[Note by Anthony: The following is Ernest Greene’s detailed response to the announcement on Friday by acclaimed porn producer/director/sex educator Tristan Taormino that she would require future performers of her films to undergo detailed STI testing AND also use condoms in all their sex scenes. Needless to say, Ernest spares nothing in his opinion critiquing Taormino’s decision and the repercussions of her announcement on the current battles brewing over Measure B, the recently failed bills in the California Assembly to mandate condom usage in porn via state law, and the broader issues of performer choice and workplace safety. I will present it as he wrote it, without annotation or comment, since Ernest’s words can stand on their own as his own.]
“I still want performers to have choices, and they can choose not to work with me if they don’t want to use condoms.”
The message is different, but the tone is remarkably familiar. Producers who refuse to allow performers to wear condoms in their scenes use very much the same language in defending their actions. Performers always have a choice. They can do what the director wants them to with regard to their personal safety or they can work for somebody else, if somebody else conveniently chooses to hire them when they’re urgently in need of work, an ever more common condition as the industry contracts under a hail of bad numbers.
Nina and I have both made clear our revulsion at this kind of disingenuous proposition and our unconditional support for real performer choice, free of economic intimidation. We have always offered performers the use of condoms on every production and made a variety of different brands available to those who chose to use them. Likewise, we still oppose any attempt to pressure them, one way or the other, when it comes to decisions regarding their own protection.
Who the fuck cares about what Nina Hartley’s cuckold husband thinks?
probably the same people who care what the fuck you think.
Or more accurately, the same people who DON’T care what you think, and who actually have something to say rather than just troll.
Read his words before you strike.
I’ve now posted a two-post series stating my own personal thoughts on this brohaha over at Red Garter Club: Scoundrel Time Re-Redux — Part One Scoundrel Time Re-Redux — Part Deux Also, to clarify: some have taken to say that I am calling Tristan and all others who favor the options of voluntarily having condoms in porn scenes “fascists”. That is unequivably FALSE; I have no issue with those who call for voluntary condom use, or those who want to protect the rights of performers who wish to include condoms. It is those who are for MANDATORY condom usage and… Read more »
Also…there’s the fact that Tristan selected CNN as the initial microphone for her change of policy. Well…CNN also has THIS on their plate:
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/02/legal-prostitution-condones-humiliation-on-women/
If CNN is that open about backing the Swedish/Nordic Model, which criminalizes men who engage with sex workers; how much of a jump would it be for them to endorse the condom mandate as a means of punishing consumers of porn? And let’s not forget that many of the same supporters of the Swedish Model are also aggressively antiporn as well (see Gail Dines, Julie Burchill, Melissa Farley).
I sincerely hope this doesn’t become a trap.