Money Shot: The Pornhub Story

Netflix is currently airing a documentary titled Money Shot: The Pornhub Story. This documentary examines, among other things, the way in which this enormous online clearinghouse of porn makes money and its relationship with content providers. The documentary touches on a number of themes that are examined in LBST 415: Sex Work and Sex Workers, including:

• Safety and Control: The documentary highlights that many content providers (some of whom identify as sex workers) find that the subscription services offered by Pornhub dramatically increases their safety and increases the predictability of their work. These beneficial changes for these sex workers are consistent with the benefits that accrue to sex workers from decriminalization of sex work in other jurisdictions, such as New Zealand.
• Who Profits: Like other businesses, Pornhub exists to make money. And, like other businesses, its profitability has often been driven, in part, by some fairly objectionable business practices. The sex workers who participate in its subscription service (essentially as independent contractors) note that their income, when compared to working as an actor for a production company, is often much greater (one example is a threefold increase). Tactics designed to apply market pressure to Pornhub (see below), have forced some to move to other platforms or return to less safe and remunerative forms of sex work.
• Sex Work and Trafficking: An ongoing issue with Pornhub (and other online porn providers) is the sharing of videos that are various ways unlawful (e.g., filmed without consent, containing minors, depicting crimes). Campaigns seeking to regulate such videos often intentionally blur the distinction between unlawful and lawful porn, much like campaigns against sex work(ers) will frame sex work as sex trafficking. The popularity of this tactic speaks to its effectiveness.
• State Regulation: The documentary looks are two efforts to regulate Pornhub. The first is state regulation (akin to the legalization, but not decriminalization, of sex work) aimed at addressing unlawful pornography. These efforts (primarily in the US) had the effect of deplatforming sex workers, cutting their income and forcing some to return to much less safe street-based sex work. The effectiveness of this regulation at eliminating unlawful pornography appears limited. One unexpected effect appears to be that the creators and distributors of unlawful pornography have become more circumspect and difficult to catch. 
• Market Regulation: The second approach to regulating Pornhub (and other such sites) has been through market pressure. Essentially, the financial sector (e.g., credit card companies) has been pressured to restrict billing services. This has disproportionately impacted sex workers whop are dependent upon these billing arrangements. Many have fled to other platforms (such as OnlyFans) which have been (for reasons not well explained in the documentary) more resistant to this form of pressure.

Overall, the documentary was pretty engaging. An interesting twist at about the halfway mark is the backstory reveal around one of the organizations that has campaigned against Pornhub (spoiler: Jesus!) and its actual agenda and activities.

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Documentary on 9-to-5 Movement

Netflix is presently showing a documentary entitled 9to5: The Story of a Movement. This documentary traces the development of the 9 to 5 social movement that began foregrounding unfair working conditions for women office workers in the United States (initially in Boston) in the early 1970s. This movement was the inspiration for the 1980 comedy of the same name (which holds up pretty well and, sadly, is still topical, 40 years later).

One of the narrative arcs of the film explores how the 9 to 5 movement transitions from a social movement into a union (Local 925) as the workers sought to formalize and entrench the gains they had made. This includes following a union organizing campaign (in Cincinnati I think, but it may have been Seattle) through an initial defeat and subsequent victory. It also examines how the attack on labour by US business and government in the 1980s affected Local 925.

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula were union organizers?

I ran across this interesting article last year about the origins of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in the United States (which has merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA). SAG started in 1933 to prevent the exploitation of actors by movie studios.

Among the founding members was Boris Karloff (most famous for portraying Frankenstein). Karloff was concerned about long hours (including one 25-hour stretch) and dangerous working conditions on set and one of the first SAG meetings took place in Karloff’s garage. He served as a Board member and officer of SAG from 1933 to 1951.

Bela Lugosi (most famous for playing Dracula) was also an early member. Lugosi emigrated from Hungary in the 1920s after engaging in labor activism among actors there. Both Lugosi and Karloff were SAG recruiters, soliciting memberships from actors on the sets of their movies.

-- Bob Barnetson

A Christmas Carol from an organizing perspective

The blog Organizing Work ran an interesting piece last week interrogating how worker organizing could have altered the trajectory of the story in A Christmas Carol (delightfully, using the Muppet version). 

The post contains several astute observations, including that the workers manage to get a day off for Christmas from Scrooge by acting collectively and without the aid of supernatural forces.

