Coronavirus Impact on the Porn Industry Is Up in the Air

The coronavirus — more specifically COVID-19 — continues to sweep across the globe. With the death toll worldwide nearing 4,000 and confirmed cases soaring past 100,000, fears of a pandemic are looming. 

Naturally, we here at YNOT wondered: How will this affect the porn industry?

On the one hand, some people are shutting down filming w/ partners. Like Giselle Palmer, a performer who left LA to move back to Texas and shoot solo content when coronavirus became a clear threat. “By opting out of shooting scenes, Palmer is taking a significant financial hit,” reported Rolling Stone’s EJ Dickson. “Yet she considers it a small price to pay for maintaining her health in an industry that, she believes, is like many others in the United States right now, in that it’s not well-equipped to deal with the looming threat of the spread of coronavirus.”

But most of the industry is just waiting to see what happens. ““For the most part we’re in a purgatory state like everybody else,” said Bree Mills of Adult Time.

Still, Los Angeles county is now in a state of emergency, having experienced its first death from the virus last week. So industry insiders are trying to plan what to do next. The recent rise of side hustles like webcamming from home, paid text-messaging apps, OnlyFans content production, and so on may serve performers well as they hunker down to wait out the pandemic. “My plan is to get back on cam a lot more…and not put myself at any kind of risk of exposure,” Lexi Luna told Rolling Stone. “I know there are many ways to make money in the industry and they don’t always involve face-to-face contact with performers.” She also said that she knows many performers who have cancelled plans to travel for conventions and/or shoots in other parts of the U.S. and other countries.

Some, however, think business as usual is the best policy. “While it is possible that porn sets might be affected by this, I believe it is imperative to remain positive,” performer Sarah Vandella told Rolling Stone. Vandella believes that the industry should keep being “health-conscious” while also “maintaining impeccable hygiene to prevent the spread of germs.”

And, given that the adult industry has lots of practice with containing the spread of contagious disease with its long track record of dealing with STIs, perhaps it’s better positioned to deal with coronavirus than most. “Due to the extremely physical nature of our labor, our regulatory body has been known to call quarantines over lesser illness outbreaks,” director Lena Paul told Rolling Stone. “I am reasonably confident that if a performer contracted coronavirus then we would call a halt on production.”

Nevertheless, on Friday, the FSC issued a statement confirming that it would call for a hold on production, if public health authorities in an area where porn is often filmed “indicates that the spread of the virus has created a significant risk of infection to the general population.” The statement also encouraged performers to stay home if they are feeling ill and to “try to build a stockpile of content to release in case you get sick or there is a halt in production.”

The adult industry may be ready to deal with a known case of coronavirus, knowing about that case may be an issue. Testing kits aren’t readily available yet, and the public health response to the virus in the United States has so far been sluggish. Given that the virus is spread through contact with viral droplets, usually from the nose and/or mouth, intimate contact on set seems a likely vector for transmission. And while it’s possible to shoot a sex scene without kissing, it’s not exactly common. 

Then again…

“If it’s true that art imitates life, right now life is pretty shitty for a lot of people around the world. And if there’s any form that can turn a fucked-up situation into escape and entertainment, it’s porn,” wrote Vice’s Samantha Cole last week. “So yes, of course coronavirus porn exists.”

Lots of people already have medical equipment kinks, so working a face mask into a shoot isn’t that far afield for many producers and performers. And content producers are responding with everything from PSAs about safety during the outbreak to just throwing “coronavirus” into the titles of unrelated videos in the hopes of catching the inevitable surge of searches. 

“Some of the videos that fall under the coronavirus theme appear to be people in quarantine, passing the time or earning some money online. Whether they’re actually shot by people who are under self-quarantine is unclear,” wrote Cole. But people the world over may well have more time on their hands if they’re working from home or otherwise quarantined. That means that porn creation and porn viewing may spike. 

According to Vice, “Following an offer last month to provide free premium accounts to regions severely affected by coronavirus, the overwhelming surge in signups outpaced xHamster’s ability to approve new accounts.” That trend seems sure to continue. 

But will people want to watch porn about a virus that’s killing economies and people all around them? Only time will tell, but Spicy, half the porn-makign couple Spicy x Rice who have already made coronavirus porn, told Vice, “I think people are attracted to COVID-19 themed porn the same way people who are scared of their shadow are attached to horror movies: We are all searching for things that make us come alive.”

Woman in Gas Mask Photo by Alera Ruben from Pexels