by Ann Regentin
(05/26/04)
California's porn industry is just beginning to resume production after five of its stars tested positive for HIV.
This is not the first HIV scare the industry has had. In 1986, John Holmes contracted the virus and continued to work without telling anyone until 1988, when he died of AIDS. In 1998, a rash of HIV cases seemed to point to Marc Wallice, who tested positive for the virus and had been caught working with faked HIV test results. In 1999, Tony Montana tested positive and immediately stopped working. As far as anyone knows, he did not infect anyone else.
This time around, the industry is doing an excellent job of both catching and containing what has the potential to become a frightening epidemic. Darren James, who apparently contracted the virus while shooting in Brazil, stopped performing as soon as his first test came up positive, and those infected through working with him appear to have done the same. Several studios have shut down production temporarily, and the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM) has a quarantine list on its Web site, a heartbreaker to any porn film fan as many of the names are all too familiar.
All in all, there are about fifty people on the list, which means that there are about fifty people whose lives are still hanging in the balance. As someone who suffers with lupus, I have a clear idea of what chronic illness is like. I can testify to the fact that it's no fun, and that the medical concept of a "normal life" isn't normal at all. HIV makes my lupus look like a walk in the park. The drug regimens required to control the virus are expensive and strict, and they come with no guarantees. HIV, unlike lupus, is also contagious, which means that anyone who has it runs the risk of infecting a beloved partner -- not a prospect most of us would relish.
I say this not to cast any kind of negative light on those who are HIV-positive, but to make the point that this is a disease we cannot afford to be complacent about. Anyone can catch it doing any sexual act that involves bodily fluids and even microscopically broken skin, and until we have a cure or a vaccine, everyone needs to be careful.
The porn industry is careful. Many film companies demand regular HIV tests and AIM provides the best possible version, the PCR/DNA test, with 1-day results if needed. These regular tests are the primary reason why the current outbreak is being brought under control so quickly, although the fondness for "money shots" is probably helping. In fact, porn sets are among the safest places in the world to have sex. Given the number of partners a porn actor can have over the course of a week's work, the HIV transmission rate is extraordinarily low.
Even still, not all porn studios shut down and some are starting to film again, ahead of the June lift date for the quarantine. Some feel that AIM's measures are too extreme, and others point to more pragmatic concerns. Everyone in the business, after all, has rent to pay, groceries to buy, car payments to make, and all of the normal expenses of living to meet, and being out of work for two months is going to wreak havoc on people's lives. Some are shooting masturbation or lesbian films but others are continuing business as usual, confident that the infection will not spread any farther than it already has.
The obvious and most commonly touted solution to the transmission of HIV is condoms, and the state of California is considering making them mandatory for porn actors, but this is hotly debated within the industry itself. Many say that the issue of condom use should be a matter of personal choice, but common wisdom says that consumers won't buy movies with condoms in them and the numbers back this up. Christian Mann, owner of Video Team, had to give up his mandatory condom policy when his sales took a nose-dive. Now he says that he would like to go back to using condoms in his pictures, but only if other studios follow suit.
As far as I know, only Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment require condoms, but Seymore Butts recently announced that he will do the same, financial consequences be damned, so Mann may well get his wish, or at least a powerful ally. Still, many studios, knowing that their counterparts overseas have no such constraints, are threatening to move their operations to different states if California follows through on its plan. Fantasy plays a big part in porn and nobody, they say, wants to see the wires on a stuntman. Condoms in porn films are just as bad.
The current crisis is not affecting gay porn, but that doesn't mean the issue hasn't been discussed. Most gay film companies already require condoms for scenes involving anal sex. Titan Media, one of the largest, announced in April that they will take this one step farther and not hire anyone who has ever performed bareback. They will, however, continue to distribute movies that were made before this statement was issued, making its real impact open to hot debate. Many say that it undermines Titan's intention of "portraying and eroticizing only safer sex practices, and leading by example for the benefit of all."
The issue of safe sex and responsibility comes up among smut writers as well as smut filmmakers, and opinions are just as divided. Some say that writing latex into sex is a turn-off, that it's nice to have one arena in which sex can happen the way we all wish it did. Others feel that writers have a responsibility to encourage and eroticize safe sex, especially given that some people look at porn as a form of sex education.