What I enjoyed the most in the film was the overt shit-talking about the terrible character of the boss 9see the clip above). While it is easy to excuse a boss's behaviour as a function of structural pressures (e.g., the profit imperative), it is important not to lose sight of the fact that bosses have agency and could behave better than they do if they so wished.

-- Bob Barnetson

Film: American Factory

Netflix has recently released a new documentary entitled American Factory. This film chronicles the opening of a branch plant of Fuyao Glass America in economically depressed Dayton, Ohio by a Chinese billionaire. The location has previously been the site of a General Motors plant that was closed, putting thousands of workers out of a job.

The documentary (which notably includes no narration) tracks the first two years of the factory's operations and the clash of cultures that it entails. A trip to China for American workers--and the failure of the management strategies that they tried to bring back--was particularly striking. The vulnerability of the local workforce to exploitation and their awareness of their vulnerability is nicely captured.

The film explores the relentless work of employers to shed jobs and increase productivity (regardless of the cost to workers). It also does a nice job of exploring the tactics of both the union and the employer during a union drive.

-- Bob Barnetson

In Search of Professor Precarious fundraiser

Sessionals at MacEwan University celebrate winning greater rights.

A documentary film about precarious employment in post-secondary education has just launched a crowdfunding campaign.

In Search of Professor Precarious will take viewers into the lives of contract faculty, and tells their compelling stories. 

The film includes interviews with precarious contract faculty, permanent faculty, students, administrators, activists and experts. It also shows artists in action, an outdoor biology class on the shores of Nova Scotia, and the biggest higher education strike in Canadian history unfold.

The film makers have received support from National Film Board, unions OPSEU, CUPE and CUPE 3911, associations CAFA, FPSE, and ACIFA and faculty associations ULFA, AASUA and APTUO. They are seeking an additional $15,000 in donations to finish the film and cover the costs of both post-production (e.g., editing, sound mix, music) and develop promotional material.

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: In Dubious Battle

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture looks at the novel “In Dubious Battle” by George Steinbeck (1936). This books looks at an agricultural workers strike and follows two communist organizers who orchestrate it. It precedes his better-known works such as Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and Cannery Row. James Franco recently released a film adaptation that was poorly received.

Jim Nolan is a new organizer, being shown the ropes by Mac McLeod. They become fruit pickers and jolly along a strike that is brewing because the owners have cut the fruit pickers wages. A more interesting aspect of the novel is watching Mac teach Jim how to mobilize workers through a combination of education and manipulation.

The owners respond in typical ways, using economic pressure, vigilantes, the police and the state (in the form of health regulations) to undermine the strike. The death of a worker at the hands of a vigilante galvanizes the flagging strike.

The owners then up the ante, by shooing Jim, burning buildings, and kidnapping allies of the strikers. Jim is eventually killed, sacrificing himself for his principles (or perhaps the party). Mac uses Jim’s death to further advance the interests of the workers.

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Paid in Full

This week’s instalment of Labour & Pop Culture returns us to heady days of 1987, when hip-hop was beginning to penetrate mainstream American culture. “Paid in Full” by Eric B and Rakim explains the economics of crime. The song gave its name to a 2002 film about the drug trade in Harlem.

[Eric B]: Yo Rakim, what's up?
[Rakim]: Yo, I'm doing the knowledge, E., I'm trying to get paid in full
[E]: Well, check this out, since Nobry Walters is our agency, right?
[R]: True
[E]: Kara Lewis is our agent
[R]: Word up
[E]: Zakia/4th & Broadway is our record company
[R]: Indeed
[E]: Okay, so who we rollin with?
[R]: We rollin with Rush
[E]: Of Rushtown Management. Check this out, since we talking over
This def beat that I put together, I wanna hear some of them
Def rhymes, know what I'm sayin? And together, we can get
Paid in full...

[Rakim]
Thinkin of a master plan
'cause ain't nuthin but sweat inside my hand
So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent
So I dig deeper but still comin up with lint
So I start my mission- leave my residence
Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents
I need money, I used to be a stick-up kid
So I think of all the devious things I did
I used to roll up, this is a hold up, ain't nuthin funny
Stop smiling, be still, don't nuthin move but the money
But now I learned to earn cos I'm righteous
I feel great! So maybe I might just
Search for a 9 to 5, if I strive
Then maybe I'll stay alive
So I walk up the street whistlin this
Feelin out of place cos, man, do I miss
A pen and a paper, a stereo, a tape of
Me and Eric B, and a nice big plate of
Fish, which is my favorite dish
But without no money it's still a wish
Cos I don't like to dream about gettin paid
So I dig into the books of the rhymes that I made
To now test to see if I got pull
Hit the studio, cos I'm paid in full

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Streets of Philadelphia

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Streets of Philadelphia” by Bruce Springsteen. The song is from the soundtrack to the move Philadelphia, which was the first mainstream film to address AIDS.

