Latex Sex
by Shayla Pandava
Is the face of porn about to change forever? Just last week the ax fell on So Cal porn (that sun and fun capital of the adult industry) when California's OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) fined two porn companies, Evasive Angles and TTB Productions for not protecting their employees from "blood-borne pathogens." The citations went to both companies, (both owned by Phillip Rivera) because it was hard to distinguish one from the other. Essentially, the porn stars weren't wearing condoms while shooting the film, and OSHA enforces regulations that call for employers to protect employees from materials that could be infectious, like bodily fluids. However, some in the industry have objected to the idea that porn actors are "employees," since porn stars work by contract, and OSHA has no jurisdiction over independent contractors; contractors are responsible for their own safety. This would, of course, mean business as usual in a very competitive business. Many porn actors and actresses interviewed since the fines were imposed still felt that if they insisted on using condoms, they'd be out of work.
Most sources consider the OSHA fines a response to the fact that five porn stars turned up HIV-positive back in April, notably Darren James and 18 year-old Lara Roxx fresh from Canada who'd only been working in the business for a couple of months. The HIV scare essentially shut down the industry, for two months. That's because when someone tests positive, the group that monitors the industry's AIDS testing, known as AIM, notifies all the actors who have worked with the infected person (14 in the case of Darren James), during a "window" period of time (porn stars are tested monthly). The positive test of porn star Tricia Devereaux, led to notification of 75 actors who had worked with the actress. Once notified, actors are quarantined for a 60-day incubation period until they can get retested. In the latest snowball of quarantines, production companies all over the San Fernando Valley went dark, voluntarily, while actors waited nervously for their test results to come back negative. Meanwhile, various porn producers got together to try and figure out what course of action they should take. Some decided that they would voluntarily use condoms in all filming. This list includes Erotic Angel, Video Team, Metro, Heatwave Entertainment, Zane Entertainment, Metro and Moonlight. It should be mentioned that some of the biggest houses -- Vivid, Wicked and VCA -- have been all-condom for years.
But even production companies that have decided all-condom porn is the best course of action under the circumstances are nervous. Will consumers buy porn with condoms? Will established producers lose market share to underground, homegrown, and foreign products? Vivid, Wicked, and VCA don't seem to worry about it. But they are big, putting out as many as 200 titles a year. The gay porn industry has also been using condoms for years without really skipping a beat. And there's also an argument that you can shoot the scenes so nobody can tell.
Enter Adam Glasser, the infamous Seymour Butts and father of gonzo porn. He's also the father of an elementary school boy living the rather ordinary life you can see on the Showtime program Family Business. After the April HIV cases, Glasser voluntarily decided to join the all-condom ranks -- rather vocally (have we ever known Butts to do anything on the QT?) -- in his videos from now on.
Butts' Gonzo films, he has said, are all about the pleasure. Filming with a hand held camera in hotel rooms, the back of his van, and other cinema verite locales, Butts often participates in the sex acts himself -- whether he's visible is another matter. Butts films are famous for some of the raunchiest, most natural-looking, free-for-all, consensual sex in the industry. Butts is also well known for standing up for his porn production ethic, that the acts depicted be consensual, fun, natural, and then: anything goes.
In 2001, Glasser was jailed for making a video that included fisting (Tampa Tushy-Fest 2). The fisting element was rather impromptu, according to Glasser, suggested by one of the actresses, Chloe, and discussed only half an hour before he shot the infamous footage. He could have pleaded guilty and taken a fine, but instead, he fought the obscenity charges in court. In interviews he said that if he buckled under, it would open up a path for regional lawsuits against himself for the same offense as well as setting a precedent that would effectively stifle the inclusion of fisting in future porn. After over a year of legal battles, Glasser ended up pleading no contest to "public nuisance" charges, essentially clearing the way for porn makers to include fisting in their repertoire.
Not everyone is on board the voluntary condom train. Notable exceptions are Extreme and Evil Angel, the latter owned by John (Buttman) Stagliano. Stagliano, who himself has been HIV-positive since 1997, claims that he makes it his policy not to "regulate" his actors' condom uses. Whether this means actors can do what they please, or whether it's Stagliano's way of saying he'll say no to condoms in his films, most reports on the condom issue include statements from actors confirming they've experienced being told to do a particular scene a certain way, take it or leave it. So unless all-condom production becomes the norm, actors will always feel some pressure to take the risks.
The latest agreement among so many producers may help ease the pressure. And with the government getting into the picture, perhaps more production companies will follow suit. Glasser feels that the current heat on cleaning up the industry's safety practices is not going to die down. He has said that if OSHA doesn't have jurisdiction, some other agency -- like the Health Department, or worse -- will. Glasser points out that self-policing is preferable to incurring some broad-sweeping law (more than one CA state legislator has been revving their lawmaking engines over the issue) that might further narrow porn choices. As to the success of condom-filled porn films, Glasser is hopeful. He's cheerfully planning his first all-condom film with a "plot" that features the condom, and condom companies are approaching him to get in on his act. Glasser also looks forward to the day when the condom can be digitally erased from the film. But for now, he doesn't consider filming without condoms worth risking lives. If worst comes to worst, Glasser feels he's got his bets covered: if the industry goes all condom and viewers don't like it, they'll be paying more to get hold of his classic, pre-condom videos.
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