More than 90% of the adult industry is produced in the United States. A country where "race" and ethnicity seem very important for the people. It is not rare to indicate the ethnic background of adult performers on plateforms: "race" (white/caucasian, black), but also ethnicity: hispanic and even for white people: english, german, italian, irish, french... Why are Americans doing that? Are there not a nation? I ask this as European (Frenchman). The "racial" and ethnic questions have not the same importance in European countries.
There is a think I don't understand about American people. Ethnicity seems to be very important for the people, even for White people, but they have almost lost her ethnic and national roots to become Americans. The vast majority of them don't speak their european langages anymore.
As another non-American (Canadian) I've wondered the same thing. The US has always been touted as the great melting pot but it is anything but. Race and ethnicity still play a huge role it seems. I suspect that a big factor is that slavery is still an open wound in many parts of the country. but I have to admit that as an outsider I have no special observations on the issue.
I'll be shocked if this topic isn't locked already by the time I finish typing this but the short answer is "racism". The medium answer is that race and ethnicity are important in American porn because they're very important in American culture. As you mentioned, ethnicity is even important for white people. Why? Because the definition of "white" has changed over time and everyone didn't always agree to the new changes. The long answer would definitely start a flame war but if you're interested in learning about how/why the concept of American identity became separated from European identity Google "salutory neglect".
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Paolo Deactivated User
47 Posts 11/17
Posted - Sep 2 2021 : 9:23AM
It's funny.
20% Belgian, 40% Dutch, 20% Luxembourgish and 20% French
or
20% Swedish, 20% Danish, 20% Norwegian, 20% Icelandic and 20% German
I always thought that it was odd to note race & ethnicity.
For me, if a performer is hot a performer is hot. I couldn't care less what race or religion they are. If I like 'em, I like 'em. I've liked performers of nearly every race and ethnicity.
There is one person that posts here, Panoramata, that will almost always list a performer's race or ethnicity when he or she makes a post about a new performer. I have become aware of quite a few performers that I would have otherwise been aware of through Panoramata's posts but I've always thought that how he or she lists race and ethnicity is extremely odd.
Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about:
As an aside, I guess that it is now acceptable to write "they" when unsure of what someone's preferred pronoun is. I am old school and am having a hard time adjusting to that. I was always taught that "they" referred to more than one person. That is why I referred to Panoramata as "he or she" instead of "they."
Almost laughable North Africans as conquerors had been in Sardinia for around 50 years in the last 2,300 when the Romans arrived before that there where the Caragininians ,3,200 years ago though people from Sardinia some Sea People known as Sherden where in Egypt to plunder and ended up in their Army as the personal guard of the pharaho Ramses II the Great.
Anyway Martina Smeraldi doesn't look the least bit a Northern African in Italian eyes and especially ears, she has a very distinctive thick accent that is typical in Sardinia , also she's not much darker than any Southern population Italy that lives at the sea , and she does just that , it's almost impossible not to get heavily tanned in such areas
The particularly American version of racism has always had a strong sexual element. Black males were, and still are in some cases, portrayed as hyper sexual and preying on sweet innocent white women. White women who had any sexual contact with black men were considered "Ruined".14 year old Emmet Till, an African American, was brutally and viciously tortured and then murdered for merely whistling at a white woman in 1955.
The strong taboo lingers in our culture as fetish.
I should add that the lingering effects of racism in porn apply to other races too. Asian women and men also were stereotyped. Asian women were viewed as especially exotic and sensual while being either temptresses or virginally innocent. Asian men were desexualized. So you see a great many Asian heritage women in US porn and almost no Asian heritage men.
There are a few reasons. Some of which are beyond the scope of a porn forum. And others that make people on this board feel personally attacked for reasons that are also beyond the scope of this forum. I'll stick to this one reason which is selling. Most porn in the US is intended for caucasian viewers as they are the major demographic and are the ones paying for most of the porn. IR is no exception. Assuming these guys are not cuckolds, which most men are not, men view porn as a vicarious experience. Caucasian males cannot experience IR porn vicariously as they would with "normal" porn. Thus, in order to make IR porn more appealing to a caucasian audience that lacks vicariousness, they fabricate a taboo element. I'm sure everyone is aware that the more taboo something is without going into extremes and illegalities the more appealing it will be to a lot of people. That's why mainstream porn has gotten more hardcore over time. Vanilla sex between an intimate white woman and an average dick-sized, average western personality black male won't sell well as "Tiny blonde from the suburbs impaled by 6'5 10-inch mandingo". The former would be porn for a black male audience. You may be thinking "but in other European counties they don't have this problem" and you may be right. However, that discussion would fall under topics I believe to be poorly received in this forum.
Interestingly, in that one - you, the OP- says quite confidently that "I am French and not focused on french or french canadian/québécois actresses." yet I see you literally just started a thread on the subject:
I don't mean to give you grief as I'm actually sympathetic to you're general points and your post has sparked some nice replies and dialogue, but you're coming off quite self-congratulatory for someone so inconsistent (maybe you're just trolling.)