“Hardcore Profits,” a BBC documentary by Tim Samuels, features interviews with Ghanaian men who say that, since they were never taught about sex in school, that Los Angeles has provided them sex education, Porn Valley style.
As a result, they say, they have AIDS. Also, they are rapists.
It works like this, says Samuels in an interview with Public Radio International’s “The World”: Porn Valley product somehow finds its way to deepest Ghana as well as other remote spots in Africa. Even though the village might not have electricity, generators are wheeled into mud huts that are then turned into “improvised pornographic theatres.”
Samuels was not able to say which movies were watched or what company’s products were most popular, but the results were clear: the audience then went out and either raped women or got AIDS, or both.
“Women have been raped straight after the films have been shown,” Samuels said.
I think I’m not supposed to say at this point that I never had sex education in school, either, yet I have never raped anyone. But I admit that I have had unprotected sex in this particularly seedy gene pool, knowing full well (as did my partners) the risks involved.
But it wasn’t pornography that did that – it was my own lack of regard for safety.
“Hardcore Profits” also interviews a professor at an African university, who suggests that it is Western colonialism that is to blame for the notion that “the west is the best” among Africans, and that anything depicted in our culture is worth a try.
The first two Hollywood movies that came to mind were “Spiderman” and “The Bucket List.” I don’t know why they came to mind but there they were. Surely the benighted Africans had access to those movies, too, on the teeming streets of Accra. Surely the mud hut theatres had something else on the program other than the latest Jennifer James/Kurt Lockwood/James Bartholet smash? Why was there no resultant outbreak of web-slinging or whatever Morgan Freeman does (I have no idea, I wouldn’t even see “The Bucket List” in your mud hut)?
I do believe there is something to that Best Western attitude, though. Blaming porn for rape or AIDS is as ridiculous as that trend in America where people sued McDonalds over the temperature of its hot coffee. “Ouch!” they said, filing lawsuit paperwork down at the courthouse. “That hot coffee is hot!”
Outrageous American litigiousness is also one of our finest cultural exports.
In addition to the raping and AIDS-getting, Samuels reports that men in Papua New Guinea are putting ball bearings in their penises to emulate their pornic heroes. Alas, I am not hung like Lexington Steele, but I never would have thought of that. Ever. Nor have I ever seen that in a movie of any kind. Come to think of it, where does one buy ball bearings?
Samuels suggests that porn companies donate some of their hefty profits to AIDS prevention in Africa. This is a good suggestion, or as good a suggestion as porn companies should donate some of their hefty profits to paying residuals to the performers. Neither will happen, both would be nice, but only one is owed.
But as America’s Beloved Porn Journalist, I feel behooved to say to adult companies that, in addition to displaying your 2257 notices and “entertainment purposes only” disclaimers at the beginning of your movies, that you should also state, in English and in as many languages spoken by your warehouse personnel, “Now don’t rape anybody or stick ball bearings in your urethra.”
Previously on Porn Valley Observed: If you like Pina Coladas; Lust See TV Class of 1991
See also: Global impact of porn industry – listen to Samuls on “The World”
For all of the amazing anecdotes presented as "facts" in this news story, The World should have followed it up with an expert on dragons who could discuss what was going to happen to Columbus once he fell off the edge of the Earth.
It would have been a comparable level of journalism.
I emailed the following to the staff of The World:
I find it very strange that for all the well-produced and well-researched news items that have been featured on The World in the past, you've chosen to buy into the sort of sensationalism that seems to surround anything that has to do with the adult industry during your interview with documentarian Tim Samuels.
If the tentacles of this business are as far reaching and its pockets as deep as your guest claims, how hard would it have been to get a reaction from anyone in the adult industry or find a trade group? The claims presented are amazing, and the only source you presented besides Mr. Samuels, Sakyi Awuku Amoa, opined nebulously that the problem came down to colonialism — but it was a form response so vague that it could have been used for any number of ills in Africa.
If the unintended consequences of the American adult entertainment industry are being held up this sort of scrutiny, why hasn't Mr. Samuels held all of Western popular media to the same standard? Or is that he couldn't find people who could tell the same sort of sensational tales after they watched "Wild Hogs" or "Two and a Half Men"?
I urge members of the industry to respond against the false assumptions and preconceived notions about our industry that are presented in the news media as fact.
The one fascinating thing about the interview was that Samuels said that American porn is cheaper than Nigerian porn even in Nigeria. I guess Red Light District must have an office in Lagos.
I'm sure I was building up something poignant to say about this, but I got completely derailed by you neglecting the hyphen in Spider-Man. It made me sad, and now I can't focus on anything else.
Where does one begin? The most ridiculous claim that jumped out at me was that Africans are putting bearings under the skins of their penises in emulation of "American porn stars." The only thing American porn stars stick in their penises is Caverject. The practice of inserting pearls and other small round objects under the skin of the penis goes back centuries in primitive cultures in South America, Africa, and the East. Most recently, it's something that Yakuza are purported to do. I would like to punch these researchers in the face with a wet fact.
I actually looked for the date of this article to be not September, but APRIL first.