Ethnicity of performers in pornography

Ethnicity plays a prominent role in pornography.^[1] Distinct genres of pornography focus on performers of specific ethnic groups, or on the depiction of interracial sexual activity. Ethnic pornography typically employs ethnic and racial stereotypes in its depiction of performers.^[2]

Portrayal in pornography

See also: Stereotypes of African Americans, Stereotypes of Hispanic and Latino Americans, Stereotypes of Asians, and Stereotypes of white people

Ethnic pornography frequently depicts characters based on ethnic and racial stereotypes. Members of each race are typically portrayed as having a high sex drive.

Asian men

There are Asian male porn stars in the UK, and the U.S. and Japan produces mass number of videos, and websites catering to this genre. A number of scholars have written specifically about this subject in regards to a larger history of Western emasculation—most notably University of California, Davis professor, Darrell Hamamoto.^[3] In gay pornography, East Asian men often appear in bondage-themed scenarios.

Asian women

Are viewed as sexually willing or submissive. Asian women are portrayed in pairing with white men. Asian women are mainly portrayed as the:Dragon Ladies",^[4] as servile "Lotus Blossom Babies", "Innocent School Girls" in private school uniforms, "China dolls", "Geisha girls", war brides, or prostitutes.^[5] Japanese media have also at times sensationalistically promoted the stereotype of Japanese women overseas as "yellow cabs".^[6]

Black performers

Large penis size in Black men is consistently emphasized in pornography, often by exclusively casting actors with larger than average penises such as Lexington Steele, Kid Bengala, Jack Napier and Mandingo. Men are often treated to stereotypes of gang affiliation, working class labor, and are overrepresented in gang rape fetish films. Also, they are represented as overly aggressive and demanding, and are performing with white women. Similarly, black women are often portrayed with large breast and buttocks, or 'booty'. They normally play a submissive role while performing with a white male.

Latinos and Hispanics

Pornography tends to stereotype Hispanic women as feisty, "hot and spicy Latinas", sexy Señoritas, with a high sex drive and low impulse control. Many are portrayed as maids, illegal immigrants to the United States, or unfaithful wives.^[7] Since Latinos and Hispanics can be of any race (many are white Hispanic Americans, Mestizos etc.), cultural characteristics are sometimes portrayed via iconic items like South and Central American national costumes, sombreros, maracas, or Mexican dresses.

White women

Frequently portrayed as lascivious and submissive. Eastern European women are predominantly portrayed as fantastically beautiful and sexy but cheap hussies. Their bodily depiction is usually very thin and curvy. Especially in Germany is the latest cultural development involved, since the Iron Curtain disappeared, and people were able to visit the cheap neighboring countries' prostitution.^[8]

White men

Frequently viewed as the more desirable partners. Typically dominate towards other partners except black males in gay pornography. They are portrayed in varied ways compared to other races and women. ^[9]

Interracial pornography

The term 'interracial pornography' may theoretically pertain to visual pornography depicting sexual activity between performers of any different racial groups but 'interracial' or IR is usually referred as heterosexual acts between black and white performers.^[10] Many of interracial pornographic films still include racial stereotypes, but the segregation of actors by race has diminished considerably.^[11][12] Interracial pornographic films with white female and black male performers have a majority audience of white male viewers.^[13]

Controversy in the industry

Although films featuring white females with black males attracted public attention as early as Behind the Green Door,^[14] the position of white actresses appearing in interracial pornography has caused constant controversy within the industry. In the past, some of American pornography's leading white actresses were allegedly warned to avoid African American males, both on-screen and in their personal lives. One rationale was the purportedly widespread belief that appearing in interracial pornography would ruin a white performer's career, although some observers have said that there is no evidence that this is true.^[2] Adult Video News critic Sheldon Ranz wrote in 1997 that

we keep hearing a lot about 'the powers that be' that tell white women that it's not in their 'interest' to work with blacks. Is there any proof that Ginger [Lynn]'s scene with Tony El-Lay in Undressed Rehearsal hurt her career? Nina Hartley still gets lots of bookings in Southern strip clubs, especially Texas, even though she is an avowed interracialist.^[15]

However, more recent pornographic film actresses like Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Serenity,^[16] Taylor Rain,^[17] and Carmella Bing^[18] are noted to avoid black males.

