There is reportedly nothing that can’t be monetized by the adult entertainment industry. While the whole world was aghast when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and prayed for the latter, the porn industry apparently began cashing in on it. The tag #Ukraine was trending on several major X-rated platforms, like Pornhub, with titles such as “Ukrainian soldier f***s Russian girl before going to war!”, “We are bombed and we f**k, Kharkiv, Ukraine,” and “Porn action during war in Ukraine.”

Now in a piece for Ms. magazine, authors Gail Dines and Eric Silverman have condemned the porn industry for being “nimble when it comes to monetizing misogyny, especially in times of catastrophic suffering.” They then went on to explain the reason behind the trend, saying, “Research shows that habitual users of online porn seek ever more explicit and graphic images in order to sustain the same level of arousal. In this way, the trending of #Ukraine on porn sites is only a recent development of an age-old misogyny, as old as warfare itself.”

READ MORE

Adult stars slam 'war on porn' after Pornhub deletes 80% videos over child abuse claims: 'It's our livelihood'

Can children access Pornhub? 'Rape porn,' other violent videos available to anyone on X-rated sites: Study

Dines and Silverman wrote that the war has made the miserable condition of Ukrainian women and children’s even worse. But porn industry has used it “as a marketing opportunity to increase profits,” said the co-authors, adding, “What we see during wartime is not unprecedented. Misogyny is always present. It is only amplified and made more stark.”

The two also pointed out in their essay that “Putin and pornographers aren’t the only ones seeking to profit from this humanitarian disaster,” before noting that the women “are now hunted by traffickers. It is highly likely that some of the trafficked Ukrainian women and children will end up—drugged, beaten, coerced and raped—on the pages of ‘tube sites’ which, like Pornhub, allow users to upload videos without any authentication for age and consent.”

The article has mentioned other issues faced by Ukrainian women who have become more vulnerable after Russia’s unprovoked attack on their country. Apart from trafficking and forced sex work, the lack of money and resources has resulted in Ukrainian women accepting contracts for surrogate motherhood as Ukraine is "one of only a handful of nations that allow foreigners to enter into such ‘legal’ agreements.” War has “pushed these women into even more desperate situations since many now are living in impoverished refugee camps or bomb shelters, lacking the resources to feed their babies,” Dines and Silverman wrote.

Besides, there are chances that the trade in “mail order brides” will boom as trapped, impoverished Ukrainian women will want to get out of the country. Before the war, it has been said that many women voluntarily chose to become “mail order brides” because of “corruption and a non-stable economy”. Also since “western culture doesn’t have a significant influence on Ukraine mail order wives” and “they still hold traditional family values and don’t look for much equality between men and women in a relationship,” men from other countries desired them as subservient wives. Now, after the war has made the situation even more difficult for Ukranian women, there is speculation that even more of them will enter this marriage market with grossly unequal power dynamics.

The Ms. magazine piece added that the problem is not limited to just the women who are getting forced to join the global sex trade because of the war. “It is also hurting women who were already being exploited in the sex industry. After the imposition of international sanctions, content creators from Russia and Belarus were unable to process payments to their accounts with OnlyFans,” the article stated.