A Performer Writes:
This is addressed to all talent from another performer. Why do we test? Why do we require tests before we work together? To offer each other the objective medical assurance that neither of us is going to harm the other by transmitting an STD. When I show you my test, I am telling you unequivocally that I know my sexual practices, I do not deviate from acceptable standards, and I will not infect you. Do you believe me?
My partner and I test at every interval and each time, together. We both test so that there is no chance of not detecting anything one of us might contribute to the ever-growing quagmire of STDs simmering within the performer pool. And in this past month we have played with three other performers off set who also have current tests. But how many of you either have partners who don’t test, or you play with others outside of the industry, or performers known to play outside of the industry themselves, without condoms? You have a responsibility to the rest of us. And those of you who are ignorant to these practices have your heads up your collective asses. We all do it. Everyone I know plays (has sex) with one or more partners in this industry OFF SET.
So when these statements are made by PASS and others about 1st and 2nd generation tracing and no knowledge of on-set transmission, we all know the dirty little secret that there are people not as careful as us, who are not concerned about the health and well-being of their fellow performers, who have unprotected sex off set and do not require tests.
Until we close that loophole, none of us will ever be truly safe. Those who participate in such dangerous practices, put the rest of us at risk and do nothing to help us all go back to work after an STI outbreak occurs. There is no method for tracing sex partner history beyond what has occurred on set. What assurance can you offer me and my partner that you’re truly safe to work with? None. You can’t, because this behavior is too pervasive. There’s too much a sense of invulnerability that comes with constant unprotected sex, girded by a test result that is meaningless if your on-set partner is having untested, unprotected sex outside of the industry.
It’s time we all act more responsibly. If you can’t abstain from sex that isn’t booked to occur on set (and who could, really, because that’s not the kind of sex most normal people desire), then wrap it and cap it. Let your mind wander back to your sex education classes. To the days of your youth when you first started having sex and were fearful of STDs and you knew you needed to protect yourself and others. Please protect me and my co-workers by extending those safe practices to your personal sex life today.
We keep being told these transmissions are not taking place on set. But no one talks about what we should do to prevent them. Because these actions are fundamental, elementary, and simple self-preservation. But why are so many behaving so carelessly? I care. My partner cares. The three performers we have played with over the past month care. Many friends I have in the industry care. But some are too cavalier, too egotistical, too selfish to believe they could ever contract an STD, no matter what the circumstances. So they continue putting the rest of us at risk.
So, to those of you who think “this can’t happen to me,” I and many of my co-workers implore you to stop. Be safe. Please. All our lives and our livelihood depend on your better judgment. Make better judgments and protect us all, so we can all do the work that we love. Thank you.
31 Responses
A Performer Writes About The Current HIV Outbreak – Reader Mail http://t.co/3PILNkYSLH
Brittany Carmel Andrews liked this on Facebook.
I am sure this performer means well, and is concerned for her own health and the health of others. But this is a perfect example of the fundamental misunderstanding of the testing procedure, that not only she, but a majority of the industry just dont get, and you see it in the very first line.
“Why do we require tests before we work with eachother?’ This is a perfect example of the misunderstanding of what the testing program is all about. You dont test BEFORE doing something, you get tested AFTER you have done something, to see if you caught anything. To say the testing is done BEFORE working together indicates that the test offers some kind of protection, which it does not. That test you took is worthless AFTER you have unprotected sex with multiple partners.
The entire purpose of the testing system is to catch the disease AFTER it has happened., and try to limit the spread, testing has NOTHING to do with preventing anything.
And considering how many untrustworthy people are pat of this very flawed system, there is no way that testing offers anything more than just letting an individual know if they had any disease at the time they tested.
Jason Everett Morris liked this on Facebook.
@jilted, Your post should be the story that Mike covers, not the e-mail from the performer. If performers understood the basic principle of testing they would drop out of the industry in droves.
