By Samantha Wahl
Bored? Masturbate! While the coronavirus (COVID-19) has most people winding down at home, homemade porn producers are all riled up. If there’s one industry that could thrive off of millions of people being confined to their homes for days on end, it’s the porn industry. What better way to capture a stir crazy, quarantined audience than with accessible, literally viral sex.
Sick-People Porn
Coronavirus-themed porn has spread across the internet. A search of “coronavirus” on Pornhub bares 26 pages of new quarantine-themed, sometimes dystopian-esque videos.
They feature people bumping uglies in hazmat suits, “kissing” in face masks, and hooking up with (likely fake) nurses. Video titles alone sum up the general mood: “Nothing Else to do While in Coronavirus Isolation,” and “Hot Babe Gets Caught Trying to Leave the Corona Virus Quarantine Area.” One particularly on-brand title reads, “Doctor Sucking my Wuhan Coronavirus Out.”
The titles are ridiculous, often racist, and totally expected. There’s already porn for just about every taboo out there. So forbidden, sick sex is a natural hit in the current climate.
Camming for Cruisers
In mid-March, we’re at the heart of the virus’ wrath. But porn was ahead of the curve, prepping loyal viewers with free content at the start of the COVID-19 panic. When two cruise ships were quarantined in Japan for harboring coronavirus cases in early February, porn was there, extending a gloved hand.
While a combined 7,300 passengers were stuck aboard the Diamond Princess and World Dream, webcam platform CamSoda offered 1,000 free viewing tokens to any of them in exchange for proof of travel. CamSoda tokens allow access to webcams from porn actors’ bedrooms around the world. According to Fox Business, the site’s executives expressed sympathy for anyone suffering from isolation-induced boredom.
A Job for the Jobless?
Chalk this sweaty new trend up to adaptation. For many people, quarantining isn’t a choice. In areas around the world where officials have called for mandatory business shut-downs, people are left jobless without any stream of income. For these people, making porn could be an easy substitute, Vice says. Many of the corona-based porno story lines available online were made in Italy, where the entire country is on lockdown.
Money-making aside, producing porn could just be something to do to pass the seemingly endless amount of time thrust upon us.
Professional Porn Takes a Hit
Meanwhile, the professional end of the industry has some re-evaluating to do. This is a business that profits off of strangers exchanging body fluids. Anyone involved is essentially a walking COVID nightmare. And with thousands of cases worldwide, this is now impossible to ignore.
In the Netherlands, the sex capital of the world, sex shops shut down their doors (cannabis cafes, too) based on government ruling. Forbes reports that they will not reopen for three weeks at a minimum.
An Xbiz report shows that adult film industry advocacy group, Free Speech Coalition (FSC), called for a “voluntary shutdown” of all professional pornography shoots until March 31st. If honored, productions will stall, limiting actors to shooting with people from “their own household.” Meaning, amateur porn only. “We all must do our part to flatten the growth curve of this global pandemic”, the FSC said.
Most governments don’t recognize sex work in mainstream legal culture, and sex workers often suffer for it. If any good can come of this deadly virus, at least sex workers can reap some benefits. For everyone else, what better time to enjoy millions of silly porn videos and endless camming than when we’re stuck at home, threatened with looming boredom?
Leave a Reply