EDIT: The original article included Studio Darkness as one of the studios producing ethical porn. However, yesterday @rooster pointed me to an article, which describes the numerous cases of abuse experienced by performers from the director of the studio - Nico Bertrand. Multiple cases of power abuse, lies about content, absolutely no respect to contracts that were signed are just part of the long list of accusations, brought up by Lina Bembe, Maria Riot, Viktoria Vaar and many others. Here is the whole article. It is deceptive and disturbing that people like Nico Bertrand represent ethical and feminist porn, and not follow its rules. So, people (who read this, and all performers, who experienced any type of abuse from Nico Bertrand) I apologies for the wrong information. Do not watch anything by Studio Darkness. It is presented as ethical porn, but it is a far cry from it.

What is ethical porn anyway?

In general ethical porn is when performers are treated with respect, paid a fair wage, their preferences have utmost importance for the shoot, and their consent and safety are critical. Crucial part of ethical porn is being able to say no as a performer, without this labeling you as “difficult”. A lot of people compare it to fair trade, but for the porn industry.

Why would I wanna go through the trouble of finding ethical porn, when I can just watch whatever I want on MindGeek sites (Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube etc.)?

It's plain and simple - the same way you are an ethical consumer of fair trade coffee, local products from your green market, or items from the small business next door, you could consume porn that's produced ethically. In purchasing ethical products you provide the means for these products to exist and develop, and you support the people involved in making them. Not only that, but you also get much better quality and feel better about your overall consumtion. At the end of the day watching ethical porn will have a positive effect on you, porn creators, and humanity :)

Also worth mentioning is that most tube sites are basically stealing content from production companies, so they can provide it for free to you. By watching porn via these sites you support piracy towards creators in an industry, where they are much more dependable on this income compared to say Holywood performers.

Now, I don’t mean to guilt trip you or create roadblocks for your porn consumption, i am just stating the facts so you can make an education choice for said consumption.

Which leads us to the most logical, but still surprising for lots of people fact - if you want to watch ethical porn, you gotta pay for it.

Yes, paying for your porn sounds outrageous after years of free and easily accessible content, but go and read again the “Why” section. And of course if you just want to watch short clips in the same manner as watching free porn clips, you can still do this on most of the sites you will see below. HOWEVER, I strongly encourage you to subscribe / buy the product they offer. You will either have access to or own something you can always come back and check on.

So after this rather long introduction, here’s the short list of production companies, where you can get your ethical porn fix (links obviously NFSW):

1. Erika Lust and all her projects, such as XConfessions. Erika Lust hardly needs introduction, as she is one of the strong voices of feminist and ethical pornography. Probably her biggest project, or the most known of them all is XConfessions, where people send stories to her, and each month she picks few of them as scenarios to create a beautiful and cinematic adult movies. Here is her TED talk on feminist porn:

2. Four Chambers is artsy and dark, thick and gooey porn. It is my place to go, perhaps because of my inner darkness, or perhaps because most of their films show very intimate moments and have a special grasp on intimacy - something that I believe is the most precious feeling between human beings. Vex - the producer / director behind the studio also performs in her movies, which is fantastic, as it gives you even more proof people involved in Four chambers films are enjoying it. Here is a short interview with her done by VICE:

Four chambers has a Patreon account, which i urge you to go to and hit that become a patron button. Besides films and stills, you can get t-shirts, sketchbooks, stickers etc.

3. Crashpad Series is probably one of the most popular online sources for queer porn. It started as a porn film, in which an apartment in San Francisco is used as a queer rendezvous for wild sex. In order to participate you have to be given the key to the apartment. The movie won several awards and developed into a whole project, which is now known as the Crashpad Series. The crew casts real life couples, who choose what to show on camera, making the experience for the viewer super diverse and intimate. Here is a short clip from the original movie:

4. Bright Desire. Ms Naughty’s site includes all the videos she shot in the past 9-10 years, but also some other projects, such as voiceover on top of people’s masturbation scenes, or experimental shorts. She’s been involved in many feminist porn projects throughout the years and shoots and directs movies, writes (erotic) stories and has given plenty of talks at events about feminist porn.

For more info on ethical porn you can check out Ethical Porn's initiative website, which incldues interviews and resources on the subject. In the past few years there is a very welcome social approach towards porn and sex with projects such as Lustery and Cindy Gallop’s Make Love Not Porn. They encourage real life couples to create and share sex videos and I will be taking a look at these in Part II of the series.

Lede image: A four chambered Heart