They say that the insides of a woman’s body should not be seen as a work space, that sex work is not work but the multi-billion-dollar (97 billion as of 2015) adult entertainment industry relies precisely on how many cocks can a vagina or ass survive before it’s too distended for use- it is a proof that in capitalist sex economy bodies are the work space. Staring as a back-alley business of sharing erotic photos of sex workers, pornography made its way into mainstream culture through lifestyle magazines such as Playboy and Hustler, the competition between which created a demand for content that is beyond stills of naked women.

With technological revolution a market for new methods of dissemination of pornographic material opened, promising wider circulation and consequently potential for generating large capital. Porn industry has driven some of the major technological changes in the last two decades such as pay per view subscriptions, moving images, high quality small storage files compatible across any kind of devices, have some of the most sophisticated interactive websites in the world with the ability to handle large traffic, advertisements and accessibility in remotest regions (Glass). The large heteronormative male consumer base creates intense competition within the industry to produce content that is fresh or different from the existing to hold its audience.

Through this paper I shall try to contextualize how the tremendous growth of porn industry in the last few decades has relied on sex work of porn stars which in turn inform the trends and conditions of performing sexualized labor (paid and unpaid) outside the porn industry. In addition, I shall also be looking at how the proliferation of porn into pop culture relies on the potential of monetizing women’s sexuality through attention economy. The aim of this paper is to highlight how the adult entertainment industry has hijacked our sexuality and culture and sold it back to us in a twisted way by creating a sex economy that increasingly determines the relations and conditions of sexual labor. I shall situate my argument predominantly on Gail Dines’ Pornland and Heather Berg’s Porn Work: Sex, Labor and Late Capitalism as well as Nicola J Smith’s Capitalism’s Sexual History and Jenna Drenten, Lauren Gurrieri, Meagan Tyler’s paper on Sexualised Labour in Digital Culture.

Creativity in the porn industry comes at the cost of sexual comfort of the women performing sex on camera, usually requiring them to push the boundaries of their bodies[2] to create highly popular categories such as double penetration, gangbang and bukkake which usually involve one woman performing sex with multiple men. 

The popularity of hardcore pornography stems from calling to the internalized misogyny of the male audience who get aroused from the degradation of women- through calling names such as ‘filthy whore’, ‘cunt’, ‘slut’ throughout the performance, reducing women to orifices for mechanical fucking and ultimately ejaculating on their faces (also called the money shot) or their breasts. These videos hardly feature women’s orgasms or cunnilingus, focusing primarily on male pleasure (penetration, blowjobs and anal). The production of these videos thus directly affects the work conditions of women performing the sexual labour- subjecting them to internal injuries (swollen/ruptured anal, vaginal walls, soreness of the oral cavity) and high risk of contracting STD’s[3].

The fact that it is portrayed that these women actually enjoy being degraded as such despite wincing in pain on screen, tears running down their eyes and puking as a result of extreme gagging (also in case of swallowing ejaculate or drinking male performer’s urine)- sustains the illusion of choice[4] (Bindell)ensuring guilt free mass consumption. It can be understood as ‘commodity fetishism’ (Prevos), the disconnection of the products from the story of those who made them and how they were made. This in turn also affects the conditions of sexual labour performed by women outside the industry for instance the recent increase in demand for a shaved vagina, anal sex[5], use of sex toys and bondage from sex workers as well as in relationships. (Dines)

While conducting research for this article, I interviewed sexually active men and women[6], the analysis of which shows the growing pornification of unpaid sex labour. Men admitted to want their partners to perform anal sex, deep-throat blowjobs, willingness to use sex toys while engaging in vaginal sex, try popular positions such as 69 and wear specific kind of lingerie for sexual stimulation.

Some men also admitted their inability to be aroused by or reach orgasm through their attractive girlfriends unless they viewed porn simultaneously. Women on the other hand confessed their partner’s demands to perform similar to their favourite porn stars (Asa Akira, Sasha Gray, Autumn Falls) or engage in more rough, experimental sexual acts[7] (Bakshi). The fact that men seem to not be satisfied unless they replicate pornographic sex in real life puts direct pressure on women (girlfriends, wives and hook-up partners alike) to compete with impossible standards of paid sexual acts performed by porn stars.

