At the "Oscars of porn" last month, performers showed up looking so nude they could have been arrested.
The display is a tolerated tradition that goes back decades. But this year a few things were different at the AVN Awards, held at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas.
Ron Jeremy, one of the biggest names in the industry to be accused of sexual assault, was banned from the proceedings. So the usual assortment of post-party photos featuring his hands placed as human lingerie — he has called himself "a groper" — was absent. Although the trade show's zero-tolerance policy on harassment landed last year — long before recent sexual harassment scandals rocked Hollywood — this year it required participants to sign the policy, a clear response to the #MeToo movement.
Moves like this have some in the industry peacocking, especially as crosstown rival Hollywood has been hammered over its lack of gender equality. "If you look at the recent AVN nominations for director of the year, nearly half of the names were women," says Gamma Films chief Bree Mills. "You can't say that about the Oscars."
"There's certainly more going on here that's forward progress than in Hollywood," adds AVN spokesman Brian S. Gross.
Boosters say that even though the industry may seem retrograde to outsiders, it's actually quite forward-thinking, the result of its libertarian streak, and as evidenced by its history of prominent women as directors and producers (such as Jenna Jameson and Tera Patrick). But adult video is also dealing with its own heartache in the wake of its assault allegations and the mysterious deaths of five porn actresses in the last four months — both of which have inspired some insiders to try to fight for change.
Even before the allegations against Harvey Weinstein in October and Hollywood's Time's Up initiative to combat sexual misconduct, adult video had seen scandals, including star Nikki Benz's claims of on-set sexual assault last year against producer-director Tony T. Benz said via Twitter that the director stomped her head and choked her after she yelled "cut." In 2015, multiple women alleged porn actor James Deen assaulted them.
Both men have disputed the allegations — Tony T. even sued, and the case is being appealed. He said Los Angeles police declined to pursue the case, but the LAPD hasn't confirmed one way or another. Meanwhile, Deen continued to release titles through his production company last year.
Jeremy, accused of assault by multiple women, was cast out of AVN, but he was spotted on the XBIZ awards red carpet in Los Angeles last month.
Since November, porn has faced another scandal: a wave of tragedy that claimed the lives of performers August Ames, Olivia Lua, Olivia Nova, Turi Luv and Shyla Stylez.
Ames hanged herself after she was cyberbullied for implying she didn't want to work with a male performer who appeared in gay porn. Luv, aka Yuri Beltran, died of a suspected overdose not long after she tweeted that she needed a hug. Causes of death of the others — Stylez died in her sleep — were not immediately known, as the coroners' conclusions have been delayed.
Industry watchers have said the deaths nearly all point to the issue of mental health in porn, or lack thereof. Each year, a performer or two dies — Amber Rayne died in 2016 at the age of 31 of a possible overdose, according to L.A. County coroner's officials — but the cluster of five set off alarms and generated global headlines.
At the awards show last month, Ames' husband, Kevin Moore — an adult filmmaker who is now working on an industry mental health initiative — told the crowd, "There can never be another AVN Awards show that has a memorial full of young women ever again."
Critics have long argued that adult video is a magnet for creepy fans, coerced young women and STDs, claims the industry denies. The conservative Washington, D.C.-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation argues that porn viewing has fueled harassment and sexual violence in other walks of life. Some evidence supports the claim, but there is also research that correlates the freedom to view adult content with fewer incidents of rape — the idea is that porn can facilitate as a safe sexual release.
A common thread running through the deaths in adult video and our current reckoning with sexual harassment is constant fan harassment of female stars online, observers say. Nate "Igor" Smith, a journalist who has photographed AVN for 10 years and who has dated performers, says, "Most of the negative influence comes from outside the industry - fans, family members, strangers calling you a whore."
"Any female performer's DMs (direct messages) on Twitter is brutal," he says. "People say horrible things to these women."
Mills, the filmmaker, adds that after the recent deaths, "there is a growing movement among performers to speak up and be vocal about their feelings, their experiences and their boundaries. Performers give everything of themselves, physically and mentally, when they put themselves out there so intimately for the public."
"We lost five women," says adult star Tasha Reign. "If you are going to join the adult industry, it's a hard transition. Society, your family and your friends will treat you differently. That's the hardest thing about becoming an adult performer."
Many of the women getting into porn for the first time are 18 or 19, she notes. "Nobody is prepared for cyberbullies and family and friends disowning you."
Even in this #Me Too" environment, performers are publicly attacked for claiming that they were violated sexually on set, observers say. "If a female performer says something about an on-set experience there will be 100 responses, and many are saying, 'This is what you do for a living,'" said attorney Karen Tynan, who has represented performers and directors in sexual harassment claims.
The intimacy involved in porn's workplace means that the line that can't be crossed might seem blurry.
"Shoots can be fast-paced and stressful. You're naked and suddenly there's a director or a photographer attempting to position you and really private parts of your body. Most people on sets aren't ill-intentioned, but that can be still be invasive or unwanted," says Mike Stabile, communications director of the Free Speech Coalition, the industry's trade association. "And there's certainly an opportunity for someone to take liberties, or to grope. We need to make sure that performers have consent over what's done to them, especially in what might seem like gray areas."
Adult video's depictions also blur the boundary between acting and victimization, Tynan says. "There are a lot of these scenarios with secretaries, bosses and babysitters. Adult content has always played with uncomfortable situations and power dynamics."
The Free Speech Coalition has tried to professionalize porn and pull it from the Dark Ages of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, when on-set drug use was rampant and STD testing was hit-or-miss. Challenges continue to mount, however, including the industry's decentralization. While the Free Speech Coalition sets guidelines for the studios that include twice-monthly STD tests for performers, iPhones now allow anyone to produce adult video. Such technology has fueled an exodus away from sets in L.A. and into the cul-de-sacs of Las Vegas, Miami and D.C., leading to an explosion of bedroom-produced "cam girl" videos.
Leaders also blame the laws. State workplace authorities have long insisted on condom use, despite weak enforcement. In 2012, Los Angeles County voters passed Measure B, which required not only condoms but costly permits, resulting in a cliff dive for legitimate production. "Critics said Measure B was going to drive production out-of-state and underground, and that has happened," Tynan says.
The spread of porn production means more opportunity for harassment, but it also means that women can take more control of their careers, eschewing agents, directors and producers, observers say. It's a mixed bag. "There are powerful women on the business side of it, and that's going to continue to happen," Tynan says.
The industry's Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, meanwhile, has responded to recent scandals with a move toward welcoming new performers with orientation, guidelines about what's acceptable and a mentoring program.
"I'm working to try to better the safety and mental health of our industry and make sure there's a way to communicate with performers regarding what's appropriate," says Reign, the chairwoman of APAC. And moving forward, "I want to advocate a protocol where training is necessary for anyone, including producers and directors. I like to tell people before they join the business what to expect. With the Time's Up movement, I felt more empowered to say what I feel."
Industry insiders also point out that drama just isn't good for business. "No one wants the distraction of a negative story," Tynan says.
"The conversation happening now is good for production companies and for performers," she adds. "It's 2018, and this isn't 'Boogie Nights' or a paradigm of porn with a subjugated female who's not making valid and empowered choices."
