Racist Porn Roles and Sex Education

I am Puerto Rican, and we see colors very differently back home. Puerto Ricans come in every size and color so understanding how delicate the topic is in the mainland US was the biggest culture shock I’ve ever had.

I remember the first time someone told me that saying someone is black is offensive because it had never even crossed my mind that in the 21st century, it could be.

With time, I’ve come to somewhat-understand that this is a historical and VERY real problem that is not exclusive to one race; it’s in the DNA of every aspect of North American culture and society. Since then, in my travels, I’ve unfortunately learned that this problem is older than this country; it’s older than modern history. And it’s a problem in the world, not just in the USA.

It is of the utmost importance to me that my readers know that everything I say comes from a place of love, respect, and hope.

I hope that one day, colors, sizes, and individual differences will not serve as a vehicle for hatred and disrespect.

I hope that one day, stereotypes won’t be used to perpetuate discrimination and violence.

I write this article with the intention of shedding light on an undeniable reality; racial stereotypes in porn perpetuate a much bigger problem, and THAT is what this article is about.

Dr. Carolyn West is an expert on domestic violence and cultural sensitivity. Besides traveling the world offering seminars, appearing on podcasts and television shows, and writing documentaries, she’s been teaching Human Sexuality for over 20 years. Her goal is to envision new ways to prevent sexual assault, promote healthy sexuality, and combat hypersexualized images. She puts forward a very simple question that will set the tone for this article:

“How do these images (in pornography) shape masculinity and sexuality?” But I’m going to add femininity.

I frequently see things in porn photos and videos (both while I work and for personal purposes) and wonder, ‘is that something girls do and I should try? And not to mention the unattainable standard of beauty that some adult models and actresses set because, boy oh boy, what would the world look like if women looked like they do in porn? And I firmly believe that it’s safe to say that most sex workers have looked at a colleague and considered what they would look like if they also got their boobs done, got fillers and botox, maybe a new booty, some lypo, vaginal reconstruction…

What happens when your early sexual experiences are shaped by porn in which African-Americans are portrayed as ‘gangbangers’, Asians dress like schoolgirls, and women have unnatural bodies?

“My boyfriend grew to hate doing porn because he was constantly told to act more like a thug stereotype. He got passed up many times because he was not dark enough and because he was uncomfortable being rough with women and calling them racist names. He wasn’t good at playing into  the ‘scary black man’ persona, so directors went for the guys that could.”

-Vanessa Belmond

Every year (except in 2020, for some reason), Pornhub producers publish the “Year in Review” graphs and statistics on their Insights page. Insight, in marketing, is what a company applies to make a product or brand more appealing to customers, not ‘a look inside’ what is happening.

Since their statistics are not verifiable, we can’t really know if their Insight Top Searches are what people are searching for or what they benefit financially the most from us watching. Either way, the argument in this article stands. Whether we’re searching these racist “categories” or being led to watching because we think “everyone else is doing it,” this racist porn is shaping masculinity, femininity, and sexuality.

Just for perspective, in 2019, 12 out of the top 25 Pornhub searched terms were race-related. These were (in order from most searched to least) Japanese, hentai, Korean, Asian, massage (predominantly features Asians), ebony, anime (predominantly features Asian stereotypes), Chinese, gangbang (predominantly features African-Americans), Latina, Indian, and BBC.

In 2021, 4/20 searches were explicitly race-related. Japanese, Ebony, Hentai (all in the top four), and Cartoon, which predominantly feature Asian stereotypes. I want to point out that BBC was made more inclusive and rebranded as Big Dick. Interestingly, out of the top 20 searched ‘Gay Terms,’ 11 are race-related. Hentai, black, Japanese, Pinoy (a person of Filipino descent), Asian, yaoi (a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters), anime, Korean, massage, BBC, and gangbang.

The porn industry depicts and profits from blatantly racist narratives.

Fact: Research shows that videos featuring African-Americans disproportionately emphasize violence and aggression.

Fact: Porn also tends to use harmful racial stereotypes when portraying Asian women who are treated less aggressively but also have lower agency in sexual activities.

Fact: The porn industry often fetishizes race, reducing people of color to sexual categories that often focus on damaging stereotypes.

Fact: Hentai has been one of Pornhub’s top 2 searches since 2017. Hentai is short for hentai seiyoku which means perverse sexual desire. It depicts highly exaggerated sex acts between Asian characters with unnaturally big body parts and specializes in taboo fetishes.

Am I saying that being into people of color, cartoons, group sex, big dicks, taboo fetishes, etc., is creating a problem? No.

I’m saying that porn shouldn’t be sex education. Porn reflects, validates, reinforces, and perpetuates racism, and our call-out culture could make a difference. Now, many sex workers have found a place to create content that they don’t feel is offensive to their culture. Because they can create content and make money on platforms like OnlyFans, more people have the luxury of choosing what roles they want to play.

We’re creating a porn-watching generation of sexual humans who expect sex to be something it’s not.

Sources used for this article:

• Fritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2021). Worse than objects: The depiction of black women and men and their sexual relationship in pornography. Gender Issues, 38(1), 100-120. doi:10.1007/s12147-020-09255-2
• Zhou, Y., & Paul, B. (2016). Lotus blossom or dragon lady: A content analysis of “Asian women” online pornography. Sexuality & Culture, 20(4), 1083-1100. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9375-9
• xHamster. (2018). xHamster trend report 2018. Retrieved from https://xhamster.com/blog/posts/745297