Porn is not sexy. It’s degrading, dangerous, and harmful for all parties involved.

For @zetsubouloli​, and to the millions of people who have been lied to about the porn industry.

tw abuse, sexual content

Girls who were 17 a month ago, a week ago, a day ago, are pressured into doing porn in a million ways. They are threatened, coerced, tricked, forced to become addicted to drugs, and certainly lied to about how hardcore they will be asked to go. 

Porn stars talk about their most “popular” scenes. 
“I got the **** kicked out of me… most of the girls start crying because they’re hurting so bad… I couldn’t breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset and they didn’t stop. They kept filming. [I asked them to turn the camera off] and they kept going.” • “[One particular film] was the most brutal, depressing, scary scene that I have ever done. I have tried to block it out from my memory due to the severe abuse that I received during the filming. The [male performer] has a natural hatred towards women, in the sense that he has always been known to be more brutal than ever needed. I agreed to do the scene, thinking it was less beating except a punch in the head. If you noticed, [he] had worn his solid gold ring the entire time and continued to punch me with it.” • “It was the most degrading, embarrassing, horrible thing ever. I had to shoot an interactive DVD, which takes hours and hours of shooting time, with a 104 degree fever! I was crying and wanted to leave but my agent wouldn’t let me, he said he couldn’t let me flake on it. I also did a scene where I was put with male talent that was on my ‘no list’. I wanted to please them so I did it. He stepped on my head […] I freaked out and started balling; they stopped filming and sent me home with reduced pay since they got some shot but not the whole scene.”
http://fightthenewdrug.org/10-porn-stars-speak-openly-about-their-most-popular-scenes/

Sex-trafficking linked to porn industry.
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johnhenry-westen/want-to-stop-sex-traffick_b_6563338.html

Sex-trafficking linked to porn industry again.
 https://www.shelleylubben.com/sex-trafficking-and-pornography-link-between-two

And again.
http://abc13.com/business/porn-expo-planned-for-sw-houston-kicked-out-of-hotel/1439112/

Porn increases demand for sex-trafficking. 
http://www.cnet.com/news/utah-governor-declares-porn-a-health-hazard/#!

Porn inspires young men to go to prostitutes.
http://www.sahilonline.org/newsDetails.php?cid=1&nid=41479

Porn stars discuss the industry. 
“When in response to his suggestions I let him know I would not become involved in prostitution in any way and told him I intended to leave, [T******] beat me up physically and the constant mental abuse began. I literally became a prisoner, I was not allowed out of his sight, not even to use the bathroom, where he watched me through a hole in… the door. He slept on top of me at night, he listened to my telephone calls with a .45 automatic eight shot pointed at me. I was beaten physically and suffered mental abuse each and every day thereafter. He undermined my ties with other people and forced me to marry him on advice from his lawyer.”
https://castimonia.org/2013/08/15/multiple-pornstars-speak-out-about-the-reality-of-the-pornography-industry/

Porn star discusses physical problems of porn no one warned her about.
 “I had a lot of anal tears, vaginal tears. I would take pain killers so I could smile. My throat would bleed from the face-f***ing. I got out of it, but who wants to date me now? Even when I’m 60 or 70 those videos will be online. It stays with you.”
http://gawker.com/former-porn-star-recalls-her-horror-story-of-a-career-1450244388

Most successful male pornstar speaks out about horrors of the industry.
“I made my first porno. I walked out with four crisp $100 bills. Got on my motorcycle. Drove home. I remember thinking ‘What have I done?’ Little did I know it would turn into [me becoming] the most popular, decorated male porn star of all time. I didn’t know what love was. I didn’t even know if I could feel love. I looked at women like objects. There was no emotion in the act of making love. I had to go to work to do the porn to buy the drugs to bury the pain of doing the porn.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-p9Wr6xg0

Two x-porn stars discuss the industry.
“I was barely 18 when I did the anal scene. I felt humiliated. Horrible. [The director] put his mark on me. Everyone knew he’d destroyed me.” “We worked in conditions of pure filth.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRZZAuPyG7I

Sex and drug addiction rampant among porn stars.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/ex-porn-star-speaks-out-about-sex-addiction-in-por?utm_term=.ipE67my6e#.leNqyJ9qe

“Modeling agencies” lure young girls to California only to tell them they make porn. No way to get home, the girl’s are pressured into their first times.
http://theurbandaily.com/2015/08/18/amber-rose-prostitution-ring/

And a bonus: Porn causes ED in men, even young men.

1. http://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/porn-erectile-dysfunction
2. http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/health/are-you-watching-too-much-porn-20130821
3. http://globalnews.ca/news/1232726/porn-causing-erectile-dysfunction-in-young-men/
4. http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_3800/3837_erectile-dysfunction-and-porn.html

I won’t even get into how men who watch porn are ranked as being inferior at sexual intercourse by their partners, or how men who watch porn report less pleasure when having sex and less satisfaction with how their spouses/partners look OR the fact that many women can’t stand the idea of their partners masturbating to images of younger, “prettier” girls.

I ALSO won’t talk about the upsurgence in incest-based porn, which becomes more popular of mainstream websites every year (in the guise of step-sister and step-mother) OR how studies show porn contains more instances of violence each and every year (slapping, hitting, verbal abuse) OR how “teen” porn is holding strong as the most popular choice for men of all ages.

AND I won’t even touch porn addiction, even though tens of thousands of men wish they could stop viewing porn but find themselves coming back to it time and time again.