One of the major reasons why more young women are increasingly seeking employment in the adult entertainment industry comes from their inability to make sufficient money with their wage jobs. Some of them are single mothers, others were either in debt from their college education that failed to guarantee good placement- “my art degree wasn’t helping me with the rent money” (Berg). They preferred flexible work hours, the freedom of “being my own boss”[8] and ability to afford better lifestyle that came with the job. All of which tells us more about class relationships and points to an alarming need for policy changes which pushes these women towards sex work in the first place. Thus, it is not the absence of work but the scarcity of jobs that pay enough to maintain a good lifestyle is what ensures reproduction of sexual labour to ensure production in the pornography industry.[9]

Platforms such as OnlyFans[10] and Patreon allow women to monetize their sexuality by sharing erotic image and video content with their followers for a paid subscription. The popularity of these sites increased during the pandemic owing to the need to find alternate source of employment, at times the only source of income for these women. What is surprising is the fact that although both men and women went through a difficult financial period men still had enough to spare to subscribe to these accounts or better yet private websites of these performers for more personalised sexual services.

Although Instagram does not permit explicit content due to community guidelines a large number of these performers gather clients/subscribers over it by sharing snippets of the content they’ve posted on other websites. These ‘tease’ posts are strategically curated to appeal to the heteronormative male audience using suggestive poses highlighting certain parts of the body such as breasts or buttocks and props such as ‘sexy’ clothing or lingerie. These images are commercialised by brands depending on their monetization potential (determined by the attention they get through like, views, shares and comments) (Jenna M, Gurrieri and Tyler). Even though curating such content requires not just sexual but emotional and aesthetic labour on part of these influencers/models, the endorsements it is used for are rarely paid for or commission based. Additionally, these ‘jobs’ are largely non contractual, do not have fixed working hours and no job security. Such jobs also predispose the influencers to harassment on social media- which their employers do not protect them against- that is to be accepted as an occupational hazard.

The fact that despite poor working conditions such a large number of women participate in sex economy is a reflection of how capital ensures that alternate options remain poor. 60’s feminists move for liberation of women’s sexuality was twisted by capitalism to commodify and profit off of our sexual labour by making women more sexually available in the name of empowerment (Smith) (Cadwalladr). Even women’s sexual pleasure from orgasms to sex toys has been distorted to satisfy male ego and paint women as ‘hoes’ through the pornification of pop culture. I believe we have reached a point where it is difficult to distinguish expression of our sexuality from pimping ourselves out for the attention economy.

The above discussion was not intended to normalize sex work or delegitimize sex work as real work on the contrary I have tried to contextualize the centrality of sexual labour in forging capitalist social relations. By using the discipline of porn studies, I have attempted to highlight how capitalism and sexuality are anything but mutually exclusive. To suggest otherwise is only beneficial for the capital and risks oversimplification of the dynamics of sexual labour- preventing us to move towards the emancipation of our sexuality from capitalism.

[1] All major corporations in the world hold shares and investments in the sex industry from Amazon and Microsoft to Fox Studios, HBO among countless others we do not have data on. The profits this industry generates might not be reflected in the public records of these companies but they are very real. (Dines)

[2] In the ‘mature’ category of hard-core porn women put unusual objects inside their vagina or anus such as baseball bats and string of beads for consumers who are into extreme pornography.

[3]Such as HIV, rectal gonorrhea, tears in the throat, vagina, and anus, chlamydia of the eye, gonorrhea of the throat according to the Adult Industry Medical (AIM)Healthcare Foundation (2006).

http://www.aim-med.org/about

[4] Porn director and actor Max Hardcore is an iconic figure in the industry for innovating some of the most extreme, violent and sadistic porn such as ‘the pile driver’ and ‘vigorous throat fucking’. In a 2005 interview he boasts how he pioneered “the technique of cumming in a girl’s ass, having her squeeze it out into a glass, and then chuck the load down. Creating gallons of throat slime over a girl’s upside-down face, and even causing them to puke. A little later, I started pissing down their throats several times during a scene, often causing them to vomit uncontrollably while still reaming their throats.” (Dines) Such pornography is increasingly normalised today.

[5] Indian journal of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS (2012)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3326863/

[6] The sample size was a small group of friends and acquaintances (20 men and women each) in the age group 18-33. The interviews were conducted informally through personal conversations.

[7] A 2016 American Psychological Association study on Online Sexual Activities found that half of the participant’s porn preferences shifted towards the extreme/hardcore pornography which had previously disgusted them.

[8] Glamor’s publicity glosses over the reality of the lives of sex workers by glamorising it attracting more potential young men into the profession.

[9] “Options are limited not only for some workers in some social classes, but for all waged workers. Work is a source of misery, fatigue, and alienation, suggest porn workers and anti-work theorists alike, not only because it is scarce, low-paid, and increasingly un-benefited, but also because it simply cannot contain our desires. This distinction matters because it positions porn workers as resisters of straight work, rather than unfortunate souls who have been denied access to it.” (Berg)

[10] “OnlyFans’s quarantine blow up seemed inevitable. We’re clawing at the walls, looking for new ways to earn money—and new ways to masturbate.” (Downs)

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