Do you feel bad for those that get injured/hurt in porn? (unemployment, Iraq)
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Owning nothing but a backpack full of clothes, Cameron Bay started working as an escort, hoping to rebuild her life. A few months ago, she performed in her first-ever porn scene -- an orgy with 10 people, she said. After just nine more scenes, she discovered she has HIV. Nobody's sure where or when she contracted it.
During her scenes, none of the male performers she had sex with ever used a condom, she said. One female performer told her, "Don't even bring it up because they have somebody waiting to replace you."
"I learned that there's always someone younger and sexier, willing to do something you're not. It's a dog-eat-dog world," Bay said in an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post. "I think we need more choices because of that. Condoms should be a choice."
I know this may sound mean but I really have a hard time feeling too bad for her. It's not as if it takes a rocket scientist to realize you enter the porn industry your chances of getting an STD or hooked on drugs or whatever else goes up about 1,000,000%, regardless of what kind of rules/laws there are or what anyone in the porn industry says.
And doing an orgy with 10 people at all is just asking for trouble but her first scene?
Then what is the point of your post? To show how cold-hearted you are?
I don't see much of an upside to doing porn...the pay is only "good" if you are broke and have nothing. And the push to do grosser and nastier things to stay "fresh" must be horrendously depressing and dehumanizing. I don't think too many women, or men are so delusional or stupid as to think this is somehow glamorous, therefore they must be quite desperate to turn to it to make money - perhaps it is better than turning tricks? I don't know what the hierarchy is in sex work but I do feel sorry for people when they either have no options or feel they have no options but to do degrading things.
Imagine this story were back in the 1930's, middle of the Great Depression. A man is hired to work in a coal mine. He asks about safety measures (fall equipment, dust masks, fresh air pumped into the shafts, etc.). He is ridiculed and told to either get in the hole or leave because 10 more guys are lined up outside the fence asking for a job. He dies a few weeks later of asphyxiation, something that could have easily been prevented with a clean air supply.
Now let's make a few minor changes to the OP' opinion post to reflect this very similar scenario:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopefulone828
I know this may sound mean but I really have a hard time feeling too bad for him. It's not as if it takes a rocket scientist to realize you enter the coal industry your chances of getting black lung or falling in a hole or whatever else goes up about 1,000,000%, regardless of what kind of rules/laws there are or what anyone in the coal industry says.
And going into an unstable mine at all is just asking for trouble but his first day on the job?
I definitely don't feel too terribly bad for him.
Does this small change help explain why your position is equivalent to that of a heartless bastard?
It is hard to feel bad for someone that willingly puts themselves in dangerous situations and gets in trouble.
I think we all feel like this to an extent.
The man in the coal mine is a great example and how could you not have empathy for him? The same goes for the porn star but they both knew it was a job that came with risks.
How about a skydiver or a mountain climber? They both know that those hobbies can kill them and they take every precaution not to die but it happens.
How about the criminal that is breaking into houses to feed his family? How about the one stealing to support his drug habit? How about the criminal that is stealing just for fun? They all have a chance of getting caught by the Police and being thrown in jail or being caught by the gun toting homeowner who shoots them dead.
Who do we feel bad for? Here on city data I think most believe it is a good thing when a criminals luck finally runs out.
Everyday people willingly tempt fate. The key is not being forced into a dangerous situation. If they are exploited it is easy to feel badly for them.
I know this may sound mean but I really have a hard time feeling too bad for her. It's not as if it takes a rocket scientist to realize you enter the porn industry your chances of getting an STD or hooked on drugs or whatever else goes up about 1,000,000%, regardless of what kind of rules/laws there are or what anyone in the porn industry says.
And doing an orgy with 10 people at all is just asking for trouble but her first scene?
I definitely don't feel too terribly bad for her.
Message boards is a small hobby for me. I belong to a dozen or so and read and post rather than watch TV or play video games.
I can state I have read maybe over 100,000 posts and this is the single most disgusting thing I have read.
Feel sorry for a woman, alone, homeless? OF COURSE I DO!
Feel sorry for a woman forced to sell herself to survive? OF COURSE I DO!
Feel sorry for a woman who gets a disease performing a sex act with some uncaring bastard? OF COURSE I DO!
I think there is a spectrum of risk-taking behavior, and all of us fall on that spectrum somewhere. For example, I know that there is some risk that I could die or be severely injured in a car crash if I were to decide to drive to the ice cream shop right now. I don't need ice cream, and I know the risks; if I die in such a crash, should people not feel bad for me because I knew the risks? What if I were to drive a motorcycle to the ice cream shop instead? Or what if I were to work on a commercial fishing vessel, which almost certainly is more dangerous than porn?
