Darren James
Darren James

The kind of serious attention that I’d like to pay to Porn in this piece is not the kind that is usually done with a pen in your right hand, but a higher duty calls. All too often we let multi-billion dollar industries off the hook for moral, ethical, and labor abuses simply because they are multi-billion dollar industries. Capitalism is a cornerstone of the American dream, just as turning a blind eye to the unfair exploitation of others is the cornerstone of a class based society. A few years ago, some of us scoffed at the idea of fast food workers demanding a living wage, while not batting an eyelash as the corporations that underpay these workers make billions yearly. By comparison, many of us scoff at the labor abuses in the Porn industry by putting the blame on the employees themselves rather than on the corporations that exploit them and their lives with dangerous practices and negligent protocols.

If you work in Porn, then you get what’s coming to you. But behind the money shots and the double bangs there is grief, guilt, abuse, race and gender based pay inequities- yet the pop-up windows for this side of the Porn industry are permanently blocked on your browser,”…because the industry itself is stigmatized and thought of as something to keep at arm’s length.” (1) And yet as a male you can hardly take your laptop in for repairs without being told in serious jest to,” Stop watching porn,” while the Porn industry itself,”…thrives mostly unchecked, behind the curtain of social taboo.” (2) The casualties of the Porn industry cannot be so easily repaired as a virus infected laptop because the human casualties of the Porn industry can be exposed to viruses that lead to chronic medical conditions for which there is no quick fix cure.




One such casualty is the story of Black male porn star, Darren James. James was a porn star on the rise but in April of 2004 he was diagnosed as HIV positive after he had unwittingly spread,”…the virus to three more actresses he had worked with,” which shocked the industry and,” shut down production for a month.” (3) James’ story of how he got involved in the Porn industry appears as a rags to riches story on the surface, but as he intends to tell it in an upcoming book, “My Story: Porn and HIV,” his story is really a warning for future and current performers as well as a human rights alarm sounded against an industry insulated in the delusion of its own financial success and the absolute control it wields in the dark moral territory of its product. After James had left the Navy in 1989, he settled in LA, but found himself unemployed and alternately homeless for long periods of time, often staying with friends and/or living at a friend’s gym. “Then in 1997, another friend referred him to a modeling gig in the San Fernando Valley, which turned out to be porn shoot.”(4)

As a new actor James was paid as little as possible for his participation and therefore had to take whatever roles he could standby for, but as his appearances in various Porn videos attracted fans his salary increased as well as his popularity. When asked what life was like as a porn star, James answered,” Once you’ve been in for a while, it’s easy to lose touch with reality, and the industry becomes your family. The rest of society might watch you in their bedrooms, but won’t admit they know you if they see you on the street.”(5) And yet while James and other male performers psychologically protected themselves from HIV by readily admitting that they,” only do chicks,” they were only insulating themselves with a delusion that was supported by their financial gains, elevated class status and the cock-centered prestige of being a porn star. “By industry standards, James took a PCR-DNA test for HIV at least once a month (each test cost $100: the expense was his to cover.”(6) Only after he had unintentionally infected three other women, did his own test results comeback positive. Those three women continued working until they were alerted of James’ status. This was back in 2004; the industry paused but then continued as if the lives that were damaged were just a series of unfortunate events rather than a consequence of its own questionable practices.

What the Darren James tragedy reveals to us is not simply a tale of male egoism gone awry, nor does it offer us a sanctimonious position from which to wag our fingers in disapproval at the victims, but instead, it reveals the irredeemable exploitation and horrifically unethical labor practices of a multi-billion dollar industry. The very fact that at any time after the discovery of HIV as the virus that causes AIDS, the Porn industry would still knowingly and continually allow performers to engage in sexual acts without condoms and other protections is one of the most egregiously unethical and immoral paradoxes of these modern times. Moreover, the testing of performers before and after filmed sexual activity was in no way, shape, or form a means of protection for the performers, but instead was merely a contractual maneuver to absolve the collective of different companies that at that time made up what we call “The Porn industry” from any legal liability for the risks they encouraged their performers to take by engaging in filmed unprotected sex.

The old excuse that viewers would not watch explicit pornography if the performers wore condoms –besides being disproved by the use of condoms in Gay pornography- was really a perpetuation of the stereotype of HIV as primarily a Gay disease that started during the 80’s when little was known about the transmission of the virus and the fear of the deadly disease, AIDS. Although according to author Kathleen Miles in November of 2013,”LA voters… passed a measure mandating condom use in porn, despite a large, coordinated campaign against it by the porn industry. Industry Insiders say there has been no enforcement of the new law.” (7) Darren James and three other women were infected in 2004, over 20 years after the discovery of what was called a “Gay cancer” in the early 1980’s that we now know as HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. And now with the failure of California’s Proposition 60: The Condoms in Pornographic Films Initiative just this last Tuesday, November 8th 2016 which would have required condom use in pornographic films and made companies responsible for the health care of its workers, the failure of this law only underscores the depraved indifference of an industry that would rather put its workers at risk for chronic medical conditions than protect their quality of life and the lives of their families and loved ones.

It is unconscionable that because of our own moral hypocrisies this industry has been allowed to continue to operate without the most stringent of standards to protect its workers- even if it means the industry could only make 3 billion instead of 4 billion a year. If the internet has brought instant access to porn to our fingertips, it has also allowed the consolidation of the Porn industry from various companies into one mega company, MindGeek, that owns many different fronts and plots users algorithms with reckless abandon. “Tube sites- such as YouPorn, RedTube, Pornhub- are hugely popular and it’s estimated that MindGeek owns 8 out of the 10 largest tube sites.” (8)




The bottom line is that Porn industry should have been forced to protect its performers, but instead these companies decided to protect themselves and they continue to get away with this unethical and immoral position because we as a society lack the moral courage to: 1) admit that we watch porn regularly; 2) admit that Porn is an industry and must be regulated to protect its workers; 3) admit that the risks incurred during filmed for profit sexual activity is not the responsibility of the worker, but instead the responsibility of the industry that profits from said filmed for profit sexual activity.

New and more rapid response HIV testing measures are not a justification for the continued recording of unprotected sex for profit by this industry. Regardless of the fact that today’s porn is heavily pirated, inundated with amateur porn sites across the web, and accessible 27/7 on mobile screens, none of these changes can absolve the Porn industry of its responsibility to protect its workers. The myriad of other unaddressed problems within the Porn industry, including gender based wage disparities (women are paid more than men, but incur greater risk of exposure to disease and mistreatment than men) (9), mental health and other issues are promised to be addressed in Darren James’ upcoming new book, “My Story: Porn and HIV” which he has decided to self publish and is raising money through a GoFund Me account which you can access HERE. James, who since 2004, has been a tireless advocate of HIV awareness, testing, and critical of the laissez-faire protocols and testing procedures of the industry for which he once worked has become a fighter for safety and equality in this over-exposed, yet hidden work force of the Porn industry.

Whether or not one wants to believe that chronic unemployment is the fault of the unemployable or that homelessness is the fault of whomever has not a home or that those who participate in the Porn industry are the victims of their own self-inflicted wounds- supporting the publication of Darren James’ book is his own very real, very urgent way of warning those who participate in the Porn industry now and those of us who thoughtlessly click on the many, many porn sites at our fingertips which are mostly owned by one single company. The warning is clear and certain: that the Porn industry should not be allowed to self-regulate itself in an age where chronic diseases can be transmitted sexually and performers have to work at their own risk with no accountability by the industry that makes its profits from the risks of their labor. If OSHA can zealously protect the lives of someone building a car; if Screen actor’s guild can enforce rules to protect the lives of their members, then why Porn actors can’t be protected from the egregious labor abuses and negligent safety protocols of the industry wherein which they work is a tragic paradox that we all contribute to every time we visit a porn website whether we admit it to ourselves or not.

Darren James’ book, “My Story: Porn and HIV” might be his own personal means of redemption but it just might also be our own political means of salvation to protect workers from exploitative corporations and industries where profit is placed before people.


Andre Seewood is author of  “(Dismantling) the Greatest Lie Ever Told to the Black Filmmaker.” Pick up a copy here.

NOTES
(1) See: Joe Pinsker’s article, The Hidden Economics of Porn, The Atlantic, April 4th 2016
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/pornography-industry-economics-tarrant/476580/
(2) Ibid
(3) See: Rong-Gong Lin II’s article: Porn star recalls nightmare of testing HIV positive, Los Angeles Times, June 15th 2009
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/15/local/me-porn-hiv15
(4) Ibid
(5) See: Regan Hofmann’s article: A Porn Star is Reborn, POZ, Dec 1st 2008
https://www.poz.com/article/darren-james-porn-hiv-15639-6713
(6) Ibid
(7) See: Katleen Miles’ article: Porn Performer With HIV says Costar Was Bleeding During Shoot, HuffPost: Los Angeles, Sept. 2oth 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/porn-hiv-penis-bleeding_n_3944401.html
(8) Op., Cit. Joe Pinsker.
(9) See: Chris Morris’s Article: Porn’s dirtiest secret: What everyone gets paid, CNBC, Jan 20th 2016
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/20/porns-dirtiest-secret-what-everyone-gets-paid.html