California porn stars could soon have to wear protection. Eye protection, that is.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

California porn stars could soon have to wear protection. Eye protection, that is.

Morning Mix
By Michael E. Miller May 29 at 2:31 AM
@MikeMillerDC

Porn stars could soon be forced to don far more protection than just condoms in California. New rules proposed last week by the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHA) would require adult film actors to wear eye gear for many scenes. The rules, which have yet to be finalized, would also impose strict hygiene standards and outlaw common porn practices.
....

The proposed rules are largely the work of one man: Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. For years, Weinstein has attacked the porn industry for what he calls dangerously poor testing procedures and its refusal to use condoms. Five years ago, Weinstein submitted a formal request to OSHA to impose stricter hygiene standards and crack down on condom dodging. His organization was also behind LA County’s condom law.

“This is really about worker protection, and what the Cal/OSHA Standards Board is for,” he said during the public hearing last week, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. His group claims that “at least four adult performers… have become infected with HIV while working in the adult film industry, while thousands of other adult performers became infected with thousands of other sexually-transmitted diseases.”

“We’re absolutely opposed to the new regulations proposed by Cal/OSHA,” Michael Stabile, a spokesperson for San Francisco porn company Kink, told SF Weekly. “They’re based in stigma and threaten to make working conditions less safe for adult performers. Because everything we do at Kink is based in consent, we can’t support regulations that remove performers’ control over their bodies or forces performers to disclose medical information, for instance. It’s important to note that these are regulations to which performers have been vocal in their opposition.”

[Codeine]

1. Should be "Oh-oh-oh-OSHA!" Regulations nt

[Schema Thing]

5. :)

[louis-t]

53. Gesundheit.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. But Will This Cause Guys To Make Passes...?

But will this cause more guys to make passes at girls who wear eyeglasses?

[FSogol]

3. Com'n, that just opens up new avenues for plots in porn writing.

Think of the options where two folks could be wearing goggles:

Steam punk porn
Mountaineering porn
Swimming competition porn
Welding mask porn
Shop teacher porn
Vintage aircraft porn
1920 race car driver porn
spelunking porn
deep sea diving porn
dentist office porn

I'm sure I missed some...

[phil89]

52. Monocole guy from Monopoly porn...

etc

[FSogol]

54. Maybe that's why he wears that monocle?

[peecoolyour]

4. Nevada, here they come! nt

[LanternWaste]

13. Much as mandatory use of medical gloves compelled doctors to move out of the US in 1972

Much as mandatory use of medical gloves compelled doctors to move out of the US in 1972, and factory floor workers to stop buying shoes when steel-toed boots were made mandatory (OSHA 1910.136).

Insert distinction without a difference below)

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. my scumbag relatives moved their business to Arizona

Their specialty is the girls on the brink of being homeless being sodomized in a motel room genre.

[DesMoinesDem]

20. Your comparisons make no sense.

If this actually becomes law all porn leaves California.

[hughee99]

22. You can't move a hospital to another country, but you can pretty easily

shoot porn anywhere. If porn actors are going to have to dress in hazmat suits, they'll do that. Either that or they'll have to start making a lot more animated porn and just use voice actors.

The bottom line is, if they have to start making changes that the viewers don't like, they'll lose business, and if they can fairly easily relocate where they film it, they'll do that.

[LuvNewcastle]

61. I think animation is the future of porn.

It's just too dangerous for humans to do that job anymore. I don't think that it should be illegal to make real porn -- I believe people have the right to control their own bodies -- but I do think that mandatory medical disclosure regulations are necessary. People deserve to know what they're getting into before they agree to work for someone.

[hughee99]

62. If the quality gets to the point where people can barely

Tell the difference, this cuts their regulations and eventually their costs to a minimum. It will eventually get there.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

23. "Nevada, here they come!"

[peecoolyour]

24. Heh, heh...

I was just being immature and started a debate.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. That should go over well with the goggles fetish crowd.

[daleo]

7. This is a slap in the face to hard working American porn actors

Metaphorically speaking.

[Orrex]

8. They're also required to keep "the girls" covered & not to show "sausage rolls."

[snooper2]

9. Google Glass Finally Found it's Market!

[underpants]

10. .

Good one

[d_legendary1]

18. Glassholes and Porn

Now they can live the fantasy!

[underpants]

11. My response... with smilies

[Arugula Latte]

12. So the naughty librarians are going to start the scenes sans glasses

and then put them on, put their hair up in a bun, and get dressed in their skirt suits as things heat up.

[LittleBlue]

14. While the state runs out of water, the politicians obsess over killing porn

They are already working hard to kill their own movie and TV filming, and now it appears they've killed their own porn industry

As Hollywood battles to keep movie and TV shows from leaving the state, another local industry — adult entertainment — is fleeing Los Angeles.

At least that's the picture that emerges from the latest data on location filming in the region.

The number of permits issued for X-rated productions plummeted about 90% to just 40 permits last year compared with 2012, according to data from FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and county. Only 20 permits have been issued so far this year.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-onlocation-la-porn-industry-20140806-story.html

Porn in California is already dead, just like movie and TV filming. Porn just moved next door to Nevada.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

17. Good riddance

Oh however will the world's sixth or seventh-largest economy survive without industrial scale human degradation?

Forget the old Douglas plant at Long Beach closing, this is the real tragedy.

[JI7]

58. this is state OSHA , i don't think lack of water is their area of concern

[Tipperary]

15. "Performers"

Somehow that strikes me as hilarious.

