Porntifications

Posted by mikezillion at December 4th, 2007

Some of the bareback studios seem to think that giving the performers treatments after exposing them to unsafe sex on camera makes them responsible. Well, it seem that the term responsible may be getting some testing.

A bareback performer in the U.K. who goes by the name of Craig may be filing a lawsuit against the studio where he claims he was infected during a shoot. It’s a shame it has to come to this. Frankly, I don’t know if the young man has a case; he did make his own choices, and he was old enough to know the risks. It may also not be easy for him to prove that his infection was actually related to the shoot. I am less familiar with the laws in the U.K. than I am with the laws here in the United States. We tend to err on the side of individual responsibility over social conscience.

It’s great that HIV infections are treatable, and that the disease that
can result is no longer a death sentence. I don’t think infected
performers (or people in general) should be stigmatized. The point is that there are real consequences to filming bareback porn. Beyond the overall social impact of eroticizing dangerous activities, there are actual men getting actual diseases on camera for money.

Posted by mikezillion at December 2nd, 2007

Bareback is the norm in straight porn. It is also the driving business model of several edgier gay porn companies. This split comes as a result of the higher level of awareness in the gay community about the dangers of barebacking. Some gay consumers get off on the danger of barebacking, either in their porn or in their personal lives. I don’t know of any studies, but I imagine that the popularity of bareback sex in porn has increased the popularity of bareback sex in real life.

Straight consumers don’t really seem to consider it a sexual act if some body fluid isn’t shared. At the moment, straight porn companies are hard-pressed to sell safe sex porn. Instead, the industry has turned to testing performers. That works for the performers, but it is a cop-out when it comes to social responsibility. Instead of eroticizing bareback sex, we as an industry could be demonstrating the broad erotic potential of safe sex.

The social networking sites are also split between bareback and safe sex seekers. Now a company called Safe Sex Passport is capitalizing on the popularity of bareback sex and the fear of disease with a service that will certify people as disease-free for a membership fee of $75 and a testing fee of about $200 or so. They claim to have over 15,000 registered members already.

It will be interesting to see how this new business model develops.

Posted by mikezillion at November 8th, 2007

According to an article in Forbes, Sumner Redstone, the Chairman of Viacom believes that copyright protection is the incentive which drives the creation of content. To me, that seems backwards.

I would say that copyright drives the production of much mediocre market-driven content (including a lot of pornography) but is actually a disincentive to true creative content creation.

If someone has something to say, and wants to get it said, any limitation on how many people are exposed to it will just frustrate the creative process. This is unlike child protection legislation, which filters an audience by the appropriateness of the message for the viewer. A creative artist wants everyone in the appropriate target audience to see. It is the folks who market the expression as a product who benefit from copyright protection.

On the other hand, if someone has nothing to say, but wants money for saying something people enjoy hearing, copyright is a true friend.

Perhaps this has implications for the writers strike?

Posted by mikezillion at November 8th, 2007

I was watching this documentary about how advertising targets the hidden desires of the masses. It occurred to me that pornography essentially gives away what advertising and PR (and maybe religion) only suggests in order to gain and hold an audience. Propaganda is mass persuasion based on individual hidden desires. According to the emerging theories of attention economy, pornography would be an obvious threat to any influencer seeking power.

Posted by mikezillion at October 27th, 2007

It’s looking more sensible in legal land. Secondary producers may be able to breathe easier now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has declared the 2257 record-keeping requirements overbroad. One of the reasons that this is exciting is that it establishes a legal basis for distinguishing between illegal child pornography and now-legal adult pornography. Once you get a foot in the door, the sale is half made.

Posted by mikezillion at October 17th, 2007

I don’t generally object to the notion of typosquatting (apart from the fact that it is illegal in the United States). The practice involves registering a domain that a user might type in accidentally when misspelling the intended domain name, and using the space to market products that might be relevant to visitors of the intended site. It seems to me that it could be a slightly sleazy but perfectly legitimate form of targeted advertising. Where it gets creepy and sick is when folks target terms clearly aimed at children, such as “Teletubbies,” and put adult content on domains with minor spelling variations. I thought John Zuccarini got the hint from his $164,000 fine in 2003, but the Federal Government apparently wants him to stop using his typo domains to market non-adult products as well. The law is the law, until it is challenged and changed in a free market.

Posted by mikezillion at October 16th, 2007

The Folsom Street Fair is urging supporters to contact their sponsor, Miller Brewing Company, to counter protests from religious organizations about this gorgeous promotional poster for the popular annual leather community event. Apparently some people think it is sacrilege to parody a painting of a scene from the bible. What part of “icon worship” don’t they get?

Posted by mikezillion at October 15th, 2007

I have to hand it to Jack over at the Gay Porn Blog. I can’t imagine how he comes up with this stuff. Here’s one very sexy (but not explicit) clip, featuring hot gay porn star Francois Sagat, that I personally can’t get enough of:

Posted by mikezillion at August 27th, 2007

One of my new favorite blogs is Behind Kink, published by the good folks who run Kink.com out of the beautiful San Francisco Armory Building. They’ve been doing for video blogging what “Got Milk” did for television commercials. For example, a recent posting includes a great behind-the-scenes video about how they evaluate straight male talent for their productions. (Sometimes I’m really glad I’m gay!)

Posted by mikezillion at August 20th, 2007

Can you imagine the thinking behind the proposal that the Department of Justice compile a list of every porn star in America? The Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act has implications beyond the 2257 record-keeping requirements. The proposal will, of course, be challenged…