I think this sums up most of the responses I have gotten about the resignation of Ms Duke. Thank You to Direct Models for allowing me to repost it here.
Direct Models is pleased to see today’s news via X Biz, on the stepping down of Diane Duke,
Rarely has there been such a divisive personality in the adult business, unelected, yet somehow self appointed as a testing Czar to the industry, among other self aggrandizing efforts and assumed roles by Ms Duke .
While the late (and great) Christian Mann a fellow director at FSC, was deservedly well known and highly respected for his ambassadorial and diplomatic abilities, seemingly able to find common ground amid the most resolute of persons on opposing side of many issues and challenges faced in our industry, – the same could not be said for Ms Duke (to say the least) and she has remained a polarizing figure throughout her tenure.
The decision to recommend a change in testing protocol in Sept 2013 from the standard thirty (30) day protocol (followed and self regulated by the industry for over as decade) to a fourteen (14) day protocol, without consultation with anyone involved in actual adult film production, including studios, talent and agents and with no mechanism whatsoever designed to pay for it – other than to saddle the talent themselves with a doubling of their monthly pre- employment medical testing cost, will forever be remembered as the actions of someone with little to no regard for talent in our industry.
Direct Models urges the board of directors at FSC to consider carefully the replacement for Ms Duke, and to keep foremost in its mind in such consideration, the core issues and underlying goal mission and purpose of the FSC and that its chosen appointee might be someone that could best serve that purpose, that the legacy of Ms Duke who did anything but, may be usurped for the better moving forward.
23 Responses
L.A. Direct Addresses Diane Dukes Resignation https://t.co/WyiInP23iU
Huh….so how does the industry feel about the testing every 14 days though? To me it seems reasonable, if only talent didn’t have to pay for their own testing. Obviously if they (industry) have no intention of getting their talent decent health care, once every 30 days is the best option. But seems to me with all the side business (Escorting) that some do….that talent would want to be reasonably assured they are cleared for work. I dunno. Just my two cents. All that testing is expensive, and for sure that burden should not solely lie on talent to pay for it themselves, considering the work environment. I know I’m a broken record on this issue, but oh well I will keep harpin on it. Nice measured response from L.A. Direct, so that’s excellent.
I don’t know that ManGeek has much influence there any longer. That money train derailed some time ago.
That said, I don’t have much confidence that the current board will hire someone any better, if they can find anyone better that is willing to take the job.
Is 14 days really any safer than 30? If the performer is engaging in risky activity once every 30 days will serve the same purpose. One could argue it means that risky performer will only expose 14 days worth of partners instead of 30. I can understand that perspective. However, I don’t see any evidence that HIV transmission is any better or worse between 14 or 30 day tests.
Isn’t it possible the 14 days was more of a PR thing and a way to make money?
@joe oh yah it sure seemed like a PR thing ever since Mike started posting about it. I’m just thinking of cases like….oh….super chlamydia. You know. One of those things that can be passed onto to client or performer.
I really don’t think the porn industry cares about super chlamydia or anything not named HIV. They focus on the one that gets them accolades for preventing and don’t talk about anything else.
It’s one of the dirty and unspoken parts of porn how many Sti’s performers get and they just take their anti biotics and shrug it off and don’t care about herpes or warts. It\s their bodies, if they wish to accept it. I just find it silly that the industry only champions the HIV cause.
They will say “YAY ME!” we had zero HIV cases this year. Our program works!!!!
The narrative would be much different if they said how many other StI cases there were and it would cause them all sorts of grief.
If you keep getting VD and then get antibiotics to clear it up won’t the viruses build up an immunity to the antibiotics after multiple events of getting VD?
You would think the folks that run porn would be more interested in preventing the diseases then fixing them after you already got them.
@joe I completely agree with you!
@karma You are right about that. But then that’s why your supposed to take the antibiotics properly, so you clear out all the bad stuff. If you skip a few pills, or reinfect yourself while clearing it out….
STI’s are often built of multiple strains. It’s not like there’s one chlamydia virus, or gonorrhea virus floating around in the world. It’s really fascinating biology really, how viruses work. Most biologists (tangent I know) would agree that viruses are not alive (however just read a report on a scholarly article arguing that viruses indeed are alive, and they should have a different classification for “alive”), saying they miss a few important characteristics of live things. But yes there is an evolutionary tree to viruses and disease outbreaks, so that when a major outbreak happens (like with Ebola) they can track patient zero or see where the virus split off and formed into new strains.
