Industry insiders were glad to see the pirated content taken down, particularly after such a rare show of solidarity from industry ranks. “I think they underestimated the power of our community, and I think that this is a great teachable moment for not only companies that try to do this to us but also for content producers and performers,” says Jessica Drake, a contracted star for Wicked Pictures who has performed, written, directed, and produced dozens of adult films. “I'd love to see greater efforts in the future from our industry coming together to let the public know that theft is not acceptable.”
“Porn is entertainment. It is a product, a commodity. It is not free to produce; it is not free to consume.”
Some in the porn industry have offered to work with Bellesa—as long as they’re being fairly compensated for their work. The truth is, free porn is a sad but nearly unavoidable fact for today’s porn makers, and Bellesa was just one of thousands of websites that allow users to upload pirated porn (Pornhub, YouPorn, xHamster, and Spankbang are a few examples). Partnerships, ad shares, and other arrangements have become a common way for both free streaming tube sites and porn makers to turn a buck. But it's important to note that many feminist and other ethical porn makers who produce content with nonmale audiences in mind choose not to partner with free porn streaming sites, since many allow stolen content. The fact that Bellesa sold itself as a feminist entity while blatantly stealing the fruits of female labor and profiting from them made this free porn site a particularly gross offender.
Kim Cums, an Australian porn performer and producer, who was one of the first to call Bellesa out on Twitter, says, “What Shnaidman did was create a feminist-looking website, but the supporting structure had no ethical foundation.”
But the controversy around Bellesa embodies an ideological misstep that goes beyond porn—one that plenty of companies of all kinds have attempted to capitalize on by declaring themselves “feminist” and then failing to show receipts. One of feminism’s fundamental tenets is that women should be paid fairly for their labor. Sex-positive feminism posits that women (and others) be compensated just as fairly for their sexual labor as anyone else. That’s why watching that content for free, without permission, is actually explicitly unfeminist.
"Paying for porn means you're supporting the performers."
Kayden Kross, an adult performer and the cofounder of ethical porn company TRENCHCOATx, said that Bellesa’s acceptance of piracy was “[the] most unethical thing you can do to a content creator while throwing around the buzzwords that appeal to the very consumers looking for businesses that factor ethics into the equation.” By stealing work that Kross poured months of work and a lot of money into, Shnaidman “picked up something she has no right to and asked other people to give her the money for it instead of me. She has decided, effectively, that I will work for her for free and against my consent.”
It’s behavior that also plays into the insidious and widespread idea that sex work doesn’t deserve fair compensation. “We have been so conditioned to see porn as a bogeyman threatening our public health and relationships that people forget to see porn as a neutral media entity: as content that is produced by humans, that involves human labor,” says Tina Horn, host and producer of the sexuality podcast Why Are People Into That?! and two-time Feminist Porn Award–winning adult filmmaker and producer.