[d_legendary1]

19. It takes a lot of nerve to take off your clothes and do the

business in front of an entire crew of people while they're filming you and barking orders on how to do it.

[Tipperary]

27. I have no doubt you are right.

I truly can't imagine.

[HERVEPA]

26. Why?

[Tipperary]

29. It put me in mind of "faking it"

Probably we have all done it. Women, I mean.

A "performance" to ensure no hurt feelings.

[HERVEPA]

30. Maybe many have, unlikely all.

Ultimately keeps from using communication to make better. (Not talking about porn here of course).

[Tipperary]

31. Sometimes it's just because one is tired.

Just unable to continue to the desired outcome lol.

Yes, communication is a much better way. But I have had hilarious conversations with my female friends about their "performances" with husbands.

[HERVEPA]

35. OK. Welcome to DU by the way.

[Tipperary]

57. Thank you for the welcome.

Very much appreciated.

[HERVEPA]

59. Any hints as to how we men can tell?

[Tipperary]

60. Uh, well, women vary.

{{{She says nervously, not wanting to out any of her sisters}}}

I can think of some hints but they are not safe for posting here I don't think.

[Nye Bevan]

21. Surely whole-body coveralls with face masks would be even safer? (nt)

[peecoolyour]

25. Big Latex lobbied hard for this.

[name not needed]

32. It's the only way to be sure.

[Rex]

28. I thought porn was illegal? How is it just not another form of prostitution?

I will NEVER understand this strange country I was born and live in. Eva.

[ManiacJoe]

33. In many places it is illegal.

In the places that allow it, it is big business and a large tax base.

In recent years California and its subdivides have placed enough restrictions on it that the business are now locating elsewhere (rumor has it Florida and Nevada).

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Did you just discover the internet?

porn by and for consenting adults is not illegal.

The distinction between porn/prostitution- admittedly, it seems a bit arbitrary or semantic, but in essence if you pay me to have sex with you, it's prostitution. If you pay me to have sex with someone else and you film it (honestly, you couldn't handle the hotness) then it's free expression protected by the first amendment-

unless of course you run afoul of "obscenity" laws, which dovetails into something called "community standards" .....but much to the chagrin of the censors, puritans and "culture in crisis" crowd, it's become fairly apparent that the community doesn't consider adults fucking on film "obscene" and as such said prosecutions are exceedingly rare to nonexistent.

[HERVEPA]

37. Wait. You mean I can find porn on the internet????

[Warren DeMontague]

38. shhhhh

little known fact, I realize.

[Rex]

40. Way to go...another lost soul to Internet Pron!

[Warren DeMontague]

43. There are funny cat memes too

[Rex]

39. Oh sure, that is easy as pie to understand.

Thanks for clearing that up! I say it all should be legal...stop with the quasi-it is when it is and isn't when it isn't brouhaha.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Like I said, it seems a bit arbitrary.

My default position on stuff is, if everyone is a consenting adult, I think the government needs an extremely compelling case if it wants to prohibit something.

[Rex]

44. Just more of Big Brother wanting to control what we do and how we do it.

Not a big fan of government oversight over my dong.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. Well at this point it would be physically impossible to stop it, anyway.

So I think you have widespread permanent change driven by a couple things- a generational shift in attitudes coupled with the fact that this thing is here to stay whether the minority of complainers like it, or not.

Same with marijuana. Millennials in particular are driving a change in public opinion on pot legalization, but on some level there is I believe a public recognition of the fact that pot smoking is never going away, might as well legalize it and get some tax revenue.

[Rex]

48. I know my generation, Gen X decided somewhere along the line to say 'fuck it' to the status quo.

People like drugs and sex, the government can either step aside or make some money off it. The War on Drugs is as sad as the War on Human Bodies.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. Yeah- I'm the same demographic.

I agree but our opinion didnt carry as much weight because we're a pipsqueak, as generations go. So we had to endure hypocritical boomers panicking that their kids would do the same shit they did, bringing us "just say no" etc.

The Millenials are even bigger than the boomers, and they dont fucking care what the boomers think.. Which is why we have seen dramatic polling shifts on everything from weed to gay marriage, as they hit voting age.

[Rex]

51. Which hopefully means the GOP is dying off. Kids are more and more secular

with each passing generation. No wonder the Evangelicals are screaming mad...there main source of money is dying off and NOT to be replaced.

Granny might have sent 50 bux a month, but junior knows a guy that sells some excellent mota for 50 bucks. Sorry CBN.

[LisaL]

42. It's totally arbitrary and doesn't make much sense.

If prostitute sets up a camera and claims she is making a movie, would that make prostitution legal?
But I agree, those are the laws.

[Rex]

46. It seems like a double standard that the government should acknowledge.

You can't pay for sex, but you can pay for a magazine of other people having sex.

[EL34x4]

55. Not in some places.

A lot of porn has moved to Arizona despite the fact that any exchange of sex for money is illegal, whether you're filming a porn or not.

Other states have "performance" exemptions to prostitution laws.

[LisaL]

36. Why don't they make them wear full body condoms (like in a Naked Gun) and be done with it?

[Taitertots]

45. Has anyone ever suffered an eye injury during a porno shoot?

Damn, California is just dying to push adult movie production to another state.

[EL34x4]

56. L.A.'s condom requirement pretty much killed CA's porn industry a few years back.

It is a shadow of what it used to be.

Florida, Nevada and Arizona are the new porn capitals of the United States.

[Warren DeMontague]

49. Oregon has even stronger 1st Amendment free speech protections than the Federal Government

Just sayin