As previously reported, another fine was handed this week for allowing porn actors to have sex without condoms. When Measure B was approved, over a year ago, many voiced their opinions supporting or opposing the law. The porn industry saw a potential big shift, as most companies operate from the Los Angeles area.
When a friend asked me about my take on this, she was surprised to hear me say that I prefer porn without condoms. Before she could start a rant on why writing for what is predominantly a porn company has blinded me from what’s really important, I tried to explain myself.
While I’m a big advocate for safe sex and I’m very serious about it in my personal life, it’s a completely different thing if I’m watching porn. And no, it does not escape me that these are also the lives of people, the adult talent that are working hard for our pleasure.
It’s a touchy subject, no question about it. On one hand you have an industry that needs to protect its workers. They get tested on a regular basis, but is it often enough? People could have had unprotected sex right after a test and still show up on set with a recent test that has everyone confident on a positive outcome. It’s not realistic to think we can police it 24/7.
On the other hand, it’s a matter of freedom. We’re supposed to be able to make our own decisions and it’s the free will of any adult performer to decide whether he or she wants to use protection. No one is forcing them to do it.
The truth is the presence of a condom makes us think. It’s a subtle reminder of the uncertainty of sex and the possible consequences it can have. That doesn’t mean we didn’t know about it, we’ve always been aware of it, but we don’t want to think about it while we’re in the middle of our sexual fantasies.
And that’s the key word, fantasy. The reason we watch porn is to recreate something that is not present in our lives. Sometimes we’re just admiring, but sometimes we want to live vicariously through the characters on screen, we want to forget our own lives for a second and put ourselves in that position for a little while. It only takes one reminder to break that scenario.
Sure, lots of things in porn are not necessarily believable, but there’s an attempt. We watch it to escape reality, and while we’d like everyone to be safe, condoms sadly put a layer of reality over everything. Whether it’s right or not to force companies to use protection in every scene is another debate, but the desire for watching a concern-free fantasy is absolutely valid, and preferable to a lot of us.
