The porn industry is built on selling porn performers as insatiable sex symbols.
With exaggerated body parts to match their exaggerated performances, porn consumers are made to believe the fantasy that these actors actually crave endless and extreme sex.
Even in interviews, these performers maintain that they do porn because they love sex and can’t get enough of it. Because of this, much of society, understandably, believes every porn performer entered the industry in the pursuit of their ideal lifestyle.
In fact, we recently received a Facebook message that shows how most people view performers:
Porn hurts nobody. They do it because they like to do it.
These are popular perceptions when it comes to pornography, however, perception is not always reality.
The fact is that the porn industry is filled with violence, addiction, coercion, disease, and exploitation. And while active porn performers rarely, if ever, speak out due to fear of being blackballed in the industry or being discriminated against, the majority of those very same performers inevitably end up speaking out on their real experiences once they leave the industry. These personal accounts can be shocking to the average porn viewer.
The fact is the porn industry often profits off the sexual exploitation of human beings. While we raise awareness on the harmful effects of porn on consumers, it’s also important to focus on the negative impact that porn can have on those who produce or participate in creating it. Their stories show that porn isn’t only harmful to those who watch it, but it absolutely can be harmful to those who make it, too.
The following is a list of just a few former porn performers who had successful careers in the porn industry, only to reveal the reality of what it’s like to be in the world’s “sexiest” profession.
Greg
As far as performers go, few have had longer and more successful careers than Greg, a former porn actor and director who appeared in approximately 1,000 adult feature films over the course of a 23-year career. Appearing in his first porn film in 1988, Greg went on to become one of the porn industry’s most successful male actors of all time. He was a 4-time winner of the Adult Video News Best Actor Award and in 2002 was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.
However, it was only after Greg left the porn industry in 2011 that he was able to share the reality of why he started doing porn, and how 23 years of this toxic industry affected his life.
It’s important to remember that the harms of porn don’t just fall on female performers. Porn degrades human beings and reduces the act of sex to a selfish exchange of physical pleasure. These harmful effects damage the lives of all involved, both performers and consumers.
Jessica
Growing up in a small town in Colorado and working in youth mentoring throughout her early life, Jessica had a clear vision for what she wanted for her future. Then, one day in her early twenties, Jessica became a victim of rape.
This traumatic experience and its effects pushed Jessica on a path that would lead her toward working in the porn industry.
The allure of fame and fortune led Jessica into a 10-year career in the porn industry. She appeared in over 40 porn films and was one of the most popularly searched porn performers in 2009. Eventually, she was able to break out and now she’s living a happier life, but she endured humiliation and degrading shoots for a decade.
Joshua
Joshua Broome grew up in a small town in South Carolina where he started his modeling career. He moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a career in acting and modeling. Eventually, he found his way into the porn industry.
After five years in the industry, and winning several awards, Joshua left the porn industry. Now, Joshua is now a passionate anti-porn advocate, husband, and father to three children.
Alia
Alia grew up in Ventura, California, with a young mother. From a very young age, Alia experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend.
Her warped understanding of love and affection pushed her to seek out validation from older men on social media.
By the time she was 14, she had entered into a relationship with a man twice her age who then trafficked her. When she was 18, the exploitation Alia experienced evolved into performing in strip clubs where she was eventually invited by a customer to join the porn industry.
Ultimately, Alia’s experience in the porn industry was dramatically different from the glamorous and empowered life that was initially promised to her.
Even as a popular mainstream performer, she experienced more trafficking, abuse, and exploitation, eventually breaking free and connecting with other sex industry survivors. See how Alia’s childhood abuse paved the way for her career in the commercial sex industry, and why she finally left on her own terms.
Aaron
Sexual assault and financial desperation were the catalysts that jumpstarted Aaron Crowley’s career in the porn industry. While in porn, he believed lies about his value as a person, false stereotypes about his sexuality as a gay man, and he was closed off to the possibility of experiencing real love for himself.
All of these factors pushed Aaron further into the industry until the end of his porn career.
After he was raped during what would be his last scene as a porn performer, Aaron attempted to take his life. See how love, friendship, and belief in himself ultimately saved his life and got him out of the industry for good.
What do we do now?
So, is porn always a harmless personal fantasy? Or is it an edited, abusive nightmare? The trouble is, if you’re on the other side of the screen, there’s no way to tell. This is why we are exposing the industry for what it is: a facilitator of abuse and the epicenter of exploitation.
When performers sign on to work in the industry, many of them don’t fully know or understand what it will lead to—sexual abuse, physical abuse, coercion, injuries, disease, difficulty finding a different job after they leave the industry, among many other challenges.
And why would they know any of this terrifying information about the supposedly cool, fun job they’re signing up for? Don’t forget that we live in a world that glamorizes and celebrates the porn industry. It’s sold as an exciting lifestyle where you can be the sex symbol that you’ve always wanted to be, and get quick cash for it.
People are not products, and yet the industry sells the idea that it’s “acceptable” to purchase a person with every replay and every view. Real human beings are seen as the supply to meet an unhealthy demand for explicit entertainment.
It’s time we stop buying the porn industry’s lies, and refuse to consume the violent content they produce that’s harmful to performers, individuals, relationships, and our world as whole.
Porn will never come without an expensive cost. We believe that real people, real love, and real relationships should never have to pay the price, and will always be worth more than what porn sells on a screen.
We’re sending out this message to the porn industry as a whole: you might be selling, but we’re not buying. We’ll continue fighting to stop the demand. Are you with us?
Support this resource
Thanks for reading our article! Fight the New Drug is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means the educational resources we create are made possible through donations from people like you. Join Fighter Club for as little as $10/month and help us educate on the harms of porn!
JOIN FIGHTER CLUB