Article via NY Daily NewsFirst it was mandatory condoms. Now lawmakers want to make porn stars don more gear to keep them safe from infection from bodily fluids. If an updated draft of Bill AB 640 goes into effect eye protection would be required during filming sex scenes, according to the proposed legislation.
Sexy lab technicians and plastic-coated germaphobes may soon be the hot new ticket in porn. And not by kinky viewers’ choice.
The latest version of a California worker safety bill may require adult film actors to wear items like protective goggles while filming sex scenes, Salon reports.
An updated draft of Bill AB 640 would not only prohibit state-wide performers from ejaculating onto the genitals, mouth or eyes, but require employers to provide “barrier protection” eyewear as well.
Bill AB 640 is currently awaiting review in the senate. If approved it would require “personal protective equipment” to “prevent contact of an employee’s eye; skin, mucous membranes, or genitals with the blood or OPIM-STI of another.”
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health defines OPIM-STI as any bodily fluids, including fecal matter and those from wounds or sores.
This latest proposal comes exactly one year after condoms were mandated during filming of vaginal and anal sex scenes in Los Angeles County to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Critics reacting to the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act last year — also known as Measure B — likened the safety measure to mandating hazmat suits and rubber gloves.
Until now, few perhaps realized that their jokes about goggles and face shields were viable premonitions.
Adult film actors Jessica Drake and James Deen were among the loudest protestors when they released a spoof public service announcement, showing them filming a sex scene in protective clothing and under the monitor of a health inspector.
“Why do we have to wear all this protective gear?” a man in a plastic suit carrying a boom microphone asks in the video.
“It’s in case they spray us with bodily fluids per title 8, section 5193,” a fellow stage hand answers before Deen starts choking on Drake’s rubber dental dam which is used to prevent STDs during oral sex.
This is becoming an exercise in respectability politics. I’m all for safer practices on an adult film set, but if per the contractual agreements all cast/staff/crew have agreed to a certain kind of adult filmmaking (e.g. bareback, fetish, etc.), and everyone involved is a mature consenting adult, responsible for their own actions and aware of the consequences of their choices, then WTF is the problem? We as a country are billions of dollars in debt, with a deplorable health care administration, a broken justice system, and a government whose elected officials are complete plutocrats, and THIS is the thing they choose to harp on? Give me a got-damn break. How about we stop unnecessary drone-warfare and ban genetically modified food before we judge how people fuck or make their money? LOL #Messy. SMDH