I’m probably in the minority for this and I know Mingwa had the best intentions when writing the story, but the way MD forces Chanwoo to safeword out makes me so uncomfortable... my understanding is that a safeword is a last resort and a dom should really stop before the sub ever gets to the point of using it. How MD manipulates Chanwoo into safewording when he clearly already shows such discomfort and hesitation is so icky.
tl;dr The adult industry, as much as we are trying to destigmatize it, isn’t nice to everyone. In this story, the author shows how it doesn’t work for some people, but I do not think that they imply that it is bad overall.
I’m surprised people think that the author is trying to villainize porn. I think their perspective is more nuanced than that. A lot of the things the author depicts matches up with what Mia Khalifa says about her experience in porn. How the company makes all the money and leaves you with pennies because you don’t own your own image. How there are strangers who think they have ownership over you because they’ve seen you naked and as soon as you don’t agree to sleep with them they immediately become nasty. How your job prospects are dim. In an ideal world, a person’s previous job shouldn’t prevent them from future ones as long as they are qualified, but the real world isn’t like that—even if a boss is willing to hire you, you (and, by extension, the company) will be harassed constantly by others because of what you’ve done. It’s hard for any hiring manager to justify that.
Yeonwoo comes to the realization at the end that porn was not for him, because even if the money was good, all the other negatives did not balance it out. Ryan really gets screwed over by the industry. Is the author equating porn = bad? For them, yes. But overall? No!
The author portrays McQueen’s company as a reputable one. They show how some studios handle business as fairly as possible, use protection, get consent, etc. McQueen steps down NOT because porn is terrible and is the cause of all bad things in his life, but because he fucked up in filming “Perfection” (and tbh, if this were a film in real life, McQueen would’ve been cancelled in a HOT SEC) and decides not to continue as a way to make up for that mistake.
Jennifer and Janine are actually eager to continue in the industry. It works well for them. They are people who are typically exploited by the industry but now hold positions of power in it. I think that’s quite a powerful message.
Yes, there are some problems with how the only black man is a villain. There’s some bias there. I don’t think it was malicious, but it is what it is, and we shouldn’t minimize it.
Walk on Water isn’t even a 5/5 for me, it just isn’t my taste. Regardless, I think the author does a good job of presenting all the different sides of porn. But at the end of the day, I‘m the one writing essay-length comments to BL so who really is the loser here lol. Thanks for reading if you made it to this point :)
couldnt have said it any better :)
That... is not how she went about it at all. She first starts out with the fact that Mcqueens company is the only one he could find that didn’t look like a crack den where they make home made pornos... which is completely inaccurate. And even THEN the only “bearable” porn company ended up having the CEO sleep with his employees, manipulating people into joining his company and take positions they weren’t comfortable with, and having rape victims make a rape film and trivializing rape. (I especially like the little piece of irony where she then makes Chang into a rapist and has the MC be around him all the time np and then the little bit at the end where he potentially forgives him. As if she didn’t just make a point of how bad McQueen was for doing that.) secondly we have the friends. All his friends and coworkers hate and shame him for it in NEW YORK. And he’s just supposed to forgive them for treating him that way? Like less of a person? Just because he did porn?. And let’s not forget he did gay porn, in a company that wasn’t super famous, and he was a newbie. And yet every single person he knows found out? No way. That’s not how it works. You think every gay person goes to the same gay website and watches the same gay videos of the same person? Who only did 4 episodes? No. Way. And lastly the thing you said about the job is untrue. He was a security guard. The only problem people have (even famous straight porn people) is lack of experience. That’s what stops them from getting hired. But getting fired once you already have a job? No. So yes this disgusts me with every fiber of my being especially the way his friends treated him. They said such horrible things in the name of “concern” and oh yeah how every porn actor we got to know worked as a prostitute? Disgusting portrayal
I mean imagine you have a friend who occasionally works in porn for extra money. She’s happy, doesn’t bother her, lives her normal life. And then you show this to her. How do you think that would make her feel? I have a friend like that, and I can’t imagine how hurt she would be. There are dark sides to porn just like there are anything (fashion, modeling, acting) but we don’t go around shaming actors for acting so we? Or models for how stupid they are and then have their friend a hate them. I’m sorry but this was a cruel story made by a closed minded individual
I completely agree. You brought up some points I didnt even think of which just disappoints me further. Another interesting thing I noted, is how realistic she made the made the porn seem (as in the casting couch and flow of sex scenes pans out) which to me shows that the author must have watched a decent amount of porn for it to flow so very much like a porno. Hidden shame maybe?? But on the other side of that coin did not know how actual porn is filmed. Aka how they make fake cum and don’t actually film a full sex scene. They do a bunch of different takes and a lot of it is super fake but she made it look like an invasion of privacy moment between two people actually having sex. She is really good writer, I just wish she didn’t feel this way about porn actors or any group of people for that matter.