Safer Sexy
by Jiz Lee ~ June 16, 2009
Courtney Trouble and I made a pact last night (while sniffing Jael’s armpits in hopes of kick-starting our periods) that we’d write blog posts about safer sex and synchronize them to publish at 7pm. This is my post; read her’s over at courtneytrouble.com.
With the recent news and thoughts about a porn performer testing positive for HIV, many inside and outside the industry are questioning the absence of safer* sex practice.
*Why “safer” and not just “safe”? Because no sexual contact is 100% safe. Frequent testing and barrier practice create a safer sexual environment, but it would be incorrect to assume complete risk-free sex.
I follow April Flores on twitter and was impressed by a resolution she declared about setting a sexy example of safer sex: she is considering only performing in porn with condoms from now on. Baby Sinead shares the sentiment; if porn producers show safer sex it would help to portray condom use in an erotic way. Porn is many people’s first introduction to sex and for that reason it serves as an educational model. Therefore, it makes sense that showing safer sex would be extremely influential in shaping good sexual practices.
I’ve had the opportunity to work for small indie companies and larger-run businesses. Companies treat the issue of safer sex differently and to the best of their abilities. For example, models at Kink.com are required to be AIM tested at least 30 days prior to their shoot. The test is: Aim Panel (includes HIV-1 DNA by PCR & Chlamydia and Gonorrhea by PCR) and costs the company $120 each. They schedule testing with every model who participates in shoots for the company. Because a lot can happen in 30 days, Belladonna and other safety-conscious folks in the industry require 2 days.
While larger businesses can afford to cover AIM testing costs, smaller ones choose to give models their authority over their sexual decisions. (Of course, encouraging and emphasizing safety.) And when this happens, I think we see more frequent barrier usage on camera.
Some couples who shoot for indie porn companies like Pink & White Productions and NoFauxxx.com are monogamous fluid-bonded partners. Other models decide to get tested at a local facility like Lyon-Martin or St. James Infirmary prior to the shoot. Some models negotiate what is safe for them at the same time they talk about their desires and boundaries, and many have a strict personal policy for only shooting scenes with latex barriers.
Like the performers and the sex acts portrayed in queer porn, the safer sex choices are varied and in many ways paint a more accurate reflection of the performers’ individual sexual behaviors. I saw this concept recently articulated in a Senior Thesis project by Sarah Wheeler entitled: Superfreaky: Queerness, Feminism, and Aesthetics in Queer Pornography. An excerpt:
…[T]he queer erotic aesthetic also emphatically promotes safe sex. Given how the queer movement developed during the sweeping tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, this decision is not surprising. Because some types of sex toys cannot be sterilized (namely, those made out of porous jelly rubber and PVC materials), and others may still be shared with multiple partners, condoms are almost always used on dildos. Latex gloves are sometimes worn for digital penetration, but are far less common than condom use, and dental dams are essentially non-existent. Even though the latter two items have no major presence within queer porn (at least not currently), even their intermittent use is still quite exceptional for the porn industry, where unprotected sex is highly eroticized. Such safe sex practices work as visible references to the history and health consciousness of the queer movement.
AIDS history shaped Queer Theory, giving definition to the word we commonly use today to describe an inclusive LGBT community. It therefore makes a lot of since that queer porn — I’m especially thinking about Gay Porn, where condoms are mandatory and “bare-backing” frowned upon — would uphold values to both practicing and portraying safer sex. Of course this paragraph would not be complete without a nod to Trannywood Pictures, for whom portrayal of barriers and other safer sex practices is the centerpiece of their company mission.
In the films and websites where I’ve appeared, the level of safer sex performed in the scene varies based on who I’m working with. I some of the times I use gloves (black gloves are HOT!) and put condoms on toys, and some of times I have not. It depends on the situation and my co-star(s). A conversation happens prior to the shoot though it’s something that doesn’t often get documented, but perhaps it might be worthwhile to check-in about on camera.
Where do we get our queer safer sex information from? I had a minimal sex ed class in 5th grade that by no surprise was only about heterosexual penis/vagina penetration. I remember the instructor rolling a condom onto his finger as a demonstration. Four years later, my birds and the bees talk with my father wasn’t much different. Another four years after that, I’m exploring my sexuality at college and by random coincidence attend a workshop taught by the Safer Sex Sluts. The information and tips shared at that workshop taught me most of what I know today.
Between the Safer Sex Sluts, conversations with lovers, and Google, I have come to realize that safer sex education and visibility is a topic worth talking about.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
thanks for initiaiting these conversations jiz (and courtney too).
it’s really difficult to make broad blanket statements about any of this. not that you have, and i really think you do a good job of relating the particular nuance that you engage in both personally and the sorts of discussions that happen with other models you work alongside.
i think that it’s the consideration of safer sex is what’s integral. and that consideration is going to be different depending on the situation and depending on the individual. i kinda think that it’s really about making sure models feel empowered to have their own boundaries be defined and respected is what’s integral. in that case, maybe it’s the expectation – either for against protection in any porn queer or straight – that’s really the problem. it kinda shuts down the agency and freedom of the individual in that case. and that is not hot, imho.
of course that set-up has alot of assumptions in place. knowledge, time, communication all have to be there and sometimes they’re not. perhaps this perspective also comes from my own philosophy rooted in a queer culture that, for both women and men, is typically a lot more sex-positive with an emphasis on these issues of communication and such that are perhaps less available as a resource and a language for straight folks (and it kinda may get carried over into the philosophies of mainstream porn).
one caution that i have, is that in advocating for safer sex there needs to be a consideration of the implication this has on cultural perception about porn and sex work more broadly. i fear anything that may reenforce the misplaced stigma and assumption around porn (and other forms of sex work) that perceives those who are working are more likely to have HIV (and other STIs). factually, this is untrue and its a myth that I have to confront almost every day in my work as a sexual health counsellor. that’s not to say that there’s no risk (cause we can (as has recently been the case) point to the exceptional instance where someone is working and is positive and/or sero-converts) but to turn bodies intrinsically and instinctually into sites of disease (which could be a logical extension of blanket 100% safe sex philosophies) could have some unanticipated impacts. all that said, courtney’s article does raise some really great questions about the discrepancy and false assumptions about risk that frames the current practices in place.
and, as a sexual health counsellor, one technical thing that i never hear talked about is window period issues, particularly with HIV testing. we know now that folks are most likely to spread HIV right after they sero-convert (so before it can be tested). basically that means that a negative HIV test is kinda pointless if someone has significant risk in the 10-12 weeks before the test. personally, i would not take the risk (and it is a risk) if this were the case. again, bringing it back to agency and knowledge, i wonder if other women and men have have this option and information to the full extent that they should.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
You raise a lot of interesting points. I personally use latex in almost every sexual encounter I have. I say almost because, until recently, I was in a long term, monogamous relationship. Now that I’m out of that, I am very surprised how many queers don’t use dams or gloves. I’ve been told that its a mood killer, and that comment was the killer.
Thanks for talking about this, hopefully you’re having great conversations on your end.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
[...] - Jiz Lee and Courtney Trouble simultaneously take on safe sex in the porn industry. Gotta love a collaboration of awesome queer minds! [...]