Why I’m Making Ethical Porn For Black Women

Let’s face it: porn is not going away any time soon — and it has grown more popular with women than ever before. A 2022 survey by adult streaming platform Pornhub reported that its female viewers grew by 36% compared to 2021, and also showed that women viewed “reality porn” (a type of pornography that mimics real life scenarios) 37% more than men. Beyond the stats, the research reveals a demand for pornography that caters primarily to its captive women and femme audience, including ethically made porn that teaches sex-positive messages, and centres women’s bodies, their pleasure and their realities. It’s been dubbed “feminist porn” and considered an ethical alternative to mainstream sites. But where is the ethical porn that portrays Black female sexuality in ways that are expansive, progressive, and interesting? Unbothered spoke to Black creators and performers helping to transform pornography into a space where Black women can have their images and fantasies reflected.

To start with, the debate regarding whether or not porn can be ethical is still ongoing. On one hand, there is the belief that the porn industry inherently profits from the sexual objectification of women so can't be ethical by design. The largely unregulated industry is also a breeding ground for issues such as exploitation, sex trafficking, child abuse, little to zero pay, and unsafe working conditions which has exasperated the need for the distinction between ethical and mainstream porn. On the other hand, there are valid arguments that porn can be produced and consumed ethically, yet nuanced conversation about what ethical porn actually is or looks like is lacking, making the genre easy to dismiss. 

The basic requirement of ethically-made porn is to recognise the humanity and agency of the performers by prioritising their physical, emotional, and financial well-being. It permits actors to revoke consent at any time and provides them with great labour conditions. As a moral alternative to mainstream porn where much of the content is geared towards the straight male gaze, ethical porn employs female-friendly storylines with any domination or submission roles being consensual. It meets the legal standards of pornography in the US which requires that all actors are of legal age (18 years or older) and also obeys UK regulations which ban content that portrays abuse or someone being forced or manipulated to witness or participate in any sexual acts.

“Many people conflate women’s lack of bodily autonomy, sex trafficking, sexual abuse, etc, with porn, but the reality is that pornography is a legal form of entertainment involving someone who is over the age of 18 and gives consent to be on camera," explains Jet Setting Jasmine, an adult film director, licensed psychotherapist, educator, and co-owner of Royal Fetish Films. "Anything outside of that is illegal and therefore does not operate with ethics. For Royal Fetish Films, ethical porn means content that is filmed in a safe environment where people are performing acts that they want to perform as opposed to acts that are demanded of them. It means that people are compensated well and properly represented during the filming and in the distribution of the content,” she tells Unbothered.

Even if a porn video is marketed as ‘ethical’ it’s not always guaranteed that the content was created in a fair and respectful manner. To help ensure that the porn you consume is ethical, Jasmine explains, “If you’re purchasing porn directly from the people who are in it, you’re more likely to be seeing porn that those people feel proud of, that they consented to and will be compensated for. If they’re not selling it themselves and are not even promoting it, it’s possible that they hated the shoot.” Porn is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet its performers and the production crew aren’t always adequately and fairly paid. While free porn is easy to access in the age of PornHub and similar streaming sites, paying for the porn you watch, directly from the performers themselves, means supporting the rights of sex workers and fair working conditions for them. 

Importantly, ethical porn does not contain dehumanising fantasy content — sexism, racism, etc — that contributes to the oppression of Black women, femmes and other marginalised groups who for decades have been typecast in mainstream porn as sexually deviant, objects of control or victims of sexual cruelty. A lot of these damaging stereotypes spill into prevalent porn narratives and greatly affect how Black women interact with pornography. A study that examined 1,741 pornographic scenes featuring heterosexual couples found that the depictions show 'Black women are still more often the target of aggression when compared to white women'. Sienna Suxxx, a Black cam star, disclosed to Cosmopolitan that she has received several racist and abusive demands from male consumers, and cited cases where one man wanted her to “position herself” so it would look like he was “defecating on her” and another wanted her to “drink pee” while he called her a “[N-word] bitch.” Mainstream pornography can influence how people think of Black women, how they navigate their encounters with Black women and what they take with them into the bedroom with Black women. 

Thankfully, there is a growing amount of porn created collaboratively and ethically by Black performers and directors made available in order to improve industry standards as well as appeal to Black women. Blk Touch, a Chicago-based pornography company started by a photographer, Brian Dwayne, promotes itself as one of the leading producers of ethical porn. Black romance is barely represented and goes unpromoted in mainstream porn, Blk Touch produces scenes that portray Black couples in intimate and passionate ways. “When I started looking at porn critically, I questioned a lot of things. One of the problems of mainstream porn is that its leading purpose is to serve white men and white men don’t care about Black pleasure, even less about Black women’s pleasure. Blk Touch is my answer to the questions I had. I created Blk Touch because I wanted to centre Black people — our stories, our humanity, our perspectives,” confirms Dwayne.

The site contains various categories including 'BDSM' with sensual settings that illustrate Black women’s pleasure in seduction, foreplay and intercourse. It puts women in control of their own images with beautifully-framed close-up shots and artful lighting. Blk Touch confirms that there are negotiations between the director and performers to ensure that the performers get equitable labour practices and high production value. By working with Black performers with diverse body sizes, sexualities, ages and abilities, Blk Touch caters to a broad audience of Black women who are interested in seeing porn that they can easily relate with — porn that closely reflects their sex lives or represents what they desire their sex lives to be.

Many Black women involved in sex work, weary of the tropes found in mainstream porn, are veering down the path of ethical porn and many Black female performers are being very picky about which companies they work with, while others decide to remain independent in order to fully represent themselves in ways they’re comfortable with. They create and distribute their own content and have been able to foster fluid interactions with their fans. Raquel Savage — a Black queer therapist, educator and producer — founded CVNT Productions, Kink Media Group and Zepp Wellness after recognising that the demographic that mostly consumed her content was cis, straight men. Savage currently works to shift the narrative by creating porn for and with femme and non-binary people, portraying queer bodies, trans bodies, disabled bodies and fat bodies. Speaking to Unbothered, she explains, “It’s important to me that the most marginalised are centred. It's been about creating porn for us, by us. My first power/porn shoot for Cvnt was in March 2020. I included just Black femmes and we all decided what we wanted to shoot. It sold really well. Apart from cis men, many women who loved each of the performers individually were really excited to buy the content. It was like the porn version of “Girls Supporting Girls!” 

Talking about how her experience and the experiences of others in the industry spurred her decision to create a safe space for femme and non-binary people to make porn, she says, “The first time I was in a professional porn shoot, I was sort of an [newbie] in the sex work industry. On set, there were a lot of men watching. It was a solo shoot, but it was pretty uncomfortable and I was nervous. No one bothered to make me feel safe or even try to encourage me.”

Now, before a shoot, she sends out questionnaires to get information from the performers on what their boundaries are, who they would or would not want to work with and the things that might trigger them. On set, there are also collective conversations about those same boundaries.  “It’s only femme and non-binary people who are on set. It makes it so that everyone feels safer. During the shoot, if someone needs a second, we pause. If we need to stop altogether, we stop. The work is not more important than the person. Sometimes, we form a circle with someone in the middle who we hype up. It increases the chemistry, morale and camaraderie. After each set, I reach out to ensure that they’re in a good mental and emotional space,” Raquel shares.

It’s true that ethical porn is still niche in a mass market filled with content that is driven towards male viewers. But we’re currently in a time when Black women are working to reshape their own images in the adult entertainment industry. By ethically producing porn for Black women and marginalised groups, they empower other Black women curious about sex by helping them to make informed decisions about their sex lives.