Former porn star Jenna Haze gave a TEDx talk on pornography in Hasselt, Belgium. The event took place at the renowned Hasselt University. The actress particularly points out the difficulties posed by the ubiquitous free pornography and pleads with everyone to pay for pornography and to work for the proper protection of minors. A selfless attack on Pornhub?
The now 37-year-old director was featured in over 500 films between 2001 and 2011. She worked exclusively for Jill Kelly Productions for many years and played predominantly in lesbian scenes. At the height of her active porn career, she was featured in an HBO documentary series on the porn industry and was also cast as a supporting actress in several Hollywood productions. She also worked for the well-known studio Jules Jordan. She has received several awards for her work as an actress, including AVN and XRCO Awards as well as an XBIZ Award.
From 2011 on she worked behind the camera for her own studio Jennaration, which also won several AVN awards. Since then the actress could only be seen in front of the camera in music videos. In the meantime, Jenna Haze has started studying psychology. For many fans, it will, therefore, be a great pleasure to see the actress in front of the camera again. Albeit dressed and in a non-sexual setting, nevertheless, her talk was dedicated to pornography.
Porn star gives TEDx lecture in Belgium
Jenna Haze held a TEDx talk on pornography at Hasselt University in Belgium. Title of the event? »Porn: A Shift in Mindset«. She said: »Pornography’s prevalence in today’s society is obvious, with a large percentage of the world choosing to indulge in online free porn, a fact well documented by internet traffic statistics. Simultaneously, American culture, through various mediums of entertainment, has adopted and portrayed adult films as practically a part of daily life.« She asks: If pornography is so mainstream, has the view of it changed?
The harmful effects of ubiquitous non-paid content
In her presentation, Haze points out that basically everyone consumes pornography at least once, but more often than not regularly, and that she continues to fully support the industry. The problem of free tube sites, however, is that they lead to far greater side effects than the collapse of the traditional business model of classic porn studios. According to Jenna Haze, the omnipresent availability of Pornhub, Redtube and similar sites also ensures that the protection of minors is grossly undermined.
»Access to this content is incredibly easy. Just by clicking the ‘Yes, I am over 18 years old’ button’, teenagers and children are watching some things that should only be seen by adults. Adults who are aware that pornography is fantasy and who are old enough to understand things like ‘Consent’ and Roleplaying. While I support the industry wholeheartedly as well as the right to free artistic expression and believe that quality adult content should be made, I also know that I don’t want children to get their sex education from it. It creates an unrealistic expectation about sex at way too young of an age. (…) It should be paid for and age-verified.«
A talk on whose behalf?
Haze makes a passionate plea that pornography should always be paid for and that age verification should be carried out under all circumstances. The longer the lecture lasts, the clearer the self-interested tenor of her TEDx talk becomes, which represents a head-on attack on the business model of the tube pages.
»I myself had to personally stop producing and directing films for my company in 2013 because every time I would put a movie out it would be online on all of these tube sites in a matter of days or hours. I had to hire an anti-piracy company to issue legal orders.«
Lobbying at a university? Which capitalism is good capitalism?
On the one hand, the former porn star supports the traditional business model and rages against online piracy and the oppressive market power of Mindgeek, which has dominated the XXX market for years with Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn and numerous other offers. On the other hand, she plays into the company’s hands by advocating an all-encompassing age verification. After all, Age ID, the leading provider of age verification for adult content, is also part of the MindGeek group.
The talk is not substantiated and rather emotional. That is irritating and throws a rather strange light on the TEDx format. The interests in the porn business have also become somewhat muddled – after all, the tube, clip and cam pages have also led to new business models and greater freedom and direct revenue participation for the performers. A narrative of good vs. evil, which Haze unfolds in her presentation, seem rather naive and driven by self-interest.
Here the complete lecture of the porn legend: