It is impossible to observe the shaky ethics of consent in a world in which women are expected to appear in a state of undress and make themselves subject to groping, sodomy, and other indescribably disgusting acts at the whim of directors who are also frequently performers and random “fans” who have paid for the privilege of doing exactly those things at so-called “conventions” — one in which, indeed, they are often paid (negligible) wages to have sexual intercourse with men who are “pretending” to rape them. All of this is undertaken in an atmosphere in which drug use and the abuse of alcohol are ubiquitous.

Pornography cannot be tolerated in a society in which women are legally protected against rape and harassment. Pornography is incompatible with “consent,” that bandage word we use to cover up so many other crimes. Pornography is violence. It is an act of aggression against the bodies and the souls of the women who are photographed. That women in pornography have been routinely assaulted by their male counterparts on and off camera is a fact at which we have been shrugging for decades. More than a decade and a half ago, Martin Amis reported on the industry for The Guardian; one female performer described her experience working with a producer whose moniker is John Dough on a series called Rough Sex: