*TRIGGER WARNING** This article contains graphic written accounts of sexual abuse, violence, and bodily injury resulting from violent sex acts. Reader discretion advised.
“They don’t tell you in the credits that this actress had to have surgery to repair damages done to her body by the scene you just thought was so erotic.” – Donny, former porn producer
The mainstream porn industry claims that the content it creates is always between two consenting adults. But unlike violence in Hollywood movies, the abuse you see on screen is real. There are no special effects, stunt doubles or stage combat training. The blood, bruises and tears are genuine and painful.
In “Hardcore,” episode 3 of our new documentary series Beyond Fantasy, porn producer Will Ryder shared, “I have a friend and she’s a new girl. She signed up for a video where the word abuse was in the title. She was [abused] so hard in the face that she got bloodshot eyes and couldn’t work for three weeks after.”
The porn industry doesn’t want you to think about it, but that is the reality of the “gonzo” and abuse porn genre. Defenders of pornography make the argument that it’s all consensual because performers sign a contract prior to filming. And while some of the degradation, humiliation, and sexual violence you see in porn is “consensual,” often times performers are coerced in the moment into acts that they had previously said they wouldn’t do, resulting in physical injury and psychological trauma that is immortalized on the internet forever.
But even if consent is obtained, can someone actually consent to their own abuse and torture? Signing your name on a consent form written with loads of legal jargon is very different from the experience of having abusive acts done to you. For some, when they consent to doing abuse porn, the experience of it is far more traumatizing and painful than they originally thought.
“Hardcore” exposes this very harsh truth. Through a bold examination of a genre rife with choking, slapping, degradation, and sexual assault fantasies, “Hardcore” spotlights porn producers and performers as they speak with jaw-dropping honesty about what it takes to create rape scenes, packaged for the pleasure of the masses.
What is Gonzo Porn?
Hardcore porn, often referred to as gonzo porn, was once a niche in the porn industry. Unfortunately, it has now become a staple genre with crossover into other genres. It features violent, and aggressive acts, most often aimed at “destroying” a woman. It’s less about sex in and of itself, and more about violence and humiliation, especially violence and humiliation that the woman is depicted as enjoying.
In its origins, porn largely consisted of nude images in magazines like Playboy or Hustler, but as the world moved to film, the porn industry quickly expanded. Then, with the rise of the internet, tube sites paved the way for amateur porn. Instead of the massive porn studios, official film sets, big name porn stars and large budgets, amateur porn is often low-budget, point of view style or emulates a sex tape.
The market became flooded with content and, in order to stay relevant, porn creators escalated the violence to offer something edgy and enticing. What was once considered extreme became “vanilla” and the intensity of violence and gruesome “fetishes” in porn grew to fill the gap.
Incest, bondage, physical abuse, and anal used to all be extremes of porn. Now, these acts are the norm.
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The genre has also been increasingly popularized by movies like “Fifty Shades of Grey” or the extremely violent, rape-fantasy Netflix film, “365 Days,” both of which sat at number one in their respective spheres for some time.
As the genre has become more popular and demand has risen, directors and producers are pushing performers towards more extreme acts to increase their profit, oftentimes without proper consent.
Coercion in the Porn Industry
Performers are required to sign consent forms prior to filming a scene. But they are not always given a full picture of what will be required of them.
Donny, a former pornography producer, confessed in our film “Hardcore,” “The way that I would recruit would be to give as little information as possible until they are sitting down in an environment that I can control. You don’t tell them over the phone very much about the details. If you think they might not show up if they knew it all, you just tell them how much they are going to make. And when they ask ‘what am I going to have to do?’ You say ‘We will talk about it when you get here.’”
Mike South, another producer in the industry, acknowledges the coercive nature of producers and directors, stating, “[The producer/director] knew what he’s doing in that situation when he didn’t spell out exactly what it was she was going to be doing.”
Upon arrival, these women are met with conditions that are meant to intimidate and manipulate, giving the illusion that they have no other choice but to comply. Porn sets are not conducive for consent. They are set up in a way that makes the performer feel as if they have no choice. In an interview for “Hardcore,” ex porn performer Jan, said that “The majority of the porn scenes are shot in private places: private houses, private mansions, in motel rooms; where it’s an all guy staff.” These women do not have advocates to step in when their “no” is resisted and ignored.
