Proposition 60, a California ballot proposition which would have required that condoms be used and visible in all pornographic films, failed to pass last week.
This was a loss for human rights, and a loss for public health.
Pornography is causing a public health crisis in America, and the negative effects are felt by not only pornography users and those around them, but the pornography performers as well.
The pornography industry is built on the intersection of mental, physical, and sexual trauma.
Even if Prop 60 had passed, it would not have been able to eradicate the exploitive and harmful nature of the “industry” itself. No condom can protect performers from the myriad of harms intrinsic to pornography.
A 2011 study found, “Female adult film performers have significantly worse mental health and higher rates of depression than other California women of similar ages.”
Another study reported that pornography performers experience physical trauma on the film set, often leave the industry with financial insecurity and mental health problems, and also experience health risks that aren’t limited to sexually transmitted diseases.
The pornography industry cares about profits, not its performers’ health.
The pornography industry came out in spades against Prop 60, arguing that the burden of visibly using condoms would be too great.
Of course, they were more concerned with the profit-margins or corporate legal liability of the new law, rather than the potential benefit to performers’ health.
Research has found that pornography performers have a ‘high burden’ of sexually transmitted disease. This burden includes and extends well beyond the risk of HIV infection.
The researchers reported:
Undiagnosed asymptomatic rectal and oropharyngeal STIs were common [among pornography performers] and are likely reservoirs for transmission to sexual partners inside and outside the workplace. Performers should be tested at all anatomical sites irrespective of symptoms, and condom use should be enforced to protect workers in this industry.
What other industry would insist that its employees ingest or be covered in semen on a regular basis, and risk constant harms to their physical health?
Why is it unreasonable that these individuals receive at least some feeble modicum of protection? Firemen, law enforcement officials, and healthcare professionals all wear special protective gear, but pornography performers are for some reason exempt.
The saga of Proposition 60 has reconfirmed the dark and dangerous nature of the pornography industry. Profiting from sexual exploitation is the industry’s only concern.
You can learn more about the public health crisis of pornography here: endsexualexploitation.org/publichealth