Despite interracial pornographic films have increased in popularity, becoming one of the fastest-growing and biggest-selling genres,^[19] Sophie Dee, a prominent figure of the genre, claimed in a 2010 interview that agents often pressure white female performers not to appear in interracial pornography, although they will be paid better than performing with non-black men and their careers will not be damaged in any way, pointing at positive examples of some Vivid Entertainment actresses.^[20] Similarly, Sicilian American porn star Mariah Milano concluded that racism is still considerably rampant in the porn industry and it is often concealed by tongue-in-cheek arguments like female performers' personal preferences.^[21]

Racial fetishism

In academic discourse, racial fetishism is a postcolonialist term found in the writings of authors such as Homi K. Bhabha, Anne McClintock and Kobena Mercer. The term combines elements of the Freudian psychoanalytic fetish and the Marxist commodity fetish, and is used in the context of British, Spanish and French colonialism and imperialism and their aftereffects. The term has as its origins Frantz Fanon's epidermal schema and Edward Said's Orientalism.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Homi Bhabha defined the idea of a racial fetish in contrast to the idea of the Freudian sexual fetish which he describes a denial of difference, where the male sees the female as a castrated male, seeing missing parts rather than a different anatomy. Similar to Freud's idea of a fetish, Bhabha defines racial fetish to be a fixation on other races being not different, but lesser or "mutilated" versions of the white male.^[22]

See also

• Asian fetish
• List of African-American pornographic actors
• List of Asian pornographic actors
• Pornography by region

References

1. ^ "AVN Feb 2009". Mydigitalpublication.com. http://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=12069&115&115&1&p=79. Retrieved 2010-02-06. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Luke Ford (1999). "Racism". LukeIsBack.com. http://www.lukeisback.com/essays/essays/racism.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-18. 
3. ^ www.vconline.org/ff04/intervhamamoto.html
4. ^ Tong, Benson (1994). Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806126531. 
5. ^ Tajima, R. (1989-06-28). "Lotus Blossoms Don't Bleed: Images of Asian Women". In Asian Women United of California. Making waves: An anthology of writings by and about Asian American women. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 308–17. ISBN 0807059056. 
6. ^ Ma, Karen (1996). The Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-Cultural Relationships. North Clarendon, Vt.: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0804820414. 
7. ^ "The Challenges of 'Cha Cha': Latin/Hispanic stereotypes". Muchacreative.com. http://www.muchacreative.com/Journalism/Latina%20beauty.html. Retrieved 2010-02-06. 
8. ^ "Infiltrating Europe's shameful trade in human beings". msnbc.com. 2010. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071965/. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
9. ^ "Of course pornography is a prisoner’s right. Because women aren’t actually human beings.". feminisms.org. 2011. http://www.feminisms.org/3099/of-course-pornography-is-a-prisoners-right-because-women-arent-actually-human-beings/. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
10. ^ "Internet Adult Film Database Glossary". (Web link). Retrieved 2009-12-07. 
11. ^ Carroll, Rebecca (2007-06-04). "Savanna Samson: Becky & the Pussycats Debut Interview". PaperMag.com. http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2007/06/becky_the_pussycats_savanna_sa.php. Retrieved 2007-07-19. "So many girls [in the industry] said, 'Oh you can't be with [a black man] it's gonna ruin your career.' I think that's insane. I love black men, so I was really insistent about being on camera in an interracial [situation] because I didn't want to be part of that mentality." 
12. ^ Cachapero, Joanne (2007-07-15). "Lex Steele Talks God on BET". Xfanz. http://www.xfanz.com/news/81907. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
13. ^ Poulson-Bryant, Scott (2006). Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America. p. 139. ISBN 9780767915557. http://books.google.com/?id=fQFdAAAACAAJ&dq=Scott+Poulson+Bryant. Retrieved 10 Jan 2009. 
14. ^ "Interracial porn pioneer Marilyn Chambers dead at 56". Vancouver Sun. 2009-04-15. http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Classic+porn+star+Marilyn+Chambers+dead/1492289/story.html. Retrieved 2010-11-01. 
15. ^ Ranz, Sheldon (1997-04-05). "Stars Who Refuse Interracial Scenes". rec.arts.movies.erotica. (Web link). Retrieved 2007-07-06. 
16. ^ "Lexington Steele talks Racism in the Porn Industry". (Web link). "Make no mistake, as of June of this year, Jewel did not do interracial scenes. How she became an authority after her first scene with Marcus, I have no idea. Before that scene, she was the same as Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Serenity and the so called A stars who refuse to do interracial.". Retrieved 2010-09-03. 
17. ^ "Why Don’t Some Porn Stars Do Interracial?". (Web link). "Taylor Rain did an appearance on Howard Stern in 2005 where she said that she didn’t do IR because her father hates black people, but had slept with black men in her personal life.". Retrieved 2010-09-03. 
18. ^ "Big Boobs Big Butts: Carmella Bing". (Web link). "Carmella is known throughout the industry as a dodger for her adamant refusal to work with black men in any of her scenes.". Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
19. ^ "Black/White: Sex, Race & Profit". SexTV. 2006-09-09. http://www.sextelevision.net/archives/episodeArchivesDisplay.asp?episodeID=179&segmentID=472&seasonID=8. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
20. ^ "Xcitement Interviews: Sophie Dee". Xcitement Magazine. 2010. http://www.xcitement.com/interview/?page_id=907. Retrieved 2010-05-27. "And off the top of my head, Janine, Monique & Savanna who are Vivid girls have done interracial. It hasn’t hurt their careers." 
21. ^ "The Controversy of Interracial Porn". Luke is Back. 2010. http://www.lukeisback.com/?p=10731. Retrieved 2010-12-05. "There is a lot of racism alive and thriving in the porn business these days...My favorite excuse is the most common one. 'I am just not attracted to black men so I won’t shoot with them' Well, ok bitch were you attracted to Ron Jeremy when you shot with him?" 
22. ^ ^{a b} Bhabha, Homi K. (June 1983). "The Other Question: Difference, Discrimination and the Discourses of Colonialism". Screen 24 (6): 18–36. 
23. ^ McClintock, Anne (1995). Imperial Leather: Race Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. New York:: Routledge. 
24. ^ Mercer, Kobena (1993). "Reading Racial Fetishism: the Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe". In Apter, Emily and Pietz William. Fetishism as Cultural Discourse. Ithaca: Cornell UP. 
25. ^ Fanon, Frantz (1967). transl. Charles Lam Markmann. ed. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press. 