This is a ridiculously silly letter in a thousand ways more than one. You can almost hear the gears grinding when they wrote it. They have such a distorted and tilted view it makes them as or more dangerous then the people they complain about. They admit to playing with other performers who “test”…as if that makes it safe. At what point does someone not understand the tests are not designed to prevent anything? Even if the test comes back negative, we all know that doesn’t mean some nasty little bug isn’t waiting to rot your crotch off or better yet, be your demise because the test didn’t pick it up yet. They are also putting a ton of trust into their other supposedly “safe because they tested” off set sex partners by taking their word that they haven’t had any unsafe sex. We all know that people, especially porn people, never lie. They are simply scolding others for trusting their off set sex partners when they are moronically doing the exact same thing using “the test” as their crutch. I’m surprised you even bothered to put this up. Who wrote this thing? This is akin to saying, ” I take three showers a day, so I must be clean.” WTF?
As a performer I agree that condoms are needed. But the reality of the situation is that even if all performers today went condom only…a new batch of ignorant girls would be pushed in and the cycle will continue. Since I began shooting in 2007 I stopped all outside work sex except with my husband. We were swingers and still go to parties but don’t play with others out of respect of my co workers. My husband is not in the industry and tests as well…we need responsible individuals behind the camera as well as on screen to end the madness
Let’s sum up this letter:
-I care about my health which means you are also required to care about my health.
-If you act irresponsibily, then I have the right to bitch and complain because you decided to act irresponsibly.
-If I get an STD or HIV then it’s YOUR FAULT for not being responsible.
Wow, it must be nice to just pass all responsibility regarding YOUR health onto someone else…
WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF TESTING OTHER THAN LETTING YOU KNOW THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE A DISEASE AND THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY SPREAD IT AROUND TO OTHERS? If performers TRULY believed in testing then every performer entering the industry would be tested AT THAT TIME and then never need to be tested again since they “pinky swear promise” they will not have unprotected sex with ANYONE outside of the industry including their husband/wife/partner/significant other.
I’m absolutely sure there are performers out there who care and are beyond responsible when it comes to themselves, but let’s be real here. We’re talking about people who are notorious drug users who have no problem getting paid to fuck strangers holding a piece of paper that says they tested clean 10 fucking days ago (as long as there is a camera somewhere in or near the room….)
I almost always try to look at debates from both sides to get an idea where each side is coming from, but I honestly feel like I’m missing something in this debate because I can’t even come up with an argument for the other side because none of it makes sense?
I have to be missing something?
ALL TALENT READ THIS & #retweeet A Performer Writes About The Current HIV Outbreak http://t.co/CG1Ys6g4lZ
I think the writer of this article meant well. Everyone should not be jumping on her like she was Mr. Marcus or something.
Hold on. You can see what she is saying about testing being a preventative measure. You verify a test BEFORE engaging in a sex act–if a person tests dirty, you would know about it and prevent infection.
There is only one problem. There is a latency period for many STDs whereby they are not detectable via testing but still infectious. If most performers accepted this fact, then they will come to grips with how dangerous this Industry really is.
Two weeks ago, Lexington Steele was with Bridgette B on his radio show in which he said the “system was working” and it was safe to work again. What a misleading and wicked thing to say. He knows better–the man is a business professional and has a college degree. Those who know should educate those who don’t know. People perish for lack of knowledge. Stop screwing people over trying to make a buck!
I can’t speak for others, but my personal intention wasn’t to “jump on her.” It’s just aggravating and sad that people are actually delusional enough to believe they can control what someone does with their own body off set.
But, it gets really fucking old having performers say the same things over & over again as if they live in some sort of fantasy world where everyone is responsible and honest. It’s not possible in the porn industry or any industry, for that matter. People lie. People hide things. It will be that way until the end of time.
Could you imagine the government implementing this plan for an entire city of people who all knew each other? It would never happen because even the government would look at this current plan and go “wtf?”
Anti-condom performers all say the same fucking thing, yet the only SOLUTION to the problem they can come up with is to constantly bitch hoping that other performers decide for themselves to be responsible.
You can’t control the actions of other people in their personal lives… it’s impossible.
And, then someone writes a letter like this which gives NO SOLUTION to the problem, but actually just bitches at the rest of the industry for being irresponsible while declaring how careful they are in their personal life.
Do any performers actually have a SOLUTION to the problem other than telling everyone how safe “they” choose to be?
