LOS ANGELES — James Deen and ex-porn performer Satine Phoenix are the featured guests on today's Brain Food Daily, a news program featured on Participant Media's newly launched social issues YouTube Channel, TakePart TV.
Deen and Phoenix appear on the show to discuss Measure B, the "Safer Sex" initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot that would mandate condom usage in adult films shot in L.A. Titled "Rubber Soul: Should the Porn Industry Require Condoms," the webisode finds host Jenny Mollen moderating a debate between the two stars.
Deen opens the discussion by citing constitutional rights as a reason for his opposition to condom laws.
"The First Amendment allows any artist to create any artistic piece of material in any way that they want," Deen explains. "When it comes down to it, we're constitutionally allowed to choose to make any artistic film in any way we choose."
Phoenix sees things differently.
"I don't think porn is art; I think porn is porn," she counters. "Art has a different effect on people. Porn has a specific effect on people. I think that you should be able to make whatever you want; how you approach the community... that's a whole different aspect.
"Kids are watching, and it's so easily accessible," Phoenix continues. "It's easy to say we don't have any responsibility, but the truth is we all are in this world together and we have an effect on each other. When you reach out to that many people at one time you do have a responsibility."
Phoenix goes on to state that the industry, despite what it may say, doesn't tolerate performers who request condoms to work, especially if they're female.
"We have these grandiose ideas in porn that you have all these options but the reality is you don't," she says. "Because if you don't do something, there's another girl that will.'
Deen believes, however, that condom responsibility falls on each individual and that government has no place in dictating how porn productions should be shot. He also notes that forcing condom use on the adult film industry could drive it out of town and end up costing the city millions.
"The adult film industry is about entertainment," he says. "It's not meant to be educational; it's sex."
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