Modern Slavery uses the Internet and it’s shocking.
It can be argued that anyone working at any job they hate is being exploited. Modern Slavery uses the internet and it is truly shocking. Often in life we get involved in things that turn out differently than we expected, and we start to resent the situation and other people involved. This is true in both personal relationships and professional environments. But ironically people are quicker to abandon a relationship when they feel that their expectations are not being met, than a job where leaving is the only real choice available to change the situation. When it comes to a paycheck, people make numerous sacrifices, to the point that the job moves from a cause of being exploited to self-exploitation, because we consciously make the trade off for a paycheck.
In the adult industry, it’s always been about self-exploitation. We operate in a counterculture, exposing ourselves to scrutiny and ridicule. Our most intimate acts and body parts are literally exposed to the world. And the outside world is patronizing, judgmental and quick to think the worst of us in all aspects. We, according to them are scumbags of society that really aren’t necessary…like crack dealers, we peddle our smut to the addicts and the world would be better off without us. As a consequence those of us who survive in this industry need a solid sense of personal identity, and that means we are masters at self-exploitation.
Modern Slavery meets the internet
But the adult industry is always adding and losing people, so don’t think for an instant that all the players are whores like myself who negotiate everything they do on a reward versus risk ratio. Many people end up taking their clothes off for money out of desperation, to feed an addiction and sometimes just to appease someone else in his/her life. This is a reality that makes it easy to pass judgement on our industry, which for the general population means that none of us have any moral code. If you follow my articles and pod casts, you will know that despite calling myself a whore, I do have no go zones. I don’t film anyone under the influence of drugs or alcohol and I don’t film anyone underage. But I do cater to very personal fetishes, stuff that doesn’t get made for the mass market. This usually means that I am put in contact with rich and powerful people, but I also meet the middle class who saved up to realize their fantasy. Still, even if money is no option when negotiating a contract…I will walk away if I feel that the request is outside of my personal code of conduct.
Being an in house production company, I am always looking for talent for my films. And last week I met with a very unusual, very sexual woman.
Marcia (not her real name), showed up at my door in full Muslim attire, both a hijab and abaya. This Indonesian beauty was quick to drop her clothes once inside. But I’m also a Muslim and with my knowledge of non-Occidental Islamic attitudes towards sex and nudity, I found myself asking more than the typical questions. Especially when she took to showing us how easily she could fist her own ass.
It turns out that Marcia was groomed for the sexual pleasure of others. This in itself is not altogether uncommon among talent, but Marcia’s case was extreme, so extreme that it opened my eyes to global problem which I previously knew little about. At 14 Marcia responded to an ad on Facebook for an Au Pair (Nanny). When she arrived, in a new country, far from her parents, both her passport and telephone were taken from her. Within a week the house mother/wife was demanding sexual service from her, and the husband joined in the escapades with the underage domestic servant shortly thereafter. Once the couple had tired of her, she was relisted online using Instagram and taken in by her next sexual enslavers.
These trades are made possible through the use of apps like Instagram available through Google or Apple; downloadable to anyone. Marcia went through three normal looking households and arriving at the last after being subject to a live auction with another girl. The two minor girls were presented naked to potential buyers to be tried out by before the actual bidding took place. She was so taken for granted by her last owners that they eventually would leave her unattended for hours while they went shopping. On one of these occasions she discovered her passport, which she hadn’t seen in years and she made a break for it.
Listening to her recount the story, to anyone outside of the industry, her matter of factness would be judged as hogwash. But after 20 plus years in this line of work, I have no reason to doubt her. I have seen before how children, whose sexuality is forced upon them, learn how to use their bodies as a commodity. In many ways this grooming makes them perfect for the industry that demands feelings and taboos take a back seat to the accomplishing the work that needs to be done. But yet I am cautious, I want to get to know her a little better before I open the door to her “self-exploitation”. Mostly, given her background, I want to be sure that she is doing this for herself, that she is mentally stable and that she hasn’t traded a pedophilic enslaver for someone else that would exploit her experiences for their own political and/or financial gain.
One would argue that as a pornographer, I profit from my talents’ self-exploitation. But the difference in my case is I take the same risks as they do, more sometimes. I am just as integral to them earning a living as they are to me earning mine, and in this symbiotic relationship, each appreciates the other or we don’t work together. If I was the lowlife society seems to believe all pornographers are, I wouldn’t care. I would have simply filmed everything I could get out of my talent applicant, and I wouldn’t have even have a background story. There is an old adage of the hooker with the heart of gold, maybe I am the male equivalent. All I know is I now have another “no go” on my list of things…no REAL sexual slaves.
One Response
This is a tough one. She isn’t a sex slave now but her history would make me wonder if all I were doing directing her in a sex scene would be traumatizing her further. I don’t know if I would do the scene with Marcia or not. I would have to talk to her further to ascertain whether it is appropriate to use her in a porno or not.