Empire Of Illusion: The End Of Literacy And The Triumph Of Spectacle

At the Adult Video News expo in Las Vegas, a booth run by the Pink Cross, a Christian outreach organization for women who work in porn, is surrounded by booths promoting porn releases. Many of these booths feature professional escorts and famous porn stars with whom passersby can take pictures.

A 29-year-old man working at the Pink Cross booth admits that he was once addicted to porn; he reports that his addiction affected his capacity to be intimate. Patrice Roldan, a woman working at the Pink Cross table, explains that she began working in porn after surviving a physically abusive childhood. Roldan has gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases contracted while working in porn. Over time, Roldan explains, the work has become more violent and physically demanding. Hedges identifies symptoms of post-traumatic stress in Roldan while interviewing her.

Since the 1970s, porn has gone to greater lengths to depict novelty, increasingly employing violence, abuse, and physical domination of women. Many men who work in porn verbally abuse women co-stars. Many women who work in porn suffer severe emotional and physical injury and depend on drugs or alcohol to cope with the work.

Las Vegas, the location of the expo, is an especially fitting