Category Archives: Violence

Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, Murder, Pink Cross Foundation, Playboy, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Suicide, Violence

What is the average age of death for porn performers?

37.

The average was aggregated from a list of dead porn performers (women and men) over the course of 20 years by Rev. Daniel R. Jennings. These statistics have been subject to much scrutiny, as the findings were conducted unscientifically and misleadingly posited as “the average life expectancy of a porn performer” (the statistics are not averaged against the ages of performers still living). However, framed as the average age of death of porn performers, a majority of whom died via suicide, murder, disease, and drug & alcohol abuse, there is enough evidence to suggest that a career in pornography increases the likelihood of dying well below the average American age of 78 years old. In a comparable study on former Playboy models (all women), The Pink Cross Foundation found the average age of death to be 36 years old.

A brief glance at the testimonials of exited pornography performers helps to provide insight into the dangers of living in the sex industry.

Lisa Ann: Speaking from experience, I can tell you that a majority of the performers I shot most of my movies with in the 1990s are no longer with us… The new generation of porn star faces an unspoken risk to their lives. In the past, we were mainly focused on the toll of the destructive lifestyle prevalent in the industry, filled with drugs and alcohol, which led to the tragic car accidents, suicides, or accidental overdoses. But the murder of porn stars is often overlooked – I feel most people just assume the worst and think absolutely nothing of another porn star’s life ending too soon.

Becca Brat: I became horribly addicted to heroin and crack. I overdosed at least 3 times, had tricks pull knives on me, have been beaten half to death.

Jessie Jewels: People in the porn industry are numb to real life and are like zombies walking around. The abuse that goes on in this industry is completely ridiculous. The way these young ladies are treated is totally sick and brainwashing. I left due to the trauma I experienced even though I was there only a short time. I hung out with a lot of people in the adult industry, everybody from contract girls to gonzo actresses. Everybody has the same problems. Everybody is on drugs. It’s an empty lifestyle trying to full up a void.

Lara Roxx: It isn’t a safe business, and I thought it was, and I would have not did that scene with no condom with Darren James if it would have crossed my mind that those tests weren’t good and that I couldn’t trust him or the people he’s been with. I thought porn people were the cleanest people in the world, is what I thought.

Genevieve: The abuse and degradation was rough. I sweated and was in deep pain. On top of the horrifying experience, my whole body ached, and I was irritable the whole day. The director didn’t really care how I felt; he only wanted to finish the video.

Jenna: It was torture for seven years. I was miserable, I was lonely, I eventually turned to drugs and alcohol and attempted suicide. I knew I wanted out, but I didn’t know how to get out.

Neesa: I hate life. I’m a mess. A disaster. I’ve attempted suicide many times.

Jersey Jaxin: Guys punching you in the face. You have semen from many guys all over your face, in your eyes. You get ripped. Your insides can come out of you. It’s never ending.

Jessi: It was the most degrading, embarrassing, horrible thing ever. I had to shoot an interactive DVD, which takes hours and hours of shooting time, with a 104 degree fever! I was crying and wanted to leave but my agent wouldn’t let me, he said he couldn’t let me flake on it. I also did a scene where I was put with male talent that was on my ‘no list’. I wanted to please them so I did it. He stepped on my head […] I freaked out and started balling; they stopped filming and sent me home with reduced pay since they got some shot but not the whole scene.

Andi: After a year or so of that so called ‘glamorous life,’ I sadly discovered that drugs and drinking were part of the lifestyle. I began to drink and party of out control – cocaine, alcohol, and ecstacy were my favorites. Before long, I turned into a person I did not want to be. After doing so many hardcore scenes, I couldn’t do it anymore. I just remember being in horrible situations and experiencing extreme depression and being alone and sad.”

Elizabeth Rollings: I didn’t want to feel the pain of penetration from an over average sized man, being told to freeze in a position until the camera man was happy with his shots was very painful. I had people’s body fluids forced on my face or anywhere else the producer pleased and I had to accept it or else no pay. Sometimes you would get to a gig and the producer would change what the scene was supposed to be to something more intense and again if you didn’t like it, too bad, you did it or no pay.

Crissy Moran: I went through more heartbreaks and became suicidal. I was taken to the hospital for panic attacks. I tried to overdose on xanax, strangle myself, and cut my wrists but not nearly deep enough. I was too scared of the pain.

Sierra Sinn: My first scene was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was very scary. It was a very rough scene. My agent didn’t let me know ahead of time… I did it and I was crying and they didn’t stop. It was really violent. He was hitting me. It hurt. It scared me more than anything. They wouldn’t stop. They just kept rolling.

