BY Lux Alptraum
September 12, 2007
185 views
0 Comments

In the wake of Belladonna’s retirement from the porn industry (due to a herpes scare, if you’re not in the know), Tristan Taormino has penned a piece on STIs and porn (or, how do porn stars have so much unprotected sex and not all wind up dead? Hint: they get tested frequently.)

One might wonder (and many do) why porn stars don’t just use condoms (you know, like the rest of us do when we don’t want STIs). The answer is that they do: in gay porn, at least. Some straight companies have adopted condom-only policies in the past (like in 2004, after several performers ended up HIV positive) — only to abandon them after deciding that condoms, while good for performers’ health, are bad for the bottom line.

[NB: We're tempted to suggest that this might just be an instance of individually rational decisions adding up to a collectively irrational result. If past situations are any indication, the best solution might be to mandate condoms in all pornographic movies: if everyone has to do it, no one stands to gain money from the decision to put the health of performers on the line.]

Want to read more about the gay porn/straight porn condom axis? Check out this piece by Audacia Ray (director of “The Bi Apple”), about navigating STIs (and condoms) in a movie that’s not quite straight or gay.