Conner Habib’s Twitter bio — via @ConnerHabib — reads as follows:
occult maneuvers • sexual liberation • web series Against Everyone with Conner Habib starts 6/5/17! • 18+ only because my butt is scary, I guess
The following tweets sum up his thoughts on ethical porn — specifically, why not “ethical porn.” They are reprinted in full below, with permission.
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And now, a word on the woefully clumsy “feminist porn”and “ethical porn” movements.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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From the outset, both “feminist” and “ethical” porn are fumbling. Implicit in the names: Porn in general is neither”feminist”nor “ethical”— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Porn itself is embedded in an unethical, misogynist culture. Yet it transcends -more than most arts/businesses- these cultural constraints— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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That we need “ethical” or “feminist” porn is an assumption echoed by sex negative and anti-sex work voices masquerading as progressives.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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You know what often differentiates “feminist” and “ethical” porn from just plain porn for performers?
Lower pay.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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The idea that we are contributing to some social good is too often meant to take the place of higher/fairer wages.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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PORN IS ALREADY ETHICAL AND FEMINIST.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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When people say they want “feminist” porn – what they often mean is “I’ve made this misogynist assumption about what women want sexually”— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Too often, people making feminist/ethical porn arguments say porn needs to be “loving” and show “real affection” – No. It doesn’t.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Porn is an art form. Porn should be as passionate, beautiful, loving, frightening, powerful. sad, ridiculous as any other art.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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But, once again, because sex is considered a special case, porn is “supposed” to carry a social weight no other art form does.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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And to make matters worse, porn is dismissed as artless/frivolous and at the same time taken to be a “social concern” of utmost urgency.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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This of course is indicative of our views of sex in this culture: “petty” “shallow” “just lust” “empty” – yet TOTALLY SERIOUS— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Instead of “ethical porn” what we CAN do is make our labor practices better. Just like ANY OTHER INDUSTRY.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Instead of “feminist porn” what we can do is make more kinds of porn with different sorts of themes/ideas. Just like ANY OTHER ART.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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This is a way in which sex negativity exists even among many porn performers and producers: the idea that what we are doing is damaging.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Even when you’ve sufficiently liberated yourself enough to make sexual art, you are bombarded with the same negativity as everyone,daily.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Undoing sex negativity is a never-ending and daily process.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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So instead of interrogating porn, we need to interrogate the culture that tells us to interrogate porn.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Interrogate culture and you’ll see how porn ALREADY brings a potent set of ethics and a deep feminism to an unethical, misogynist culture— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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In other words, porn is already pulling its weight. More than most art forms.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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We can ALWAYS do better. But “how can porn be better?” is the wrong place to start.— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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From now on, when anyone asks you,”How can porn be more ethical?”reply:”You should be asking: How can culture start living up to porn?”
— Conner Habib (@ConnerHabib) June 11, 2017
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Thoughts? Industry members, want to share your statement on ethical porn? Email us at ethicalporn@yahoo.com
1 Comment
Saul
Gotta be honest, I’m not thrilled with this line of reasoning and not sure it fits in with the ethos of this site.
There are lots of blanket, dogmatic statements here (“the wrong place to start” “you should be asking”) that tell the reader what to think rather than exploring the nuance of the question.
Some of his points are strawman arguments: (‘too often, people making feminist/ethical porn arguments say porn needs to be “loving” and show “real affection”’). Really? Maybe that was the case years ago, but most of the ethical porn sites and articles that I’ve come across are fine with kink and edgy content, so long as it’s consensual. Asking for more of a certain thing (“real affection” in porn, for example) doesn’t mean that someone is AGAINST porn of other kinds, just that they may see a lack of representation of their desires in the industry.
Finally, it’s ironic for a cis male performer who has worked primarily in gay porn to proclaim “PORN IS ALREADY ETHICAL AND FEMINIST”. Blanket statements like these obscure the fact that there’s still plenty of exclusion in the industry, particularly around race, body type, and gender roles.
Is there a risk that terms like “ethical” and “feminist porn” can be watered down or taken too far? Sure. But let’s address that directly, and not pretend the concerns are meaningless or non-existent.