Begging for Bailout

According to CNN, members of the adult entertainment industry are asking the federal government for a $5 billion bailout to help save the production of sexy films. Even though I’ve made a little money (and I do mean little) working in the sexy film industry as a host of how-to videos, I’m not sure I feel good about this latest publicity stunt. Okay, actually I don’t feel good about it. In fact this leaves an unbelievably bad, metallic taste in my mouth. The kind of taste you’d get, I imagine, from eating rat poison.

Larry Flynt of Hustler fame, and Joe Francis (Girls Gone Wild CEO and dude who went to jail for “nudging” underage girls to get naked - another thing I don’t feel good about) are taking their case to Congress because, Francis says, “everybody else is doing it too.” It feels like such a publicity stunt, and I’m sure it is... but it’s things like this that make me question what is going on in this industry, and just who is running it and how.

I’m thinking this is more to try to boost sales than it is to actually take the money. I hope so. Even though I think quality porn should continue to be made (quality is a subjective word, I know) I don’t think the industry deserves $5 billion, or even $5 million to keep producing films. If it all went away tomorrow, we have years of quality, and not so quality, material to work with, and with the Internet making anyone who wants to be a porn star, a porn star…well, what’s the point? What makes me sad is how selfish it feels when it’s coming from Flynt and Francis. If they asked for this $5 billion to help cure cancer, or end poverty, that would be worth it, but to continue making porn, even as an insider in the industry, I say no way. Besides, if the industry can’t survive on the support of its loyal customer base, then does it deserve to continue the way it is now?

Francis and Flynt say the industry isn’t in dire need of this money, although I think, and only from speculation, that the industry as a whole is suffering more than they want us all to know. Whatever the financial status of the adult entertainment industry (it’s always been hard to get real dollar amounts because of, well, I suppose, shady business dealings), this just makes porn people look like money-hungry, greedy, childish brats who don’t get the seriousness of what is really going down economically not only in this country, but in this world.

Flynt said something about how Americans can do without cars, but not without sex. But the thing is you don’t need porn to have sex. In fact, I’d take my trusty eroscillator over porn any day. This stint may be designed to “rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America” but the only thing it does for me is to rejuvenate that bad taste in my mouth about the parts of the industry that make me glad not to be living in LA (although I suppose the sun, beach and other friends I have there would make me glad to live in LA otherwise).

I do believe in continuing to make quality adult entertainment, but not at the expense of the country. Not at the expense of both people who believe in what I do, and those who don’t.

You can read more at Waxman's blog.

Image: "Money!" by Tracy O on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.