Last year, 20-year-old porn actress Olivia North was found dead in Las Vegas, a girl who professed to be “lonely” and still grieving the loss of her boyfriend, who had died of a drug overdose.
In December, fellow porn actress Yuritzan Beltran also died from a drug overdose—and later that month, the 23-year-old August Ames hung herself after being viciously bullied online by social justice warriors who were livid that Ames had declined to shoot porn scenes with a male performer who also did gay porn in order to avoid the risk of STDs. Those reasons weren’t good enough for the progressives, who shrugged off her suicide as if she deserved it—and after all, what’s one more dead porn star?
But there is another reason not to look at pornography: Simple compassion for the women and girls who get chewed up by the industry and then abandoned.
Even Miriam Weeks—also known Belle Knox, the “Duke University Porn Star”—who once described porn as “freeing and empowering and the way the world should be” in an interview with CNN, later admitted in interviews that the porn industry had ruined her life.
It’s not surprising that the intense violence of the porn industry is ruining the women and girls who end up selling themselves to it.
“Once [the performers] are in the industry, they have high rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder,” noted researcher Dr. Mary Anne Layden, an expert on the porn industry.
“The experience I find most common among performers is that they have to be drunk, high, or disassociated to go to work. Their work environment is particularly toxic…The terrible work life of the pornography performer is often followed by an equally terrible home life. They have an increased risk of sexually transmitted disease (including HIV), domestic violence, and have about a 25% chance of making a marriage that lasts as long as three years.”
Such things are an open secret inside the porn industry. One male porn performer who starred in 600 films with over 3,000 women noted that everyone in the porn world has herpes, both males and females. Dr. Sharon Mitchell’s estimate was slightly lower—she put the number at 66%, not including another 12-28% with other STDs and 7% with HIV.
To cope with this lifestyle, porn performers turn to substance abuse. Erin Moore, a porn performer, was blunt: “The drugs we binged on were ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, Valium, Vicodin, and alcohol.”
I asked my friend Jessica Neely, a former porn performer who is recovering from her time in the industry, if suicide was common in the porn industry. “Well, 100% of [industry] survivors I know have attempted [suicide], so I don’t know,” she told me. “I know of three alive from my era now.” When I asked her about the rates of substance abuse, her response was equally gloomy: “100%.”
Jessica has lost a lot of friends.
“At the end, with the HIV cover-ups, I just saw we were going to die one way or another,” she said. “HIV cover-ups were to truly take away the option of choice. It was murder. We were murdering our own.”
Consider this for a moment: Many of the actresses that porn users are watching are dead.
They are arousing themselves to the sight of women and girls who have ended up in coffins because the industry that exploits them for the pleasure of porn users drove them to drugs, to drink, and to death. There is something truly evil and truly vile about millions of men spending millions of hours in a state of sexual excitement over doomed performers who will destroy their lives in the few years they spend in the porn industry. Carnality leading to carnage.
If you look at porn, know that you are contributing to the exploitation and victimization of the girls you are using to “get off.”
Know that when the director yells “cut” and you’re done watching the video, the miserable people going through the motions for your entertainment will probably be abusing drugs and alcohol to cope with their experience.
And know that at the end of the day, your habit is contributing to the suicides of young girls who cannot handle the strain of being a sex object for your pleasure each and every day.
Is this something that anyone wants to be a part of in any way? It’s time to end porn. This will only happen if demand dries up. It’s time to stop the demand. Break the habit.
Matt Osborne – Is this really your takeaway from this article? So bothered by the misuse of the word hung you felt you needed to comment on it, but no mention of how you feel about the article itself?
Sad article from my point of view, puts things in perspective a bit for sure.
Demand iiiis never going to to dry up, sorry its an empty prescription. Its the oldest profession filmed, the market can’t fix this one, it requires state intervention. The best real solution I can come up wiyh is make 3rd party participation in prostitution illegal, ie pimps and capitalist. So that one can privately exchange money for sex, but any 3rd party involved gets a heavy punishment, any distribution of porn for money, any pimp, gets punished. any website that charges gets blocked, remove the profit from the industry, but allow them make their products for free so that it cannot be called censorship.
