What Does the Future of Ethical Porn Look Like?
Like everything else on the internet, porn is rapidly evolving. As with other forms of media, the types of explicit content that are produced both drive fan preferences and are driven by what fans want.
As audience tastes evolve, so does the type of content that gets put out there, and vice versa.
Ethical porn—pornography produced in an ethical manner that compensates performers equitably—is no exception and offers interesting insights into how society has changed and in what direction it's headed.
For this exclusive story, we talked with Angie Rowntree, the founder of ethical porn company Ssh.com, and porn producer and performer Luna Lapine about the latest trends in ethical porn, where porn is headed and how the line between what is deemed "ethical porn" and "mainstream porn" is being blurred.
People are loving realistic orgasms
There's been a longstanding tradition of female performers exaggerating their orgasms—or faking them altogether—in mainstream pornography. Foreplay is often either fast-forwarded or not depicted at all.
This has created unrealistic standards for how women are "supposed to behave" in bed. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with female performers who are willing to put on a show for the camera, many male audience members may not understand how to pleasure women and many women may not know their bodies work.
'I've been running into more and more guys that are into seeing a woman be in control of her orgasm'
Considering these numbers. About 81 percent of women are unable to orgasm from penetration alone, 59 percent of women have faked an orgasm and 10 percent to 15 percent report never having had an orgasm. So it's no wonder many people are asking for realistic depictions of foreplay and female orgasm in their choice of adult entertainment.
Women aren't the only ones asking for more focus on female pleasure, according to Lapine, who founded the independent porn studio Moon Rabbit Studios and performs in films. Many of her male fans are also asking for more depictions of foreplay and realistic female orgasms, either solo or partnered.
"It's one of the things that does my heart proud," Lapine said. "I've been running into more and more guys that are into seeing a woman be in control of her orgasm and she's doing it in a way that feels good for her."
Body diversity is increasing—slowly, but steadily
The stereotypical porn star body used to be a Jenna Jameson-type: white, blonde, slim and buxom. A broader trend in body acceptance, along with independent distribution online platforms such as OnlyFans, has somewhat democratized the types of bodies depicted in porn, although change remains slow. This includes diversity in race and body shape but also in the depiction of people with disabilities.
Rowntree said ethical porn, in general, is a space that welcomes body diversity overall, which certainly includes disabled people.
Lapine said most of the innovation in body diversity—especially when it comes to disabled adult content creators and performers—is still self-produced. Moreover, while she doesn't want to kink-shame anybody, it's important for producers and platforms to be cognizant of the potential harm of labels that fetishize race, weight or disability.
"It's sort of a balancing act of someone searching for this term because they literally want to see somebody who looks like them versus someone who has an exploitative reason," Lapine said. "I guess what it boils down to, for me, is if a performer is comfortable with having their stuff tagged a certain way. If they're like, 'Hey, I'm really proud that I'm a disabled creator, so I really would like to include tags like disabled creator,' then that's fine."
More inclusive, educational BDSM
Bondage play and BDSM—an acronym that stands for bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism—have been steadily on the rise since the 2015 movie "50 Shades of Grey."
Now there's a growing positive twist, partially thanks to ethically produced porn. More and more people are seeking out education regarding kink and bondage play, and there is more content depicting safe practices and a wider variety of bondage fantasies.
"People aren't afraid to ask questions," Lapine said. "Maybe because that information is now so prevalent, kink content seems to be a lot more 'real' and safely produced."
She noted that ethical porn is trending toward more realism in BDSM scenes, as it is with more realistic depictions of female orgasms.
"Aftercare is starting to be depicted more and more in scenes," Lapine added. "'Mommy' doms—softer and more nurturing versus humiliation—also seem pretty popular. While heavily staged dungeon content is always going to be out there and can definitely be a great time, a lot of the ethical BDSM scenes are more like a glimpse into a kinky couple's or throuple's bedroom than a night of extreme over-the-top fantasy out at the club. Women are taking on more powerful roles in content that isn't just geared toward the male gaze but instead inclusive of female and nonbinary bottoms, too."
Consent is enthusiastically depicted—both before or during
It's important to remember that any porn produced in an ethical manner features performers going into the scene fully aware and consenting of the acts they perform, with the ability to stop at any time.
This includes the seemingly contradictory "consensual, non-consensual" type content, in which a performer is fully consenting but acts like they're not, such as in certain types of BDSM and taboo fantasies. It's an extremely common fetish, with 62 percent of women reporting they've had some sort of non-consent fantasy at some point.
Lapine hopes that the rising popularity of BDSM education will do two things:
- Make more people aware that "non-consensual" content—as long as it's ethically produced—is merely a fantasy.
- Make viewers understand how to practice and communicate their kinks safely.
"You want to make sure you're handling it in the correct way," she explained. "That's one of the biggest parts of ethical porn—it's about responsibility."
For fans into depictions of consent, Sssh.com promotes more clear enthusiastic consent organically worked into scenes, along with affirmations like "this feels good" and "I want more" with the consensual desire expressed throughout.
Ethical porn may soon become mainstream
Porn, in general, has become part of a more open conversation in recent times. That, fortunately, promotes dialogue regarding what content turns us on, how that content is made and how to enjoy that content.
Rowntree explained that ethical porn isn't a genre of porn like bondage or solo masturbation.
"Ethical porn is not 'requests for genres,' nor is it a singular style of content, or genre of porn," she said. "In other words, ethical porn is a way of doing business and working to ensure through certain best practices that everyone involved is respected and treated fairly throughout the production process. The more people talk about it, the more the conversation is perpetuated—and 'ethical porn awareness' continues to spread."
As society becomes more educated and aware of the way porn is produced, the hope among those in the ethical porn space is that more ethical practices will be implemented in more studios.
