Measure B: Actually, I DON’T Care About County Officials Inspecting Adult Film Sites for Safe Sex!
The San Fernando Valley: Hotbed of unregulated ‘sex acts’ between unprotected porn stars. LA County will fix this.
Election time is getting close, and despite the fact that there was no Legalize It proposition this time in California, I studied my sample ballot to see if there were any interesting propositions to vote on. Check out Measure B from Los Angeles County:
“Shall an ordinance be adopted requiring producers of adult films to obtain a County public health permit, to require adult film performers to use condoms while engaged in sex acts, to provide proof of blood borne pathogen training course, to post permit and notices to performers, and making violations of the ordinance subject to civil fines and criminal charges?”
In other words, do you want to vote to create new regulations in pornography? Because adult film stars are required, by the nature of their employment, to engage in sex acts which are, by their very nature, prone to spread diseases especially in a multi-partner environment that could allow HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases to spread unchecked, as quickly as a brush fire in Imperial County in the beginning of September? Hmm? Well? Shouldn’t these unsafe acts be regulated somehow? Maybe with some permit-posting and some official inspecting? Wait, is this really a ballot measure? What the hell for?!
I’ve talked about pornographers before. Obviously, there are serious problems in this industry and all this crazy porn (gonzo porn is not the same as gonzo journalism) is changing the way we see a lot of things. But I don’t see the point in spending LA County resources on making sure actors in adult films are wearing condoms, not to mention the actual enforcement of which seems bizarre, like something out of Kafka or a magical realism novel. Rampant drug use and any possible abuse of minors would appear to be much more important areas to focus our concern of the adult film industry, and posting your permit from the public health department is not going to change a damn thing about how porn gets produced.
Tell me: Is this ballot measure crazy or am I? How many times can I use ‘sex acts’ in a post?
*For an unrelated read on Money and Sex, check out L Bee and the Money Tree’s latest post. Blog Post of the Week!
No, no, no! You don’t understand. Say you’re a county worker. You’re fearful of being laid off, because let’s face it, government jobs are just not the secure boondoggle they used to be. (See http://bit.ly/kpfft)
So, what do you do? You find other things to do, of course. What things? Preferably fun things. Okay, so lying on Yuma Beach to test the efficacy of each brand of suntan lotion on the market for the LA County Seal of Approval probably won’t fly. But hey, what about getting paid by taxpayers to go and visit porn studios? That could fly! This is California, for crying out loud. Put it on the ballot!
And now you know where to find the answers to life’s most vexing questions…
Put it on the ballot, by George!
LOL I love what William said. Seriously, you’re right! Crazy! How about fixing the other million problems LA has!
I think you could have written “sex acts” about seven more times.
Sometimes I think we have to regulate everything. I think porn people know what they’re getting into. I’m not concerned that they might end up with a disease. Every job has its benefits and pitfalls. I’ve exchanged less exciting benefits for less catastrophic pitfalls….
Hmm, perhaps you should elaborate? This sounds intriguing.
I agree with you and with what everyone has said. Why do we have to regulate EVERYTHING? It’s the same with Congress spending taxpayer money in finding out how big an epidemic steroids were in baseball. Yes, I want to know, but I’m more interested in seeing that our budget is balanced or you know, people are working.
Good parallel…baseball is nice and integrity in sports is important, but Congress doesn’t need to spend money on it or really even consider it as part of its duties, cost considerations aside.
Do you also think we should do away with WHMIS?
I had to look that one up…looks similar to MSDS or hazard signs in the US…no I don’t think I was saying we need to “do away” with anything. It would be wonderful if every porn star wears a condom for every act, for their own health. I think I get what you are saying in drawing the parallel, just like OSHA is there to ensure construction sites are safe and even though sites are self-contained and it’s the worker’s fault if he chooses not to wear a hard hat and get hit with something heavy, we still have government rules to try to make the site as safe as possible. So then it’s like “Why shouldn’t the porn be treated in the same way?” which brings up bigger issues like where does porn fit into our society? Does it provide the same value as building a new school or hospital or transportation system? Are we right to judge porn as inappropriate or morally reprehensible and thus we don’t need to dedicate new resources to safeguarding people in that industry? Right? So now I have all kinds of additional thoughts and questions which are not really relevant to this blog…except even with all that reasoning this measure still will do little to create safer environments for porn actors and will not be enforceable…seriously, there are 1,000 new adult films being made in the Valley every day. LA County doesn’t have that many employees they can dedicate to condom-checking.
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