King Noire has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the porn industry over 20 years ― or ― as Jet Setting Jasmine, his partner in life and business, puts it, the “not-change,†as it pertains to being more inclusive and less racist.
King and Jasmine are performers, hosts, educators and co-creators of adult film production company Royal Fetish Films. They partnered up 10 years ago, initially hosting “fantasy flight parties,†which, according to Jasmine, helped people “explore fetishes, kinks and different types of sexual experiences.â€
They quickly started to notice something about the attendees ― and the parties themselves.
“We realised our clientele were primarily Black and brown women between the ages of 25 and 45,†she said. “There was a resounding experience, where it would start out fun, and by the end of the night there would be these group discussions about how Black and brown people are not represented sexually well in adult entertainment.â€
Inspired by those conversations, and cognisant that the adult film industry has long been informed by and promoted the same white supremacy that so many systems, institutions and forms of entertainment have historically operated under, Jasmine and King set out to bring about change.
“We wanted to provide representation of Black and brown people in a way we could all get behind, that didn’t make us feel gross after watching it, that didn’t make us feel limited in our scope,†Jasmine said.
King echoed that sentiment, noting his firsthand experience working in a dehumanising environment.
“The depiction of Black and brown people within porn is a microcosm of how we’re represented ini all forms of media,†he said. “We are the culmination of 500 years of stereotypes, and being that porn is the only industry I can think of where you can go to work and say, ‘I don’t want to work with any Black people today, I don’t want to shoot any Latinx people on film today,’ it lends itself to tokenism and extreme levels of stereotyping.â€
“You’re like, ‘We need this one Black person, this one Latin person in the company, so they’re going to encompass all we perceive Blackness to be,’†he continued. “It takes away any opportunity to have nuance in regards to our sexuality. There’s not two Black people kissing or embracing one another, showing a lighter side, showing laughter or different fetishes. It’s always just a Black, lifeless body. There’s no thought involved, no conversation. You just show up as a torso.â€
That imagery then informs, whether consciously or unconsciously, racist attitudes. King pointed to tropes like cop porn and specifically a website called Black Patrol, where white women dressed as police officers arrest, beat and then have sex with Black men (King and Jasmine have a petition to have it taken down).
“These things seep into your brain at these moments when you’re truly letting go,†he said. “When you have an orgasm, when you’re letting the outside world leave you alone for a little while to rub one out or jerk off, if you’re watching this and masturbating and cumming to things like this, it normalises the brutality you’re seeing on Black bodies on the news at night. You’re thinking ‘oh, maybe it’s not that bad for them’ or ‘they must have done something to deserve that.’â€
Of course, that phenomenon is not just true of porn. King and Jasmine also travel around the country offering sex-positive parenting classes to help parents understand how to talk to their kids about sex and identity.
“The first question we ask is, ‘How did you first learn about sex?’†she said. “Everyone starts with some sort of pornographic material, even if it’s an intimate scene in a mainstream film. In this small sort of research study we already see the way people unintentionally learn about sex is through entertainment and media. And when you’re learning about people’s bodies and reactions from that alone, you’re incredibly limited in how you see people of color.â€
These discoveries can have a formative impact on viewers, Jasmine noted, and, in turn, continue to shape the industry in negative ways.
“We were once asked to speak on a panel with an Asian performer, who has been asked many times not to speak English in the scene ― not to present as if she is Asian American, because the viewer wants that fantasy,†she said. “Instead of helping the viewer have a wider and more realistic expectation of sex and sexuality from other people, we cater to these very limited tropes.â€
What’s more, the lack of visibility of nonwhite adult performers can also be detrimental to viewers. “If you don’t see yourself represented, that creates your own self-esteem issues and perpetuates an idea of supremacy of what’s good and what’s right,†she added.
Fighting to change the landscape of porn in terms of race and representation has made Royal Fetish Films an incredibly successful company. It has won several industry awards for its work and is seen as a highly desirable place for Black and brown people to work. “They want to be their full selves in artistic expression, and that is often limited when shooting for companies that are operating under the racist premise that is porn as we know it,†Jasmine said.
But shooting diverse and inclusive films is only part of the battle.
“Ownership over the content we put out is imperative,†King said. “As is having some sense of equity. There are times Black people show up on set and shoot a normal scene. Six months later, you forget about it and it’s put out with a racist title. So, it’s about changing the fact that we don’t know what’s being shot and how it’s going to be contextualized in the overall product.â€
Through their success, King and Jasmine also hope to prove to other companies that there is so much more they can be doing and that it’s not just the right thing to do ― it’s the profitable thing to do.
“For companies that cater toward racist tropes, we want to show them that you don’t have to do that to make money,†Jasmine said. “There is a market for good sex, for pleasure. You’re limiting yourself catering only to straight white men, it doesn’t even make sense business wise.â€
Beyond creating content, Jasmine and King have found that speaking to media outlets, like this one, about their mission helps open up a dialogue that otherwise might not happen.
“Having the conversation of the decolonization of Black and brown bodies helps put things into context,†Jasmine said. “Like, ‘Wow, am I ingesting toxic material when I’m just masturbating? I didn’t really think about if that person wants to be there, that what I’m watching only shoots certain types of content.’ It’s about considering how you learned about Black people in sex [and asking yourself], ‘Why do I think every Latina I meet is “spicyâ€? What does that even mean? What kind of labeling am I using in my day to day world that I picked up from porn?’ These conversations don’t happen because there is still such a stigma in sex work and pornography, despite the fact that it’s a billion-dollar industry.â€
Ultimately, Jasmine and King’s goal is to diversify and change people’s understanding of porn and sexuality ― which they hope will have a trickle-down effect on how people understand the world in general.
“When Black and brown people are able to represent themselves or have a primary part of the dialogue in how they’re represented, we wind up diversifying the content in so many ways,†Jasmine said. “When we have a chance to bring nuance, you then start to see representation of fat bodies, of trans people, of different types and styles of bodies for us to learn from and be entertained by. When we are relegated to stereotypes and white people’s standards of beauty, we discount everyone’s experiences. When we resolve things like racism against Black and brown bodies in porn, we wind up making it more inclusive for everyone.â€
