Lorelei Lee, a model and a director at Kink as well as the co-writer of About Cherry, a film about the porn industry, says, "As a director, it is my biggest fear that a model will walk away having had a bad experience and not having communicated that to me." In an e-mail response to questions about on-set safety at the Armory, she explains, "From the minute a model walks in the door to the minute he or she leaves, every employee he or she comes in contact with ... knows that it is their responsibility to care for the model's emotional and physical safety above all else. That is absolutely unheard of for a porn company. This model of respect and conscientiousness becomes a part of everyone's interactions within the company, so that everyone there treats each other with more care. It is such an amazing place to work."
Princess Donna, a longtime performer and director at Kink, says that models are ultimately responsible for stopping a scene that breaches their limits. During her very first BDSM shoot with a New York company, she says, "I was crying and crying, which was not against their shooting rules. There was a male dominant and a male videographer and a female photographer. I kept looking to her to save me, you know? But then I realized, that's what safe words are for, and it's my responsibility to say what I can and can't handle."
Mike Koozmin
Kate Conger
Eden Alexander and her partner Sebastian Keys have had mixed experiences working for Kink.
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What Alexander's and Avatari's experiences do show is that even at a company known for its high ethical standards, infractions can slip through the cracks.
Even if one of the leaders of ethical porn falters, the principles behind the production still exist. Princess Donna says of her work, "I consider myself an artist. I think what I make is much more than jerk-off material. It's for people to explore their fantasies and let go of shame. I think it's a huge public service." For critics, she offers, "Obviously we are going to be under scrutiny because people think it's torture or something. It's funny to me because Kink is probably one of the only places that asks you what you want to do or not do explicitly before the scene occurs."
Acworth agreed with her views on combating shame, writing, "I grew up with an intense desire to be tied up and was very confused. It was only when I found porn that I started to come to terms with my sexuality. In my opinion, it is a very good thing for there to be as much diverse pornography out there as possible."
"I worry that people will use a criticism of Kink.com as ammunition in the war on sex," says Siouxsie Q, a sex worker, activist, and producer of This American Whore, a podcast about sex work that has been asked to change its name by the radio program This American Life. "When I was young and coming out as kinky, I watched Kink.com and thought, 'Whoa, that's close to my desire.' It was very validating to see that kind of porn out there."
When she first moved to the Bay Area, Bottoms says, "I was super excited to see this kinky hardcore company with a mission statement. People love the company and they do really awesome stuff. Removal of them would be detrimental to the local adult industry." She adds, "My hope has always been that unionization would extend to the sex industry," and says unionization might help models obtain ethical treatment from all porn companies, at all times.
Siouxsie Q defines ethical porn as sexual imagery in which "everyone involved feels justly compensated for their time and energy, every action both on and off camera is consensual, and the porn that is being documented captures some semblance of authentic desire."
Holloway puts it more bluntly: "It's really easy to make ethical pornography. To make unethical porn, you have to actively do something fucked up."
