Safer sex

How mandating condoms in adult films will put the industry more at risk.

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Last week, several health groups, led by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, announced plans to develop a strategy that will push California legislation to regulate the adult film industry, mainly by mandating the use of condoms in all movies. The goal of such legislation is to protect adult film workers as well as their partners and the community at large. But the industry is already doing an excellent job protecting its performers. Mandating condoms in all films would lead to unintended consequences that would likely increase, not decrease, HIV outbreaks.

Since the industry’s HIV testing policy was implemented in 1998, there has been only one major outbreak. All other cases of performers testing HIV-positive were discovered before they could infect other performers. The PCR-DNA test used by the industry detects HIV much earlier than the standard ELISA test used by the general population. And most adult film performers are tested monthly, while only 10% of the general population reported being tested for HIV in the last year. There are an estimated 250,000 people living with HIV who are unaware of their infection. AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the supporters of mandating condoms imply that the threat is coming from inside the adult film industry. The reality is that, since the adult film industry implemented its HIV testing policy, all but four performers who tested positive for HIV contracted HIV outside the industry. The threat does not come from inside the industry but from outside.

via Not-So-Safe Sex – Forbes.com.

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You won’t find “Debbie Does Condoms” or “Jenna Loves Prophylactics” on offer from any of the major porn studios, but that could all change thanks to an ongoing campaign to require rubbers in hardcore flicks. From the outside, it seems a rather admirable way to protect porn actors from the consumer push for risky bareback porn, as I wrote a couple months back. The approach seems basically humanist – or even feminist, considering that female porn actors are most at risk for contracting HIV in straight porn. But, I’m finding that there are actually some Magnum-sized issues with such legislation.

“If I were required to use condoms, my performance would most likely suffer, and in the end I would suffer”

Late last week, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation filed an official complaint against 16 pornographers for producing films featuring unprotected sex and promised to raise hell until condoms are mandated throughout the industry. This is just the group’s latest war cry: Earlier this summer, shortly after a performer tested positive for HIV, the organization staged a protest and once again called for legislation. They say the industry’s voluntary testing program leaves open a dangerous window: Once a month, actors take the PCR-DNA test, which can detect HIV within two weeks of infection. Since 1998, the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation has reported five HIV cases among actors in straight porn. That’s a relatively low number, industry insiders point out, given the cosmic amount of condomless sex that has gone on in that time — but many, myself included, are disturbed by the idea that five infections over 11 years is considered adequate (particularly with regards to the four cases that were a part of a 2004 outbreak, in which it seems clear there was on-the-job transmission).

It isn’t that the industry as a whole is opposed to tightening its voluntary prevention system — plenty of people in the biz actually support a transition to twice-monthly testing — but there has been an overwhelming outcry against mandating condoms. It isn’t just the bigwigs, who know that condom porn makes much less money, either. Some female porn stars argue that condoms make their job tougher: Belladonna wrote on Babeland’s blog, “If I were required to use condoms, my performance would most likely suffer, and in the end I would suffer.” For others it can be an issue of comfort: “For the women, there are just four words: rubber rash/friction burn,” veteran performer Nina Hartley wrote on her Web site. Remember, porn actors don’t get down like most folks; the sex they have is more like a three-ring acrobatic act that lasts for hours on end. Ernest Greene, a longtime director and Hartley’s partner, explains on his blog:

via Porn’s last taboo: Protected sex – Broadsheet – Salon.com.

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Fleshbot editor [link NSFW] Lux Alptraum has a new piece in BlackBook about the renewed debate surrounding condoms in the porn industry. She says performers don’t use them because viewers simply don’t want to see them.

Alptraum says:

The reason for condom scarcity in straight porn, ultimately, is you: the consumer. Porn companies make porn without condoms because that is the kind of porn that patrons want to see. And porn companies want to give you what you want-it’s how they make a living.

As evidence, Alptraum cites the drop-off in sales (particularly abroad) by Wicked Pictures, the only condoms-required porn company in the States and the movement, even within the condom-heavy gay porn genre, to go condom-less.

via Jezebel – Should Porn Industry Performers Start Sheathing Their Swords? – Condom use pornography.

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Most say they believe that the industry’s testing guidelines are enough to keep performers safe despite the news that an adult film actress has tested positive for HIV.

By Kimi Yoshino and Rong-Gong Lin II

June 13, 2009

Porn actresses paraded in stiletto heels, wearing itsy-bitsy skirts and bikini tops that overflowed. Guys eagerly snapped pictures and collected autographs. As Erotica LA got underway Friday at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it was business as usual.

Adult film stars and producers who gathered for the three-day expo said they continue to believe the porn industry’s testing guidelines are enough to keep performers safe despite this week’s news that an adult film actress had tested positive for HIV.

via Porn stars at L.A. convention defend HIV tests – Los Angeles Times.

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