“Exploiting People, Stereotypes Is Not Exactly Sexy”

That’s the title of this post at Jezebel, in which blogger Megan Carpentier writes fairly critically about a “charity porn” initiative to “Save African Orphans” that seems pretty appalling at every level. I’m a little uncomfortable with the tone of the piece in some places, but at least she recognizes that there is a problem. The same topic is discussed more tentatively here at Sociological Images, which Megan links to.

Oddly, Megan seems determined to believe that porn made in the U.S. is consensual, as evidenced by this post, where she wrote:

It’s one thing to watch porn knowing that the women and men involved have made their choice to be in it. It’s another thing to watch porn starring female sex workers (or women avoiding prostitution) from a developing nation with few economic opportunities for women that might or might not be avoiding prostitution for fear of contracting HIV or because they already have.

She does not explain how she “knows” that the porn she watches features people who “have made their choice to be in it.” Using “made in the U.S.” as a marker of consent, if that is what she is doing, is factually wrong, and it ignores the racism and exploitation present in porn production here in this country, where we also have many poor people.   But at least she seems a bit more informed about the porn industry than she was when she wrote the post excerpted here. She also needs to watch this.

–Ann Bartow