Why American Porn Is Campaigning During Elections?

Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press Journalist and porn star Siouxsie Q sums up an ad she appears in like this: “Hey, I know you're busy. Hold it for a minute. If you want to keep being able to do this, you really need to go vote on November 5th… Have fun.”

Andrew Marszal – Agence France-Presse in Los Angeles

Published at 10:06

• United States

“If you consume adult entertainment, go vote!” In the United States, a militant advertising campaign wants to stimulate the male electorate with an unusual warning before watching pornographic videos: their freedom to consume this content is threatened by ultraconservatives.

“Pornography should be banned and the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned,” we can read in the first pages of “Project 2025”, an ultraconservative program concocted by Donald Trump's close associates, although the latter seeks to distance himself from it.

The #HandsOffMyPorn collective spent $200,000 to broadcast messages on specialist sites, particularly in key presidential election states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia.

“If you consume or create adult entertainment, you should definitely go vote,” journalist and porn star Siouxsie Q told AFP, before summarizing one of the ads in which she stars: “Hey, I know you're busy. Hold back for a minute. If you want to continue to be able to do this, you really need to go vote on November 5th… Have fun.” »

The campaign, funded by the independent committee Artists United for a Change, is specifically targeting men, who consume more porn than women — or at least admit to consuming it more readily, according to several studies.

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With less than two weeks to go until the election, the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remains extremely tight, but one thing is clear: women are leaning more towards the Democrat and men towards the Republican.

The vice president’s campaign team is not associated with #HandsOffMyPorn at all, but “we hope that, secretly, she appreciates what we do,” smiles Siouxsie Q.

“The Canary in the Mine”

The porn industry is no stranger to conservative threats, but for Holly Randall, who has worked in the industry for more than a quarter century as a photographer, director, and producer, “The 2025 Project” is the most explicit iteration of the push to ban it altogether.”

And that includes the years of Ronald Reagan’s crackdown on hardcore porn (1981–89), during which her parents, also in the industry, were required to film some scenes in secret.

Siouxsie Q, who made her name in feminist, queer, and bondage porn before moving into production, says she worries about the possibility of being imprisoned for her work.

But she also warns of consequences beyond the porn industry.

“It's the canary in the coal mine,” the “easiest” thing to attack when it comes to free speech, she explains, “because it embodies the uncertainty and fears that some people have about changing morals and gender fluidity. »

But behind this “lightning rod” lies the banning by ultraconservatives of sex education books in school libraries, attacks on trans rights, on LGBTQ+ marriage and even on reproductive rights, she says.

Irony of the Stormy Daniels affair

Donald Trump keeps repeating that he has nothing to do with the “2025 Project,” but an investigation by the New York Timesshowed that “more than half” of its authors were part of his administration or his campaign teams.

Democrats insist that many of the Republican's proposals are in line with those of the ultraconservative platform, notably on the reorganization of the federal government or immigration.

According to Holly Randall, the former president “doesn't care whether or not he bans” porn, but he could “give in” to “the people around him, like his running mate J. D. Vance, these far-right conservatives.”

J. D. Vance, a radical opponent of abortion and self-proclaimed defender of conservative morals, notably wrote the preface to a forthcoming book written by the president of the think tank behind the “2025 Project”, Kevin D. Roberts, who also wrote the section on pornography.

Holly Randall points out the irony of the situation: Last April, the Republican candidate was convicted of making covert payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels to avoid a sex scandal just before the 2016 presidential election.