The End Of Alt: A Memoir

I discovered altporn when I was eighteen, and in quick succession went on to become a model and producer and, eventually, a retiree. So I found myself fascinated by a recent edition of Eye Weekly's "Love Bites" column in which an aspiring altporn model writes in to ask for advice on online porn sites. How can she flash her tits for cash without selling her soul to some evil SuicideGirls-style company? The short answer: she can't. Getting naked online is a business; the market is oversaturated with hot young girls looking to cash in; and DIY style doesn't always guarantee a progressive and respectful attitude towards models.

As a veteran of altporn, this makes me cringe; but as a veteran of altporn, I also know she's right.

When I was a wide eyed nineteen year old with a digital camera and a dream, it was a different story: someone like me could (and did) start a porn site -- one that, free from the pressures of the corporate world, could explore different territory from mainstream porn. But the dream is dead, kids. If you want to be in the online porn scene these days, you've got to have cash -- and as a result, "indie" porn ain't so indie anymore.

So what changed?

· The Visa/MC crackdown. A decade or so ago, starting a porn site was easy: you got some web space, you took some naked pix, you found a billing agent to process your membership fees ... and then you sat back and waited for the money to roll in. But in fall of 2002, Visa and Mastercard decided to end the party. Declaring adult sites to be a high risk for chargebacks, they started requiring a registration fee to process payments for adult sites: $750 up front and $375 annually after that. While that's not big money for a large company, it's a substantial hit (and deterrent) for a small startup. (Bonus fact: The Visa/MC processing fees are the reason why you can't use PayPal to sell adult-themed products. So when PayPal cancels your account after it finds out you're selling used panties ... well, at least now you'll know why.)

· Stricter 2257 regulations. If you want to pose naked on the internet, you need to be 18 or older -- and if you want to post naked pictures of other people on the internet, you need proof that all the people you're posting pictures of are at least 18. This used to be a relatively simple matter of getting an ID and a release form from everyone who modeled for you. Then the government decided to step in and make things a little more complex: claiming that they were fighting the evil menace of child porn, they started requiring vastly more complete (and complicated) records for online models. If you're a small company running a multi-model site, 2257 record keeping requirements (which require publishing a physical address online where those records can be inspected and keeping regular office hours so the DOJ can show up on your doorstep whenever they want to) can be brutal.

· That big bully, SG. You've heard about the lawsuits, you've heard about the exclusivity contracts, you've heard about how they basically "own" a big chunk of the altporn market. Even though they didn't invent the genre -- there were lots of folks getting naked on the internet altstyle long before they launched, including me -- they basically dominate the scene now: and they don't appreciate it when other companies try to take them on. And most of the time, their intimidation tactics work.

· In many ways, "Alt" isn't really alternative anymore. When I started taking it off online, it had yet to become a hipster pastime -- it wasn't considered cool, and I didn't gain cred (at least not with anyone I knew in person) for doing it. Flash forward to 2004: SuicideGirls is mainstream, emo girls aspire to be porn stars when they hit 18, and a whole lot of people are looking to cash in on the next new thing in porn. Hence Hustler bankrolling a Burning Angel movie and Vivid launching Vivid Alt. Tattoos and piercings in porn used to signify a product that was female-friendly, feminist, and (dare we say it) empowering; now it's just another wrapper for the same old product.

This isn't to say that any broke kid with dreams of becoming a porn mogul can, if given the chance, launch a progressive porn site even a radical feminist could love. But as more and more barriers to entry get put up -- economic, legal, or otherwise -- fewer people are able to enter the market; and those that do are unlikely to risk their bankroll trying to create and promote a different kind of porn. Which, at the end of the day, may be the reason why the most progressive porn site I've seen in recent years comes to us from Australia.

· "Working For The Boy Instead of the Man" (eyeweekly.com)