Baloney. Treat it like kiddie porn and jail and fine those who produce it and consume it and label them sex offenders for life. That would all but end it. It’s pretty easy to get rid of it. There is something about not being able to earn a living or finding a place to live that would stop this depravity. You are making excuses for its continued existence by making the silly statement that we can’t get rid of demand. That is a lie.
Label anyone who has ever watched porn a ‘sex offender’?
Jail and fine those who ‘produce it’?
What, before even attempting prohibition?
Because that ‘works’ doesn’t it?
What a hyperbolic and utterly dramatic train of thought.
I think you need a little dose of realism.
You mentioned paedophilia. Has its illegal status and social stigma ‘eradicated’ the perversion from society?
No.
Has the illigal status of narcotics eradicated recreational use?
No.
Prostitution is illegal in many places. Do you think such places are free of sex workers?
Nope.
‘Chad’ is correct.
You will never curtail ‘demand’ or consumption so a better angle would be to ‘clean up’ the industry as a whole and implement safeguards for performers et al.
Until Men are taught that women are to be respected not treated as a human toilet for their sperm this will not stop! Men are visual, yes, but disrespect of that vision, vis a vis women they will continue their abusive ways. They feel it’s all about the penis and NEVER about the female!! Education is the key, these poor women how have survived need to share their stories starting with teens in high school. Fathers need to educated their sons.
I’m not trying to take away from how tragic any of this is, because it is awful all around. But to only push blame to men is ridiculous! So go this route and try to get people to stop watching it with the stories and everything, but go after the women making the damn things too. I mean shoot you say men this and men that well women sign contracts to do it thinking they’re having sex for good amounts of money. Yes they are lied to, but to blame it all on men is ridiculous. Humanity male and female are to blame not just men ya sexist
It’s about the political will to get rid of it once and for all. Treat it the same as kiddie porn. It is not censorship or free speech. This is human rights abuse. Women and children are not things for you to buy and exploit. Stop using the bogus ACLU argument because they find nothing wrong with banning kiddie porn. They have long been on the take from pornographers. This is a crime against humanity.
If ‘education’ was the ‘silver bullet’ against socially distasteful actions or behaviour, surely the likes of crime could be ‘eradicated’ with comprehensive instruction.
‘Father’s need to educate their sons!’
Uh huh, and whilst they are at it how about they also ‘educate’ their daughter’s to cease selling themselves for financial gain?
And educated daughters to dont get caught up with the feminist lie, that being sexually liberated is great and she can give her body to multiple men at the same time. Its gross. Yes men view it but its only because women choose to do these movies! No one puts a gun to their heads and force them to do it. These girls gotta take accountability for their poor decisions
That is the porn purveyor’s lie–NOT the “feminist lie.” See PORNOGRAPHY, MEN POSSESSING WOMEN AND right wing women by the late, brilliant feminist, Andrea Dworkin.
I’m not sure how that’s going to happen for every boy out there. There’s a lot of deadbeat fathers out there. Plus on top of that, there’s boys whose fathers have passed away. There’s boys in foster care who may not have an a good foster dad because of bad background checks. You can’t expect a boy whose being raised by two women to be educated about things only men can teach boys about.
Capitalism is the problem, not human sexuality. Lots of people abuse drugs to cope with the stress of working jobs they hate, IDK why people act like it’s somehow uniquely bad when it comes to sex work. Watching porn isn’t causing men to look at women any differently than we would without porn. I love and respect my girl, but I can also appreciate the way she makes me feel :/
The only thing you’re even CLOSE to being right on is that capitalism is a problem, but that’s a problem everywhere.
I’m mortified by your comment Tyrone.
I’ve had really horrible jobs and endured workplace hostility, verbal abuse and been insanely overworked (including being awake for 4 days straight just so they had what they needed to impress client, then getting no credit when they loved the work I’d done). Yes, that made me want to have a drink or four.
But porn work is NOT the same – Unlike them, I don’t think about my horrible jobs everyday, nor do I feel shame for having done them, or am I doing drugs or drinking to escape the horrific memories, and my self-esteem is still somewhat intact. Most porn actors can’t say the same.
