How do you know if the porn you consume is ethical?

Pornography wields a great deal of influence over our sexual culture, and the messages it sends about sex significantly impact how we conceive of violence against women and girls.

According to the UN, one in three women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner. And many critics cite mass-produced mainstream pornography and the normalized scenarios of coercion or abuse often depicted in the videos on aggregator porn sites as causes for sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls.

But let’s be clear; pornography as a medium is not inherently wrong. However, it can be too easy to internalize the harmful sexual dynamics portrayed in many scenes found on mainstream porn sites, where sexual aggression toward women is rife and it’s difficult to discern whether a violent/degrading act was consented to or not.

As porn consumers, it’s essential to make sure we’re conscious of what kinds of porn we support because demand often increases supply. We hear from porn performers and porn critics on why it’s necessary to have an ethical production and distribution process for adult movies and how we hope to challenge mass-produced mainstream pornography.

María Riot has worked in the adult industry since 2014 as a porn performer for ErikaLust, FourChambers, Sex School, Hardwerk, Poppy Sanchez, Ersties, and many other porn production houses. María is also a full-service sex worker.“I think lot of people get wrong about what we are saying when we talk about ethical production. Sometimes they think that if a porn movie is shot in an artistic, more professional, or aesthetic way is ethical. But this is not always like this. In the past, I have been in a so-called feminist porn production where the director was not taking care of the performers at all, and we even didn’t get paid. If you see the movie, you will never think that this happened.“And I have friends that have worked in mainstream porn productions where they felt amazing, were treated with respect, and got well paid, but because maybe the sex was rough, if you see it, you will think that it was unethical to make it. Ethical porn is about how it’s made, about working conditions. To know if something is ethical or not, the only way is to try to research how the particular company works and listen to the porn performers who speak about what working for them is like.”

Jasko Fide’s work in the adult industry spans across small production houses like Goodyn Green and Four Chambers and middle to big companies such as HardWerk, Sex School and ErikaLust. Jasko also receives castings to appear in music videos/films/art pieces that integrate explicit content.“I feel there needs to be more awareness around how porn is produced and that’s what we’re working for. It’s important to be aware about how you consume media, and I think it’s extra important to create an obviousness around paying for porn because this is part of de-stigmatization and normalization. We need to understand that it is normal and good to consume explicit content and also that it’s self-evident to pay for it. Consuming porn through well-curated platforms means you can most likely trust that the films will have been produced under ethical standards.”“There needs to be more awareness around how porn is produced to create a certain transparency for our work and to help make viewers understand that porno can recreate sexual fantasies, whether vanilla or hardcore, in safe production surroundings, where everyone expresses boundaries and gets paid fairly, is super important.”

Laura Ramadei and Rachel Napoleon are the co-hosts of the Girls on Porn podcast, which aims to help listeners find adult content they can feel good about. The Girls on Porn mission is all about sex work advocacy and promoting diversity in the bodies, identities, and sexualities represented in porn.Laura: “I hate wondering if a performer is okay while I’m watching a porn. Sometimes (and we spend a lot of time dissecting this on the podcast) a performer doesn’t seem into the scene, or they seem kind of numb or checked out. And it can be hard to discern a performative whimper or grimace from a real one. We look for chemistry and believable pleasure and have probably gotten pretty good at differentiating performance from invested, present pleasure. But it’s still impossible to rely on those cues, as some performers can fake it fabulously well – especially under duress or for a shitty paycheck. And other times, a performer might seem to be having a terrible time, but it’s a deliberate part of the scene dynamic. That’s why we try to get as much intel as we can otherwise -– can this platform, this producer, the director, and other performer(s) be trusted? Is this content demonstrating any kind of commitment to consent and industry ethics?”Rachel: “There are definitely times where I used to watch performers who have since been found guilty of sexual assault, and I obviously never circle back to those performers, but I do wonder if the stuff I saw was safe. So, viewers and also performers have to do their own research and listen to the whistleblowers and believe victims.”Laura: “But we love scenes where pleasure is clearly and obviously involved – where the sex acts and techniques demonstrate an interest in more than just a male performer’s ‘money’ shot, like whether there’s any clit action. It’s also great to see enthusiastic consent and characters vocalizing what they want within a scene. “Is that hot?”, “Do you like that?” Can I…? etc.” Or even when one performer is asking for exactly what they want as it’s happening.

Rachel: “It’s so nice to hear performers check in with each other and say “that feels good” etc. I also look for a lot of eye contact. That tells me people are connected and listening to one another.”Laura: “Paying for your porn is the best place to start if you want to make better choices about the porn you’re consuming. Rachel: “You can learn a lot just by listening to the community that creates the content you’re consuming!” In being curious about our viewing habits and preferences and the dynamics we observe in the porn we consume, we become better informed and more able to contextualize material, ultimately helping us make more ethical choices.

View porn ethics page. Almaz guested on the ‘Girls On Porn’ podcast back in 2020. Listen back to episode ‘Erotic Fiction with Almaz Ohene’.