What Is Ethical Porn?

There are plenty of issues with the mainstream porn industry. It’s often centered on what men like or find hot and can depict women in dehumanizing or degrading ways. Likewise, it might not be shared or made in a way that’s respectful and fair to the sex workers or performers.

Have you been dissatisfied with the porn options available? Ethical porn could be the answer. I’m here to help you learn what makes it different and how to find it.

What Is Ethical Porn?

Ethical porn is often called fair trade porn or feminist porn, and it’s pornography that treats the performers with respect, is made consensually, and pays everyone fairly for the work they do.

There’s a mutual understanding among people on the film set. In a sense, everyone knows what’s happening and feels comfortable with it.

Kamil Lewis is a sex therapist and says that ethical porn validates the boundaries, needs, and curiosities of the sex workers or performers. Likewise, it shows realistic depictions of sex, such as queer relationships, true female pleasure, and diverse body types.

Pornhub released a survey in 2018 that claimed roughly 29 percent of visitors to the site were female that year, which was up two percent from the previous year. Overall, ethical porn caters to that. The scenes aren’t solely focused on the male gaze. Instead, it’s creative, inclusive, and consensual.

Ethical Porn Components vs. Mainstream Porn

Mainstream porn often features questionable practices that happen behind the scenes, and many people want to keep sex positive. Therefore, they turn to an alternative, which is ethical porn. This takes some things into consideration while filming.

How do we know if a specific platform adheres to the ethical standards out there? What ethical standards are there for sex workers? Let’s dive in!

Filmmakers and Performers Get Paid Fairly

Ethically produced porn recognizes the performers as workers who must get paid fairly, just like actors in any other movie and other employees. The same applies for everyone on the set. Therefore, these sites aren’t usually free.

It’s Rarely Free

While there are exceptions to the rule, generally, ethical porn films involve a fee to view them to ensure that the filmmakers and performers get paid fairly. That money is used to pay those in the process and ensure safety during filming.

It’s Made in a Safe Sex Environment, and Performers Are Treated with Respect

It’s crucial to centralize the emotional and physical safety of the performers when creating ethical porn. Therefore, the performers aren’t coerced into doing things they’re not comfortable with or that are unsafe or compromising to them.

In fact, the performers are respected as people with opinions and feelings. They deserve to be heard like everyone else in any other job. Making sure they’re relaxed and comfortable is crucial if it’s to be ethical.

It Focuses on Real Sexual Pleasure

One crucial component of ethical porn is to accentuate what pleasure really looks like, especially for women. Therefore, we won’t see as many fake orgasms or immediate arousal. Instead, there’s more skin-to-skin contact and giggling. We all know sex can be romantic, passionate, and messy, and ethical porn showcases that.

It’s Created for All Types of Viewers

Mainstream porn has left everyone with a male-dominated look about what sex should be like, feel like, and sound like. However, ethical porn showcases what it is like from different perspectives and understands that women watching porn should enjoy it fully. It can enhance a couple’s sex life if both parties appreciate it.

It Shows Diversity (Body Size, Sexuality, Race, and Ability)

Watching mainstream porn often makes people forget how the world is and looks. There’s no fluidity for sexuality, and they don’t show that every age group can have sex.

However, ethical porn platforms feature people from every walk of life. They’re more inclusive, and that’s much better for everyone. I know I like to see someone who seems normal in an erotic film; it makes me connect better and realize that I can perform just like them.

Everything Is Shared and Created Consensually

Consent is so crucial, and that’s what many people dislike about mainstream porn. Sometimes, it’s unclear if the people showcased agreed to what happened. In fact, I’ve read countless stories of people who were hit with scene changes at the last minute, leading to severe tension while on the set.

Ethical porn doesn’t have any of that. All sexual acts are agreed to beforehand, everyone offers enthusiastic consent, and they’re all happy about what they’re doing. Plus, the people involved are old enough to consent and given the chance to say what activities they’re not comfortable with.

Best Ethical Porn Sites That Allow You to Watch Porn

Here is my list of favorite ethical porn sites to help you get started. If you want to watch ethical porn, I highly recommend that you research your options personally, digging into every platform you consider using. Then, you’ll know that they’re ethical and not just using the label.

However, I must warn you now that these links are NSFW (not safe for work).

PinkLabelTV

PinkLabel.TV is a platform created by Shine Louise Houston, a filmmaker. It explores sexuality and its fluidity and could be one of the best ethical porn sites out there. Overall, it showcases various performers, such as people of color, queers, transgender people, older folks, and people with disabilities.

Houston created this platform to give up-and-coming filmmakers the chance to focus on ethical production while reaching a global audience and getting access to sexual health resources.

Bellesa

Bellesa creates ethical porn for women, and the company is run by women. The website claims that they believe sexuality on the internet should showcase women as they truly are. They’re not objects for conquest or subjects of pleasure. The site offers written erotic stories, cams, and videos.

Kink.com

Kink.com is another ethical porn site that highlights fetishes and BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, Masochism). The platform destigmatizes the shame often surrounding kink and represents different types of people, focusing more on people of color.

