Why do banks and payment processors have an issue with period sex?
Periods are a natural part of life, but for some reason, there are a lot of mixed opinions and discrimination regarding menstruation. When I was growing up, I often felt as though I had to hide the fact that I had a period. I used to do competitive rowing, and I remember telling my coach once that I was on my period, and he immediately became incredibly uncomfortable and acted as though I had said something bad. This tends to be a recurring theme for many women and people who menstruate. For some reason, society can be weird about periods, especially when it comes to period sex. Some people like period sex, while others do not. Each to their own. However, you’ve probably noticed that when watching mainstream pornography, you don’t tend to see scenes with period sex. There’s a reason for this:
Payment processors
Banks
Site Guidelines
The above three discriminate towards menstruation.
When I was designing the guidelines for Freyja I asked performers and photographers what their experience was like on other sites with guidelines and one of the topics that came up was period sex. A lot of performers couldn’t understand why it was banned on many sites, and why payment processors and banks took issue with it. Indeed, why is this against site guidelines, when periods are a natural and normal thing? Well, quite often sites take this stance because they are worried about their relationships with payment processors and banks. In addition, I interviewed a famous adult photographer on my podcast. He had uploaded photos with fake blood in them, to have payment processors ask him to take the content down. He re-uploaded the photos in black and white and no longer had an issue…
Moreover, studios also tend not to film this type of content because it’s going to be an issue when uploading and distributing the content, as tube sites might take it down. Moreover, payment processors/banks might take issue with the content and request it to be taken down or can even threaten to cut off the site/studio from payment processing.
This raises many questions about why banks and payment processors have an issue with periods. What is the problem with periods? Well, some sites and processors claim that it can be hard to draw the line between what is period sex and then what starts to fall into bloodplay. But if you think about it, that’s not a good reason. This “dilemma” can be sorted out with moderation, so it’s a weak argument. By this logic, we couldn’t be choked because it could be interpreted as murder. So, it’s not a good enough reason or argument.
Therefore, it’s not just periods where banks can begin to discriminate. They also go for lactation. One performer that joined Freyja, used to be on a popular fan site but was censored and kicked off because during a live stream, a bit of milk leaked from her breast. She had just had a child, and that kind of thing is normal and happens, and yet she was censored and had her account cut. This situation begs the question, why do payment processors discriminate against women's bodies? What is the actual issue that they have? And why is no one discussing how it’s not just governments having a say over women’s bodies and representation but also payment processors?