So anyways, I’m just gonna leave it this way, if you got super chlamydia and or super gonorrhea it has probably less to do with antibiotic resistance (because there are different families (diff types) of STI’s. (I mean look at how many different strains of HPV there are) and probably more due to the number of sexual partners exchanging fluids, exchanging bacteria, making that STI get really strong, and evolving into something like super chlamydia. Like @joe said, a lot of porn people do not give a flyin F.
I don’t think the people running porn think that way. Yes, if you keep getting the same infection over and over again it can eventually not be curable.
There is no interest in preventing any diseases other than keeping HIV out of the pool. You just deal with them if you get them, accept that everyone has herpes and genital warts, and accept it as part of the job like having a bad back for life after 10 years in construction.
On a practical note; you would pretty much end porn if you would not shoot people who had any STI. Even condom porn can still have some things spread (genital warts for example), so at the end of the day, it will continue to be ignored.
I believe in people being able to make choices as adults. The problem is newbies come into the industry and don’t get all the facts and end up feeling horrible down the road. They should tell everyone that enters that you are likely to get certain permanent things, and sometimes things that can be cleared up with anti biotics. Then let them decide if that is worth getting in order to have this career. Why not just keep it in the open instead of tricking people. There will be plenty of women and men who will accept herpes or warts or infections from time to time as a manageable job hazard. Just like you have many people willing to play football knowing full well they may have serious brain problems in their 40s and 50s or permanent problems with joints and backs. If people make an informed choice, I think it makes it a better place over all.
This line may infuriate some, however, I think it is worthy to ponder. People seem to be more worried about catching an STI while at the same time pumping a pack of smokes in their lungs every day which essentially guarantees you are shaving a decade or more off your life. Strange priorities sometimes.
@joeschmoe
There are more facets than a brilliant cut diamond with respect to the industry moving to a 14 vs 30 day frequency.
Look at several credible sources if you want accurate information and revisit them because it’s a lot to absorb.
‘Acute HIV’ (newly acquired) and ‘undetectable HIV’ are at opposite ends of the risk ratio scale.
‘Reportable communicable disease’ is a handy search term as a portal to specific conditions with infinite variables. There are vaccines for Hep A&B but none for HepC.
Syphilis’ is s good one too. For that add industry sites for 2012 Mr. Marcus as the best lesson of why every performer should look beyond the standard industry testing panel to learn the symptoms and signs of less common but possible STD.
Just a side note on feedback to Mike South.
I really like how the blog is becoming more active with comments from readers. There have been some interesting debates, and very diverse viewpoints. I hope this continues to be a good part of the blog.
I find myself visiting it more (and commenting more as you can see) because of the activity.
So, whatever you are doing mike, keep it up.
Alright y’all for shits and giggles I had to go fishing for my biology textbook, so that we can clear up some of these questions that we have. (thanks for the comments @joe and @karma)
“A virus is an infectious particle consisting of little more than genes packaged in a protein coat….a virus is called a dna virus or an rna virus…based on the nucleic acid that makes up its genome.”
“….Changes in host behavior or environmental changes can increase the viral traffic responsible for emerging diseases….”
“Viruses use enzymes, ribosomes, and small molecules of host cells to synthesize progeny viruses during replication. Each type of virus has a characteristic host range…(Each particular virus can infect cells of only a limited number of host species, called the host range of the virus…this host specificity results from the evolution of recognition systems by the virus….IE: Lock and key…)
“Initially, MRSA could be controlled by antibiotics that work differently from the way methicillin works. But this has become increasingly difficult because some MRSA strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, probably because bacteria can exchange genes with members of their own and other species. Thus the present day multi drug resistant strains may have emerged over time as MRSA strains that were resistant to different antibiotics exchanged genes. The S. aureus and soapberry bug examples highlight two key points about natural selection. First, natural selection is a process of editing, not a creative mechanic ism. A drug does not CREATE RESISTANT PATHOGENS, it SELECTS for resistant individuals that are already present in the population. Second natural selection depends on time and place. It favors those characteristics in a genetically variable population that provides advantage in the current, local environment.”
Campbell Biology in Focus 2014th ed
Thank You man but all the credit goes to you guys on that. It pleases me as well because I learn from y’all too. I don’t have the market cornered on good ideas and I really appreciate the level of communication, intelligence and tolerance that I see here…kudos to all y’all 😉
@lurkingreader excellent post as always. The fact is, STI’s and disease are a really complex thing, one that requires a lot of school to absorb the knowledge. I know for sure I trust a person who went to medical school for this stuff, versus just burying your head in the sand and saying “F it, everyone has this I’m not even gonna worry about it”.
