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[jeff47]

139. There's a certain amount of reading into the posts

But when there's post after post that is essentially "we must protect these women from being exploited", it sounds an awful lot like calling for a ban. Even if no ban is explicitly requested.

To wander back to the Wal-Mart example, people propose specific methods to make those jobs better - higher minimum wage, better and more consistent hours, sick & vacation time, and so on. With porn, people are not making specific proposals to improve the "work environment". That makes it appear they think there is no way to improve the work environment and so a ban is the only logical solution.

Nor is there any acknowledgement that there actually have been some great strides recently - the Internet de-centralizing porn production means a lot better porn (and a lot worse porn) are being made, and the actors are better able to tap into the profits. Companies like Vivid Video aren't able to dictate what porn stars have to take because those stars can set up their own web site very easily.

To sum up, just like we encourage people to "shop local" instead of Wal-Mart, we should be encouraging people to visit "better" porn sites. And support unionization efforts in both situations. And require more STD testing in porn. And require more "downtime" in porn - in addition to the obvious threats to the women's bodies, the men in porn are damaging their bodies with Viagra abuse. And so on.