Movies

Money Shot Recensie: The Pornhub Story [Netflix]

Director: Suzanne Hillinger| Time to play: 94 minutes | Year: 2023

“Pornography is the canary in the coal mine for free speech.” This is how porn activist Mike Stabile concludes his contribution to Money Shot: The Pornhub Story. The story does not end exactly where it began. With a porn documentary you expect scenes you don’t want to see in a crowded train car. It seems to be going in that direction, but soon it is mainly about other moral edges, namely legal and cultural ones. that’s how it goes money shot ultimately more about society than community and everything is more academic than sexy.

Fast-paced and with a beautiful Windows 95 aesthetic, the documentary plows its way through the history of Internet pornography through 2021. Pornhub is under attack online for facilitating sexual abuse by failing to adequately moderate content from non-public accounts. authenticated. This is followed by the successful call to disconnect Pornhub from paid services. Governments, the media, activists and NGOs are all for it. Free speech organizations, Pornhub, and sex workers themselves, who especially deplore the stigma and loss of income, oppose it.

This creates two narratives that constantly annoy each other. On the one hand, sex workers reject sexual abuse in any form, but see the backlash as yet another expression of the stigma attached to their legitimate work (“there is no such thing as non-consensual pornography, that’s rape”). On the other hand are human rights organizations that want to prevent sexual abuse, but at the same time are somewhat ambiguous about their values ​​regarding pornography in general.

No one involved is spared from all the mud thrown up and this makes almost all of the data unreliable. The sex workers who responded on Twitter would be soldiers of Pornhub’s leadership, according to lawyers for the victims. The child abuse agency appears to have its roots in right-wing conservative Christian fundamentalist circles. Pornhub is extremely negligent, but not all criticism is solely out of concern for sex workers: no one cares about them socially or financially.

Sometimes the documentary knowingly accompanies a narrative, only to say later why there is something to be said about it. For some insiders, this even changes halfway through the job description, because the opponent has again revealed an alternative interest. Therefore, it is often difficult for the outsider to follow.

As a result, the amount of information money shot dizzy after a while. It’s amazing how your loyalty is constantly coming and going. As a result, you always have to break down your own mind controls. The filthy rich owner of Pornhub who is outraged when a researcher comes clean about the location of his expensive villa seems to be the villain of this story. But some sympathy for him returns when that building is burned down by unknown perpetrators soon after.

It’s great that the documentary still forces you to reconsider your (pre)judgments, but the price is high. The story is repetitive at times, it deals with a limited number of dimensions, and yet it is very chaotic. Only at the end does a conclusion surface, albeit somewhat clear. Namely, that in all this mess of money, legislation, and culture wars, sex workers are ultimately the most ethically clean. Many will find that ironic, perhaps that is precisely the problem.

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story can be seen in Netflix.

Varsha Rai

Hi, Varsha here. I am a very passionate writer with a knack for the art of words and I hope to share my stories and information in a way that is meaningful and inspiring. At trendybapu.com, I write mostly on latest and upcoming movies, movie reviews and everything related to movies. Catch up with me on - [email protected]
Back to top button