King Noire has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the porn industry over 20 years â or â as Jet Setting Jasmine, his partner in life and business, puts it, the ânot-change,â as it pertains to being more inclusive and less racist.
King and Jasmine are performers, hosts, educators and co-creators of adult film production company Royal Fetish Films. They partnered up 10 years ago, initially hosting âfantasy flight parties,â which, according to Jasmine, helped people âexplore fetishes, kinks and different types of sexual experiences.â
They quickly started to notice something about the attendees â and the parties themselves.
âWe realised our clientele were primarily Black and brown women between the ages of 25 and 45,â she said. âThere was a resounding experience, where it would start out fun, and by the end of the night there would be these group discussions about how Black and brown people are not represented sexually well in adult entertainment.â
Inspired by those conversations, and cognisant that the adult film industry has long been informed by and promoted the same white supremacy that so many systems, institutions and forms of entertainment have historically operated under, Jasmine and King set out to bring about change.
âWe wanted to provide representation of Black and brown people in a way we could all get behind, that didnât make us feel gross after watching it, that didnât make us feel limited in our scope,â Jasmine said.
King echoed that sentiment, noting his firsthand experience working in a dehumanising environment.
âThe depiction of Black and brown people within porn is a microcosm of how weâre represented ini all forms of media,â he said. âWe are the culmination of 500 years of stereotypes, and being that porn is the only industry I can think of where you can go to work and say, âI donât want to work with any Black people today, I donât want to shoot any Latinx people on film today,â it lends itself to tokenism and extreme levels of stereotyping.â
âYouâre like, âWe need this one Black person, this one Latin person in the company, so theyâre going to encompass all we perceive Blackness to be,ââ he continued. âIt takes away any opportunity to have nuance in regards to our sexuality. Thereâs not two Black people kissing or embracing one another, showing a lighter side, showing laughter or different fetishes. Itâs always just a Black, lifeless body. Thereâs no thought involved, no conversation. You just show up as a torso.â
That imagery then informs, whether consciously or unconsciously, racist attitudes. King pointed to tropes like cop porn and specifically a website called Black Patrol, where white women dressed as police officers arrest, beat and then have sex with Black men (King and Jasmine have a petition to have it taken down).
âThese things seep into your brain at these moments when youâre truly letting go,â he said. âWhen you have an orgasm, when youâre letting the outside world leave you alone for a little while to rub one out or jerk off, if youâre watching this and masturbating and cumming to things like this, it normalises the brutality youâre seeing on Black bodies on the news at night. Youâre thinking âoh, maybe itâs not that bad for themâ or âthey must have done something to deserve that.ââ
Of course, that phenomenon is not just true of porn. King and Jasmine also travel around the country offering sex-positive parenting classes to help parents understand how to talk to their kids about sex and identity.
âThe first question we ask is, âHow did you first learn about sex?ââ she said. âEveryone starts with some sort of pornographic material, even if itâs an intimate scene in a mainstream film. In this small sort of research study we already see the way people unintentionally learn about sex is through entertainment and media. And when youâre learning about peopleâs bodies and reactions from that alone, youâre incredibly limited in how you see people of color.â
These discoveries can have a formative impact on viewers, Jasmine noted, and, in turn, continue to shape the industry in negative ways.
âWe were once asked to speak on a panel with an Asian performer, who has been asked many times not to speak English in the scene â not to present as if she is Asian American, because the viewer wants that fantasy,â she said. âInstead of helping the viewer have a wider and more realistic expectation of sex and sexuality from other people, we cater to these very limited tropes.â
Whatâs more, the lack of visibility of nonwhite adult performers can also be detrimental to viewers. âIf you donât see yourself represented, that creates your own self-esteem issues and perpetuates an idea of supremacy of whatâs good and whatâs right,â she added.
Fighting to change the landscape of porn in terms of race and representation has made Royal Fetish Films an incredibly successful company. It has won several industry awards for its work and is seen as a highly desirable place for Black and brown people to work. âThey want to be their full selves in artistic expression, and that is often limited when shooting for companies that are operating under the racist premise that is porn as we know it,â Jasmine said.
But shooting diverse and inclusive films is only part of the battle.
âOwnership over the content we put out is imperative,â King said. âAs is having some sense of equity. There are times Black people show up on set and shoot a normal scene. Six months later, you forget about it and itâs put out with a racist title. So, itâs about changing the fact that we donât know whatâs being shot and how itâs going to be contextualized in the overall product.â
Through their success, King and Jasmine also hope to prove to other companies that there is so much more they can be doing and that itâs not just the right thing to do â itâs the profitable thing to do.
âFor companies that cater toward racist tropes, we want to show them that you donât have to do that to make money,â Jasmine said. âThere is a market for good sex, for pleasure. Youâre limiting yourself catering only to straight white men, it doesnât even make sense business wise.â
Beyond creating content, Jasmine and King have found that speaking to media outlets, like this one, about their mission helps open up a dialogue that otherwise might not happen.
âHaving the conversation of the decolonization of Black and brown bodies helps put things into context,â Jasmine said. âLike, âWow, am I ingesting toxic material when Iâm just masturbating? I didnât really think about if that person wants to be there, that what Iâm watching only shoots certain types of content.â Itâs about considering how you learned about Black people in sex [and asking yourself], âWhy do I think every Latina I meet is âspicyâ? What does that even mean? What kind of labeling am I using in my day to day world that I picked up from porn?â These conversations donât happen because there is still such a stigma in sex work and pornography, despite the fact that itâs a billion-dollar industry.â
Ultimately, Jasmine and Kingâs goal is to diversify and change peopleâs understanding of porn and sexuality â which they hope will have a trickle-down effect on how people understand the world in general.
âWhen Black and brown people are able to represent themselves or have a primary part of the dialogue in how theyâre represented, we wind up diversifying the content in so many ways,â Jasmine said. âWhen we have a chance to bring nuance, you then start to see representation of fat bodies, of trans people, of different types and styles of bodies for us to learn from and be entertained by. When we are relegated to stereotypes and white peopleâs standards of beauty, we discount everyoneâs experiences. When we resolve things like racism against Black and brown bodies in porn, we wind up making it more inclusive for everyone.â