When you think of ethical porn on top porn sites, performers who are vegan or vegetarian may come to mind. (You’d be surprised how many pornstars are also animal lovers.) But that’s not what this porn/tag is all about. It actually refers to two things: porn made with a moral compass and a revolution that is taking place encouraging more people to pay for porn.
The sites listed here are different from your mainstream hardcore ones. You’ll encounter a blend of independent and well known studios that follow an ethical brand philosophy ensuring the safety of their workers and content that is respectful of everyone. The scenes also cater to straight women and LGBTQ audiences.
To be considered a “fair trade” porn site, the studio should check the following boxes:
It’s about more than the performers, though. Ethical porn also considers you, the consumer. They want to ensure fairness to the customer by making the sign up process easy and free from cross-sales or aggressive email marketing, as well as discreet billing. They also aim to offer subscriptions at affordable rates that you can afford.
Over the past decade, the porn industry has seen many changes. The one that sticks out the most is the competition with free tube sites that take away profit from stars and studios. In 2014, porn star Jessica Drake led an online campaign alongside retailer Adult DVD Empire that endeavored to bring together the industry’s biggest players for this common cause.
This porn revolution continued to build momentum after actor Samuel L. Jackson claimed that a certain tube site is “the best pop culture achievement of the past 50 years,” which angered adult star Catalina Cruz , who called for a boycott of his movies . Porn stars do not receive royalties from their own material, so if it is pirated, there is nothing they can do about it.
Moreover, because many in the government frown upon porn, adult studios rarely receive grants or financial support. So they rely on the support of paying members to continue to run their business. An ethical porn viewing experience is one in which you financially support those who work hard to bring you the high-quality adult productions you want to see.
The productions and aesthetics of ethical porn movies depend on the studio’s vision and the creativity of the directors. But there are a few common traits that distinguish them such as featuring natural-looking models. Any imperfections, such as scars and cellulite, are not photoshopped during the editing process.
Another element is the focus on authentic human interactions to give you the impression that you are watching real-life connections with people making love and enjoying themselves, whether it’s a lesbian or straight scene. The tone is sensual, never raunchy, and depicts an equal amount of fantasy and real-world sex that explores sex acts in a postive way.
These days many feminist porn directors work with ethical porn companies to make exceptional films geared toward the female gaze. These movies fall under the ethical porn/tag because they’re made without the typical hyperaggressive male undertones, and instead, focus on the art of pleasure and the beauty of the sexual acts playing out on screen.
Here are a few examples of where to find ethical porn studios whose brand philosophy is imbedded in ethical standards:
Lust Cinema - Award-winning director Erika Lust is a leading player in the pay for porn movement. Her collection of high-quality films are uniquely cinematic with an emphasis on pleasurable sex. She also casts models with diverse body types and of different genders, ages and backgrounds.
Bellesa Films - While some people watch porn for the rough sex , this woman-centred collection features porn stars in scenes that focus on the female orgasm. They film everything from the girl’s perspective with an emphasis on kissing, caressing and true passion. Their casting process ensures chemistry between the models and creates a safe working environment.
Joy Bear - This British studio has been producing sex-positive content from the U.K. since 2003. They’re known for portraying interesting and strong female characters who are multidimensional and don’t follow cliches of what a woman should be.
In the BDSM world, consent is super important and is a key factor in the lifestyle. Here are two examples of fetish sites that ensure an ethical framework surrounds everything they do from their staff to the productions and all those curious or active in the BDSM community.
Kink.com - Kink’s brand philosophy emphasizes sex-positive values with feminist sensibilities and an emphasis on consent in all their movies. Every movie starts and ends with an interview, where the performers candidly - and still dripping in sweat - discuss their experience and what they liked about the scene.
They also offer BDSM workshops within the San Francisco area and provide a resource section with links to education, healthcare, and social events.
Dreams Of Spanking - Fetishist Pandora Blake is a big supporter of equal pay and equal rights for performers of all sexual orientations. Her kinky creations focus on consent and feature believable storylines with performers who are genuinely into spanking . She even sometimes casts her real-life friends!
Another way to show your support for the industry is by supporting independent studios. Doing so keeps small “mom and pop” type operations in business, so that they can continue to produce their own unique styles and maintain the health and wellbeing of everyone involved in the project.
Ersties - This is a studio with an all-female team and a collection that features authentic amateurs in a mix of solo, lesbian and hardcore scenes. They approach the sex in a fun way by first introducing you to the actors through in-depth interviews.
Crash Pad Series - This is an adult series about an apartment in San Francisco based on a cult classic TV show. Trans men and women, non-binary performers and lesbians take part in queer sex events. You’ll see threesomes , solo scenes and some fetish porn, but it’s more about the performers having the freedom to do what they want without direction.
