BBC - Mia Khalifa: Porn contracts 'prey on vulnerable girls'

[Fraggling]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49330540

I really do think that the stories that people who like to watch porn tell themselves about the actors are just that, stories, encouraged by the industry of course.

I don't understand how anyone can think that what they consume is always going to be 100% above board, with highly paid actors loving every minute of it.

I haven't watch the linked interview yet as at a family lunch, has anyone watched it? The idea that women may be locked into making porn contractually is abhorrent, but thinking about it, completely obvious that would happen. Especially in usa where contacts and lawyers seem to be central to everything even more than elsewhere.

I can't see the interview yet, but I agree with you 100% percent. I get the impression that every now and then MSM features a happy hooker or happy porn star and that is enough for everyone to feel like they are watching stuff where all the participants are actively consenting.

People want to watch porn.
They don't want to feel bad.
The stories are thin, but needed so people don't feel bad.
That's all there is to it really. I'm sure there are men all over the internet calling her a liar right now. Because her words must be shouted down, they don't want to listen. Guilt free porn is more important.

I have a friend who did a few professional porn videos a few years ago, they are of course still out there. Luckily they didn’t prevent him having a good career, but it did put his boyfriend in a tricky position when it was published in the press and the stress temporarily ended their relationship and they have only just recovered as he was portrayed as something that he really isn’t.

We do need more people like Mia to talk and be open, she definitely isn’t the first to find fame, look at Kim Kardashian. The actress who played Shae in GoT has been able to have a good career after porn, but it’s likely it would have been better without the porn history.

It would be interesting to see a ‘typical’ contract that people are expected to sign.

There was a really interesting TV show about two porn stars who were also a couple a few years ago, I’ll see if I can find it, it was very good.

I remember back in the 80s reading about women who were duped into "meetings", drugged and filmed. I read a story by one poor young woman who woke up in her car, realised she had been undressed and dressed again, could smell aftershave and sweat on her body. The person she had met ( I think to discuss a business) had long gone.
It made horrific reading. I realised then that there are no lengths men will not go to to satisfy their want for porn. I refuse to say need.

There was a lot in the press about women being lured, exploited in Japan recently

www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-10/increasing-number-of-japanese-women-forced-into-pornography/8602288

I just watched the full interview on YouTube a few things struck me was that first of all when she went into the company for her first interview she was struck by how many women worked there and wasn’t at all sleazy. Another thing was how she now has very little memory of the scenes themselves. It sounds very much to me like she disassociated which is an indicator of psychological damage.

Thanks dervel I've still not had a chance.

Did she expand on what the contracts contained?

I think the general attitude from a lot of men is that women exist to be fucked, and any woman and girl who betrays any sense of wanting privacy or a sense of self and autonomy is a stuck-up cow asking to have it all destroyed. Any standards are posh, and posh is no-go. Porn - and sex - is their right. Some might tell the stories so that it gets past any qualms middle-class polite society might hold, but the men consuming this don't give a shit. Let's face it, social norms where most female celebrities are normally involved in emphasising their sexuality to sell don't help. Reality TV is moving more towards porn as well.

Read a thing recently that had found men viewing het porn didn't really see the women as people but as objects.

Why care about an object?

I'm not sure that's true as plenty of men get off on the aspects of male sexual dominance over the woman that is pretty strandard, that's what het porn is these days.

So see them as generic female to put in place?

Well she said that when the whole hijab scene blew up she felt trapped and unable to do much else so signed up for a contract, but did quit it some time after.

A few more things that struck me is that she was privately educated from a good family and what appears to have happened is she had a lot of issues with her appearance. Got cosmetic surgery and when some random bloke stopped his car and gave her his card asking do you want to be a model it snowballed from there.

She speaks at length on how everyone there was at great pains to tell her how beautiful she was, and make her feel important.
It does seem to be a common theme throughout her life as after she quit porn had a boyfriend and needed validation.

It’s worrying to think how many women enter their late teens early 20s with wrecked self esteem that makes them particularly vulnerable to this sort of soul destroying predation.

There is a good documentary on Prime at the moment called 'Tickled'. It is about the world of tickling videos and how young men have been tricked and humiliated into performing for tickling videos.

It demonstrates how easily a vulnerable person can get caught up in the fetish / porn industry and how that decision can affect you for a very long time with awful consequences.

What does coming from a ‘good’ family have to do with anything?

What does coming from a ‘good’ family have to do with anything?

It suggests that the person may well have had other options or resources. And you might also expect a kid from a typical family with regular jobs might make different choices than a kid from a family where sex work or drugs were part of what they saw around them growing up.

None of that applies 100% but some backgrounds mean a young person is at a higher risk of being drawn into certain lifestyles.