The X-Rated Critics Organization's 32nd annual awards show revealed the best of the past year in adult entertainment as judged by the top professional triple-X critics across the country.
Americans are finding more behaviors or social issues morally acceptable than they have in the past, but men and women still differ on several issues, notably those related to sex and relationships. Pornography is the most divisive, with 43% of
men finding it morally acceptable versus only 25% of women.
These findings come from Gallup's May 6-10 Values and Beliefs survey, which is the latest update of a poll that has documented the changing social mores of the country since the early 2000s.
This year's survey found a general nationwide shift toward acceptance of once-controversial issues. The moral acceptability of porn over the last 4 years has increased from 40% to 43% of men surveyed, and from 20% to 25% of women surveyed.
Pornography is the source of the largest discord between men and women. Consistently since 2011, men have been about twice as likely as women to say pornography is morally acceptable. Nonetheless a clear consensus exists among both genders
on this issue, with regular majorities of men and women saying pornography is morally wrong.
The California Democratic Party has voted to oppose the pending Safer Sex in Adult Film Act, a controversial ballot initiative that would allow private citizens to sue adult performers and other industry workers when a condom is not visible in an adult
film.
Eric Paul Leue, campaign manager for Californians Against Worker Harassment, a committee opposing the initiative, said this was a historic win for the adult industry:
This is a tremendous, unprecedented
victory. We applaud the California Democratic Party for recognizing the many problems with this dangerous initiative. No worker in any other industry can be sued and harassed by members of the general public, and this initiative would open adult
performers to stalking, extortion and profiteering.
Both major political parties in the state now oppose the initiative. The California Republican Party opposed the measure in February. Performers have also spoken out repeatedly
against the measure expressing concerns for their safety and privacy.
Major LGBTQ groups and AIDS/HIV outreach organizations have also announced opposition, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and AIDS Project LA.
BDSM/fetish erotica has been a part of adult entertainment for generations. Butthings have changed considerably for BDSM and fetish erotica. What was once underground is now ubiquitous.
The Louisiana House has agreed to a repressive new law to block strip clubs from hiring dancers under the age of 21, The proposal, is now heading back to the Senate for final passage. The measure is supposedly something to do with limiting
trafficking but it is not clear what.
Lawmakers had a bit of fun with an amendment that 'outraged' a few women.
Rep. Kenny Havard proposed an amendment that would limit strippers to between 21 and 28 years old and no more than 160 pounds.
Havard said the amendment was a commentary on overregulation, not aimed at women.
Rep. Julie Stokes described the amendment as utterly disrespectful and disgusting.
The House voted 96-0 for the bill without the jokey amendment.
The California Republican Party voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to oppose a state ballot initiative that would allow private citizens to sue adult performers if a condom is not visible in an adult film. The controversial California Condoms in
Pornographic Films Act has been widely opposed by performers, producers, and public health advocates.
Eric Paul Leue, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, says Republicans were disturbed about the bill's fiscal impact,
as well as its enforcement mechanism: any Californian who views an adult film without a visible condom could file a lawsuit against performers and others involved in the production and distribution of the film. Leue said:
No worker in any other industry faces this type of harassment from the public. The initiative empowers stalkers, harassers, anti-porn activists, profiteers and crusaders, while leaving actual performers more vulnerable. This
initiative could open the door to similar measures for other industries.
The Legislative Analyst's Office, which evaluates ballot initiatives for fiscal impact, predicts the bill will cost California taxpayers tens of
millions of dollars each year in lost revenue, as performers and production companies move outside the state.
Leue says the ballot measure is so bad it has been opposed on both sides of the political spectrum. San Francisco
Democrats voted to oppose the measure last month:
It's one of the rare political issues where Democrats and Republicans agree. The bill is misguided, dangerous, costly, and terrible for California.