Vanessa B: Here is the pattern I have seen over and over again in my 7 years in this industry: Girl gets into porn, shoots regularly for about 6 months to a year doing relatively tame sex scenes. Work starts to slow down, so girl decides to do more hardcore scenes (things like anal, multiple men etc.). Work slows down again. Girl now starts escorting and becomes “open” to doing just about anything on camera to get work. Eventually, there is no company willing to shoot her and porn work is dried up. Girl usually has no work history and often no schooling, and now is essentially stuck with escorting, stripping, webcamming and any porn work she might be able to scrape up.

Now the girl has a black mark on her reputation forever and no matter what else she does in life, there are videos all over the Internet of her engaging in various sexual acts. She can never take it back or hide it. All she can do is hope that future employers, potential mates and others never see it or are very understanding about her past. (And even those who are understanding still look at her differently. You can never unring that bell.) This cycle usually only takes 2-3 years. That is not a career, and it’s nothing to look up to or hope for.

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Stats, Violence

Is pornography consumption directly linked to violence against women?

Yes. The consumption of pornography has been demonstrably linked to violence against women. Firstly, pornography constructs and reinforces males as masculine (dominant) and females as feminine (submissive), an ideology that maintains male entitlement to sex, normalizes male violence, and coerces women to be subservient to men and both deserving and desiring of violence perpetrated against them; secondly, pornography consumption lowers inhibitions towards violence against women and increases sympathy for perpetrators of sexualized violence; thirdly, pornography serves as a how-to guide that directly trains men how to perpetrate violence against women for and during sex.

It is important to verify that pornography itself is violent. In a content analysis of the 50 best-selling and best-renting pornographic videos, Psychologist Ana J. Bridges, Robert Wosnitzer, Erica Scharrer, Chyng Sun, and Rachel Liberman found that each scene had, on average, 11.52 aggressive acts, including both verbal and physical abuse. Of the 304 scenes observed in this study, 3,376 instances of violence were reported, of which 88% were physical and 48% were verbal. 72% of the aggressive acts were perpetrated by men, with over 94% of the abuse targeted against the women in the scenes. In other words, pornography is very violent; the vast majority of it containing depictions of violence, particularly against women.

In a study conducted by Dr. Dolf Zillman and Dr. Jennings Bryant on the effects of continuous exposure to pornography, their findings proved that increased exposure to pornography made subjects more tolerant of sexual violence, less supportive of the rights of women, and more lenient towards the punishment of rapists.

Psychologist Edward Donnerstein found in his study of sexual aggression perpetrated against college women, 39% of the sex offenders had been influenced by pornography. In Diana E.H. Russell’s studies, she found that perpetrators of sexual violence against children frequently used pornography as a grooming method to provoke sexual curiosity, legitimize, normalize, and desensitize them to sexual violence, and silence them by making them feel guilty and thus complicit in their own abuse. In Professor Janet Hinson Shope’s studies, she found that among women who were in sexually abusive relationships, pornography had played a direct role in the abuse 58% of the time. A comparable study found that 25% of abusive men forced their partners to either watch or reenact scenes from pornography; this study also found that the most abusive abusers were those who watched pornography.

In each of these studies, and many more conducted over the course of the last several decades, the through line is that pornography has not only shaped attitudes towards violence against women but has played a direct role in conditioning men to be perpetrators of sexual violence and conditioning women and children to accept sexualized violence.

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Stats, United States, Violence, Women's Rights

Does pornography consumption shape the way consumers perceive rapists and rape victims?

Yes. Consumers who have viewed a significant amount of pornography have demonstrably been proven to perceive rapists with more compassion and rape victims with less.

In a study conducted in 1982, Dr. Dolf Zillman of Indiana University and Dr. Jennings Bryant of the University of Alabama questioned whether continuous exposure to pornography impacted an individual’s sexual beliefs and attitudes. 80 college-age male and 80 female participants were divided into three groups of pornography exposure (massive exposure, intermediate exposure, and no exposure).

The results found that men who actively consumed porn recommended on average a 50 month prison sentence to convicted rapists, while men who were not consuming porn recommend a 95 month prison sentence. Women who consumed porn recommended 77 month prison sentences, while women who did not consume porn recommend 143 months.

In this same study, men who were consuming porn were three times less likely to support any expansion of women’s rights.

It’s worth noting that at the time of study, the massive exposure group was shown only 4 hours of 48 minutes of non-violent pornography over six weeks. Today, the average US porn consumer watches around 10 minutes a day, or 7 hours over six weeks, of which is violent 88% of the time.

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