[alternative film]

review by Reviewer Rob

Proposition 60 would have altered things for porn in California had it passed on November 8. Things quietly changed for porn after California’s 2012 Los Angeles Measure B, the mandatory condom law, and many adult production companies began their de-investment process in the Golden State. But the added civil suit incentives of Prop 60 threatened to provide teeth that previous regulatory measures lacked. Adult entertainment businesses in LA already occupy a shrinking economy due to other unrelated market forces and the previous condom law, so the industry cheered when Prop 60 was voted down.

The content on “It’s My First Time: Volume 4” was shot during the year prior to the election at an unspecified location which looked like someone’s upmarket LA guest house, and there’s no hint of the coming potential pornocalypse. While the unrehearsed feel of the interactions here are fun to watch, and Joanna seems like she’d be a cool neighbor with all her tattoos, the B-grade stripper quality of the talent here isn’t very attractive. The whole condom pressure thing will most likely drive that pool down lower.

From the November 8 California ballot regarding condoms in porn films:

‘Proposition 60 would require adult film producers to provide condoms and ensure that performers use them during performances in which “performers actually engage in vaginal or anal penetration by a penis.” While condoms would not need to be visible in films distributed to consumers, producers would need to prove that condoms were used. The costs of performers’ workplace-related medical examinations, sexually-transmitted infections (STI) tests, and STI vaccines would be covered by film producers under the measure. Adult film producers would be required to be licensed by Cal/OSHA every two years. Furthermore, producers would be required to contact Cal/OSHA whenever they make an adult film.’

Not long ago porn was describes as a thriving industry in a universe parallel to mainstream Hollywood entertainment, wealthy yet underground and invisible. Before internet’s first boom in the late 1990’s access to porn was limited to the smut rack under the surveillance camera of the local convenience store, or mail order. There were almost no enforced rules in its production and a Wild West atmosphere prevailed. Now that it’s become so common and anyone can access it for free at any time on their phone there’s more laws restricting its boundaries.

In the midst of the path modern porn is taking the universe it occupies has various overlapping social circles. If you’re a producer or an acting talent you occupy a certain place in the environmental sphere, the same for another type of character like a webmaster or a on-set grip/film-crew member. Then there’s the financing moguls and entertainment lawyers, or someone else that’s involved in the business of adult entertainment. How popular you are in the porn scene is what determines your location in relation to the center of this highly competitive World of Porn.

Although Joanna Angel started out as an “alternative” genre talent and webmaster with her site Burning Angel she has for the last decade moved closer and closer to the epicenter of the porn universe. No longer just an alternative actress, through her ubiquity she’s now a reigning Queen of Porn. This is no mean feat as things change all the time. Just ask James Deen. Like a sumo wrestling match there’s always the next crop of hottie associates willing to try and push the one in the center out of the spotlight. Joanna Angel through her personality and luck shows little sign of getting bumped.

Anyways, back to the condom law thing. Maybe you’re like me and were unaware that a 1992 California law already prohibited the production of porn without a condom. Its non-existent enforcement made it a de-facto mute point for more than twenty years. Local Cal/OSHA officials were unenthusiastic about popping in on a porn set and checking boners for latex. Now as companies are fighting for dwindling membership they just might call in the competition.

But is porn really that much of a hazard to public health, as politicians have said, or is someone just power trippin? The threat is that the proponent of Prop 60 and “free” porn’s current arch rival Michael Weinstein and the company he runs, Aids Healthcare Foundation, may try something new. If enforcement of the old law or the next iteration of Prop 60 become the eventual status quo it will so dramatically alter things that the American porn industry may wither or go overseas as it has threatened.

Currently it’s difficult to see how anyone makes any real money at all from porn making. If Johnny Jerkoff wants to squeeze one out into a sock he can go to one of these high quality crowd-stocked sites like Pornhub and xHamster to get a newly uploaded clip of Jenny banging her new boyfriend or Bob getting a blowjob at work in his car during lunch from the mail-room girl. These crowd-sourced sites are loaded with scenes by anonymous citizens doing it for fun, not a paycheck. Yes, there’s also the infamous illegally pirated content and even teaser previews by the professional companies. But honestly there’s so much high-quality porn being uploaded from ordinary citizens all the time it’s actually a quiet social revolution that is unprecedented in modern history, and it’s all for free. And that’s just content done and recorded in private. We’re not even talking yet about the live free sex shows on cam sites like Chaturbate.

So, unlike fifteen years ago where you had to buy a magazine or visit a strip club to see a strange naked woman without buying her drinks or dinner, no one really needs to pay for access to erotica any more. But yet many of the big companies are staying afloat and in this shrinking porno economy those fat cats will likely increase their market share.

Maybe that’s the way it should be. Perhaps the era of big cash returns for everyone in the domestic internet porn market was an anomaly, a brief epoch whose time is over, and it’s now replaced by a more democratic and social form of self-expression where exhibitionist sex is mostly just for fun and for free.