The dark side of the adult film industry: Female porn stars speak out

It’s surprising that people still deny the harm perpetrated in the porn industry. Part of the reason many won’t face the reality of the world of pornography is buying into the ideal of female porn stars as nymphomaniacs. If you don’t buy into the narrative of the porn industry, it becomes harder to watch . . . so most don’t think about it.

But the reality of the porn industry is dark & terrifying; a number of female porn stars have started to speak up about the abuses and poor conditions in which they work. So that you’re not tempted to search for these women, for your own . . . research, we’ve only included their first & last initials. What they have to say will make you want to turn on all your content filters and bingewatch dog videos.

Discretion is advised: We tried to preserve the extreme nature of these stories without being too explicit, but many may find the following accounts to be disturbing & graphic.

Female porn star “A.D.” performed in a notoriously heinous adult film

“One particular film was the most brutal, depressing, and scary thing that I have ever done. I have tried to block it out from my memory due to the severe abuse that I received during the filming. The male performer has a natural hatred towards women, in the sense that he has always been known to be more brutal than ever needed. 

“I agreed to do the scene, thinking it was less beating and only a punch in the head. He had worn his solid gold ring the entire time and continued to punch me with it. I actually stopped the scene while it was being filmed because I was in too much pain.”

Female porn star “J.S.” was abused until she had to leave with reduced pay 

“I 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 put his foot on my head and stepped on it while he was doing me from behind. I freaked out and started bawling. They stopped filming and sent me home with reduced pay since they got some shot but not the whole scene.”

Female porn star “R.S.” was given no mercy – when the pain became excruciating

“I got the **** kicked out of me. Most of the girls start crying because they’re hurting so bad. I couldn’t breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset and they didn’t stop, they just kept filming. I asked them to turn the camera off and they kept going.”

Female porn star “A.R.” had no idea what she had consented to

[After being whipped and caned for 35 minutes] 

“I’ve never received a beating like that before in my life. I have permanent scars up and down the backs of my thighs. It was all things that I had consented to, but I didn’t know quite the brutality of what was about to happen to me until I was in it.”

Female porn star “P.D.” had no help during brutal shoots, not even the female photographers

“I was crying and crying, which was not against their shooting rules. There was a male dominant and a male videographer and a female photographer. I kept looking at her to save me.”

Female porn star “B.B.” was driven to addition & abuse 

“I became horribly addicted to heroin and crack. I overdosed at least three times, had tricks pull knives on me, and have been beaten half to death.”

Female porn star “R.” had her cervix removed because of a disease she caught 

“After only thirty movies I caught two sexually transmitted diseases. I got herpes, a non-curable disease and HPV. The HPV led to cervical cancer and I had to have half of my cervix removed. Porn destroyed my life.”

Female porn star “T.T.” had to get an abortion and was diagnosed with cervical dysplasia 

 “As for myself, I ended up paying the price from working in the porn industry. In 2006, not even 9 months in, I caught a moderate form of dysplasia of the cervix (which is a form of HPV) and later that day I also found out I was pregnant. I had only one choice which was to abort the baby during my first month. It was extremely painful emotionally and physically. When it was all over, I cried my eyes out.”

Female porn star “C.T.” went limp on set and the crew just kept filming

“When I arrived on the set I expected to do a vaginal girl boy scene. During the scene with a male porn star, he forced himself anally into me and would not stop. I yelled at him to stop and screamed ‘No’ over and over but he would not stop. The pain became too much and I was in shock and my body went limp.”

Female porn star “J.J.” describes the brutality for women getting into porn

“Most girls get their first experience in gonzo films – in which they’re taken to a crappy studio apartment in Mission Hills and penetrated in every hole possible by some abusive asshole who thinks her name is Bitch. And these girls, some of whom have the potential to become major stars in the industry, go home afterward and pledge never to do it again because it was such a terrible experience.”

Female porn star “L.R.” caught HIV because of poor testing practices in the industry 

“We should think about these issues right now, to change stuff around to make this a safer business. It isn’t a safe business, but I thought it was, and I would have not done that scene with Darren James without a condom if it crossed my mind that those (HIV) tests weren’t good. I couldn’t trust him or the people he’s been with. I thought porn people were the cleanest people in the world, that’s what I thought.”

What can we do to stop female porn star abuse?

The sad truth is that as long as this industry can profit from the misery of female porn stars, they will continue to operate with impunity. The move to decentralize sex work with sites like OnlyFans makes the industry less dependant on large studies, but this can only go so far. As a human drive, sex is intimately linked to aggression and its tendency to encourage and create aggression may be unavoidable.

Even if female porn stars “consent” to acting in these films, it’s impossible to know if that supposed consent was coerced in reality. Governing bodies like the Adult Film Association of America are more concerned with protecting their right to profit then with the protection of their employees. 

An independent oversight board could register complaints to manage abuses in the industry, but it would have to be self-regulating.

It’s hard to say what can be done to curb one of our most basic instincts. It’s obvious that outlawing porn does no good, but it’s also hard to regulate porn because so few people actually understand the internal workings of the business. In the end, the responsibility may lie in the hands of the consumers. So instead of researching these female porn stars, why not watch some more puppy videos?