Mainstream porn has a wide range of ethical problems covering every aspect of the porn-making and porn-consumption process. It’s often directed and shot with a male gaze, centered on male desires, and depicts women in a dehumanizing manner. But the problems don’t remain confined to the content — the problems often extend off-screen as well. Performers in mainstream porn are not paid fairly, treated with respect, and their boundaries are often crossed with little regard.
However, porn doesn’t have to be dehumanizing, sexist, or problematic. And you don’t have to feel like you are endorsing trafficking by simply fulfilling your desires. If you’re dissatisfied with mainstream porn, you should consider looking for ethical porn.
What is Ethical Porn?
Ethical porn, also known as fair-trade porn or feminist porn, is a form of pornography that maintains the highest levels of ethical standards on- and off-screen. The porn is made consensually, and the performers/ filmmakers are paid fairly for their work. Ethical porn is prepared with the understanding that everyone on the film set must be completely comfortable at every stage of the porn-making process.
Ethical porn is made with the understanding that porn performers are humans, too. They have specific needs and boundaries that must be respected.
Beyond the production process, ethical porn also has a greater responsibility to depict sex in a realistic manner. The ethical porn performers usually have diverse body types, welcome queer experiences, and focus on realistic female pleasure. Instead of following the male gaze, ethical porn also focuses on the female or queer gaze, ensuring every individual’s unique identity and experience is captured and shared.
Studies have shown that one in four porn consumers are female, so it’s essential that pornography should cater to them.
What are the Components of Ethical Porn?
1. Fair Payments
Ethical porn recognizes that porn performers, film crew, and filmmakers are just like any other worker, deserving fair compensation for their labor and efforts. That’s why everyone on the set of ethical porn productions must receive fair compensation for their time.
2. Safe Spaces
Porn performers must place themselves in a physically and emotionally vulnerable position while producing their art. Ethical porn is committed to creating safe spaces wherein the performers don’t feel pressured into compromising positions. The performers must be comfortable, and their feelings are valued at every stage of the process.
3. Realistic Depictions
Ethical porn is also known as feminist porn because it seeks to reclaim and redefine pleasure. Instead of focusing on the male gaze and male fantasies, ethical porn is a real exploration of what pleasure looks like for queer individuals and people with vaginas. Ethical porn veers away from overenthusiastic and fake orgasms, embodying how sex can often be messy.
4. Diverse Participants
Mainstream porn usually depicts sexual pleasure across a very narrow age group, skin color, body size, and sexuality. However, ethical porn includes performers across all body sizes, races, colors, ages, abilities, and sexualities. It depicts sexuality as a spectrum and assures the viewer that their sexual interests and identities are valid, whoever they may be.
5. Diverse Viewers
Mainstream porn may have diverse viewers, but it doesn’t cater to diverse viewers. Queer individuals and people with vaginas often have to imprint their desires on performers and a gaze that doesn’t truly represent them. However, a diverse range of viewers is more likely to find themselves in ethical porn because of their diverse perspectives.
6. Consent
The subject of consent seems pretty hazy when it comes to mainstream porn. It’s hard to tell whether the performers have consented to various acts, and the lack of consent often filters into the content itself — content that, in any realistic scenario, would be considered rape. Furthermore, last-minute script changes are often made with the performers’ approval, leading to on-set tensions. Ethical porn is made with everyone’s consent at all stages of the production, and the performers are also encouraged to disclose which sexual activities they are or aren’t comfortable with.
7. Paid Porn
Since the performers and film crew are paid fairly, producing ethical porn is more expensive than mainstream porn. As such, most ethical porn platforms necessitate payments for access, which is one of the primary reasons ethical porn hasn’t found a mainstream foothold. While paying for porn may seem like an extravagance, it’s important because it guarantees that ethical practices are upheld in the porn industry. However, there are exceptions, and some platforms offer free snippets to viewers.
Where to Find Ethical Porn?
6 Best Ethical Porn Sites:
- PinkLabel.TV by Shine Louise Houston explores sexual fluidity, featuring queer individuals, trans individuals, people of color, people with disabilities, and older individuals.
- Bellesa is a porn-production company run by and for women, depicting them as subjects of pleasure and not objects. The website features written content, cams, and videos.
- Bright Desire highlights the intimacy and fun inherent in sexual practices, and the videos often depict real-life couples enjoying sexual activities, making the pleasure feel real.
- Frolicme is a platform that highlights the importance of dynamic consent between adults at all stages of sex, with a special focus on female pleasure and passion.
- Sssh is a crowdsourced ethical porn platform that dives into all forms of fantasies and sexual desires, making porn that feels artistic.
- Make Love Not Porn (MLNP) by Cindy Gallop includes videos that show realistic sex between actual couples. Actual couples can send their videos to the platform and get paid, and they have the right to get the video removed anytime.
- You can also follow individual performers on OnlyFans, Patreon, and other membership-based platforms. Since individual performers aren’t affiliated with organizations, they get to retain complete autonomy over their content.
While exploring ethical porn websites, it’s important to go beyond simple claims of being ethical. There’s no legal definition of “ethical” within the pornography context, so each platform establishes its own rules of conduct. You should read their individual ethical guidelines for greater clarification. It’s also worth pursuing the porn performers involved on their social media platforms to learn more about their work.
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