And without a doubt, porn IS a “uniquely bad” job. In porn they are physically, emotionally and mentally assaulted, used and abused, lied to and made to feel like the only thing of value they have to contribute to the world is their sexuality – they lose themselves. They lose their families, friends and partners along with their self-esteem. They experience trauma on a daily basis both during and after their careers. They become addicted to drugs and alcohol to cope with their feelings of shame and hopelessness. They know that at any moment for as long as videos and the internet exist, someone may be watching what they did, what they wish they’d never done, and the shame reappears.Over and over, Day after day. Forever.
And porn absolutely makes men look at and treat women differently. I can’t believe you don’t know that. Or maybe you do, and you’d just like to defend your right to watch it.
I feel sorry, bad and you name it for both, now, but also can’t deny I live on the luxury of what both’s bad experience in their job provides, hence ashamed.
I understand porn is a nasty thing and wrong to watch. However, it’s a choice to go into it or not. These women, girls, men, and boys who go into it and are exploited made the choice.
I feel bad for people who where forced into it. But the majority of them made a choice to go into it. I’m sorry I have a hard time feeling bad for that.
But understanding that the people who do it are absolutely miserable people might keep some from watching it because they hate it.
You know when you watch porn you might feel inside good for the moment but it eats you from the inside. Doesn’t it?
You also forget that boys and men are also exploited. But again it’s hard to feel bad for people who make a choice and refuse to change.
Sounds to me like they all need to turn to God and learn about Jesus and the real reason we are all here. As well as all of us. And turn away from all of this . Intouch ministries is a great place to start.
the real issue is not pleasure or entertainment that porn provides. it is sin. I was once addicted to to it. In the Genesis account of mans downfall the satanic device is an appeal to the senses. Eve saw that When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Sin is the powerful force that destroys. Unfortunately there is very little available to overcome and break from its destructive persuasion.. Call it SIN and only the saving grace of JESUS the Lord and Christ can negate it.
I believe the Lord lead me to this article. I’ve been telling this to my wife for years now. As Christians, we understand the state of the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:5 states “that the dead know nothing”, yet film has allowed the image of these deceased actors to “live on.” The pleasuring of yourself to these videos and images is a type of spiritualism and necrophilia. Drugs in the Bible are known as “pharmakiea” which is the Greek word for sorcery. What is seen on the screen isn’t that person, but rather a demon contacted through substance abuse. The behaviors exhibited are devil’s contorting, defiling, and the killing of God’s creations on film! These flicks are truly more life “snuff films” than “porn.” Getting off to dead people puts you in the Ted Bundy arena, who started his descent into darkness after looking at the lingerie section of K-Mart catalogs. Men and women need to ditch this trash, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
What many people don’t understand is this all began with the Playboy, and Penthouse magazine publishing businesses. And our entire religiously dogmatic industry. And finally our dead educational systems. And finally we can all comments on psychology we don’t have qualifications to understand? Many of these pornographer actors, actresses are from abusive, dysfunctional homes. Perhaps some are victims of incest? Depending on the age, this expands into a self destructive habitation, endorphins flow during sexual stimulation. This becomes a neurological buzz, that is extremely difficult to replace with full understanding, and implication. And in today’s tech world, my goodness the slightest impulse towards this fake stimulus is very difficult to fend off? Many people in the culture share in this neurological challenge? And when we’re basically on our own, to fend off these impulses, that’s like a fist fight with you’re own shadow? This is not a blame and shame game. It’s an empathy, understanding, and solutions embracing experience, for all parties involved. Thank you for reading .
Just one little note: a person is “hanged” or “hangs” themselves; a person is never, ever “hung.”
“The prisoner was hung at dawn” is the premise of a porn scene, not a proper report of an execution.
Matt Osborne – Is this really your takeaway from this article? So bothered by the misuse of the word hung you felt you needed to comment on it, but no mention of how you feel about the article itself?
Sad article from my point of view, puts things in perspective a bit for sure.