At the end of the day, industry standards should conform not only the latest of scientific study, but also allowing for the reality of sex work. Fluid exchange is gonna happen. Bareback is gonna happen because workers need the money. The medical community can wag its finger and say, “do X, Y, Z” (whether that be condom use, medicine use, abstinence while healing, ect) but also understand that the sex industry cannot heed the same advice as the civilian population, cause people gotta make money. I understand that. But there has to be a way to minimize risk to performer, client, and the civilian world. I’m hoping really smart people have a grip on that, now that Diane Duke’s gone. We will see.
I gotta laugh. While Direct Models used nicer words, they effectively said “good riddance to bad rubbish”.
Duke lead the FSC from a position of arrogance, one of being able to tell everyone what to do and expecting them to do it. Potentially this was supported by money from certain industry members. It has lead the FSC to stray far from it’s initial goal (protection of free speech, the rights for porn) and into a much more contentious role as a self-selected industry spokesgroup.
FSC I think lost the plot around the time of the initial 2257 legal issues. Rather than backing a good case (that eventually won) they sort of went off on their own, spending tons of money to try to prove something that was mooted with the arrival of the Obama administration. Nobody is out there actively checking 2257 documents, no more raids, no more surprise inspections. That whole department of the DoJ went away. The victories if any are hollow, like scoring a touchdown when the other team has already left the field.
The FSC has a chance to become relevant and important. They just have to choose the right people to lead them. Mike, you looking for a job? 😉
TY Ivy,
Complex is an understatement with over thirty common STI the variables a performer might consider in their initial and hopefully ongoing risk assessment process to define personal limits is truly infinite.
If you have concerns SEEK appropriate medical care/guidance was like a mantra within so many of my rambling tirades of outrage it seems to go without saying. Lots of trustworthy docs have massive brag walls cluttered with dozens of certifications, degrees and professional associations that don’t amount to a hill of beans if performers opt to DIY with a dab carmex on dick lesions the doc would have recognized as secondary syphilis and treated accordingly.
Lol Ivy nice to see a current edition cited does it clear up the ambiguous ‘mycoplasma’ classifications?
@lurkingreader I really had to go back and reread a couple of chapters, so I hope you are proud of yourself, miss, for encouraging my education lol bio is not my strong suit. Very clever of you to ask that question. The only mention of Mycoplasmas is in one page of the entire textbook.
Gram-Positive Bacteria
“Gram-positive bacteria rival the proteobacteria in diversity. Species in one subgroup, the actinomycetes (from the Greek mykes, fungus, for which these bacteria were once mistaken), form colonies containing branched chains of cells…..Mycoplasmas are the only bacteria known to lack cell walls. They are also the tiniest known cells, with diameters as small as .1 microns, only about five times as large as a ribosome..have small genomes- Mycoplasma genitalium has only 517 genes for example…many are free living soil bacteria, but others are pathogens.” And on another page a mention study, comparing Mycoplasma capricolum with wheat and 4 other bacteria species.
That’s correct if your biology professor asks but standing firm insisting mycoplasma is more properly classed a bacteria will get you in hot water with many learned virologists who prefer to claim the oddity as their own pet 🙂
@lurkingreader yah its the standard textbook they use for entry level biology, not sure what the other advanced courses would say. (Advanced chemistry would have covered the virology more indepth) We did have a biologist specialized in virology, and he was still publishing as far I understand it. The guy bored me to tears, so if there was any extra info from lectures or slides, I have no idea because that’s in my “thank god i passed that pile”. I would be fascinated to hear you explain it better, I am very curious about what else makes it so special.
@Ivy
It’s special to us because it’s in our ‘thank God our child survived pile’ if you decide this oddity is worth exploring in depth I can pass on the names of eight doctors who have stayed in touch with us since the Spring of 1996 when one of them drew the short straw for the duty of trying to penetrate glazed over parental faces to explain their magic bags of Doctor tricks was empty and what out of medicine means. Ten weeks ago four of them kept up their tradition of singing Mustang Sally to celebrate another milestone with the birth of her first child.
@lurkingreader Oh that does sound super fascinating, and sounds personal so I created a burner account just for you. Contact me at [email protected]
@Ivy
Coming back to the point. Mycoplasma is the top of the heap when it comes to complex. Most people don’t even know they got it or that the dry cough that nagged them for a couple weeks could have killed them within hours hence my mantra seek appropriate guidance.
Let me know if the time comes when your interest gets to a place that makes it worth using the offer of my longstanding relationship with the experts for an introduction.