This may be TMI, but I am not a porn watcher. I'd much prefer a saucy romance novel to watching strangers having sex with one another without protection.
So, when I saw this Reddit thread — posed by u/whitewalker646 — exposing dark porn industry secrets, I was intrigued, to say the least. However, after reading them, I moved from intrigued to disturbed.
Here are some of the most harrowing responses:
Warning: Some responses include mentions of coercion and rape.
1. "I was watching a camgirl live-streaming when she was swatted by the Russian police. I later found out that she was in a house filled with camgirls live-streaming in different rooms; kind of like an online brothel."
2. A lot of male porn stars start off in gay porn — regardless of their sexuality — before they can enter into the straight porn circuit.
3. A gay porn editor shared that, while on set, a lot of the sex scenes filmed would be done without protection and anyone who wanted to use protection was encouraged not to.
4. "A friend of mine worked as one of those chat girls on websites where you pay per message to 'chat with hot girls.' He's a guy."
5. Almost every porn set smells like sweat and shit.
6. A female porn star revealed that frequent and rough sexual activity has resulted in incontinence and rectal prolapse.
7. Allegedly, a lot of 18-year-old porn stars were recruited when they were 16 and 17.
8. Traci Lords — a famous porn star — used a fake birth certificate, so she began taking nude photos at the age of 15 and starring in pornographic films at 16.
9. There's a scene in the documentary Hardcore where a young woman is coerced into an anal sex scene with Max Hardcore. The film crew had to step in because they didn't feel comfortable watching.
10. Menstruating porn stars still have to work while on their period — they would place a makeup sponge in their vagina and then remove it at the end of the day.
11. Linda Boreman, the star of Deep Throat, has gone on record saying that she was sexually coerced into taking the role in the film and that "every time someone watches that movie, they're watching me being raped."
12. Most of the extremely large penises seen on screen are either fake or obtained via penis pump.
13. The slapping sound you hear during sex is someone in post-production slapping a couple of boneless and skinless chicken breasts together.
14. There was an "amateur video" going viral on PornHub that was actually footage of a 14-year-old girl getting raped. It took the girl posing as a lawyer for PornHub to remove the video from their site.
15. Some male porn stars get injections in their penis or even penile implants to remain erect during sex.
16. A lot of "milfs" in porn aren't actually mothers.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity. You can read the full thread here.