The film centres on a gay attorney (Andrew Beckett, based on the real life story of Geoffrey Bower) who is fired from his firm, allegedly for incompetence. Really, he has been fired because of his disease. Beckett wins in the end, just in time to die.

I picked this song because next Friday (April 28th) is the National Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured at work. Ceremonies will be held in Edmonton in Borden Park at noon.

While we most often associate workplace injuries and fatalities with acute injury events (falls, crushes, explosions, etc.) or motor vehicle accidents, occupational disease is a significant and often unrecognized source of injury.

Workers with occupational diseases often have great difficulty gaining compensation of their injuries (diseases are complex, having long latency periods and murky causality). Many workers with occupational diseases also face discrimination, much like Tom Hanks’ character in Philadelphia.

Social isolation and depression often ensues. Springsteen captures the psychological effect of this well:

I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt.
I was unrecognizable to myself.

And

I heard the voices of friends, vanished and gone

I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt.
I was unrecognizable to myself.
Saw my reflection in a window and didn't know my own face.
Oh brother are you gonna leave me wastin' away
On the streets of Philadelphia.

I walked the avenue, 'til my legs felt like stone,
I heard the voices of friends, vanished and gone,
At night I could hear the blood in my veins,
It was just as black and whispering as the rain,
On the streets of Philadelphia.

Ain't no angel gonna greet me.
It's just you and I my friend.
And my clothes don't fit me no more,
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip this skin.

Night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake,
I can feel myself fading away,
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss,
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia.

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: How to have an Accident at Work

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is a 1959 safety video featuring Donald Duck that my colleague Jason Foster ran across while revising IDRL 308. The video subscribes to the careless worker myth: essentially that worker inattention and irresponsibility are the main cause of workplace injury. Apologies in advance for the sexism and racism in the six-minute film.



Donald’s behaviour is clearly ridiculous and the movie ignores the insanely unsafe conditions in the factory he works in! It isn’t clear to me who funded this cartoon or who the intended audience was (all I could find was that it was a theatrical short). You can see more modern version of this theme in this 2008 Alberta video from the Bloody Lucky series.



An interesting question is why is the myth of the careless worker so persistent (it dates back about 100 years)? As I note in my book The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada, American companies used the careless worker myth in the 1920s to counter opposition to the introduction of leaded gasoline. Lead poisoning among workers making the tetraethyl lead additive made people leery of leaded gasoline. General Motors, DuPoint and Standard Oil responded to critics, in part, by blaming injuries on workers not following safety precautions.

In this case, carelessness was not root cause of worker injuries and death—exposing workers to a toxin at work was. Indeed, analysis of injury causation suggests unsafe conditions, not carelessness, are the cause of most accidents. Injury mechanisms are well known to employers, as are many ways to prevent injuries. The problem is that eliminating or containing hazards is expensive. It is cheaper and much easier to blame the victim

Focusing attention on the victim protects cherished beliefs or powerful actors. We do this all the time. Victims of sexual assault were (and are) often blamed for their injury. Blaming rape victims is easier than grappling with seemingly intractable issues like the objectification and victimization of women by social and legal forces. Similarly, it is easier to blame workers than grapple with the idea that injuries are the byproduct of employer decisions.

-- Bob Barnetson

Free Movie Saturday: Migrant Dreams

In Edmonton this Saturday, Migrante Alberta will be hosting a free screening of Migrant Dreams, a powerful feature documentary by multiple award-winning director Min Sook Lee (El Contrato, Hogtown, Tiger Spirit) and Emmy award-winning producer Lisa Valencia-Svensson (Herman’s House).

The film tells the undertold story of migrant agricultural workers struggling against Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) that treats foreign workers as modern-day slaves.

The Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers program (CSAWP) began in 1966 as a government agreement between Jamaica and Canada. For the past 50 years, the migrant farm workers have arrived in Canada under conditions that are akin to indentured labour.

Migrant Dreams exposes the underbelly of the Canadian government labour program that has built a system designed to empower brokers and growers to exploit, dehumanize and deceive migrant workers who have virtually no access to support or information in their own language. Workers willing to pay exorbitant fees to work at minimum wage jobs packing the fruits and vegetables we eat in our homes. Migrant workers who deserve basic labour and human rights. Canada it seems, has failed them.

The screening will be at the U of A ECHA Building (11405 87 Ave.) on Saturday, October 1st at 2:00pm. You can learn more on Facebook. There will be a short discussion after the film.

-- Bob Barnetson

Summer of 1986 retrospective

This spring, the Alberta Labour History Institute will be hosting workshops in Red Deer (May 28), Calgary (May 29) and Edmonton (June 4) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the six Alberta strikes that happened in the summer of 1986. 

The most famous of these strikes was the Gainers Meatpacking strike in Edmonton. Here, workers resisted Peter Pocklington’s efforts to drive down their wages and crush their union. The video footage of Gainer’s is astounding to watch, with picketing confrontations and police violence (see image to the right).

The Edmonton schedule is posted and it includes lunch and dinner, a movie about the summer of 86 and a video ballad by Maria Dunn as well as several speakers. 

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Coal Miner's Daughter

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn. The song is essentially autobiographical, telling the tale of Lynn’s experiences growing up in the grinding poverty of a coal town.

As I’ve been working through my list of “songs about work” (now sitting at 250), I’m surprised by how many touch on mining (and specifically coal mining). It is easily the most written about industry.

I’m not sure what that is about. Perhaps it reflects the lengthy history of coal mining (spanning the beginning of the industrial revolution to today), the dangers of mining, and the central place that mining plays in the history of many towns (where everyone would work for the mine, directly or indirectly).

One of the more interesting articles I’ve read about Lynn comes from her own website and examines how she broke ground by singing about the experiences of marginalized populations:

“She is telling the tale that a million other Appalachian American people never got to tell about their own life story, and how beautiful of a thing when someone who is in a position of power can relate a story for people who don’t have a voice.” 

…With songs like “The Pill,” and “One’s on the Way,” Loretta Lynn broke ground by speaking honestly from a woman’s perspective. White sees Lynn as the “ultimate feminist songwriter.”

“She told me 14 of her songs had been banned by country radio over the years,” White says. “And you know if you have your music banned, it’s probably got some deeper cultural meaning.”

Perhaps, then, hearing songs that recognize experiences of marginalization also helps explain the enduring musical legacy of coal. Someone has married the song with clips from the movie by the same name (below). This saves you having to sit through the film, which I recall as thoroughly depressing.



Well I was born the coal miner's daughter in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler
We were poor but we had love that's the one thing that daddy made sure of
He shovel coal to make a poor man's dollar

My daddy worked all night in the Vanleer coal mine all day long in the field hoein' corn
Mommie rocked the baby that night and read the Bible by the coal oil light
And everything would start all over come break of morn

Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner's pay
Mommie scrubbed our clothes on a washboard everyday
Why I've seen her fingers bleed to complain there was no need
She's smiled in mommie's understanding way

In the summertime we didn't have shoes to wear
But in the wintertime we'd all get a brand new pair
From a mail order catalog money made by selling a hog
Daddy always managed to get the money somewhere

Yeah I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter
I remember well the well where I drew water
The work we done was hard at night we'd sleep cause we were tired
I never thought I'd ever leave the Butcher Holler

But a lots of things have changed since the way back then
And it's so good to be back home again
Not much left but the floor nothing lives there anymore
Just the mem'ries of a coal miner's daughter

-- Bob Barnetson

Labour & Pop Culture: Speed Up

This week’s installment of Labour & Pop Culture is Maria Dunn’s “Speed Up”, a folk song about work in Edmonton’s (now defunct) GWG clothing factory. The Royal Alberta Museum has a brief overview of the history of the factory, one that largely ignores the effect of automation on the workers and only tangentially touches upon the workers’ experiences as immigrants and union members.

