Glossing over porn’s dark side

Thirteen years after Traci Lords appeared on “Melrose Place,” The Times “broke the story” -- again -- about porn stars entering the mainstream [“The New Crossover Artists,” by Reed Johnson, Nov. 3]. In an article that amounts to free advertising for the porn industry, The Times tells us that porn is L.A.’s fun, sexy secret.

But there’s no news here; it’s an open secret. Pornography is a billion-dollar local industry and its product is everywhere. From the casting of a 20-year-old porn pro in Steven Soderbergh’s latest film to the sexed-up Halloween costumes for little girls, we are being fed a steady diet of “breakthrough” porn.

But The Times’ report on the mainstreaming of porn leaves out one of porn’s real dirty secrets: the rise of verbal and physical aggression toward women in its films. This is not about Americans becoming more comfortable with human sexuality. This is about putting women and girls in danger of physical and emotional damage as these practices are normalized through porn’s proliferation.

Articles like this one promote an uninformed but porn-friendly community -- just the way the porn industry wants it.

Jillian Bailey

Pasadena

Mary Ann Gallo

Los Angeles