LOS ANGELES — Reigning XBIZ Performer of the Year Cherie DeVille has penned a new opinion piece for the Daily Beast, exploring the latest anti-porn attack by religious conservative politicians, this time targeting “no-face” content.
In the essay, published this weekend, DeVille decodes the alleged “loophole” about which 26 attorneys general wrote to Pornhub in a public letter shared with the mainstream press.
This “loophole,” DeVille wrote, is in fact merely “no-face porn, a genre in which performers are only seen below the neck, so that you see their adult bodies but not their heads. The attorneys general claim PornHub forces these stars to upload photo IDs to verify their ages, but since they don’t have to include their faces in the videos, this ‘loophole’ could lead to uploads of content featuring minors.”
According to DeVille, the AGs’ argument makes little sense.
“In their letter, they write like PornHub earns much of its profits from these no-face videos. But even millions of views on a free no-face video rakes in just pennies. Just as streaming music doesn’t pay musicians well, neither does streaming porn. Furthermore, no-face porn is a niche genre; if you look at PornHub’s most-viewed videos, they show people’s faces. Saying PornHub runs on no-face porn is like saying Hollywood runs on indie movies.”
Since PornHub has no financial interest in a loophole that would allow child porn, DeVille points out, what the attorneys general are actually going after is a First Amendment issue.
“Users aren’t hiding their faces to conceal crimes,” she continues. “Rather, they’re appealing to a no-face fetish. They make artistic choices to conceal their faces, just as some musicians and streamers wear masks. Is Daft Punk, the DJ DeadMaus, or the countless masked Twitch streamers who go viral on the platform lying about their ages by covering their faces? Nobody would ever ask them that question because we respect adults’ freedom to make artistic choices. The same opportunity ought to apply to adult performers, too.”
To read Cherie DeVille’s “Politicians’ Latest Campaign to Destroy the Porn Industry,” visit TheDailyBeast.com.
Main Image: Cherie DeVille (Photo: Gustavo Turner)
