Tagged Porn For Extra Google...

Donny Pauling: ex-porn church guy.

Like all people, male or female, I guess I have an ambivalent attitude to porn. My civilized brain tells me it's wrong and nasty... My civilized brain tells me it's just prurient entertainment for bored guys who should really be doing something more productive with evolution's gift of the opposable thumb. But my non-civilized brain? Psst... wanna see two strangers f*cking? Yes. Wanna see five strangers f*cking? Hell, yes!

But there's an interview with ex-Porn producer Donny Pauling that made me uneasy. Pauling is a porn party pooper (not in a literal, niche way) who makes you wonder if checking out porn is really more like checking out wrecks on the highway and getting a boner:

Porn's not the glamorous fantasy most people get in their heads. The final cut never shows in the credits declarations such as, "This girl was curled up in a ball between takes, sucking her thumb in the corner because her mind is so blown by the scene you just witnessed" or "this model had to undergo surgery to repair the damage done to her body by the scene you just witnessed" or "this model had to do take after take to get the scene right... it took awhile before we could get her to convincingly look as if she was enjoying this, and she knew she wouldn't be paid if we couldn't get usable content".

Pauling goes on to describe how herpes flare-ups, genital warts and other signs of STDs are routinely edited out of movies. He says he was also careful to edit out women 'performers' who'd cry during scenes:

While a small percentage of the population might find that appealing, I didn't want to put out that sort of work.

I know this feels uncomfortably close to antediluvian notions of women as perpetual victims. I know it clashes with the current stereotype of the well-paid, empowered porn 'actress' lording it over dudes. But what the hell? I'm beginning to wonder if this might just be a carefully constructed myth to make exploitation and whore-mongering seem more palatable. That way, those who profit from it (to the tune of $13 billion a year in the US) don't look quite so disgusting themselves. Say it ain't so!