US report finds that customers of adult businesses, supposedly with a high level of trafficked workers, see through the hype when the meet the girls, and judge for themselves about the prevalence of trafficking
The US has been studying why there seems to be a disparity between the hypothesised level of trafficking and examples actually found and prosecuted. A report entitled: Identifying Effective Counter-Trafficking Programs and Practices in the
U.S.: Legislative, Legal, and Public Opinion Strategies that Work. The authors summarise the report as follows:
After more than a decade of sustained efforts to combat human trafficking in the United States, it is necessary to
step back and examine the effectiveness of key anti-trafficking strategies. Utilizing a multi-method approach, we examine:
The effectiveness of state-level human trafficking legislation to determine what specific legislative provisions are most effective for obtaining desired outcomes,
the characteristics of state
prosecutions for human trafficking offenses to determine how state laws are being used to hold offenders accountable, and
what the public knows about human trafficking, why the public holds the beliefs that they do, and what
the public expects from government anti-trafficking efforts.
Together the three parts of the study inform efforts to develop effective counter-trafficking programs and practices for legislators, law enforcement, the courts, anti-trafficking agencies, and the public.
On the subject of the
findings about public opinion the report states:
Sex-related behaviors affect beliefs about human trafficking. Respondents who consumed pornography within the last year have more knowledge of human trafficking, but
they think that it should be less of a government priority. Similarly, respondents visiting a strip club within the last year reported lower levels of concern about human trafficking and thought that human trafficking should be less of a government
priority than those respondents not visiting a strip club within the last year.
Of course the report authors don't seem to realise the bleeding obvious: When eg strip club customers actually get to talk to the girls they realise that
they are simply not being trafficked and that the majority of the concerns about trafficking are made up by feminists who seek to exaggerate trafficking to further their more general anti-adult entertainment campaigns.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed documents in court defending the Dallas City Council's efforts to ban an event billed as the largest event in the USA dedicated to love & sex.
Paxton claimed it is perfectly reasonable for
the city to prevent Exxxotica from hosting its pornography expo at the city-owned Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center if it would not sufficiently advance the purposes for which the Convention Center was established.
In February, the
Dallas City Council voted to ban Exxxotica's expo from the center. Two weeks after the vote, Exxxotica sued the city, claiming the ban was unconstitutional.
Paxton's brief claims the decision to ban the event does not violate free speech rights
because the council has exercised its discretion on a case-by-case basis instead of passing a more restrictive ordinance with broader terms. Paxton said in a statement:
It is vital that governmental entities
have the ability to exclude sexually-oriented businesses from property that they own. The City of Dallas, through its democratically-elected officials, has rightfully decided that its convention center should not be home to an event where obscenity and
criminal activity occurs. A federal court should not overturn that decision by elected officials.
XHamster.com, a popular porn website, is refusing to stream to any IP address in North Carolina because of the state's recently passed anti-gay laws.
Users with a North Carolina IP address are just seeing a black screen on their computer. XHamster.com
spokesman, Mike Kulich, said the website believes in equality for everyone:
We have spent the last 50 years fighting for equality for everyone and these laws are discriminatory which XHamster.com does not tolerate.
Judging by the stats of what you North Carolinians watch, we feel this punishment is a severe one. We will not standby and pump revenue into a system that promotes this type of garbage. We respect all sexualities and embrace them.
North Carolina passed House Bill 2 on March 23 which effectively prevents cities and counties in the state from passing rules that protect LGBT rights.
The new law establishes a statewide nondiscrimination ordinance that explicitly supersedes any local nondiscrimination measures. The statewide protections cover race, religion, color, national origin and biological sex, but explicitly excludes
sexual orientation or gender identity from the list.
Christians are 'shocked' that American frequent porn users neither feel guilty or are uncomfortable about their porn use.
A study, entitled, The Porn Phenomenon was commissioned by evangelist Josh McDowell. It found that 89% of daily
pornography users are comfortable with their use of porn. This is compared to 77% of weekly users and 70% of once-or-twice-a-month users who said the same.
Only 3% of daily users said they wished they no longer used pornography, while just 7% of
monthly users and 12% of once-or-twice-a-month users concurred.
Practicing Christians, on the other hand, were found to be nearly half as likely to be comfortable with their pornography consumption than non-Christians. Only 39% said they were
comfortable with their level of porn consumption, while 73% of non-Christians said the same. Sixty-one% of practicing Christians said they wished they used less porn -- or none at all -- compared to just 27% of all others.
The comprehensive study,
which was conducted by The Barna Group, was conducted through four online surveys that were designed to represent the general American population. Nearly 3,000 people participated in the study.