Interracial porn, which in the adult film business typically means scenes between black male models and white female models, is a contentious category. Interracial scenes have a huge market, and scenes featuring racial tags top lists of most searched categories. However, black actresses have reported that they are paid less for their roles in scenes for production companies, justified by a perceived lack of commercial viability of “black-on-black” scenes and those with black actresses. Budgets for “ethnic” productions are often low and are riddled with issues that come from white writers creating roles for black models. Also, analysis by experts in cultural sensitivity has suggested that a majority of these scenes feature harmful racial stereotypes, that would be unheard of getting the green light outside of the adult industry. All of the above contributes to the assumption that there is no market for black-on-black scenes or black actresses in interracial productions.

The rise of the independent adult content creator may be the key to addressing some of the issues presented to women of color in the mainstream porn industry. The experiences of independent content creators may provide a better gauge of what consumers actually want to see, as opposed to outdated perceptions of what is popular.

Industry accessibility has improved to the point where models with low budgets and rudimentary skills can begin making adult content and release it on their own. Models whose appeal is not apparent to big production companies, can build brands on their own, bypassing the issues that professional productions present. Independent production companies can also control scripting and release content which is not constrained by perceived commercial viability. Social media is also a key tool for the independent creator, providing a strong and more direct connection of fanbases to the performers. For consumers, this encourages a stronger connection with their favourite models and builds a community of fellow fans. For models, this means they find out pretty quickly who their fans are and what they enjoy. This can be capitalised upon in order to create content that fans want.

I spoke with Jenni Knight and Natalie Luxxurious, both WOC and independent content creators about their experiences with making content with others, and if pressure from their fanbases was a factor in the models they choose to perform with.

Jenni Knight, a creator from Virginia US, who specializes in roleplay and is known as “the Queen of Dirty Talk” says her fanbase is predominately white men. Going by content sales, Knight says that what they want to see from her is interracial scenes. She says that, without a doubt, her content featuring white male performers outsells her black-on-black scenes. “I’ve worked with white and black guys… My interracial sells MUCH BETTER than my black-on-black porn.”

Natalie Luxxurious is a creator of fetish content, with nominations for AVN Domme of the Year, and a top 10 finish in the ManyVids Fetish Star of the Year for 2022. Hailing from Florida, Luxxurious says she has worked with more white creators than POC creators as they are more prevalent. However, she adds “my talent pool is diverse and has different cultures and ethnicities of creators” saying that the people she chooses to work with are mutuals whom she is comfortable with. When it comes to the opinion of her fans, Luxxurious says “in the future I would love to work with more POC but at the end of the day, for me, I don’t think my fans mind either way.”

The perspectives of these creators are encouraging when it comes to the viability of changing the role of WoC in mainstream porn productions. Although more voices need to be added to this conversation, the experiences of independent content creators are key to demonstrate what consumers are looking for in their porn, and highlight areas that can explored further.

You can follow Knight and Luxxurious on Twitter @JENNI_KNIGHT_24 and @Natalie_luxx, respectively.