What is Ethical Porn?
Your relationship to porn—whether negative or positive—could have been defined by the type of films you’ve watched, the society and setting you grew up in, and your relationship to sex itself. Many of us were raised to believe that porn is shameful, yet also the idealized version of how sexual experiences should look and feel. As curious young adults, sometimes porn is the first and only visual we get of how sex looks. Mainstream porn is heavily geared to appease the white-male gaze, showcasing heteronormative sex with idealized female figures.
Yet approached with an ethical and conscious perspective, porn can be an enjoyable, explorative and fun experience that reflects what really happens—or could happen—in the bedroom.
Do you watch porn? How do you find it?
If you’re not paying for your porn, there’s a chance the actors you see on screen aren’t getting the direct benefits of your streams.
Ensuring you’re watching ethical porn is an important responsibility you have as an individual.
What is Ethical Porn?
“Pornography that is made consensually treats performers with respect and pays performers and filmmakers fairly for their work. Ethical porn validates the needs, boundaries, and curiosities of the performers.”
— Sex Therapist Kamil Lewis, AMFT on mbg.
Not only does ethical porn equally support everyone involved in creating the films, it’s usually more inclusive, realistic and relatable.
While mainstream porn tends to cover sex from certain angles—often white-male-focused—ethical porn aims to create porn that caters to all tastes while respecting the workers’ preferences.
If you're interested in exploring porn, we recommend checking out Royal Fetish Films, an empowering and industry-defying adult film company founded by power couple Jet Setting Jasmine and King Noire. Their mission is to offer more representation for Black and Brown adults in the industry while also breaking down female and male toxic stereotypes.
We chatted with the couple about Healthy Masculinity in this episode of Carnal Theory.
Consuming ethical porn isn’t only a responsibility we owe to sex workers; it’s also a responsibility to ourselves. How so? Because supply equals demand. If more people switch to ethical porn, we're making a vote with our dollars for the sexual content we want to see and support.
"Ethical porn is inclusive, creative, and consensual," Lewis says.
As consumers, we need to go beyond finding companies that label themselves as ethical creators. We need to do our research and support platforms that prioritize consent and fairness.
PAY. FOR. YOUR. PORN. You can start by checking out the work that @jetsettingjasmine and @therealkingnoire are doing.
