Paying for Porn (Patreon)

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/paying-for-porn

The last two decades have been really fascinating, haven't they? The way we consume media and compensate the creators who make it has changed massively since the rise of the internet. I remember my dad being so excited about Napster back in 1999, how he was delighted to download hundreds of his favorite songs-- for free! AWESOME! He didn't pay the radio station to listen to music, so it didn't even occur to him that straight-up downloading songs was directly impacting his favorite artists until a musician he adored released a song lamenting how all the years and blood and sweat she'd poured into creating a sustainable music career felt like it was evaporating in front of her because "we're giving it all away for free now." This floored him. He stopped using Napster.

I've been making webcomics since I was a teenager and have payed close attention to the changing attitudes of content consumers over the last ten or so years. People began by consuming the "free" stuff (whether it was released that way by the creator or not) and feeling entitled to it. It's right there, isn't it? Why not! And then in the online comic and music worlds (and elsewhere, I'm sure, but this is where I've focused my attention) the creators began making it known that their art didn't spring from a void, that they-- real human people-- were producing it and they, as real human people do, needed to financially support themselves in order to keep making this stuff that their audiences loved so much.

Presently, it seems safe to say that most online entertainment consumers have not only accepted but EMBRACED the fact that their money supports their favorite creators. I mean, shit. I'm writing this to you on Patreon. You guys get it. PayPal donation buttons, Patreon, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and a hundred other 'fund this project or person' services are thriving because audiences DO WANT to financially support the content they love to consume, because they KNOW money ensures that the creators can continue to create.

But somehow.... this awareness and goodwill hasn't been extended to porn. 

My personal theory (and I don't claim to be an expert) is that people haven't yet reached that point of realization that they did with the rest of their media, that real people make this work and those real people survive on real money for their real labor. There's many more factors, of course! (The fact that society kinda hates sex work and its workers in general plays a pretty big role, I'm sure) Way more qualified people who actually work in the sex industry have already written much more in-depthly about this subject (Links to a handful of articles are in this comic's blog post) and I fully encourage people to read them.

With today's comic, Matt and I just wanted to talk as porn consumers to our fellow porn consumers and, ideally, reach the fans who just haven't ever given any consideration to where their porn comes from. Maybe over the next decade that conscious consumerism that my creative peers and I  survive on will include porn producers as well. I like to think so!