Many models post their own content on sites like OnlyFans and ManyVids and this is a great way to show your support. You’re also buying something straight from the source. Filming styles are always different, too, on these feminist porn sites, like scenes with wider angles to keep things fresh.
Creators set a minimum or maximum cost for their content and you have the option to pay for more should you want it and you can also tip them. They get to keep much of the revenue (the sites take around 20%). Performers gain autonomy over their work, and avoid manipulation from big producers.
Rabbit’s Reviews is also a supporter of the #payforporn movement, which is why we’ll never review sites that have been found to have poor business practices, including exploiting their performers or anything else that’s not kosher. We ensure your money goes to trusted sites that meet our ethical standards as well as those of our readers.
The best way to continue enjoying high-quality adult productions is by supporting the entertainers that produce the smut you love. You can find more fair trade, safe porn sites by browsing our For Women , Masturbation , Amateur , and Fetish categories. You can also reach out to our support team for help with anything related to fair trade porn!
Ethical porn might sound like an oxymoron to some people. For many, porn is seen as inherently unethical due to the raunchy subject matter and often taboo themes. However, indulging in adult content doesn't make you a bad person. Why? Because porn itself is not inherently wrong or unethical. But some of the sites you enjoy might be.
Over the years, there have been plenty of stories of actors being mistreated on set or performers having massive legal scandals in their personal lives. Major brands have crumbled due to controversy, and others have had to scale back and rebrand themselves to save face. Now, these sites would be the ones that come to mind when you think of porn being "unethical."
At its core, ethical porn is adult content that feels safer and more respectful overall. That means respecting the consumers, the performers, and everyone else involved. It's porn focused on pleasure, uplifting women, portraying realistic sex and diverse performers, and much more. It's supposed to be a way to promote healthy sex positivity instead of shame.
Many people have been turning away from major studio porn for various reasons. For some, it came off as fake. The performers were over the top, the acting was terrible, you know, the deal. For others, the sex was often degrading, especially for the women involved in scenes.
With people becoming unhappy with the best-known brands, there has been a rise in the popularity of amateur porn as well as feminist porn. As you can imagine, those sites often fall under the "ethical porn" umbrella. Some people turned to sites like OnlyFans, where creators fully control their content. But others weren't ready to give up porn sites yet.
Let's face it: porn is typically made for a male audience. Men are behind the production of most porn, which explains why it's usually all about a man's pleasure. Even most lesbian porn caters to the male gaze. The performers are generally not even queer and simply do it to arouse straight guys. So that's where the need for feminist porn sites stems from.
Feminist porn isn't a new concept. The term dates back to the 1980s when Candida Royalle formed her Femme Productions studio. She cast people from a support group for pornstars called Club 90 to make erotica based on female desires. Her content aimed to portray healthy and realistic sex acts to aid couples struggling with their sex lives.
While some women in the feminist movement fought to ban porn altogether, feminist porn helps uplift women and empower them through their sexuality. In male-dominated studios, women are usually objects for men to use to cum. But on an ethical porn site, the woman's pleasure is just as important, if not more.
While browsing the web, you may have heard about "For Women" porn sites. Now, feminist porn sites are different from For Women porn sites, though there is some overlap. For Women focuses on a woman's pleasure, there's no doubt about that, but they still often have some elements of big studio porn. They're just more respectful to women as a whole.
Many For Women sites focus on storylines and passion instead of going straight to fucking. There's a lot of slow, sensual action instead. The tension builds until it's ready to burst. It's a marathon instead of a sprint. Of course, some women like the down and dirty adult films, and that's great too. But For Women Porn wants to give fans an alternative to that.
Frolic Me is an excellent example of a site that's both feminist and made specifically for women. It was founded and continues to be produced by a woman, Anna Richards, and encourages women to explore their sexuality healthily. It can get very steamy, but not without keeping that overall empowering vibe.
There will always be people in our society who view sex as dangerous and sinful. It doesn't matter if it's the 1950s or the 2020s. Unfortunately, due to that mindset, many people are raised to believe that having sexual urges is terrible. They hide their sexuality and turn to porn in private . Then they feel bad about it afterward, and further bury their sexual side.
But let's get one thing straight: sex isn't bad. Consenting adults can engage in legal sexual activities, and nobody can say anything about it. Ethical porn hopes to encourage: sex positivity. Sex shouldn't be taboo - unless you're into taboo porn - and these types of sites are destigmatizing it.
Beautiful Agony is trying to promote sex positivity, one orgasm at a time. You see, this is not your average porn site. There's no sex, no kissing, and no storylines. Instead, it's all focused on the main event: the orgasm. It's all orgasms, all day.
