Real Sex and Porn Sex

This is where the illusion of porn is ruined for you: The “amateurs,” “strangers on the street” and “first-timers” you see in porn productions are screened, contracted and tested before the camera starts recording. If you think a Kink.com public gangbang shoot is anything but meticulously planned, then Kink has done its job to make the fantasy seem real. Porn sex is like watching Cirque du Soleil performers; to try anything they do at home without training and preparation would result in injury, at the very least. They aren’t actually having unsafe sex, nor are they able to suddenly take rough anal insertion with a large penis.

Porn performers, even the ones who perform as “amateur” or “first-time” performers, have been tested, signed paperwork, and have done physical preparation for any and every scene they do. They limber up their minds, their bodies, and they arrive with clean STD/STI tests. They prepare sometimes days ahead for any vigorous sex acts they’re under contract to perform; butts are prepared with pre-penetration (and prior experience) and lube, stomachs are empty for deep throat scenes that show gagging, and everyone has gotten ready with enemas and douching.

In portraying fantasy, porn often gives us a world that could only ever be exactly that: pure fantasy. A good porn scene delivers the fantasies well, and we get off with success — wet, sticky, throbbing rapture. However, in the realm of portraying healthy and safe sex, porn often fails. The main reason is because pornographers want to give viewers the fantasy sex they want… and so this version of sex doesn’t acknowledge the many dangers of sex with multiple partners or actual strangers. Porn viewers get their fantasies at the price of not seeing how to stay safe while sexually active.

Many see the practices in porn — even with the occasional condom use — as a crazy and possibly harmful game of Russian roulette. What’s worse, some viewers may imitate the practices onscreen without doing any research — unwittingly learning how to hurt themselves, or others. That’s because many viewers are unaware of the risks — and precautions — that performers are taking by working in an industry that often expects what appears to be unsafe behavior of its stars.

And that’s the key phrase here: What the performers do only appears to be unsafe, just as they only appear to be strangers, or pretend that no one had to do paperwork for the release of a “leaked” celebrity “sex tape.”

In 1998 there was an HIV outbreak in the adult entertainment industry. Former porn actress Sharon Mitchell discovered that many of those who tested positive had worked with her when she was in movies. Mitchell responded by founding AIM, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a non-profit agency offering HIV and STD testing, gynecological services and treatment, counseling of many types, informational services for sex workers and the general public. The industry responded with much support.

By industry standards, an adult entertainment worker should be tested every 28 days, though most performers get tested every 10-14 days (compared to the CDC’s recommendation to test every six months). As a result, the majority of porn performers are less likely to have an STD/STI than members of the general public, and many performers maintain that sex within their communities is safer than with the general public.

As a rule, producers and directors will not hire an actor if they do not have a written record of an HIV test less than 28 days old, and testing for other STDs is on a case-by-case basis depending on performers and directors. Gangbang shoots require participants to arrive with certification that they have tested negative for HIV and other STDs. The industry is notoriously strict: No clean, new test in your hand, no work for you. However, since the industry is self-regulating in all aspects of testing and condom use, safer-sex risk assessment ultimately falls into the hands of the performers.

There are many kinds of HIV tests. The outlets used by performers for tests use the PCRDNA test, because it is the best test for quick-result early detection of HIV and functions as an effective screening test for adult entertainment workers and the sexually active. The PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test looks for the virus itself. The PCR test can detect HIV after about two weeks (give or take a day or two). So far, AIM has reported only two false positives and no false negatives. They confirm each positive result by standard HIV tests like ELISA.

Besides worrying about the spread of viruses and STDs from unprotected sex, there are a number of activities you’ll see in porn sex that are risky or unsafe to reproduce outside the adult film industry. There is a trendy fetish for ass-to-mouth contact, using everything from penises and fingers to sex toys. Ass-to-mouth contact puts the recipient at great risk for contracting Hepatitis A, which can be treated but not cured. The penetrator is at no risk in this situation.

Hepatitis A comes from getting fecal matter in the mouth, and many performers reduce their chances by taking multiple enemas before anal sex scenes, though this is not a foolproof measure. Anal-to-vaginal penetration is another sex act fetish, which by bringing E coli bacteria from the anus to the vagina can cause a severe bacterial infection. Again, enemas are used beforehand, but this is not a reliable safeguard.

Sometimes there is anal penetration with objects or sex toys that do not have a flared end, which is unsafe because the flared end prevents them from being pulled into the anal canal by the involuntary sphincter muscle. Performers are at risk every time they shove something like this up their asses, all covered in slippery lube and difficult to hang onto, because an item lodged in the lower colon is a major health emergency.

Similarly, starlets seem to be able to just take a toy, penis or huge object in their asses without any warm-up. They never show you that the performers spend lots of time off-camera relaxing their anuses with lubed fingers and toys, and some will even prepare the night before a shoot. To insert anything without preparation and sufficient lube can seriously damage the dry, thin tissues of the anus, and can even result in fatal injury. Don’t try it at home.

Speaking of lube, it’s usually nonexistent in porn. As if by magic, the penis or sex toy slides right in the vagina or anus, or a little licking will precede a fast penetration. Lubrication is used in shooting porn videos, but it is very rarely shown to the viewer — it’s slathered on, and often inserted, beforehand. Dry sex, especially anal sex, increases the chances of disease and virus transmission and doesn’t feel as good as sex with slick sex parts. If lubrication is shown in porn, it’s usually saliva — but saliva is not a substitute for lube; saliva dries out in seconds, doesn’t provide the slip necessary for extended in-out thrusting, and is in no way sufficient for safe anal penetration.

Condom use in porn is hotly debated by everyone involved. Some companies and directors have a condom-only policy; most leave it up to the individual performers; some are against condom use because it “interferes” with their portrayal of sexual fantasy. But condom use doesn’t prevent every infection, disease or virus. And in the manner that condoms are generally used there is much room for error.

In fact, when condoms are only used for penetration and the man ejaculates on a woman’s external genitalia, the participants have greatly undermined the use of the condom. Ejaculation in the eyes and nose are other unsafe practices engaged in by porn performers. Ejaculation in the eyes and nose can transmit herpes, chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea, and the latter three viruses cause conjunctivitis when contracted via the eye.

Porn is great for getting off and learning about our own sexual fantasies, but it is certainly not a source for accurate sex information. Even so, we must remember that we take our own risks every day, with every sexual encounter we participate in. Choosing to watch porn with no condom use or unsafe practices — and being turned on by it — does not make you an accessory to unsafe behavior. You are watching fantasy enactment to get off, period.

Enjoying unprotected sex on-screen is nothing to feel guilty about, and remember that you will never really know the circumstances surrounding what you’re watching, or the relationships of the performers. Enjoy your porn, and your fantasies to their fullest, but be smart when you want to make your own fantasies come true.