Bright Desire

Bright Desire wants to illustrate the things we all love about sex, such as passion, fun, and intimacy. The platform offers scenes from real-life couples who explore themselves sexually while embracing the pleasures they feel. It’s all unscripted, and Ms. Naughty, the filmmaker, claims that her films are holistic because she shows the genitals.

Overall, you see everything, including the vinegar stroke expressions, shudders, and sweating.

Make Love Not Porn

Make Love Not Porn (MLNP) was created by Cindy Gallop to showcase what real sex is like in all flavors. The ethical porn site allows real individuals and couples to send erotic videos and be paid for them. People can stay anonymous if they want and are allowed to remove the vids from the platform whenever they wish.

Ifeelmyself

Ifeelmyself is another one of the top ethical porn sites because it focuses on female self-pleasure. This includes showing female orgasms in their raw forms. Overall, the platform lets contributors share videos for payment. There’s also a forum for consumers to talk to each other about the content they view.

Sssh

Sssh is different than other ethical porn sites because it’s a crowdsourced platform that focuses on the desires and fantasies shared among the members. In a sense, it combines artistry with porn, using virtual reality, storytelling techniques, and narratives. The storylines can stimulate the body and mind.

Lightsouthern

Lightsouthern is an Australian platform that Michelle Flynn created. It focuses on creating great porn for everyone by showcasing realistic sex. You’ll see intimate situations, bodies touching, and various positions. In fact, it’s one of the few options that let consumers access behind-the-scenes footage like film festival cuts, director’s cuts, and more.

Frolicme

Frolicme was designed for women and couples specifically. The platform shows the art of consenting sex between adults, but it focuses more on female pleasure and their passion. Along with adult films, Frolicme provides other options, such as audio and articles.

XConfessions

XConfessions has a simple concept behind it. The viewers submit anonymous sex confessions, and someone chooses the juiciest stories for a film. Erika Lust has won awards for her film directing, and she’s ready for the job.

You can find many options here, such as threesomes, romance, BDSM, and roleplay fantasies, so it truly caters to all of your needs. Plus, it uses seven core values when producing and filming: diversity, equal pleasure, transparency, fair pay, worker standards, no surprises, and a safe-sex environment. The cost for a membership is $17/month.

Lust Cinema

If you like a variety of videos, Lust Cinema could be the right choice. It’s an adult movie theater (online) that offers a wide range of modern films. However, they’re all shot from the woman’s perspective. You’ll see feature-length movies with all body types for $17/month.

Options for Audio Porn

Audio porn is often easier to produce ethically because the performers don’t have to physically engage in the sex acts or have their images shared. These platforms often cater to women and other genders than men because they focus on storytelling.

Dipsea

Dipsea celebrates healthy sex by providing clips for every fantasy, interest, and flavor. It features a story studio, and the scripts get written in-house. Plus, it partners with the top voice actors, who all get paid. The monthly subscription begins at $9.

Quinn

Carolina Spiegel created Quinn to help people feel more comfortable in their bodies and appreciate their sexualities. It’s a free porn site that has all the eroticism you need without the time-consuming wait. There are quick clips of porn with no visuals.

Sounds of Pleasure

Sounds of Pleasure is another free option hosted by Tumblr. It features a list of clips that have titillating sex sounds, such as raspy voices, heavy breathing, and moaning.

Ethical Porn Issues

A platform and film production house could label their videos as ethical porn, but that doesn’t mean they’re made ethically. In fact, it’s hard to say what standards are out there to determine what makes a film or production ethical.

Just as “organic” has no clear meaning in terms of food, I’m not sure what ethical might mean for porn. It would be better for these film companies and platforms to clarify their stance and say why their films are ethically produced to help people. Transparency is crucial, and we all want to know that they’re honoring ethical concerns and how.

It could be explaining how the performers are paid and how content gets prioritized. I think these explanations would ease the concerns most consumers feel about finding an ethical site to support.

Overall, I’d have to say that research is your best friend right now. You need to learn what mainstream sites are out there, move away from them, and check each company and option.

Therefore, you’ll be following your favorite performers on Twitter and other social media platforms. These platforms give people a voice, so you can hear their thoughts about websites and specific scenes. Plus, you’ll follow their independent work!

The Difference Between Feminist Porn and Ethical Porn

Ethical and feminist porn can be called the same thing, though it depends on who you ask. I think feminist porn values a woman’s pleasure more or equally, and the sex is authentic and realistic. In general, it can’t be ethical if it doesn’t support and respect the woman.

Mainstream pornography tends to focus on the male gaze, and it can be dehumanizing or even degrading to women.

What Is Ethical Porn? The Conclusion

Ethical pornography helps us focus on sex-positive experiences with no guilt, and this is crucial. Society must change the way it thinks about sex, and not all porn is made equally.

Therefore, it’s crucial to know what you’re supporting when you view videos from a company. Choose platforms that are inclusive and treat performers with respect. Likewise, it’s best to focus on options that use sex-positive messages. A little diligence and digging can help, though I’ve listed the top ethical porn sites for you above.