Triple-X Offender

In most places, paying for sex is illegal. That is, unless you document the transaction and sell the footage on the internet. And if you show an attractive young woman, enticed by promises of cash, having sex with a complete stranger in a public setting – only to be kicked to the curb afterward with no pay and plenty of insult – chances are your porn site will be very, very popular. Unoriginal, but popular.

Gonzo. Porno verité. Reality porn. Whatever you call it, this particular variety of smut has flooded the internet in much the same way that reality shows have taken over television. "Real" sex has always been valued in porn, but even the casual consumer can testify that realistic trappings – sets, plotlines, and especially dialogue – are usually an afterthought. The genre's latest offshoot, so-called reality porn, has upped the ante, featuring scenes that appear to unfold unedited and in real time, with participants who directly acknowledge the camera. But what really distinguishes this new smut from its predecessors isn't whether the action is scripted, but whether it's portrayed as nonconsensual.

Reality porn features some of the most violent and demeaning porno scenes to hit the mainstream, what some call "humilitainment." Tagging these disturbing spectacles of deception and abuse with the "reality" label enhances their allure, as it claims to offer consumers unstaged and authentic action. Where reality TV usually panders to the collective schadenfreude – that sordid side of human nature that finds us taking delight in others' misfortune – pornographic content sends already sleaze-bound reality entertainment into new and disquieting territory.

Take, for instance, the pithily named BangBus, which debuted in 2001 and features two men roaming the streets, trolling for young women they can lure into their van to have sex with them on camera in exchange for a little cash. The bang squad searches out "every girl's inner slut," testing how far she'll go to sexually satisfy a stranger. BangBus's popularity led to other reality sites popping up overnight like silicone implants. The throng of high-profile sexploitation offerings now includes web sites like BangBoat, BaitBus, BackroomFacials, XratedGangBang, and Trunked ("It's simple. Throw the bitch in the trunk. If she doesn't like it, she can get out. Oh yeah. We're goin' 55 mph...").

The guiding premise of these sites is that a woman must be coaxed into sex – but, once persuaded, she's soon begging for it upside down and sideways. "Under every skirt is a pussy that just wants to be fucked," proclaims BackseatBangers. Penetrability is simultaneously celebrated as a woman's most valuable quality and scorned as evidence of her indelible sluttiness. In the end, she always gets her due, with most episodes culminating in a facial (and not the spa treatment kind), and many topped off by the guy spitting on her face. After the besmeared, duped woman musters a grin for the camera – sometimes, as on Trunked, with a sticker advertising the site plastered across her forehead – she is left stranded. While the money shot is the crown jewel of traditional hardcore porn – proving the action is genuine – reality porn derives its authenticity from a thornier crown: Someone has to be humiliated, and that humiliation has to look real.

While degradation in porn is certainly nothing new, the presentation of it as real rather than performed is a more recent innovation. The producers of these sites position their works as erotic documentaries that capture real encounters with eager women who are dumb or desperate enough to fall for their trickery. The people who have engineered these scenarios thereby downplay their own hand in the abuse in order to make viewers feel better about getting off on it. But behind the scenes, reality-porn producers must document the fictive nature of their productions in order for the operations to remain legal. They need to juggle the fantasy of authentic humiliation with the reality of staging in order to elude law enforcement's scrutiny – or even to maintain personal integrity. "We do it where the girl has fun, not where she feels bad. I'm not into that," says Greggory Meyer, whose company, PhotoGregg, provides content for more than 40 reality-porn sites. And though he provides site copy like "This little cum dumpster just has that look. The look that says, 'I suck dick!'... I guess you can tell a slut by her looks!," Meyer doesn't believe any of his creations are degrading.