For nearly 20 years, Beautiful Agony has shown people in their most vulnerable state. We're talking about that moment when they orgasm. Each update is a submission from an amateur. They set up a camera so that only their face is visible. Then they pleasure themselves until they reach their climax, capturing their facial reaction to share with the world.
There's no shame in masturbating, and Beautiful Agony is trying to normalize that. It's not about titillation in this case. It's about acceptance. Users can even submit their sexual confessions to help show people that nothing needs to be taboo.
There's also a general idea of "acceptance" when you browse the site. The videos don't focus on just men or women. It's hard to pinpoint the target audience - but that's okay. We're all equal, and once you take the titillation of nudity out of the equation, you can just enjoy the inherent sexiness of a person experiencing pure bliss.
The thing that attracts many people to ethical porn sites is authenticity. On most porn sites, every detail is fake, from a performer's hair and tits to the squirting , cumshots, and orgasms. The lack of authenticity takes some people out of the fantasy. That's why many turn to amateur porn. But a site like Ersties is so much more than amateur porn.
Ersties has an all-female production team working behind the scenes. Not only that, but they also have real amateur girls and often real couples, both straight and lesbian. The vibe is different the second you land on the site. It's not about hardcore banging being so in your face. They focus on intimacy and the fun parts of hooking up. That's right - sex should be fun!
The performers all look like real people. They have imperfections you rarely see from studio performers, like body hair, stretch marks, acne, and other things that make us human. They interview them before the scene starts so that way we get to know them as people instead of just seeing them as objects.
Let's face it: porn isn't very diverse, at least not on mainstream sites. You see many of the same light-skinned faces that conform to Eurocentric beauty standards. While there's more body diversity compared to the '90s and early '00s, when all the most prominent pornstars had big implants, skinny bodies, and bleach-blonde hair, the selection isn't precisely varied.
But with the rising popularity of ethical porn, things are changing. These sites promote a more realistic body image. You'll see women with rolls, stretch marks, and things that are usually taboo in regular porn. Plus, there is less of a focus on skinny or fit women. They have bellies, thick thighs, and sagging, natural breasts. And they are not fetishized as BBWs , either.
Girls Out West is an excellent example of authentic porn. This female-owned and operated amateur porn site from Australia ditches the phony scripts and heavily staged encounters. It's mostly solo and lesbian content, but you can immediately see the difference from any other major lesbian porn site. The performers seem comfortable, and there's a genuine connection.
The sex isn't the only thing that feels more natural, either. The girls featured on the site are as real as they come. They embrace body positivity by showing girls of all sizes and shapes. They represent different age groups and have natural boobs; some even have tattoos and body hair.
It's not about fulfilling a fetish for men who like MILFs or BBW . Instead, they want to represent the world around us. In real life, the people you meet and have sex with will probably not look like the pornstars you see online. They'll have imperfections because they're not nipped, tucked, and airbrushed.
Since the porn industry started, there has always been a binary between straight porn and gay porn. Straight porn features a man and a woman having sex. But straight porn also encompasses threesomes that include two women and a man - because, even with two women, it's still all about the man.
The same could be said about lesbian porn since it's almost always produced by men, with straight women going gay for pay. Trans porn can also tend to put the focus on cis male pleasure rather than the kind of sex most transwomen enjoy.
True bisexual porn may be listed under the "straight porn" umbrella, but the focus is seldom on the women involved. That's because, in these movies, two men often interact with each other sexually more than with the woman in the scene. Then, of course, there is full-fledged gay porn.
But many ethical porn sites are blurring the lines between these non-existent binaries. They include girl-girl scenes with real queer women. Some nonbinary performers don't subscribe to one single gender. There are threesomes. All the while, most of these sites won't even consider themselves gay or lesbian porn sites. Because to them, it's all the same.
Lustery is one site that gets right down to business, no faking and no acting, just passion and lust. That was creator Paulita Pappel's goal when she launched the site. She wanted to show real amateur couples having sex without all the bells and whistles. But she also wanted to inject some personality into the content. After all, she felt it was something often missing from amateur porn sites.
All of the couples on Lustery are real-life couples. Some are in committed relationships. Others are polyamorous. There are straight and lesbian pairs and other duos with trans and nonbinary folk. The amateurs also film their romps themselves. There's no crew behind the scenes. Just the couple with their camera, so the passion is always palpable.
The couples have detailed write-ups about how they met, how long they've been together, and other fun facts. It helps to remind us that they're real people, not just people fucking for our pleasure. They're not unattainable pornstars, making everything seem much more genuine.
