Sex trafficking, abuse, and other forms of exploitation blend in with what’s mainstream and normalized in our porn-obsessed society.
“The director himself put his hands on me and was choking me. Never in a million years did I think [they] would allow it.”
According to this qualitative study interviewing women in the porn industry, many report that financial vulnerability, poor mental health, prior sexual abuse, and exploitation are common experiences of those in the industry.
This requirement provides the only way to verify and track performers’ ages and serves as a major incentive for businesses across the complex supply chain to monitor content—and now it’s gone.
“The more real my pain was, the more I cried from the depth of my depths, the more abuse I took, the more my videos were watched.”
“I was threatened by agents that attempted to rape me. I was taken advantage of from men offering me scenes after I had sex with them—only to never get the contract.”
When Deanna Lynn turned 18, her friends and the pimp they introduced her to would sell her to other couples “to help [the couples] connect.” This was her introduction to the commercial sex industry.
We don’t need to tear other humans down to give visibility to the proven harmful effects of pornography, even if someone is a performer.
There is actually no formal system for reporting abuse in the porn industry. What’s worse? Those who report abuse publicly are often blacklisted.
Ruben Andre Garcia, the performer in notorious porn company “GirlsDoPorn” videos, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to “conspiracy to commit sex trafficking” and “sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.”
For the last four decades, 22 has been the average age of female performers. Men have dropped almost 5 years—from 29 to 24—since the 70’s.
See how Theodosia’s childhood abuse shaped her understanding of sex and paved the way for her career in the underground world of BDSM porn.