External links

• Luke Ford, Racism, LukeIsBack.com, 1999–2005.
• Taylor, Charles (2002-02-11). "American Porn". Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2002/02/11/frontline/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• Palmer, Brandon. "Gay Melting Pot". Klixxx Magazine. http://www.klixxx.com/archive/gaymeltingpot.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• Mireille Miller-Young, Hardcore Desire: Black Women Laboring in Porn – Is It Just Another Job?^{[dead link]}, Colorlines Magazine: Race, Action, Culture, Winter 2005.
• Justin Quirk, "The New Porn Apartheid", Arena, February 2006 (page 1, page 2, page 3).
• Sugar, Sam (2006-03-16). "The New Porn Apartheid – Luke Ford’s Rebuttal Rebutted". SugarBank. http://sugarbank.com/2006/03/16/the-new-porn-apartheid-luke-fords-rebuttal-rebutted. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• Cachapero, Joanne (2006-05-15). "Ethnic Episodes". Xbiz. http://xbiz.com/articles/14948/interracial. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• McGowan, Scott (2007-04-11). "Why Interracial Porn is Stupid and So are You (For Watching It)". EyeOnAdult.com. Archived from the original on 2007-05-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20070515005610/http://www.eyeonadult.com/features/article1422.html. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• ""Why Interracial Porn is Stupid" (And Why We Agree)". Uncomfortablepornstereotypes. Fleshbot. 2007-05-03. http://fleshbot.com/sex/uncomfortablepornstereotypes/why-interracial-porn-is-stupid-and-why-we-agree-257538.php. Retrieved 2008-07-16. 
• Hamamoto, Darrell Y. (2006). "On Asian American Sexual Politics". American Sexuality. http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/MagArticle.cfm?Article=564. Retrieved 2008-01-18.