Women In Porn
         Are They Victims Of Coercion?

It seems that many people have a variety of opinions about pornography. Some believe that it is all right and can be a healthy sexual way to be visually stimulated, some believe that it is for them only if it follows certain guidelines, and some believe that it is not all right for them, but is okay for others to view if that is what makes them happy. Still there are those who feel that porn is not appropriate for anyone and some even go further and believe it to be evil, dirty and outright disgusting no matter what type of adult entertainment it is.

Lisa S. Lawless, Ph.D., C.E.O. HolisticWisdom.com Founder

So, who is right? All of the opinions listed above are of course correct, because they are just that... opinions. So with that point out of the way, let's take some time to look at porn and various sociological aspects of it.

What Is Porn?

In order to examine aspects of porn, we first must begin with having a clear understanding of what we are talking about.

Pornography-
A sexual explicit, artistic depiction.

Sexually Explicit-
Showing nudity with full views of the acts, including penetration, or descriptions of such acts. Excluding romance novels with little if any nudity or graphic descriptions of sex acts.

Artistic-
Done for entertainment, not educational purposes.

Depiction-
Pictures, writing, video, and audio of explicit, artistic sexual acts.

Pornography provides a focus on the sexuality of people. It can present the performers as whole individuals with a focus on the relationship of the characters being portrayed or it can be more focused on the physical acts of sexuality.

Bad Porn-

Unfortunately, there is also unhealthy porn such as incest films, true rape and other terrible depictions. These of course are not participants that can be considered consensual and the producers of such films should be prosecuted. This article is not about these types of films as the focus here is on professional, legitimate porn producers.

Claims That Women Are Victims Of Porn-

Women are often made out to be the victims of pornography through a large percentage of people. There are two ways that this occurs-

Women Porn Performers Portrayed As Victims-

1) Women who perform in porn are thought to be coerced against their will into it.

2) Women only participate in porn if they are "damaged" or have psychological problems.

Further Examination Of The Validity Of
These Claims-

1) Women who perform in porn are thought to be coerced
     against their will into it.

Research actually shows that women are not generally coerced into porn, they choose it of their own free will. The argument that women are coerced against their will leads me to question why those who are said to be doing the coercing are not being charged for assault, rape, kidnapping and other fitting crimes.

The truth is that women typically choose their careers in porn by their own free will.

2) Women only participate in porn if they are "damaged" or
     have psychological problems.

This is truly an arrogant opinion to me and one that I think is dismissive and judgmental. To say this means that any healthy women would not partake in porn as it is degrading and humiliating. Thus, all women who participate in porn must be so emotionally beaten down that they are not responsible for their own behavior.

The truth is that some women have different definitions of what is degrading and humiliating and do not find porn to be as such. Some women have found a career in the porn industry to be empowering, especially when they take control of their careers such as Jenna Jameson.

It is also true that there are women who are attracted to a career in porn because they have emotional trauma regarding sexuality and are acting out their dysfunction because it is their way of coping with it, but certainly not in all cases.

Sexual Abuse & Porn-

There are many ways that women who have been sexually abused deal with it. Here are some examples of common themes-

Women who have been sexually abused as children often have two extreme coping mechanisms on how they deal with what occurred to them.

1) They see sexuality as dirty and wrong and associate their body as being such and live     an extremely prude and abstinent type lifestyle.

2) They see sexuality as a way to receive attention and love (although unhealthy and     dysfunctional from having been abused) they still want to receive it as it is what they     know to be attention and love and thus become promiscuous, or even seek out a     career in the sex industry because their self worth is centered on their sexuality.

This does not mean that a woman who has been sexually abused does not understand what healthy sex or love is, it may just be how they began to believe that they can get it. This is why counseling is helpful to sex abuse victims as it helps them have better awareness.

Does this mean that a woman who has been sexually abused is damaged or should be able to claim that she was coerced into a legal contract in the porn industry. The answer is no.

Think about the fact that EVERYONE is influenced by their culture. Would you say that someone from the ghetto who shot and killed someone was not responsible for their behavior because they were surrounded by violence growing up?

No, you probably wouldn't. Why? Because no matter what happens to us in life we have a lovely little gift called FREE WILL! We are always able to choose how we react to incidents in our lives. We must be responsible for those choices. That does not mean that we cannot be compassionate of why people made the choices they do, but ultimately the person that sits in the drivers seat of our life is ourselves when it comes to who we choose to be.

Bella Donna
ABC Prime Time Special With Diane Sawyer Attempted To Portray Her As A Pathetic Porn Actress With Nothing But Regrets.

Here is what Bella Donna has to say about her recently aired interview-

"I was just interested in letting people out there know my story. It was MY story, not anyone else's. The only time I thought, "Oh my God, I shouldn't do this," was after the Diane Sawyer interview. She had been asking questions that I was not ready for. At that time I was in a bad state of mind. It had nothing to do with being in the porn industry, it had to do with my personal life. When she was asking those questions, I reacted to them by the way I was feeling at that time. After I left New York I thought that maybe I shouldn't let them air that because I didn't want people in the industry to think that that's the way I felt all the time I was in the industry. It was experiences in my personal life that made me feel that way at that time.

My family was supportive of me. They told ABC that it was really sad they didn't show the whole story. Every time I talked about the industry I totally made sure that the way I felt had nothing to do with the porno industry, it's the way I felt in life at that time. They didn't show everything I said. I know it was only a one hour special, but they chopped it up and it was no good.

I've definitely grown up on camera. I've got to experience a lot of things, a lot of sexual things and learn a lot about my body. I enjoy it. I think now that I'm a director and producer of my own product, it's such a great opportunity to have that and accept myself. I want to do the things that I want to do now. I make the decisions instead of someone else telling me what to do. I also want the girls who work for me to do the things they really want to do, not just because they think they have to do it for the money.

Even on that interview I was saying, "I don't want you guys to make me look like I'm a victim because I'm not! This is my choice, something I chose to do."

A well know advocate of porn, Wendy McElroy once said

"Pornography is nothing more or less than freedom
of speech applied to the sexual realm."