Saying No To Racism In Porn
I’m a bit late with this but I wanted to direct your attention to Violet Blue’s SFGate column criticising the mainstream porn industry’s ongoing continuation of racist stereotypes in their movies. Her article quotes several feminist porn stars and directors including Madison Young and Shine Louise Houston. She’s also made a number of further comments on her blog.
While we all understand that sexual fantasies are often politically incorrect, it’s still worth standing up and questioning the way the industry continually perpetuates negative stereotypes of African Americans – and of Asian and Indian people as well. There’s no balance, and there’s certainly a distinct lack of positive perspectives when it comes to depicting non-white people in porn.
I’ve said before that For The Girls is unfortunately skewed towards a white audience; our photos and movies invariably feature white actors. This is because it’s damned near impossible to find acceptable content featuring black couples making love. Instead we’re invariably confronted by the standard “booty” / “ho” / “brother”/ “pimp” stuff that I just find offensive.
Violet’s piece has inspired a particularly vitriolic editorial from AVN. The author takes Violet to task over a number of factual inaccuracies but unfortunately he does so in an extremely petulant and nasty way, constantly trashing the concept of sex positivity.
Indeed, the tone of the whole thing seems to sum up what’s wrong with so much of the porn industry. We’re down and dirty exploitative pornographers, don’t you know. It’s our JOB to be racist and negative and misogynistic. Any woman who takes it up the ass like Madison Young deserves to be hated. And all you queer types can take your thinking approach to sex and porn and stick it.
At least, that’s the vibe I got.
I read it and felt immensely disappointed with AVN. Their slogan is “the industry standard” and they’re the most visible face of the porn world. So to see such a negative attitude displayed in an editorial like that does them no favours.
Perhaps they should stop hating the sex positive porn community and instead start paying attention to what we’re doing. There may be a global recession and DVD sales are well down but I honestly feel that well-made, positive, realistic and, yes, “politically correct” porn is the future.
There are millions of people who are turned off by the offensive stuff the industry churns out in a never-ending attempt to out-shock a jaded audience. Why disdain such a potent market?
February 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I agree that porn shouldn’t be degrading, they should watch their language. But I do admit I like to see handsome, well endowed black men and gorgeous women together. There’s something about the skin contrast, how big they are (I guess it’s a stereotype, but they do seem to be bigger.) I guess that’s objectification, but all porn is objectification, isn’t it? We’re looking at and admiring good-looking bodies.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Just to clarify, I have no problem with people getting turned on by varying racial situations, or even fantasies that might be politically incorrect. At FTG we have a special section of sexy black naked men, because we know that African American guys are hot and have a special appeal.
My beef is with the way the portraying of non-white people is consistently negative and stereotypical. There’s the constant assumption that the audience is white and male and that other ethnic groups are the frightening “other”. The growing use of the dreaded “n word” in porn titles seems to suggest a determination to be obnoxious.
And AVN’s editorial seems to reinforce that.
Yes, freedom of speech means that people can create porn that is offensive. But I want to stand up and say that I’d like to see more positive, inclusive porn.
By the way, there’s a scene in Petra Joy’s “Feeling It” featuring a gorgeous black guy and a very pale woman, and it’s compellingly beautiful. “Interracial” shouldn’t have to be a dirty word.