I believe your reaction to this scenario is more a product of your disgust with porn than a response to the risk-taking behavior of the person. Perhaps more importantly, I don't think "feeling bad" needs to be limited to only reasonable actions. I feel bad for heroine addicts, even if their behavior is unreasonable. I feel bad that they are in such a position, and that they have become so addicted to a substance that they are willing to ruin their lives. I feel bad for prostitutes who get murdered by Johns, even if they likely knew hooking was a dangerous job. These people may have made bad decisions, but they likely had some strong forces acting in their lives that drove them to such desperation.
I feel bad for anyone who gets HIV. Regardless of how it happens. The fatal assumption in your reasoning is that we should only feel bad for people who didn't take known risks and have undesired consequences come to them. The problem is that we routinely feel bad for people who do this very thing all the time. We probably feel bad for people who eat badly and then get cancer or heart disease. My ice cream shop drive above is a similar scenario.
It is hard to feel bad for someone that willingly puts themselves in dangerous situations and gets in trouble.
I think we all feel like this to an extent.
The man in the coal mine is a great example and how could you not have empathy for him? The same goes for the porn star but they both knew it was a job that came with risks.
How about a skydiver or a mountain climber? They both know that those hobbies can kill them and they take every precaution not to die but it happens.
How about the criminal that is breaking into houses to feed his family? How about the one stealing to support his drug habit? How about the criminal that is stealing just for fun? They all have a chance of getting caught by the Police and being thrown in jail or being caught by the gun toting homeowner who shoots them dead.
Who do we feel bad for? Here on city data I think most believe it is a good thing when a criminals luck finally runs out.
Everyday people willingly tempt fate. The key is not being forced into a dangerous situation. If they are exploited it is easy to feel badly for them.
I don't think it is hard to feel bad for someone who willingly puts himself in dangerous situations and gets in trouble. What about car accidents? What if I'm driving a car that has poor safety ratings, and I knew about those ratings when I bought it? What about eating an unhealthy diet for years, only to get heart disease? I simply don't think "I don't feel bad for people who willingly put themselves in dangerous situations" is a maxim we live by. I think we use that maxim when the situations are considered outside social norms, such as bungee jumping or porn, but we ignore this maxim for behaviors that are actually more dangerous yet within social norms -- such as working on a commercial fishing vessel.
It is hard to feel bad for someone that willingly puts themselves in dangerous situations and gets in trouble.
I completely agree with ths statement, but we apparently disagree on whether it applies to the OP's scenario. Do you honestly think there are women out there who readily decide on porn as a valid career path? That somewhere out there right now, some teenager is bragging to her friends about how she's going to be a porn star as soon as she turns 18?
Or is the industry filled with women who dreamed of being actresses but were desperate enough for money to start selling images of their bodies?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
How about a skydiver or a mountain climber? They both know that those hobbies can kill them and they take every precaution not to die but it happens.
How about the criminal that is breaking into houses to feed his family? How about the one stealing to support his drug habit? How about the criminal that is stealing just for fun? They all have a chance of getting caught by the Police and being thrown in jail or being caught by the gun toting homeowner who shoots them dead.
Who do we feel bad for? Here on city data I think most believe it is a good thing when a criminals luck finally runs out.
Everyday people willingly tempt fate. The key is not being forced into a dangerous situation. If they are exploited it is easy to feel badly for them.
Are you seriously comparing people who work in legal industries with poor safety records out of desperation (porn actresses desperate to find enough money to pay rent and depression-era coal miners desperate to find enough money to feed a family) with:
- people who pay to sky dive for thrills
- people who mountain climb for thrills
- criminals who choose to steal hard-earned cash or property from others (for any reason)
... is that seriously how you see the world?
If someone chooses to live a promiscuous life and sleep around with whomever he/she meets, then that's one thing. I'd have a hard time feeling sorry for someone like that. Is that the problem? Do you honestly think that your average porn actors are just promiscuous men and women who get paid to get laid?
Another similar scenario. Say my kids and I were about to be evicted from my house after a long period of unemployment, but got "lucky" and landed a job in a modern-day factory (porn shoot). Say I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to wear a hard hat (condom) because other safety measures were in place (regular STD testing), and if I insisted on wearing a hard had (condom) I'd be fired on the spot and end up homeless. After a few weeks something falls on my unprotected head (get HIV) and I'm crippled for life.
Would you feel sorry for me, or blame me for taking a risk?
Is there any difference in opinion when it comes to the escalation of work and risk?
Cameron started as an escort, but was probably offered more money to work porn.
The coal miner was just thrown into the mine, however, say he was working in the mine's warehouse before an underground job opportunity came up.
Not trying to hijack this into a 'what would you do for a million dollars?, but there are always stories of people coming up short when it comes to high paying job opportunities. Think contractors working in Iraq short after the end of the major hostilities.
If she had stayed an escort and use the daylight hours to find a job as a bank clerk, that would be one thing. According to the article she is now doing solo web camming to make ends meet. What sort of skills set do you think she started with?
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