For the past few years, the discussion of mandating condoms in porn has been on the table. In 2012, a voter approved measure forced condom use in Los Angeles County, but now it seems like the possibility of having it mandated for the entire state is in the works. If such a bill is passed, by 2016, all porn filmed in California will require that the performers use condoms.
According to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, they currently have 371,000 signatures which is enough put a ballot out there for the voters of California to decide upon. Although the signatures still need to be validated by officials, being over the minimum amount of signatures (366,880), things are looking good for those who want porn stars to wrap it up during sex scenes.
But while the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is citing that almost a dozen porn performers were infected with HIV between 2004 and 2014, those who work in the industry aren’t in support of the measure. In 2013, James Deen spoke out about the condom debate, declaring such a mandate as a “huge violation of my rights as an American citizen,” while Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation insists that porn actors should be “afforded the same safeguards as other Californians in their workplaces.” The porn industry is definitely at odds with the healthcare industry.
Of course if the law is passed, it doesn’t mean an end to bareback sex scenes in porn, it just means that the porn industry, most of which is filmed in the San Fernando Valley, will have to find another place to set up shop, if that’s how they want to continue to roll. And, honestly, they're not going to have to go to far to wiggle their way out of condoms.
Here are five things to know about condoms in porn.
1. Less Than 20 Percent Of Performers Use Condoms
No matter what a specific state mandates in regards to condom use, a 2013 study found that only 17 percent of performers use condoms in heterosexual porn. The same study also found that 66 percent of porn performers have herpes and seven percent have HIV.
2. Performers Who Don’t Use Condoms Are Tested Every Two Weeks
Although it used to be that performers who had sex without condoms had to be tested every 28 days, the industry has since decided to make it every 14 days.
According to James Deen, "You are basically in a fluid, locked relationship with people that are all getting tested every 14 days with the highest standards of equipment, and there's a database backing everything up, and everything's cross referenced about who's worked with who and what happened here and you can pretty much cut anything off.”
3. Las Vegas Doesn’t Require Condom Use In Porn
At the moment, not only does Las Vegas not require condom use in porn, but unlike California and Miami, they’ve yet to face the possibility of a bill being passed that would mandate condom use. But it's interesting to note that a 2012 study found that L.A. porn stars have more STDs than legal prostitutes in Las Vegas.
4. Brazil’s Porn Industry Has One Of The Highest Rates Of Condom Use
Although Brazilian porn performers are not legally required to use condoms during sex scenes, 80 percent of the films made in Brazil include condoms. Because of their views on condom use, Brazilian pornographers have criticized L.A. pornographers for being so adamantly against using condoms in films.
5. Only About A Dozen Porn Industries In The U.S. Are Condom-Only Productions
After an HIV scare in the porn industry in the late 1990s, Wicked, a condom-only, California-based porn company made condoms mandatory. According to their CEO Steven Orenstein, at the time about a dozen other companies followed suit. Those companies who continue to buck condoms claim that it will drive away viewers, because condoms kill the fantasy of it all. Orenstein, however, says that Wicked hasn't seen a decline in viewers since making condoms in all films a must.
If you'd like to take a trip down memory lane, watch the sex myths you believed as a child below (and subscribe to Bustle's YouTube page for more videos):
Want more sex? Of course you do. So download Bustle's app from iTunes for all the most recent sex and relationships news, advice, memes, and GIFs from around the Web. Guaranteed to fulfill you more than your ex.
Images: Giphy(5)
