BuzzFeed News reports that Kink.com, the San Francisco Mission porn studio headquartered in the historic Armory building that cut off ties with performer James Deen after allegations of rape, is facing four lawsuits from former performers who allege unsafe working conditions. Three of the lawsuits state that performers contracted HIV as a result of negligence on set, while a fourth alleges that the studio did not protect a performer from assault during a bondage scene.
The article notes that the allegations are at odds with Kink’s image within the porn industry as a safe place to make BDSM porn and a respectful workplace for actors.
The complaints describe a working environment in which employees and contractors are pushed beyond their limits and on-set issues are dismissed — an image that’s quite contrary to the one that the company has projected in the wake of the allegations against James Deen.
BuzzFeed quotes several performers who say they have never experienced anything like the lawsuits allege at their own shoots at the Armory, but also presents evidence of past wrongdoing, like a 2013 case in which performers alleged they were paid to keep quiet about injuries they received on set or were fired for speaking out.
The studio has said that it would be instituting new protocols to deal with reporting worker incidents and acknowledged that Kink could improve its handling of off-set incidents, connecting them to the recent rape allegations against Deen.
However, Stabile did acknowledge that Kink.com “may have lapsed” in figuring out how to “ensure the safety of performers when they’re off set.” The accusations from Blue and Fires concern incidents that happened off-set. “That seems to be, according to the allegations, the gray area that James Deen took advantage of,” he said.