Demand iiiis never going to to dry up, sorry its an empty prescription. Its the oldest profession filmed, the market can’t fix this one, it requires state intervention. The best real solution I can come up wiyh is make 3rd party participation in prostitution illegal, ie pimps and capitalist. So that one can privately exchange money for sex, but any 3rd party involved gets a heavy punishment, any distribution of porn for money, any pimp, gets punished. any website that charges gets blocked, remove the profit from the industry, but allow them make their products for free so that it cannot be called censorship.
Baloney. Treat it like kiddie porn and jail and fine those who produce it and consume it and label them sex offenders for life. That would all but end it. It’s pretty easy to get rid of it. There is something about not being able to earn a living or finding a place to live that would stop this depravity. You are making excuses for its continued existence by making the silly statement that we can’t get rid of demand. That is a lie.
Yours is also a ‘silly statement’.
Label anyone who has ever watched porn a ‘sex offender’?
Jail and fine those who ‘produce it’?
What, before even attempting prohibition?
Because that ‘works’ doesn’t it?
What a hyperbolic and utterly dramatic train of thought.
I think you need a little dose of realism.
You mentioned paedophilia. Has its illegal status and social stigma ‘eradicated’ the perversion from society?
No.
Has the illigal status of narcotics eradicated recreational use?
No.
Prostitution is illegal in many places. Do you think such places are free of sex workers?
Nope.
‘Chad’ is correct.
You will never curtail ‘demand’ or consumption so a better angle would be to ‘clean up’ the industry as a whole and implement safeguards for performers et al.
Until Men are taught that women are to be respected not treated as a human toilet for their sperm this will not stop! Men are visual, yes, but disrespect of that vision, vis a vis women they will continue their abusive ways. They feel it’s all about the penis and NEVER about the female!! Education is the key, these poor women how have survived need to share their stories starting with teens in high school. Fathers need to educated their sons.
I’m not trying to take away from how tragic any of this is, because it is awful all around. But to only push blame to men is ridiculous! So go this route and try to get people to stop watching it with the stories and everything, but go after the women making the damn things too. I mean shoot you say men this and men that well women sign contracts to do it thinking they’re having sex for good amounts of money. Yes they are lied to, but to blame it all on men is ridiculous. Humanity male and female are to blame not just men ya sexist
It’s about the political will to get rid of it once and for all. Treat it the same as kiddie porn. It is not censorship or free speech. This is human rights abuse. Women and children are not things for you to buy and exploit. Stop using the bogus ACLU argument because they find nothing wrong with banning kiddie porn. They have long been on the take from pornographers. This is a crime against humanity.
If ‘education’ was the ‘silver bullet’ against socially distasteful actions or behaviour, surely the likes of crime could be ‘eradicated’ with comprehensive instruction.
‘Father’s need to educate their sons!’
Uh huh, and whilst they are at it how about they also ‘educate’ their daughter’s to cease selling themselves for financial gain?
And educated daughters to dont get caught up with the feminist lie, that being sexually liberated is great and she can give her body to multiple men at the same time. Its gross. Yes men view it but its only because women choose to do these movies! No one puts a gun to their heads and force them to do it. These girls gotta take accountability for their poor decisions
That is the porn purveyor’s lie–NOT the “feminist lie.” See PORNOGRAPHY, MEN POSSESSING WOMEN AND right wing women by the late, brilliant feminist, Andrea Dworkin.
I’m not sure how that’s going to happen for every boy out there. There’s a lot of deadbeat fathers out there. Plus on top of that, there’s boys whose fathers have passed away. There’s boys in foster care who may not have an a good foster dad because of bad background checks. You can’t expect a boy whose being raised by two women to be educated about things only men can teach boys about.
Capitalism is the problem, not human sexuality. Lots of people abuse drugs to cope with the stress of working jobs they hate, IDK why people act like it’s somehow uniquely bad when it comes to sex work. Watching porn isn’t causing men to look at women any differently than we would without porn. I love and respect my girl, but I can also appreciate the way she makes me feel :/
The only thing you’re even CLOSE to being right on is that capitalism is a problem, but that’s a problem everywhere.
