What is ETHICAL PORN ?
The definition of ETHICAL is : "relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these."
Which means it can mean many things as "ethics" are subjective. Moral codes and ethics can drastically vary between each individual, among different cultures and also person to person within the same culture.
When it comes to porn (and sex work), currently there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the definition of ethical porn. But the concept is used to indicate that the people working on porn films it are following some rules and perhaps an easier way to approach defining what ethical porn means would be to explore some of the elements that are commonly cited as criteria for ethical porn.
Actors are consensual participants:
- They are at least 18 years old,
- Their judgment is not impaired by drugs or alcohol,
- They are Not forced directly (e.g., physical threats of abuse, sex trafficking) or indirectly (e.g., mental health, substance addiction or financial distress), and
- They use prophylactics (because STI status can’t be guaranteed to be 100% accurate at the time of filming due to challenges with testing windows and results, informed consent about STI risk is compromised unless prophylactics are used).
- Actors are treated with respect:
- They are fairly compensated,
- They perform under reasonable work conditions (e.g., no 10-hour-a-day, 5-day shoots),
- Productions adhere to medical safety standards (e.g., STI testing, bondage best practices), and
- Sexual boundaries are protected (e.g., actors are not pressured to do anal or other acts if they don’t want to).
In 2021 an ethical chart became mandatory for porn productions in France. The rules are different in each countries. Even though it is mandatory there are still a lot of porn that is not respectful of consent, finding other ways to ego around these said rules.
Other less common (but equally important) factors to consider when evaluating the ethicalness of porn include whether there is a good representation of diverse body types, race, gender and story plots. For some, porn is not ethical unless the erotic material attempts to highlight positive sexual images rather than reinforce negative stereotypes, such as an over reliance on altered bodies through surgeries (e.g., breast implants, labia reduction) or procedures (e.g., anal bleaching) or dehumanizing storylines (e.g., hostile sexism, racism). On the other hand, some advocates suggest that fantasy content should be disregarded when deciding if porn is ethical. They assert that pornography provides a non-threating sexual outlet and people should be free to explore “taboo” topics (e.g., rape, incest, gang bangs). They argue you can have ethical, kinky porn and, conversely, unethical, vanilla porn; therefore, content shouldn’t be the focus of evaluation. Taking this content-neutral argument further, some people suggest that ethical porn should focus on the actors’ pleasure and preferences, whatever the context, to provide a more realistic representation of sexual interactions.
NOTE: part of this text is quoting the article here below:
What is Ethical Porn and Where Can I Find It?
Tonya McDaniel , MSW, LCSW, MED, ABD — Therapist, director of program development
Clitopatra's ethical porn
As a woman, lover of humans, I have a very strict concept of ethics, which I will not go away from as I don't see the point of creating porn if it is not fully healthy for the people involved, from conception to the result.
So here is the way I proceed. It will probably evolve with the growth of my work, but never at the detriment of anyone involved.
