Post-AVN Reflections: Interracial Porn Needs More Than One Narrative

It's been a few weeks now since the fateful day this year's Oscar nominees were announced. The blindingly white ballot shined a blindingly bright light on Hollywood's diversity problem, illuminating Hollywood's need to take a good hard look at how they cast their movies and why. The backlash from the event gleaned both positive and negative criticism from actors and spectators alike, some happy that such an important shortcoming was finally being addressed and some enraged by what they considered to be a coincidental occurrence. In the wake of the Oscars scandal—whether the fault lies with the ceremony itself or the overarching movie industry—many reporters paid a visit to the "Oscars of Porn" to see if adult entertainment was more inclusive. Some hoped the nature of porn, in all it unabashed glory, had surpassed the tip-toeing money grab of mainstream movie racism.

Needless to say, it hasn't.

It gets worse, too. Unfortunately, unlike the Oscars, porn's problem far exceeds its reluctance to cast nonwhite actors and actresses in racially unspecified roles; the pay structure itself has cast interracial porn (which refers almost exclusively to sex between black men and white women) as a taboo act not suited for normal porn or normal porn rates. This diversity problem goes beyond the detrimental and debilitating effects it has on its performers because as we all know, media has the power to shape how we view ourselves and other people in real life. In short, we're reinforcing the taboo, flagrantly stereotypical nature of interracial porn on our viewers, which profoundly affects how we think of multiracial sex in our actual lives.

And you know what? We have a responsibility to change that. 

The final frontier 

The state of IR porn wouldn't be so concerning if it weren't the only story we offered viewers. After all, porn rides the hazy, vacillating line between fantasy and reality, making it hard to pinpoint many categories as "wrong." In the world of adult entertainment, it's not our job to judge—it's our job to explore. Just like many people have rape fantasies and have no desire to be raped in real life, many scenes that turn us on aren't always something we want recreate in our sex lives. But that's the thing: People with rape fantasies are able to watch that kind of porn plus consensual porn. They're offered an alternate narrative, something that allows them to envision themselves and their partners in a vastly different dynamic. Performers who star in fantasy scenes like that are still able to star in softcore, illuminating the complex and fluid nature of sexuality. Do we offer black performers this alternate narrative, this secondary persona to embody, though?

Nope. Not at all. 

It's difficult to pinpoint whose fault this is, in all fairness. Most of the time, if a production company tries to cast a white female with a black male, the female performer will refuse, but not because she doesn't enjoy sex with black men in her personal life. The pay scale of porn just isn't set up that way. Women are offered a certain rate, usually around $1K, to do a regular scene. Anal and DP are worth more and so forth until she gets to IR porn, which can frequently earn her double the rate of a normal scene. And don't even get me started on how this impacts the potential earnings of black women; because black females having sex with black men wouldn't qualify as "taboo," they are not offered this pay structure at all. Not only are they paid less for normal scenes, they're also expected to do everything—anal, DP, you name it—from the get-go without scaling up and building that anticipation that can frequently fuel successful performer careers. 

For this reason, many women won't do an IR scene right away (whether that's to prevent burnout or to ensure she's not docking her potential pay down the road). This, in turn, means most black men won't be cast in "regular" scenes but will be used almost exclusively in IR scenes. Performers don't want this, producers and directors don't want this, but it's the nature of the industry. We've created a chicken-or-the-egg game of sorts, as porn consumers expect and fetishize IR porn and are not used to seeing black men and white women (or black women and white men) together in "normal" scenes. This customer demand created the porn pay scale, and production companies inevitably keep creating this porn. 

Exploiting the BBC

So why the fascination with IR porn? Interestingly enough, it's not just white women or black men seeking out this dynamic. White men frequently search for IR porn, whether they crave cuckolding scenes, gangbangs, or simply FM scenes. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why this is, but it has a lot to do with how we've stereotyped black men as a whole. There is, of course, our collective fascination with the BBC, our somewhat biological response to seeing a huge cock on screen. Because many (not all, but many) African American men are known for being hung, we now associate black males with big dicks.

Then there's assumption that all black men are sexually superior and dominant, more keen on getting what they want and more skilled at pleasing women in bed. It doesn't matter whether or not this is true—like many stereotypes, it may be an accurate reflection of some men an an inaccurate portrayal of others. The stereotypes continue: Black men are thugs, black men are the most common rapists, black men break into unsuspecting white women's houses. In day-to-day life, the educated person understands these are racist things to say about a group of individuals, but due to the nature (and stigma) of porn, we infrequently apply this kind of critical thinking to what we get off to. 

Again, there's nothing wrong with fantasizing about fucking a well-endowed guy or a more sexually dominant one in front a semi-submissive husband—but we don't let black men star in any nonracially specified roles. In mainstream cinema, this is equivalent of having all black actors star in roles as slaves, criminals, and athletes.

The key to inclusive entertainment is simple: Cast them in normal, nonracially specified roles. 

Beyond IR 

Making this happen is more complicated than that, of course. To create roles for both black men and women in regular porn scenes, performers have to blatantly disregard the pay structure and put their potential earnings at risk, and producers have to prepare for a certain degree of backlash from consumers. But here's the thing: Money talks. Porn, more than almost any other industry, pays close attention to what its consumers ask for and reflect requests in their content selection. Many performers are also porn consumers, as are many sex writers (like me!) and all of you reading this.

If we want to create an industry that paints interracial sex and normal, healthy, and fun, we need to step up and ask for regular content starring performers of multiple races and ethnicities, as well as role reversals. (For example, for those who like the dynamic of "break-in" sex, why not star an African American woman as the homeowner and a white guy as the thief?) The more specific we can be in our requests (and our purchases), the more of an impact we can have on the porn community, not just with black men, but performers of every color and shape.

You know the saying: It's time to put your money where your mouth is.