I’m mortified by your comment Tyrone.
I’ve had really horrible jobs and endured workplace hostility, verbal abuse and been insanely overworked (including being awake for 4 days straight just so they had what they needed to impress client, then getting no credit when they loved the work I’d done). Yes, that made me want to have a drink or four.
But porn work is NOT the same – Unlike them, I don’t think about my horrible jobs everyday, nor do I feel shame for having done them, or am I doing drugs or drinking to escape the horrific memories, and my self-esteem is still somewhat intact. Most porn actors can’t say the same.
And without a doubt, porn IS a “uniquely bad” job. In porn they are physically, emotionally and mentally assaulted, used and abused, lied to and made to feel like the only thing of value they have to contribute to the world is their sexuality – they lose themselves. They lose their families, friends and partners along with their self-esteem. They experience trauma on a daily basis both during and after their careers. They become addicted to drugs and alcohol to cope with their feelings of shame and hopelessness. They know that at any moment for as long as videos and the internet exist, someone may be watching what they did, what they wish they’d never done, and the shame reappears.Over and over, Day after day. Forever.
And porn absolutely makes men look at and treat women differently. I can’t believe you don’t know that. Or maybe you do, and you’d just like to defend your right to watch it.
So PTSD.
I feel sorry, bad and you name it for both, now, but also can’t deny I live on the luxury of what both’s bad experience in their job provides, hence ashamed.
Then stop it.
I understand porn is a nasty thing and wrong to watch. However, it’s a choice to go into it or not. These women, girls, men, and boys who go into it and are exploited made the choice.
I feel bad for people who where forced into it. But the majority of them made a choice to go into it. I’m sorry I have a hard time feeling bad for that.
But understanding that the people who do it are absolutely miserable people might keep some from watching it because they hate it.
You know when you watch porn you might feel inside good for the moment but it eats you from the inside. Doesn’t it?
You also forget that boys and men are also exploited. But again it’s hard to feel bad for people who make a choice and refuse to change.
Sounds to me like they all need to turn to God and learn about Jesus and the real reason we are all here. As well as all of us. And turn away from all of this . Intouch ministries is a great place to start.
the real issue is not pleasure or entertainment that porn provides. it is sin. I was once addicted to to it. In the Genesis account of mans downfall the satanic device is an appeal to the senses. Eve saw that When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Sin is the powerful force that destroys. Unfortunately there is very little available to overcome and break from its destructive persuasion.. Call it SIN and only the saving grace of JESUS the Lord and Christ can negate it.
I believe the Lord lead me to this article. I’ve been telling this to my wife for years now. As Christians, we understand the state of the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:5 states “that the dead know nothing”, yet film has allowed the image of these deceased actors to “live on.” The pleasuring of yourself to these videos and images is a type of spiritualism and necrophilia. Drugs in the Bible are known as “pharmakiea” which is the Greek word for sorcery. What is seen on the screen isn’t that person, but rather a demon contacted through substance abuse. The behaviors exhibited are devil’s contorting, defiling, and the killing of God’s creations on film! These flicks are truly more life “snuff films” than “porn.” Getting off to dead people puts you in the Ted Bundy arena, who started his descent into darkness after looking at the lingerie section of K-Mart catalogs. Men and women need to ditch this trash, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
What many people don’t understand is this all began with the Playboy, and Penthouse magazine publishing businesses. And our entire religiously dogmatic industry. And finally our dead educational systems. And finally we can all comments on psychology we don’t have qualifications to understand? Many of these pornographer actors, actresses are from abusive, dysfunctional homes. Perhaps some are victims of incest? Depending on the age, this expands into a self destructive habitation, endorphins flow during sexual stimulation. This becomes a neurological buzz, that is extremely difficult to replace with full understanding, and implication. And in today’s tech world, my goodness the slightest impulse towards this fake stimulus is very difficult to fend off? Many people in the culture share in this neurological challenge? And when we’re basically on our own, to fend off these impulses, that’s like a fist fight with you’re own shadow? This is not a blame and shame game. It’s an empathy, understanding, and solutions embracing experience, for all parties involved. Thank you for reading .