Nobody could say that Crash Pad Series has an inclusivity problem. The content could best be described as "super queer" due to just how diverse the cast of performers is. For some context, this is an adult series about an apartment in San Francisco where all kinds of people go to have hot, raunchy hookups.
Unlike most porn sites, the performers are not all white and heteronormative. The Crash Pad Series cast features trans men and women, nonbinary performers, and lesbians. There are girl-on-girl threesomes, solo masturbation sessions, some bondage and toys, and, best of all, real sex. The performers do whatever they want to do when the camera turns on.
The diversity extends to race, too. You see more people of color just on the tour page than you would see across some popular porn networks . But again, if you're a queer person in San Francisco, this is just the norm. You're used to seeing a varied melting pot of people, unlike what studio porn presents to us.
There are many porn sites with an extensive catalog of adult films, but how diverse are they? Pay-per-view and other DVD sites have almost every genre and fetish you can think of. Nevertheless, they're still relatively limited compared to a site like Pink Label. Though it's hard to describe the collection in just a few words, it's easy to tell that it's in a league of its own.
A quick scan of the homepage brings up more diversity than you would find across even the biggest DVD site. They have trans (male and female) performers, gay and lesbian scenes, interracial sex, vintage softcore movies, and even educational sex-ed videos. They offer documentaries, indie adult films, and golden age-era porn.
If you're claiming to give members everything they could want, go the extra step. Pink Label doesn't discriminate, and that's what makes them stand out from the rest.
It's been said several times. But on many porn sites, the female performers are simply objects of desire. They're used up and thrown away, for lack of a better expression. But an ethical porn movement would seek to change this, including in the content itself. The result would be no more storylines where there is a power imbalance or that rely on unfettered aggression.
This focus on power imbalances is often quite evident. For example, Casting couch porn is insanely popular, and it's all about a casting director wielding their influence over ingenues. There are also faux blackmail scenarios where someone fucks someone to protect their secrets. These twisted plots have been around since the birth of scripted porn.
The popularity of many of these storylines stems from misogyny and disrespect. It's not just about fetishes. It runs deeper than that. Fetish communities are some of the most respectful groups of people out there. They have rules, and consent is of the utmost importance. The true power lies in the hands of the person agreeing to submit to their dominant partner.
Just look at Kink.com. They deal with BDSM, humiliation, spanking, and all kinds of degradation of both men and women. But the difference is that these are all consenting adults, and the site ensures we know that. They often check in with the performers before and after a scene to confirm everyone is on the same page.
An ethical porn movement isn't trying to whitewash porn. It just wants to make it safe for everyone. So it's not trying to kink, shame, or embarrass anyone. If you have a fetish for dominating women who like to humiliate their subs, that's fine. But there has to be that level of trust and respect.
Many people might read an ethical porn guide and think, "This seems like a bunch of hogwash! They want to take away our porn! Porn is supposed to be on the fringe and dirty and raunchy!" Many of the sites featured in this guide prove that you don't have to give up what turns you on to promote respect for sex workers and other consumers.
The most crucial reason to encourage a move toward ethical porn sites has to be safety. While representation and diversity are so essential and promoting sexual health and sex positivity is excellent, when it comes down to it, nothing is more important than safety. And there are a lot of different ways to interpret that.
First and foremost, it's about the well-being of the performers. Ethical porn is about paying fair wages and giving adult performers a safe work environment. Women risk being exploited and disrespected, and many stories from former pornstars corroborate that.
It's also about security when it comes to customers. When you give money and, most importantly, your personal information to a site, you better hope they have several layers of protection. You want to be sure that you are spending your money on a high-quality product exactly as advertised.
Plus, you want to be sure that the content you're getting is legal and ethically produced. That has been a reckoning in recent years, where tons of top sites have had to scour their older videos to check for any past wrongdoings. If a site were truly ethical, they shouldn't have to worry about that in the first place.
It all comes down to respect. Respect for both the performers and the consumer is vital. People can get porn from pretty much anywhere, so what makes your product special? What makes you think one of the performers you're disrespecting won't quit, turn around, and make millions of dollars on her OnlyFans?
The type of porn you consume is ultimately your decision. If you love the big studio productions, the pornstar "look," and a highly-stylized kind of porn that doesn't offer any realism at all, that's fine. Everybody has different tastes.
But at the end of the day, it's not about straying from the porn we already know and love. It's about bringing change to the entire industry. Ethical porn sites don't have just to be low-budget, amateur ones. The whole point is to take those same standards and the inclusiveness from those sites and bring them to the masses.
Changes happen in the industry every day, so you never know what the future of porn holds. But we'll always offer a ton of diverse sites to satisfy all your needs and let you make the decision!
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