Opinion | The same men that fuel the porn industry treat its female stars horribly

On the rare occasion I hop onto Twitter, I truthfully expect nothing less than the app to be somewhat of a horror. It was just the other day I decided to peruse the hellsite, and to no one’s surprise, I was left completely disturbed by the new Twitter discourse taking over my timeline.

Twitter user @VikingDadWisdom decided to share his commentary on famous porn star Riley Reid’s recent wedding. On a photo of her and her husband walking down the aisle, he wrote “Porn star Riley Reid ‘conveniently’ finds the love of her life at 29…” Her wedding honestly looked like a blast, her dress was beautiful, the groom was doing trampoline tricks and from the few photos I saw floating around the internet, the energy was high and people were having fun. Of course, people on Twitter weren’t debating her table centerpieces or her change in dresses for the reception — instead, people were debating her getting married in the first place. It was the fact that a sex worker, a woman who makes her living having sex on video, was getting married.

Whether or not you like or partake in the sex industry, it’s time to recognize the horrible treatment female sex workers receive from men, on and off the job. I am perfectly aware that all genders watch pornography and fuel the demand for more content, but surveys show that men watch at a much higher rate than women do.

It is men in particular that fuel the demand for more porn and more porn stars, yet they turn around and treat these women they make famous like absolute garbage. The woman to them is not a human being — she is an object to simply be used for their gratification. Riley Reid’s wedding is the perfect example of this — men are huge fans of her until she steps outside the realm of porn. They feel entitled to her body and to her time — they do not want her to act as if she is a normal human being.

Twitter user @Mewohitus_Skunk says, “who the hell buys a car with over 600k miles on it and more than 50 previous owners?” Another user, @FWPlayboy, simply wrote “She wore white, that takes guts.” Men would never treat a male porn star like this. Johnny Sins, for example, a famous male porn star known for his bald head and cliché porn plots, is consistently regarded as a “legend” and a “lucky guy” for getting to have sex with women for work. His TikTok platform alone boasts 7.5 million followers with each video of his getting at least a million views. There are no remarks like the ones I found about Riley Reid in the comments of Johnny Sins’ TikTok videos. And there never will be — men hate female porn stars and hate what they do for work despite being the main consumers of porn.

Most pornography on the internet is created for men to watch. It produces unreasonable expectations and standards that few people can adhere to. And because it is created for men, the women in the videos do not play an equal part. Consistently, these videos focus on male pleasure rather than female pleasure. In real life, when men do not receive the gratification that they believe they’re entitled to as it is depicted in porn, they take it out on the women in their lives. In the case of Riley Reid’s wedding, she’s left them angry and bitter because she no longer adheres to their image of her and what she brings when it comes to their pleasure.

No matter how you feel about sex work, women who decide to become sex workers should never be treated like this. Female porn stars are considered run-through pieces of garbage for having sex and being successful. If they step outside the bounds men have put them in — as simply objects to be used for sex — men’s hatred runs even thicker.

The fact that there are men who think female sex workers are less than is dangerous and scary. It perpetuates the idea that any woman who has had sex, on or off video, is also less than. These men feel entitled to porn stars and their bodies — who’s to say they won’t hold the same sentiment when it comes to their girlfriends or wives? Why are the men who partake in the porn industry so much better than the women, when they literally do the same job? 

It is disgusting behavior that men have partaken in for far too long now, and it’s time to hold them accountable for what they say about female sex workers and women in general. The world, which is already so scary for women, becomes even more horrifying when you take a look at the way men think and speak about women.

Livia LaMarca mostly writes about American politics and pop culture. Write to her at lll60@pitt.edu.