I think there is merit in both points of view and I tend to sit squarely on the fence in my own writing. It's fun to write sex where no one has to worry about disease or pregnancy, and it's also fun to try to make safe sex hot or to write it in such a way that it's taken for granted. The beauty of written porn, though, is that no real people are involved. No matter what happens in the story, nobody in real life gets hurt.
This is not true of porn films. There are people making these movies, real people who in many cases do not really have the option of wearing or requesting that their partners wear condoms. The industry makes a fuss about personal choice, but except for those who work for the few companies that require condoms, or those among the talent with a large amount of clout, the choice is often between going bareback and going home without a paycheck. Personal choice, all too often, boils down to the studio's choice, not the talent's.
Although regular testing has done a good job in catching and containing HIV in the porn industry, I also know that failure rate statistics are made up of real people. Every single one of those who have tested positive have lives outside of the industry; they have friends, families, and partners. They are not mannequins who exist just to fuck in front of the camera. They are flesh and blood, just like the rest of us, with the same strengths, vulnerabilities, and needs.
This lack of safety net doesn't apply to any other part of the movie industry. We don't seem to mind that real people aren't dying in battle scenes. We don't seem to mind when gunshot wounds are fake. In fact, we would be horrified to find out that Bruce Willis really took as many bullets as it appears in his movies. Why then this resistance to using the same techniques to protect porn actors? Why is the conversation all about whether or not condoms, a basic, life-saving precaution, should be used? No, we don't like to see the wires that hold up the stuntman, but the scene is shot so they don't show or, failing that, they're edited out later. Why is there no real discussion in het porn of doing the same thing with condoms?
The truth is, condoms can be used unobtrusively in porn films. Some gay skin flicks do it so well that safe sex advocates wonder if they're doing it too well. Although condoms are properly donned at the beginning of the film and there is a notice that safe sex is being practiced by the actors, there is little evidence of it once the sex is underway. Either the actors are wearing ultra-sheer condoms, or the camera angles are carefully planned, but the barrier device cannot be easily seen. The only hint of it, in some cases, is the possibility that the shaft of the penis might be a bit "shinier" than the base.
I don't think the real issue here is condoms. I think the real issue is a particular kind of thrill. I think we are willing to leave porn actors open to the chance of contracting HIV because on some level, too many of us think they deserve it. I think the idea even excites, and that's why unprotected sex in films is so popular. We don't see the people in them as fully human. We are all too willing to forget that Darren James is someone's son and that Lara Roxx is somebody's daughter because no matter how voraciously we devour their films, we would never allow our own sons or daughters to star in them. Our kids are better than that. Instead, we get off on watching someone else's kids play roulette with their lives. Put in the bluntest possible terms, as things stand now, porn movies without condoms are little better than snuff films.
This isn't really about personal choice or even fantasy; it's about the hypocrisy underlying our culture's attitudes toward sex. In spite of the fact that almost all of us engage in it, we still seem to consider sex inherently nasty and those who engage in it for pay less than human. As a culture, we treat those who act in porn films as if they are appropriate scapegoats for our shame and anger. This is unacceptable, especially in consumers and even more so in those who consider themselves fans. When real people are involved, daydreams must take a backseat to safety. Porn stars are not expendable.
I'm well aware that porn is about fantasy, and these days, one of the hottest fantasies is unprotected sex. This is understandable. I think we'd all like to live in a world where pregnancies are planned, ecstasy comes without strings, and bugs of all sorts do not hitchhike on our genitals. However, as this current crisis reminds us, these movies are made by real people. With all due respect to fantasy and personal choice, unprotected exposure to HIV should not be an occupational hazard for anyone, regardless of their line of work. Those who enjoy porn films should prove the studios wrong and start voting with their credit cards. Porn stars should have condoms just like stuntmen have wires.
P.S. Jenna Jamison and her husband, producer Jay Grdina, have started Adult Industry Assistance Fund to help performers affected by the quarantine. Information on where to send donations can be found at www.adultfund.com.
