What’s Happening in the Adult Business

What is happening in the adult business is no different from what has happened in most other industries. Many Small, medium and large size companies dried out and only the largest and the smartest companies and operations are still around. It’s a great time to learn about business and to learn about saving money and spending smart.

Many entrepreneurs have found that there is nothing like learning something from experience.  For some the change and our financial collapse could not have come at a worst time and others have managed to survive.  Either way we all need to take something from the events of the last 5-10 years.

In the Adult Business that means taking a look at how we got to where we are now and there are several issues worth mentioning.  At the end of the century the business was already under attack by the Bush administration and the Religious forces. Soon the focus was on censoring the industry and more importantly (as I call it) ‘vulnerabilizing’ the industry by simply imposing stricter laws regarding ‘proof of age’ or ‘2257’ under the claim of ‘preventing child pornography’. As if there was some already established link or study linking the ADULT industry with any production of ‘child pornography’ (which there wasn’t and still isn’t) they used this platform to start intimidating adult producers into a ‘must be ready at all times’ scare over simple ID files. For what it’s worth, the 2257 has a ‘good’ or common sense part to it. IE.. Yes it is a good thing to have IDs on the talent that you shoot. But unfortunately, as many of the FSC attorneys have proclaimed and proven; to the best of our knowledge there are simply NO cases of child pornography that have been subverted or prevented thanks to the federal 2257 regulations. One thing HAS happened however, all the talent identities and privacy has been compromised. Something as important as ones right to privacy was tossed out the window. This is a loss for the country and the people of this country that don’t feel that corporations or national symbol are more important than the people who make up those bodies. Has anyone counted how much of a step backwards this was?

In summary the industry was used as a tool to undermine our privacy in a way that the Screen Actors Guild would never have allowed. This undermining of our privacy came in conjunction with other prosecutions over issues of morality, just like in a Theocracy.

In the business side of things Corporatism kicked into full gear. New companies popped up everywhere. Businessmen armed with technology guys built their web sites and formed mini-empires. Talent agencies came in and locked down the fun and freedom that talent had experienced up to then in exchange for higher rates and more structure. Before the era of ‘agents’ talent who were not with World Modeling or Pretty Girls International, had to call production companies to get work. The talent had to be very nice to the producers to work. With the advent of the ‘super agencies’ many things changed, some for the worse and some for the better, depending on who you ask.

With the new ‘corporate-power-tech-companies’ all moved in, the adult business became … well ‘a business’ and strictly a business. This seems to be the natural cycle of things however. This was due to happen sooner or later. Today we speak about the ‘business of porn’. Many people want to get into the business of porn now. Perhaps those that came before will tell the stories of how it was and influence the direction of where we are going. Or maybe we need to ‘mechanicalize’ it and kill it before we start it over again. OR perhaps we never look back and seek to make it better somehow. I believe anything is possible.

My invented words: ‘vulnerabilizing’ and ‘mechanicalize’ … and for this I apologize to the ‘grammar gods’