By contrast, the Aspen Foundation for Labour Education has built a very interesting curriculum around the GWG experience for social studies teachers. This includes a recording of an hour-long performance that combines video of GWG workers with the Sings of Maria Dunn. https://youtu.be/NvRJ3HCa0N8

“Speed up” is one of the songs from the production. The most interesting part (lyrically) of the song is how the worker understands that the employer is constantly increasing the pace of work:

Now that I’ve gotten good and fast
They’ve upped the ante for my task

Yet the worker accepts this (perhaps because she has no choice) as the price of getting by and building a better future for her children:

Come weekend, it’s another race
Another job, another pace
Each dollar more a saving grace
To bring my family to this place

I’ll tell you how the work went – speedup, speedup, speedup
Not one second was misspent – speedup, speedup, speedup
My fingers nimble, face intent – speedup, speedup, speedup
I’d like to see you try it friend – speedup, speedup, speedup

Now that I’ve gotten good and fast
They’ve upped the ante for my task
Each time I get ahead, they’re back
To raise the bar and stretch the slack

Each extra inch seems like a mile
So bundles take a bit of guile
You snatch the small size with a smile
It’s “head down” for another while

Come weekend, it’s another race – keep up, keep up, keep up
Another job, another pace – keep up, keep up, keep up
Each dollar more a saving grace – keep up, keep up, keep up
To bring my family to this place – keep up, keep up, keep up

My husband, I—we’re healthy, young
Still, who knows what we’re running on
We pass each other the baton
When one comes home, the other’s gone

Sometimes I need a little cry
All I do’s just scraping by
For making friends, there’s little time
It’s “head down” for another while

Each pocket, seam and bottom hem
I’ve sewn for my children
I watch them grow and know for them
It’s worth it all in the end

-- Bob Barnetson

OHS and the porn industry

California is examining its health and safety regulations and held a hearing to discuss their applicability to the adult film industry. The New York Times report on the issue mocked the workers (for example, noting they arrived fully clothed and repeatedly commenting on their outfits) despite the real health risks faced by workers in the industry. There some interesting aspects to this report.

First, the actors note that, if the proposed rules (which include rubber gloves and eye protection) are enacted and enforced, the industry will decamp to Nevada—costing California up to a billion dollars per year in GDP. It is notable that the actors are making (or at least conveying) this threat, rather than employers.

Second, California’s review panel acknowledged that it it already had unenforced regulations for the industry.

“You are already required to wear condoms; you’re just not doing it,” Dave Thomas, the chairman of the work safety board, said Thursday. “That’s the law. It’s just not being enforced.”

The screamingly obvious questions (not taken up by the author) are why aren’t the regulations being enforced and what is the logic behind creating additional regulations (absent enforcement)?

Third, while OHS on adult films is outside of my area of research interest, there have been numerous popular and academic articles about the degree to which employers and worker cooperate to minimize the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Interestingly, other occupations (MMA fighters, garbage collectors) face similar health risks without the same degree of regulatory interest.

-- Bob Barnetson

Friday Tunes: Bread and Roses

This week’s installment of labour themes in popular culture is the song Bread and Roses. The song has it origins in the early part of the 20th century and is most often associated with the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. This strike was largely led by women and the lyrics speak to the need for both fair wages and dignified conditions of work and life.

Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes,
Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses

The video below is from the movie Pride, which documents the support of British LBGT activists of coal miners during the 1984 strike. Pride is one of two movies about the coal strike the Alberta Labour History Institute is screening (for free!) on February 5 (7 pm show time) at the Garneau Theatre.



As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing, bread and roses, bread and roses.

As we come marching, marching, we battle too, for men,
For they are in the struggle and together we shall win.
Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes,
Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses.

As we come marching, marching, un-numbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread,
Small art and love and beauty their trudging spirits knew
Yes, it is bread we. fight for, but we fight for roses, too.

As we go marching, marching, we're standing proud and tall.
The rising of the women means the rising of us all.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.

-- Bob Barnetson

Free screening: Village of Widows

Edmonton Opera is presenting a free screening of the documentary “Village of Widows” by award-winning filmmaker Peter Blow on Tuesday, November 13th at 7 pm at the Citadel Theatre’s Zeidler Hall. Admission to this event is free and there will be a post-movie panel discussion.

“Village of Widows” recounts the story of the Sahtu Dene people of Northwest Territories who worked in the world’s first uranium mine at Port Radium, NWT. Members of this community worked for the mine carrying sacks of ore which has left them vulnerable to the hazardous effects of uranium.

Arn Keeling and John Sandlos wrote an interesting piece on this event in 2009 entitled "Environmental justice goes underground"

-- Bob Barnetson