I also won’t even bother to get into the spiritual problems associated with porn.

I’m not trying to be rude, but there’s nothing just good about porn. Ask anyone who’s given it up permanently if they regret doing so. You’ll get a negative every time. Life is better without synthetic “love.”

Petition to have Tumblr actually do something about porn blog bots following users.

• It’s annoying.
• It gives an imperfect metric for how many followers you have. (I would estimate about 25% of my “followers” are porn blogs run by bots).
• It makes pulling up your activity page iffy even if you use Tumblr strictly for SFW content.
• It’s problematic for individuals who have struggled with sex and/or pornography addictions, especially since many of the blog names are not obviously porn names, causing you to preview the blog.
• It exposes minors to illegal and harmful content.

And to many some of us:
• Porn (not the human beings in the porn) is disgusting.
• (Some of us, but not all) also find porn degrading to human beings, especially women (simply because women are more often the central attraction in porn, not because they are women and therefore somehow magically more affected by sex than men.)
• It makes Tumblr a less classy, less reputable place.

Please share this if you agree this is a serious problem.

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Update Aug. 01, 2016: Both myself and others who’ve messaged me regarding this have tired to contact Tumblr support directly, through email, and through Twitter. Aside from a generic copy/pasted response about how great it is that we’re being vigilant against spam, they have not taken any action or even acknowledged that this is a problem for many users. They don’t even take action when a user complains that the porn-bots are using their non-NSFW pictures for the porn-bot profile picture, or when the bots steal copyrighted NSFW images for their own use.

I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I’m beginning to think Tumblr has a vested financial interest in the porn-bots and actively wants to keep them going. For example, they might have back-door agreements with major porn sites because this is a great way to bring in new users (especially young users)  who don’t yet visit those sites. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that they don’t care about this problem. I encourage you to reach out to them directly as well through various social media. This will not change unless they feel like it will be more beneficial for them to deal with the problem than leave it the way it is. 

Edit: Whoa. I posted this less than two days ago (July 25th 2016) and already it’s by far my most popular post (4,300 notes). It’s awesome seeing this kind of response, and I’m happy I decided to make this even though it seemed silly at the time. I was writing it as a way to vent more than really thinking anything would come of it, but I couldn’t be more pleased.To the people saying thank you because they thought they were alone in being really annoyed and/or disgusted by the porn-bots: Thank you! I didn’t know so many people agreed on this issue. I thought I was in the quiet, silent minority. Now I’m rethinking that. It goes to show we’re more alike than we think.To everyone reblogging and tagging @staff : Thank you! I didn’t realize that was an option. How great would it be if something actually came of this?Of course, we could choose to go on other websites. But I’m guessing I’m not alone in my confusion as to why it’s easy to avoid porn on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, DeviantArt, etc. etc. but close to impossible on Tumblr. I can’t imagine it’s beyond their capabilities to deal with this issue.Lastly, people have added a couple more reasons this is a problem. It’s a problem for:

• People who are repulsed by sexually explicit images
• People who don’t mind “normal” sexual images but who can’t get the (often violent) hardcore gifs out of their minds after seeing them with an accidental preview.
• People who are religious and disavow pornography. Obviously it’s not a sin if the contact with pornography is accidental, but it still causes negative guilt-like feelings, especially when they catch themselves linger over the images, even for curiosity’s sake. I’m sure there are even more.

Edit #2: Some people have brought up their concerns about what I mean by “especially women” and if I mean to target sex workers as part of the problem. These are great questions!  I address them here.

Edit #3: Even though I specifically said only some of us find hard-core porn disgusting, some people have brought up their concerns with what I mean by that as well. I can understand why you would feel that way, and really my beef about the porn-bots doesn’t need that to be effective, but in case you are curious. I discuss that here. If you are then further curious to see what kind of guy would have such strong opinions about porn, you can read this. I’m happy to talk about it with you, but please note this is not an open invitation to attack my beliefs. :) 

Edit #4: One more quick edit before going to sleep for the night. I realize my plea for getting rid of the porn bots also touches on much more complicated issues that people have strong feelings about. Porn-use in general, sex workers, misogyny, philosophy, religion. It’s good to talk and even debate, try to understand each other better, but I also feel like this should be a more focussed thing. Let’s just deal with the one thing we agree with: the porn bots suck eggs and they need to go. By reblogging this, you are NOT saying you agree with whatever other beliefs I may hold. This is only about the porn bots. I should have been tighter on my original composition, focusing only on the porn bots. (Man, that’s a weird sentence.) I’m really sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings today in our discussions. That’s not the kind of person I am, but short bursts of text are not the best medium for convey complex feelings and emotions. Goodnight.  

I think one of the most dangerous things I see online is stuff like “unfollow me right now if you don’t think _____” or “if you don’t think ______ you can unfriend me this instant.“ I see things on here all the time that say things like that, and they’ve got sometimes hundreds of thousands of notes. It’s crazy.

It’s like people are so terrified these days of anyone who doesn’t tow the party line of the new ideologies. Or even people who do, but who don’t use the same language that people want them to use.

It’s like people want to make sure they don’t encounter any ideas except the ones that jive with their worldview. To the point where they want to cut themselves off from dissenting opinions. That’s so dangerous. It will lead to homogenization.

I don’t care what you stand for—religious liberties, LGBTQ rights, racial issues, gender and sex issues—you can’t afford to shut doors in your mind just because you don’t like what might be behind them.