Nevermind, why would adult performers need to come up with solutions when they don’t even seem to understand what the real problems are?????
I agree and this person even mentioned they partook in what is part of the problem.
They admitted that them and their partner had sex with 3 other performers, who probably had sex with 3 other performers, who probably had sex with Homeless number 40, and he’s been fucking crazy cat lady under the overpass and eating out of dumpsters.
Having multiple partners is not safe. Not in porn and not in home life.
A Performer Writes About The Current HIV Outbreak – Reader Mail http://t.co/SE534Fcyjy
@origen01: “screwing people over trying to make a buck” is pretty much the business model for EVERY industry now…….It’s just more literal in porn.
The concept behind this letter is pure and it is genuine… and it is also sadly very wrong.
First off, the biggest issues facing the industry in regards to testing are things like sets that don’t use the tests, cross over performers, performers who work with untested people (here’s looking at you #40!), non-industry partners / husbands / wives who fuck around on the side, and the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about:
Girls (and guys) who work as “escorts” for cash and fuck anyone with the right number of 20s in their pocket.
Oh wait, you say, they use condoms when they do that. Yup, but many of them do give BBBJ, some of the will take facials, and of course, we all know that condoms do break. We won’t even talk about the girls (and guys) who will do it bareback for another equal sized stack of 20s.
The letter writer forgets that when they “play” with 3 other tested people, they have no way to know for sure that all three of them are not also fucking their neighbor or the guy at the bar they met last week. Quite simply, anything other than “just say no” means that you have created doubt in the system.
Unless you are living in plastic wrap outside of the set, you are likely to get exposed at some point, probably not intentionally but that’s how it goes. Your better judgement means nothing if you are also fucking someone with poor judgement, because they fucked someone with even poorer judgement before they did you.
“real men of genius” commercial could be made for the people who think testing solves the problem, you have managed to sell the brooklyn bridge to any number of people – and they keep helping you sell it on again!
At this point we should go out and find #40, get him tested for everything, and make him the next Dirty D. Since we are talking about #40 means we aren’t that far away at this point. He’s a celeb now.
Think of if #40 had Tuberculosis. Think of if someone a performer decided to have a fling with had Tuberculosis and then did a gang bang.
40 Does Farrah. Will Vivid do that?
Oh, please make that happen Vivid.
PLEASE!!!!!!!!
Could we have #40 perform with her on day 27 of a 28 day testing period…. and then we can test both of them after they’ve had sex just to see what diseases come up?
@Lacey: now you’ve gone and made me nauseous. Well, I wasn’t really hungry anyway…..
You guyd are too much!
@sachertorte – Sorry, tater tot. 😉
@Lacey: ‘s ok. I found the Pepto-Bismol.
Don’t you mean that pink chalky shit that makes your poop black?
I hate that shit…..
@Lacey: yeah, but it knocks out the nausea!! :p
I bet number 40 is safer than Bree “Miss Piggy” Olson was when she was in porn. That chick used to fuck anything that moved. I would also bet that number 40 is many degrees safer than any of the chicks going to Dubai to get fucked up the ass by condomless Arab sheiks after drinking their sheiky piss and eating their sheiky shit straight from the tube.
“My husband is not in the industry” If you are having unprotected sex in the industry, and then having sex with your husband, then your husband is just as much in the industry as you are, He is being exposed to everything just like you are.
“Ignorant girls” could apply to many in the industry. Even a ‘smart’ girl who doesnt excort or swing, but still has unprotected sex with people who do might be seen as ignorant in some peoples eyes. It doesnt matter what YOU do or dont do, its what your partners, and their partners do that put you at risk.
Every single person in the porn pool, and that includes your husband, is at the same risk level as the riskiest person in the pool. EVERYONE knows what goes on, the multiple parnters inside and outside the industry, and if you dont see how that puts you at a high risk then maybe you should rethink your definition of the word ignorant.
*cough* Charlie Sheen *cough*
You think he gets tested?
@Lacey: Charlie Sheen is a biohazard level 4 on legs.
A Performer Writes About The Current HIV Outbreak: http://t.co/xR5RltazWS
A Performer Writes About The Current HIV Outbreak – Reader Mail http://t.co/1XiHKyHbq8