'We don't hurt anybody. We don't kill anybody. We don't do anything that disturbs others' minds, because it's only about people and their decisions. You wanna watch it or you don't wanna watch it. You wanna do it or you don't wanna do it. Nobody is pressed for anything."
That's a pornographer speaking. Her English isn't perfect - she's Czech and talking from the set of a porn film in Prague - but you get the gist. She says, "What's your problem?"
The pornography business is covered with great unease in the mainstream media. Often it is either treated with distaste or with a jokey, camp attitude.
Recently, mind you, there was coverage of how the porn racket is faring in this brutal recession. There was an Associated Press wire story about how, in the United Sates, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild chief executive Joe Francis called for a $5-billion (U.S.) federal bailout. Buried in the story was a fascinating nugget. A professor of women's studies at the University of Nevada, who studies the porn industry, said certain segments of the industry are doing very well, especially areas that cater to women.
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The BBC also looked into the porn racket in Britain and discovered that the peak point for online porn-on-demand is 11 a.m. on Sunday. Also that the demand comes equally from men and women. More intriguing was the fact that "the figures for January were uncharacteristically high, given the slump that typically follows the holiday season." The owner of the on-demand service speculated, "It may have to do with the winter and the oncoming depression. Cheap entertainment seems to be faring quite well right now, and adult content is the most extreme distraction of all."
Well, never mind. Whatever gets you through the dark night of the recession.
However, there's another side to the porn industry, one to keep in mind as you're tempted to seek solace in it, recession or not. Sometimes the people making porn are in the industry because they've been victims of abuse.
My Son, The Pornographer (The Lens on CBC Newsworld, 10 p.m.) is a brutally painful, hard-to-watch documentary about one such person. It's a true story of trauma, anger and regret.
Made by Gumboot Productions of Victoria and directed by Peter Campbell, it's about Art Holbrook and his achingly difficult attempt to reconnect with his stepson, Kole Kerr, [pictured] who is working as a writer and actor in porn films in Prague. Holbrook had a relationship with Kole's mother years ago, when Kole and his sister were young children. The relationship ended and Holbrook's life moved on. He later discovered that, after he left, Kole was abused by an older man in the neighbourhood.
Since then, Kole has drifted, angry about the abuse and the lack of stability in his early life. Eventually he drifted into the porn industry in Eastern Europe. Holbrook finds him there and struggles not to express his disgust at what he sees as "the degrading and soul-destroying work" that Kole does. He tries to coax Kole - a young man with an elaborate Mohawk hairdo and major attitude - into talking about his life. At the same time, he feels raw guilt and rage about the sexual abuse Kole experienced as a young boy. He even hires a private investigator to find Kole's abuser.
Most of the excellent doc is about Holbrook trying to understand why Kole is involved in porn and the porn industry. He likes some of Kole's co-workers, but he's made very uneasy by them. One of the female performers says, "You give away privacy. You give away something that you can't get back." Kole says he does the work "to piss people off. To create a response. To just make people feel and have an effect on somebody."
But it's an empty boast. The young man is psychologically damaged, burning with animosity and hurt. You will never look at the porn racket with amusement again.
