Quote Originally Posted by Dzinerbear View Post
Chip,

Thanks for your remarks back. You know, as you've said, it really is just a matter of people not knowing what it feels like on this side of the fence. Sometimes when I cruise online I send people messages about their "clean" and "disease free" notes in their profiles. Most of the time I'm greeted with "I had no idea" or "it never occurred to me," sometimes people just tell me to fuck off. But not very often.
I went to Oberlin College, probably one of the most politically correct places on the planet. Sometimes the PC language was overkill, but for the most part, being there brought me a level of sensitivity to how much language, improperly used, can be extremely hurtful, even when it's entirely unintentional. I made a lot of changes to my language as I was a student there, and it still sticks with me. But amazingly, this is something I'd just never really stopped to think about, which surprises me, since AJ sometimes chides me for being *too* PC in my language and viewpoint.

I also wonder about the message that you encourage people to buy from non-bareback producers because they promote safe activity. That could give surfers the idea that what they see in non-bareback porn is actually safe all of the time.
(snip)
By your suggestion, surfers could be thinking that either activity is safe when it might not be so safe.
This is another *excellent* point. All of us in this industry have the opportunity to educate others, and like it or not, everything we produce does at some level have an impact on the perception of those who view it. At the same time, I suspect that few would disagree that porn that was 100% safe sex (if 100% safe sex was a realistic possibility) would be as appealing as bareback sex or other "riskier" sex.

I would love to produce a concise, no-nonsense statement of some sort that talks about the safety issue, relative risks, and helps to more clearly define what is dangerous / somewhat risky / reasonably low risk / extremely low risk. (Nothing other than sex by yourself is truly risk free, and there are people who have died of heart attacks masturbating, so that isn't even risk free. )

We do plan to add a safer sex message to our videos in the future. We were going to license a wonderful film from a young filmmaker, but his "manager" decided it wasn't a good idea for him to license to an adult company, so we're going to shoot our own. And we have also talked about adding a short tag, performed by one of the models, about safer sex that would go at the end of our films.

It's definitely a crapshoot because talk about safe sex in a porn film is a buzzkill. But at the same time, it's an opportunity to educate, and if the message is short and sweet and gets the point across, maybe it will help people to think.

Eventually, we'll get it right... this is our first attempt, and it's great to have all the input that will help us make it better next time.