Washington - A handsome delivery man arrives offering more than just a pizza.
A pretty young woman opens the door. Flirtation ensues. Clothes are cast off. Then out come the goggles.
Goggles?
Porn stars could soon be forced to don far more protection than just condoms in California. New rules proposed last week by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHA) would require adult film actors to wear eye gear for many scenes. The rules, which have yet to be completed, would also impose strict hygiene standards and outlaw common porn practices.
Porn companies, actors and even some health advocates say the new rules are unnecessary.
“These are regulations designed for medical settings, and are unworkable on an adult film set – or even a Hollywood film set,” said Diane Duke, CEO of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry.
She added the rules would stigmatize performers and risk “shutting down an entire industry”.
For decades, California has produced the vast majority of America’s adult films. Recently, however, critics have pushed to crack down on the state’s porn industry.
In 2012, Los Angeles County passed a controversial law requiring condoms on porn sets. As a result, production in the county plummeted by more than 90 percent.
Technically, current health regulations require porn stars across California to use condoms, but critics say the rule is almost never enforced.
California and New Hampshire are the only two states in the US to explicitly permit adult film production, although other states tacitly allow it. The Los Angeles County’s condom law is credited with pushing porn business to other locations.
Now porn companies fear that the proposed rules will kill California’s adult film industry for good.
The proposed rules are largely the work of one man: Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. For years he has attacked the porn industry for what he calls “dangerously poor” testing procedures and its refusal to use condoms.
His group claims that “at least four adult performers… have become infected with HIV while working in the adult film industry, while thousands of other adult performers became infected with thousands of other sexually-transmitted diseases”.
But the Free Speech Coalition disputes that, arguing that not a single porn star has contracted HIV “on a regulated adult set” since 2004.
Michael Stabile, a spokesperson for San Francisco porn company Kink, told SF Weekly. “They threaten to make working conditions less safe for adult performers. Because everything we do at Kink is based on consent, we can’t support regulations that remove performers’ control over their bodies or force performers to disclose medical information.
“It’s important to note that these are regulations to which performers have been vocal in their opposition.”
Weinstein said he was “pleased” the state was considering the harsher rules after five years of inaction. “The process is designed to give everybody a say,” he said at the hearing. “I think it was conducted fairly.”
Porn companies and actors beg to differ. They say that the new rules are ridiculous. If condoms and dental dams dampen the fantasy of adult films, then wearing goggles will drown it once and for all.
Washington Post-Bloomberg.