CHATSWORTH, Calif. — The specter of legislation mandating condom usage in adult movie productions has been raised once again, revived by last week’s revelation that an unidentified female performer that had worked for a brief time despite having an expired test result was HIV positive.
And once again, adult industry professionals are adamant that such measures won’t work.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors first became interested in health and safety conditions for adult performers after the issue was raised in 2003 by an article in the Los Angeles Times Magazine. That piece examined existing safety practices in the adult industry. That same year the county asked CAL/OSHA to look into existing regulations to determine if additional regulations were necessary and to develop a plan for safer sex within the adult industry. County and state officials have pushed for the adult industry to voluntarily adopt a condom-only policy ever since, even supporting legislation mandating such measures that ultimately failed.
Their efforts are opposed by a majority of adult production companies that fervently believe that consumers have a strong preference for condom-free movies. Further, some company owners suggest that requiring California’s production studios to use condoms would be ruinous to an industry already struggling to cope with piracy and an ever increasingly competitive global marketplace. “I think it would be devastating. No one wants to see reality when they watch porn, that’s what they live with. The rubbers just don’t work for the fantasy,” Jeff Steward, owner of JM Productions, told AVN.
The belief that adult entertainment packages a fantasy experience for consumers that would be undermined by condoms is prevalent among adult industry professionals.
“It’s not like this hasn’t been done before,” Steward added, noting that a handful of adult companies went condom-only after the 1998 HIV cluster, but one-by-one those companies reverted back to condom-free or condom-optional change with the sole exception of Wicked Pictures. It is generally believed that the companies who adopted the condom-only policy took a hit financially for doing so.
Christian Mann, former owner of Video Team and now general manager of Evil Angel, knows firsthand just how hard it can be to compete with condom-only product in a market dominated by condom-free product. Video Team was one of the companies that went condom-only in 1998. “It just killed the sales because it’s not what the consumers want to see,” he said.
Wicked Pictures president Steve Orenstein, whose company has been condom-only for 10 years after being condom optional, agreed that the decision had a negative impact on sales – at least initially.
“When we made the change, sales were definitely affected, especially in Europe. Today, I 'm sure it still does have an effect, just not as much,” Orenstein said, noting that now there are some international companies that can only buy condom-only product. “We hope by this point that consumers are very aware of our brand, the quality and consistency of our products and our exclusive stars and directors and that all those factors lead them to our products and help them look past the condom.
“The magnitude of positive feedback that we received as recently as this weekend at Erotica LA, would tell me that's true.”
Vivid Video went condom-optional in 2006, leaving the decision regarding condom use up to the performers. Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid, then acknowledged that the condom-optional policy had probably cost his company money, even though he insisted that the decision to go condom-optional was not a financial one. Hirsch said his performers wanted the option of not using condoms.
Adam & Eve is another condom-optional company, and even had a long-term contract performer – Carmen Luvana – who took advantage of that opportunity. Executive producer Meredith Christopher noted that the condom option is rarely chosen. “We leave the choice to the performers and we always have condoms available on set and any time someone requests a condom we’re glad to provide them,” Christopher said. “If they want to use condoms, more power to them, but they usually don’t these days. They were used more often in the past but for some reason they stopped at some point.”
Female performers, Christopher says, sometimes complain that condoms are uncomfortable after lengthy use. “Keep in mind that adult performers are having sex that lasts one to two hours. Condoms are designed for normal people that have sex for like eight minutes.” She reports that male performers often feel the need to remove condoms during breaks in the action in order to keep hard, putting on a new condom before restarting. It’s acknowledged throughout the industry that some male performers definitely have problems performing with condoms – but not all. “I had Scott Nails fuck a girl in winter under an outdoor shower standing up,” director Axel Braun said. “Using a condom isn’t going to be that difficult for someone like that. If it drives out some performers who aren’t quite as good – so be it.”
Not that Braun, nor anyone interviewed for this report, supports mandating condom usage. He views the possibility of catching HIV and/or other STDs as just part of doing business in adult. “You want to be a race-car driver? There is the risk that you are going to get in an accident and break some bones,” he said. “It’s the same thing here but the difference is that we have a system in place that works really, really well to prevent these things from happening – but when it does happen, it can dealt with immediately in a very effective way.
“If you look at the statistics, the percentage of people who have sex in the adult industry, and the frequency with which they have sex, and compare this to the rate of HIV transmission in the general population – I think we’ve done an excellent job,” Braun said.
California-based companies are concerned that any attempt by the state to regulate the adult industry will hamper their ability to compete in an increasingly global marketplace. They are particularly concerned that condom-free movies would still be available from other locales.
Evil Angel’s Tricia Devereaux remarked, “The reason Evil Angel is against mandatory condoms is because in a business like the adult business it is essentially impossible to regulate what is made because then you would also have to regulate what is sold.”
And there’s the rub: as long as condom-free movies can be made somewhere they will end up on retail shelves. Thus, production companies will have a compelling reason to relocate to a locale that doesn’t require condoms. “If California makes a rule that is not federal, then people will go out of state; if the rule becomes federal, then people will shoot in Mexico or up in Canada,” Devereaux said.
Or worse, the production companies could even go underground, a sketchy situation that could introduce a host of new issues in regards to performer safety. The status quo offers performers at least some protections in the form of testing.
“It’s not that we don’t care about the performers but it will kill the legitimate businesses and allow non-legitimate businesses to proliferate,” she said. “I just don’t see that requiring condoms is going to solve problems without creating additional ones.”
Many in the industry believe it’s unlikely that the legislation will ever get out of committee, much less introduced on the legislative floor. “It would be hard for them to pass something like that. Once people become aware about how we do things compared to the general population – where there is no testing – it’s going to be hard to push it through,” suggested Alexander DeVoe, a veteran director whose eponymous line of videos are distributed by Jules Jordan. “But if we don’t get involved, if we just let someone else make the decisions, they might find someone sympathetic to their arguments.”
And even if legislation were to pass, DeVoe, who has shot with condoms in the past, doesn’t see that as the end of the world. “If tomorrow they say, we have to use condoms then I’ll just start using condoms. It’s not like I’m going to stop shooting because of that.”
His sentiment is echoed by Braun, who has also shot condom-only productions in the past. “As a director, there are a lot more difficult things to have to deal with than condoms. We’ll adjust to whatever we need to do. I’ve been working for nearly 20 years now and the secret to longevity in this business is to be consistent and play by the rules.”
