Biased Banning

Its purpose was (and still is!) to keep raising our voices and make people talk about it and to shape change.

In my case, I’ve recently had to share some sad news with my team: we’re not transferring our HQ to the new office I had already told them about. The people who we had the initial agreement with, high-standing businessmen from Barcelona who own multiple properties, have backed off on their initial decision to allow us into their space (therefore accepting the work that we produce) after months of long negotiations and arrangements. They are now claiming they gave it further thought and that they don’t really want us in their building anymore.

It’s not new for me to see sex workers and adult film professionals banned, canceled, and/or made invisible on the internet and beyond since there’s a great stigma towards people who are open to having a conversation about sex in a healthy and honest way that is free of shame. I myself got my Instagram account (which had half a million followers on it) deleted last year. But at ErikaLust, my team and I celebrate pleasure for everyone regardless of their gender, body type, or race through beautiful storytelling and filmmaking so that when people watch our movies, they can feel connected to them. We also give opportunities to rising directors to be able to direct their own projects who would otherwise not have the means to do so because we want their stories to be heard in a world where it’s hard not to be silenced. All of these values are necessary to change the reality that we face in relation to sex: so how is our way of communicating it through explicit film a problem?

I am aware of my position as a pioneer in a rapidly changing and expanding industry. I want to denounce the amount of violence and stigma that all the professionals inside it have to face every day. Sex workers are having their platforms taken down regularly, which is usually their main source of income, and it’s only getting worse. We’re all experiencing what we call a biased banning.

It’s already more than fifty people working at ERIKALUST now, and we are lucky to count on a big team formed of different departments; a production department, a content & art department, a marketing team, a communications team, finances, HR, IT, Product, Data Analysts, even sexologists and intimacy coordinators; and most of us are women and gender non-conforming folks from different nationalities. We cannot understand the logic behind this stigma that threatens all adult cinema companies and professionals. Our mission is to change the porn industry from the inside while celebrating pleasure and sexual empowerment without shame. How can that be something harmful to society?

If we look at the relationship many people have with the media, we see clear patterns that contradict the same values that society wants us to hold high. For instance, on a daily basis, we’re seeing a huge rise in true-crime series and movies that tell open stories based on violence and murder. We switch on the TV to watch the news, and we find unfiltered images of war, death, and catastrophe; we turn on our phones, and we can see guns, blood, and humiliation on the net right in front of us, but we keep sex as a hidden thing never to be talked about. And if we talk about it, it is to be brushed and spoken about in a low voice, not too loud, or in unrealistic portrayals tailored to the male gaze – but never in an honest, mature, and open conversation that could lead to healthier human beings with healthy sexual relationships and fantasies, free of shame.

It is true that on one hand, we’re seeing that big streaming platforms are releasing more and more sex-positive content that celebrates sex literacy (The Principles of Pleasure, How to build a sex room, Sex Education…) but on the other, we’re still seeing material mainly focused on the violence inherently present in our world. All of that is free to live on the internet without censorship, stigma, or boundaries.

If I want to share a post related to sex education on social media, I need to use coded wording so that the algorithm won’t read the actual word I’m communicating. If I post a picture of someone taking power over their sexuality in a mildly suggestive way, it’s seen as harmful. But on that same feed, I will see a picture of a white, skinny female body with very little clothing posing for a perfume or a retail advertisement. Sex workers and other professionals in the industry, especially those who are (additionally) part of other minorities, go to bed every day with the fear that when they wake up the next morning, their platform will be taken down, that they won’t be able to open a bank account or collaborate with other companies, or, in the case of us at ERIKALUST, rent a space for us to work in.

It’s sad to see how people who are making a great effort to fight for sex-positivity, who believe in how things can be changed for the better, and who challenge the status quo keep on getting canceled while other kinds of highly suggestive content that communicate false expectations on sexual roles and discourses are able to roam freely without a problem. This biased banning is palpable in our society: violence will keep getting its way, while educational sex information will be banned; a suggestive picture of a white able-bodied woman will be in magazines and on TV, while if that picture is of a BIPOC person with a diverse body time, it will be frowned upon.

My team and I at ERIKALUST want to show our discontent with this biased banning, which is more and more frequent now. We’ve been seeing an increase in cancellations and suppression of accounts on social media, webpages, and general stigma ever since laws like SESTA/FOSTA were approved, and they affect all of us as professionals. We condone these actions and, whilst we will never cancel or talk ill about another company, we think these actions have to stop. We wish for a day when we as human beings don’t have to hide our sexuality, our fantasies, and desires.

A world that respects sex workers as any other kind of worker and which prioritizes the banning of real problems in our society such as unruled violence, hate speech, and the lack of sex education.

If my company produced horror films displaying violent acts instead of explicit sex, we could share our posts on social media without a problem: without having to worry about the wording, the angle of our picture, or the fear that at any point we would be taken down. We would also get a space for rent easily and with no complications.

There’s still a lot of ground to be covered, and if we want a balanced society, we need to think deeply about what values we want to hold up high for the next generations to grasp and move forward with. Thankfully, there’s also a great number of professionals who believe in us and who have supported us from our early years. We’re in close contact with communication agencies, journalists, venues, affiliates, brands, influencers, and other companies who vouch for our ongoing work. To them, we are deeply thankful, and we hope that in the near future, more people will see the importance of what we as ERIKALUST and many others in our industry contribute to society.

1. Educate yourself on Sex ed, porn and sex work literacy – that’s the crucial first step! Our platform The Porn Conversation can be a good starting point.
2. Speak up about these issues, both on Social Media and in the real world. Be vocal about how messed up Silicon Values are.
3. Follow and/or support Sex Work associations like Otras Sindicato or European Sex Workers Rights Alliance. You can also support the platforms of sex workers – many of them are also activists and if we all contribute to their work, we’re helping them navigate towards a world where sex work isn’t criminalized. Kali Sudhra, María Riot or Sadie Lune are three of many.