This week’s Sex Worker Fearmonger of the Week Award goes to British author Olivia Petter.
In her viral Glamour magazine article, Petter blames the gender gap on pornographers failing to create videos showing women orgasming. She bases her claim on a study that found only 18 percent of Pornhub’s top videos showed female pleasure. But drawing conclusions on the adult industry based on Pornhub is like going to Costco, eating coleslaw samples, and claiming Costco only sells coleslaw. Freebies never represent a profit-oriented business. If Petter wants to watch men eating pussy for 15 minutes, she should pay for porn.
In the past, tube sites offered lengthy films, but since Pornhub and other prominent streamers began taking copyright complaints seriously, the companies primarily broadcast clips from more notable films. The lack of long videos has increased since Pornhub banned non-verified uploads, meaning videos uploaded by people who couldn’t prove their identities. Today, professionals upload most of the porn on Pornhub. My colleagues and I only post on Pornhub after squeezing every penny we can make out of a porno. We charge for our best content because sex work is work, and in America, you get paid for your work. Being a porn star is not a volunteer position.
Bellesa, Erika Lust, and other female-oriented porn companies create the type of content Petter desires, but they expect people to pay to watch their lengthy pussy-eating videos. They sell videos of realistic lesbian sex, men performing oral on women, and intense female orgasms. Some women purchase these videos, so they get to watch female orgasms. If you are willing to buy adult videos, you can buy anything. Whether you’re looking to watch aggressive sex, gentle sex, oral, anal, or whatever, you can find it all. But if you want something niche, you are going to struggle to find the videos for free. Feminist companies can’t afford to post free clips because few women buy porn, and these studios are shooting videos to earn revenue. Their revenue options are slim because they’re in a niche business. I can afford to post a few freebies because thousands of men buy my porn.
I make porn men want to watch because men spend billions of dollars a year on adult entertainment. Sure, some men want to watch pussy eating and female orgasms, but few do, and pornographers respond to demand. We didn’t decide rough sex is best. Customers did. Nobody in porn valley is protesting on set, yelling, “I’m not doing any pussy eating on camera! I’m morally against it!” We are capitalists. If consumers wanted to watch pussy eating, I would lay on my bed all day, recording videos of men eating my pussy, but guess what? Few women buy porn, and few dudes want to pay for pussy-eating videos!
Pornographers’ capitalistic instincts have been the basis of our industry for decades. In the ’60s, Hugh Hefner refused to show pubes or vaginas in Playboy. Bob Guccione then founded Penthouse to display women’s vaginas (or “pink,” as they called it), and he stole Playboy’s readers. Guccione, though, strayed away from showing piss play or more taboo subjects. Enter Larry Flynt. He would publish nearly anything men desired in Hustler. Flynt’s sales exploded, so Playboy started showing vaginas, and Guccione published more risqué images. Hefner and Guccione changed their policies because that’s what men wanted. Sex sells, and pornographers create the type of sex that sells.
Petter expects other women to fuck for free. Her point of view disheartens me. One, she stereotypes us based on a lousy study without conducting more research. Secondly, she shows that she thinks sex work isn’t work deserving of pay. She disrespects us, treating us as people who should fuck on camera for her enjoyment without receiving compensation. Men can watch whatever they want because they pay for it. It’s called the adult industry because it’s an industry. To think you can get great content for free is insane.
Her worst offense is she pins the lack of female pleasure and her shitty sex life on us, and it’s sad to see a woman speak this way about sex workers. Amid evangelical Christians trying to outlaw porn, Utah Republicans trying to install porn blockers on cellphones, and more attacks on sex workers, it’s more important than ever for women to stand up for female sex workers. Petter’s argument that porn doesn’t show female pleasure plays into stereotypes of the adult industry as sexist and problematic, even though it’s one of the few sectors that pays women more than men.
Men pay women. The available porn is available because of who will pay for it. If you want to change porn, you must pay for porn. If women open up their wallets to pornographers, they will have more porn options. Till then, they’ll have to deal with 30-second freebies of men orgasming, and that’s not my problem. Stop blaming sex workers for your bad sex life. And for the love of God, stop playing into outdated stereotypes that harm female sex workers.
