The first day on the job was the most bizarre. The facility had three editing bays, one screening room and one monstrous room stacked with humming VCRs. And monitors everywhere. On those monitors? Yep, SEX. Sex of every kind, make and model: black, white, yellow, gay, straight, bi-, tri-, hard, soft... whatever. You name it; they edited it or copied it. Despite the distractions, I managed to eke out eight hours of sketching and measuring, doing my best to ignore the ongoing symphony of sex that was around me AND keep a straight face. Tough day.

By the time I arrived the next day I was over the shock. I actually woke up that morning, rolled over to turn off the alarm clock and mumbled to myself something about not wanting to go to work. To WORK? I sat straight up in bed. Is this work? Better yet, is this my job? Then it hit me. This IS work. This IS my job. And, crazily enough, this IS an industry.

And a huge one, too.

So that seems like a good place to start when putting together an article that defends the adult entertainment industry. The industry is enormous. After all, sex sells. Believe it or not, admit it or not, like it or not, it’s the truth. And in saying so, I’m in no way introducing a new concept. It always has and it always will. The pornography business has skyrocketed in the past twenty years to become a multinational, multi-billion dollar industry. There seems to be a niche for adult entertainment in every corner of the world. As global economic trends become more and more capitalistic, the age old theory of supply and demand will continue to reign supreme. And if the people want the porn, the people will get the porn.

Discussing the economic aspects of any industry, however, does not offer much support in the attempt to defend said industry’s existence. This fact has haunted cigarette and alcohol companies for decades. Just because a company makes money does not necessarily prove its worthiness. But one major thing that profitability does for an industry is to help to ensure that lobbyists and political supporters have adequate resources at hand with which to battle legislature that potentially threatens the industry’s well-being.

Scientific research has undoubtedly proven that cigarettes and alcohol can be deadly. Nobody in their right mind will debate that. Admittedly, regulations in the United States have been tightened in recent years, denying these companies certain advertising avenues (television, radio, and designated billboards), and a few large companies have been slapped with fines and settlements stemming from lawsuits filed by groups and individuals who claim wrongful death or illness from continued use of tobacco or alcohol. Yet both industries continue to flourish. How can this be? Well, obviously, the economic and political factors exist. We talked a bit about that already. But how about this for an answer: Some people like it.

Some people like it? Wow. That’s absurd.