Gay men need to halt the amount of slut-shaming they do, particularly with men in the adult film industry.
On Wednesday, May 1, news broke about the passing of 29-year old performer Casey Jacks. A mixture of comments were left on our Facebook post about the loss of life. Some left their condolences, while others took the judgmental route and wrote horrific things like:
“Drug related?”
Another responded “Or HIV?”
“Their lives are enviable, and they commit suicide? I don’t understand.”
Another responded saying that people who enter the adult film industry have low self-esteem issues and that they are “all alone at the end of the day” after spending time on set with another partner.
The ignorance that this community has bred over the past couple of decades is upsetting. These types of comments are nothing new, as they’ve been popping up all over the place whenever something positive or negative is written about men who perform in adult films. The comments mentioned above alone caused me to shake my head to the point where it falls off.
Here’s a fact: death happens no matter what profession you are in. Singling out issues of depression, diseases, or drugs for why an adult film industry worker died only makes one look incredibly ignorant. Do you know all the facts or who they were as a person? No.
Instead, slut-shaming results, and people criticize a dead person from the comfort of their home computer, probably while watching porn. Has the adult industry lost several of its stars over the past 40 plus years? Yes. Has every other type of business experienced the same results? Of course. It’s about more than just what someone does for a living.
Many of the men I know in the adult film industry are intelligent beyond their years and are successful at what they do, both on and off the camera. They are brave and bold enough to put themselves out there to make people’s fantasies and desires come true, yet they are criticized heavily and shamed for what they do.
The days of “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all” are truly gone in our society, which makes me very sad. I know I’m no Pollyanna and can be shady just like the rest, but to degrade people who are alive or dead just because they are in the adult film industry, just ends up degrading yourself for being so judgmental.
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other Contributing Writers.
Everyone is to blame. Most gay men like to see porn without protection (condoms) and the industry knows this. Look at straight porn and their lack of use of condoms. Then factor in how gay porn stars make the most money today and that comes from their own personal material they make sold on onlyfans or websites like that. They are competing with each other to show bareback unprotected sex in their private lives. They pretend the PREP pill protects them but the reality is Herpes, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, HVP, ect. are consistently part of their lives. They do set a bad example for the young gay LBGTQ who believe this is a good way to live your sexual life. I think if they were more honest about the STDs they catch people would respect them more.
The reality is, drug addiction and HIV are a problem in the adult industry. It’s not unreasonable for us to attempt to explore what happened and find a way for it to make some sort of sense. And asking those questions isn’t necessarily “slut shaming.” Though, when it comes to bareback, sounding, A2M, I’m not entirely convinced that some porn actors couldn’t use a little shaming from time to time…but I digress. Of course there will be assholes among us that will chime in with no other goal except to be anonymous assholes. It’s the nature of the internet and of the industry.
I agree with this article that when a person in adult entertainment dies, whether gay or straight the judgments follow. Of course, there would be no porn industry if there were no consumers.
That being said, there is more than enough evidence that porn exploits its “stars.” The money they make is a myth, working conditions are often unsafe. Many are addicted, and more than a few die violent deaths. In the case of women, a growing number are victims of human trafficking and now that more is being revealed about boys in human trafficking situations, no doubt we’ll learn that male performers are victims too. The largest percentages for many years were from former Eastern Block countries, now more are from Asia. There are also situations where male performers are given hormone therapy to keep them from looking older and are then given doses of testosterone so they can perform.
Slut shame, as you call it, after their untimely deaths is judgmental, but shaming the industry is fair game.
They are whores, plain and simple. The leave the real jobs to the rest of us; they contribute nothing to the economy and definitely not real-husband material. I bet their family are ashamed. Selavie!
Did you mean to say C’est La Vie at the end? Notice, I skipped all of your judgmental crap before that. To blindly hate someone. Gee, I wonder what that is like.
What an ignorant and stupid comment. When someone performs in a video they are paid and that pay is taxed. When a video is distributed and consumers pay, they pay tax.
I know a lot of performers and most of them have primary jobs and do porn for the enjoyment of it. Many use it to pay for school. One particular friend just became a attorney who fights for people that are under represented.
I performed in over a dozen videos. I have a great career outside of of porn. My husband was also in several videos and has a great career. We have been together for over 19 years, married for 18.
Where is your humanity?
“They are whores, plain and simple…”
What’s plain and simple is, your name calling does more to illustrate your own personal demons. Love it or hate it, the adult industry is estimated to contribute around $15B worth of commerce annually. By anyone’s measure, that is substantial. It doesn’t matter what your opinion is about someone’s qualifications as marriage material or what their relationship is with their parents. All of that is of no consequence and is absolutely none of your business. Plus, you don’t know French.