She continues, “Often you think you are going to a set to do a solo scene, or just a simple boy-girl scene, or girl-girl scene, and you get there and they say, ‘Okay well now I need you to do this, and if you don’t do this, then you’re not going to get paid.’”
Even their agents often don’t have their best interests in mind.
Former porn performer Tanya showed up for what she thought was a regular sex scene but it quickly turned into something more violent. “I’m getting hit in the face, I’m getting spit on. I’m getting sperm in my eye… One of the guys was so hard that I was screaming so bad because it was so painful. I was ripped. I literally stopped the scene. I was bawling.”
During the interview, director Benjamin Nolot asks, “So you’re ripped, you’re bleeding. What happens?” Tanya contines, “I called my agent and let him know. And when I told him, he’s like ‘Well, you have one more scene after this. It’s an easy scene.”
“They wanted you to do more?” Nolot asks.
“I left there and he took me to another scene because it was already booked. And if I didn’t go, there was a cancellation fee that the agency usually has to pay.”
Our interviews with people in the industry made something abundantly clear: performers are a product and all the industry cares about is profit.
Jan also described a horrifying experience of being coerced by a producer into a brutal gang bang. “When I did a gang-bang scene, there were 25 men. The producer said I didn’t actually have to sleep with all of them. But when I got to the set, I found out not only would I have to sleep with all of them but that he wanted me to have anal sex with some of them too. He offered me drugs and alcohol to coax me into doing the scene the way that he wanted it done… it was 4 and a half hours long… after that, I couldn’t urinate right, I couldn’t have a bowel movement the right way. I was just messed up. I stayed in bed for about a week.”
When asked if the producer was concerned for what would happen to her body after a scene like that, she responded, “There is no concern in the porn industry. They don’t care… He only cared about my name at the time and how much money he could make off of that scene.”
It’s also worth noting that Jan only entered the industry in a desperate attempt to provide for her children, as a single mother. She had hoped doing this scene would be her ticket out of the industry.
These are not one off experiences, but rather a representation of a coercive pattern within the industry to prey on vulnerable women and compel them into more extreme acts using money, drugs, alcohol and manipulation.
Hardcore Porn’s Legacy: Violence, Abuse, Trauma and Injury
As mainstream porn becomes increasingly violent, degrading and aggressive, we are seeing the direct results within our culture, and women are facing the consequences. The glamorization of these sex acts has led to the rise in violent sex, injury, and even deaths among women who are coerced into attempting to reenact porn.
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In 2019, reports emerged of a 16-year-old girl in Australia who was so badly injured while imitating a hardcore group anal sex scene that she now needs to use a colostomy bag for the rest of her life.
Many other women have paid for these degrading and violent acts with their lives. In 2020, 20-year-old Patrycja Wyrebek was killed by her boyfriend in ‘erotic asphyxiation’ in Northern Ireland. And there are many more. In fact, there is now an entire organization in the UK dedicated to telling these women’s stories, called We Can’t Consent to This. There have been 60 cited cases of women killed in the UK from injuries acquired during rough sex inspired by porn.
Abuse Porn
Given the severe risks and cultural implications, we must examine the consequences of this genre both on consumers and the performers themselves. As the hardcore genre continues to be in high demand, performers will be required to meet that demand.
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Many performers have left the industry and begun to speak out against the abuse and trauma they experienced while performing in porn.
In fact, more than 20 former porn performers have come together to call on all producers, directors, and agents in the porn industry to raise the performing age from 18 to 21, citing the abuse and trauma they all experienced during their time in the industry.
For an in-depth look at the violation, coercion, and abuse in the mainstream porn industry, you can watch our documentary miniseries Beyond Fantasy free on YouTube.
The series isn’t meant to merely offer a discussion about the harms of porn, it’s meant to boldly expose it. This means that, in addition to interviews with porn industry professionals, it includes short clips from porn scenes and graphic descriptions of what happens on porn sets (we’ve blurred all nudity).
The violent porn genre will cut any empathetic human being to their core. It’s one we’d like to pretend does not exist, but in a world where this degrading content is creeping onto screens in virtually every household with an internet connection, we simply can’t afford to ignore it. Justice and real change begin by taking a brave, honest look at the tragedy that surrounds us.
