http://apha.confex.com/apha/135am/techprogram/paper_159378.htm
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Female performers in the adult film industry: What and where is the risk?

Corita Grudzen, MD, RWJ Clinical Scholars Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 911 Broxton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024, 917 204 5855, cgrudzen@mednet.ucla.edu, Gery Ryan, PhD, RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, Bill Margold, Protecting Adult Welfare, 4523 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, Jacqueline Torres, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 911 Broxton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024, and Lillian Gelberg, MD, MSPH, Family Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10880 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Background: The adult film industry (AFI) is larger than Hollywood and produces 4,000-11,000 films and $9-13 billion annually. They employ 1,200-1,500 performers, 75% of whom are female. Performers engage in high-risk sexual acts for prolonged periods. Condoms are rarely used.

Objective: To understand the current structure of the AFI and identify risks to female performers while entering, performing and exiting the industry to develop a future intervention in this population.

Methods: Semi-structured in-depth individual interviews were performed with performers and key informants identified through Protecting Adult Welfare, a nonprofit, and through snowballing technique. A codebook was developed and Atlas-TI was used to manage the data including building and applying codebooks.

Results: 22 interviews were completed with 14 female and seven male performers, one director and one agent. Female performers' reported reasons for entering included financial need, suggestion from a significant other, or as a transition from other sex-related work. However, upon coding the data personal characteristics associated with entry included a history of sexual abuse, low self-esteem or body image, exhibitionism, and alternative sexualities. Performers engage in risky behavior that include body manipulation, such as weight loss, enemas, and breast augmentation, high-risk sexual acts that are usually unprotected, and alcohol and drug abuse. They are exposed to verbal and physical abuse. During and upon leaving the industry, they suffer from many mental health issues.

Conclusions: Physical and mental health are predisposing factors and consequences for female performers working in the AFI that require attention by health planners and policymakers.




Learning Objectives:

Describe the current structure of the Adult Film Industry (AFI).
Identify risks to female performers during entry into, while performing within and during exit from the AFI.
Develop an intervention to improve physical or mental health of performers.
Keywords: Sex Workers, Risk Factors

Related Web page: www.pawfoundation.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

No thanks, Burg. I wasn't part of any study.

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Now Now.....people.....its called PORN MATH.

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I thought porn math was rent+car payment+juicy sweatsuit = (2 anal scenes+1 g/g scene) - (10% agent fee+boyfriend's root canal)

Again... this is the shit that consistently pisses me off:

Whenever some crusader for social justice talks about the deleterious effects of working in the adult industry, the focus is invariably on female performers. Every so-called objective, scientific study of porn always begins with the sexist presumption that no clear-thinking woman would choose to work in porn... and must therefore be the victim of some physical or emotional abuse. And likewise no one ever questions the motives of male performers who choose to work in porn, or whether or not they suffered any similar abuse. So without exception, female performers end up being cast in the role of exploited victims, and male performers, producers, and consumers as the victimizers. Seriously... doesn't anyone have the fucking brains to see the whole industry in the context of the market it serves?! An adult woman has the same goddamn intellectual capacity as an adult man [ heresy, I know ]. No one puts a gun to anyone's head and forces them to do porn [ not since Chuck Traynor anyway ]. These girls are beating down doors to get in the industry. Do the financial incentives of adult work "exploit" the financial need of undereducated women with few other options? Yes. But so does your fucking local Walmart! But these girls are smart enough to know that, at least doing an interracial gangbang pays more, and allows you to retain a little more dignity. Women working in porn are no more victimized or damaged than the men, and it's about time we ditched this patriarchal bullshit attitude that treats women like children incapable of being in control of their own lives. The adult industry is like every other industry operating in a free market. And if responding to the forces of supply and demand is considered exploitative, then we're all being exploited. Who gives a shit as long as everyone gets what they want. If ya don't like... move to Russia ya commie fuck!

Hyde wrote:

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Who gives a shit as long as everyone gets what they want.

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Ai. You (finally) write a somewhat coherent post, which, in a certain way, even makes sense. And then you end it with a/m line. I guess I don´t have to spell it out, do I?

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If ya don't like... move to Russia ya commie fuck!

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Sincerely ! Wake up Hyde and keep it real!

I would love to have worked on this study. I have some fucked up questions for the ladies of this business we call porn.

Examples, please!