people wanted to hear, but then contradicted herself in more vulnerable moments.

I watched this a while back - I found it a tough watch too.

There is no doubt that she was consenting, and in some ways seems to know what she wants - but, god, I just found her so vulnerable, I couldn't stand it.

I don't understand the narrator, I get the empathy she has for Jade, I think we all do, but to say porn gives Jade 'purpose... self worth... control of her life... strength' is just so wrong headed. It is incredibly sad.

I just felt sorry for her, but as long as she's happy.

I get the empathy she has for Jade, I think we all do, but to say porn gives Jade 'purpose... self worth... control of her life... strength' is just so wrong headed. It is incredibly sad

I agree. I understand why the narrator did not want to be judgemental but self worth, purpose, control?

mamarach Did Jade seem happy to you? She didn't to me except when she remembered this was supposed to make her happy.

Being generous (to Jade) I suppose editing can do a lot - ie. put a good or bad spin on things depending on what point the film maker wants to make.

But I think (this is from memory, as I said, I watched it a while ago) the thing that stuck with me was the fact that she had a horrible time at Uni, struggled with friendships, abandoned her intended career. I wonder if it was a sense of wanting to step into another world, albeit a fake one. A horrible and fake one - I mean the porn industry tends to chew people up and spit them out, bar a very few. Which made me sad.

I watched this the other night while I was on-call. Jade looked vulnerable right from the start. I wanted to swoop her into my arms and take her to a place of safety. She's the same age as my daughter - I could weep for her.

To me, feminism is about giving women choices, so I support her career choice 100%

However, I agree that she's vulnerable. I hope she finds herself.

Compared to her life otherwise, this is better. Ditto the level of respect she receives.

So to me the question is, why is it OK for swathes of women to have an even worse and less respected life?

She made the choices to get into porn, she's not forced into it. She claimed she was happy. I just felt sorry for her because she didn't get the respect from men that she deserves.

I don't think any choice a woman makes is by extension a feminist choice. There are a myriad of choices a woman can make that are anti-feminist.

Jade looks anything but happy in the documentary. I saw a lot of other emotions, happiness wasn't one of them.

Well yeah but it's an edited documentary, and everyone goes through a range of emotions in their life. There were certainly parts where she seemed happy, but I wouldn't make a judgment about her life in general based on what was chosen to make entertaining TV.

It all seemed fair enough to me. She'd chosen a career, was making decent money and had a sense of going somewhere. It's her choice so I'm not going to tell her she's doing anything wrong.

I think the saddest part was when Jade was submitting to sexual acts she wasn't comfortable with because "it's the job" (laughter").

Also horrible, even more so, was when they made Jade do the schoolgirl shoot. The narrator asked "what is it about men and young girls" and Jade actually mentioned being catcalled by men in her school uniform, yet didn't make the link between that and rape culture. That really frustrated me as a schoolgirl who gets shit from men revolving around my school uniform. This schoolgirl porn shit fuels this.

I also saw the wider picture about useless degrees. Jade was described at the start as "educated" but - sorry-that's not what I get from her at all.