In porn, there is no social distancing.“You’re inside the other person,” said Chad White, 2018 nominee for Best Three-Way Sex Scene at the Adult Video News awards. “You’re plugged in.”White has been in the industry for years. For someone who spends at least part of a typical workday “plugged in” to colleagues, you'd think that a pandemic would be terrible news for performers.But that’s not necessarily the case.COVID-19 has apparently created a massive demand for porn. Traffic to Pornhub spiked nearly 25% in March, and OnlyFans, a site for independent porn producers, says they’re getting 200,000 new signups each day. But large studio shoots have completely stopped — meaning that independent producers have a unique opportunity to capture the attention of a world looking for sexual content.White, who started producing his own content at home years ago, says he’s seen an uptick in sales of his content since people started sheltering in place. The same goes for models whose pages he manages.“Even though people's money is running out, they're still buying porn,” he said.Evelin Stone, a performer who lives in Miami, has also seen similar increases in activity on her paid subscription sites. She also has experience in traditional porn shoots, but she stepped away, partially because of creative control, and partially so that she could be her own boss financially.“I did big productions for about a year and a half,” she said in an interview. “At the end of the day… it's all for them. They own you. They own what you do.”Going independent also meant she didn't have to worry about studios pressuring her to do things on camera she wasn’t comfortable with. “I can have fun, controlling what my body goes through, what my body does,” she said. “I control everything.”Now that the large studios are shut down, Stone says she's even more convinced that she made the right move.“I wouldn't be sitting here in a pandemic able to work,” she said.VICE News spoke to porn-industry professionals to see how the industry is changing – and what might be next.Cover:Evelin Stone, an adult performer based in Miami. (VICE News Tonight/VICE TV).
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