Star Wars set by George Lucas" width="400" height="400" style="width:100%;height:auto;" fetchPriority="high" > Pretty much everyone in San Francisco knows that a porn company, Kink.com (who are also branching out into the world of restaurants with the upcoming Armory Club, a.k.a. the former Ace Café at 1799 Mission), now inhabits the enormous Armory building at 14th and Mission. Because the company is into S&M; and “torture porn,” they have some detractors. And now that coupon-purveyor Groupon has decided, for the second time this year, to post a deal for a discounted tour of Kink’s studios (something which, mind you, half of our friends already did a few years ago), an organization called Morality in the Media is calling for a national boycott. The reason: They don’t like porn one bit.
Groupon responded to a petition from Morality in the Media by saying, “We thoroughly vet the businesses we feature…Fortunately, this business has proven to be a responsible member of their community.” That isn’t good enough for the organization, so they announced the boycott today. We should note that Morality in the Media is against all kinds of porn, not just S&M; stuff. They have a lot of propaganda on their site supporting the connections between sex trafficking and porn, porn addiction, etc.
As for the Kink thing, you’re not going to get too many people in San Francisco riled up about this, but perhaps elsewhere. Kink’s studios, many of which are in the basement of the complex where there’s also an underground stream, are basically just rooms tricked out with various themes (dungeon, robots, medieval dungeon) where they shoot videos and live-streaming web content for the kinkily inclined. When you go on a tour, you generally don’t see anything explicit going on down there, but occasionally there’ll be some kind of wrestling match or other event on the main floor. They give these tours all the time, during parties, and to the general public through their site.
The Illegal Pornography Coalition of Morality in the Media is upset at the idea that there are women “bound, whipped, objectified and humilated” on the premises, and that they are “taken to public bars for public sex and public humiliation” (kind of like when they shot this little scene at Arinell Pizza, perhaps?). The thing is, folks, this is San Francisco. Those women are willing participants, and Kink makes plenty of videos featuring men having all that stuff done to them too. We even have a city-condoned event, one of the largest outdoor events in the state in fact, called Folsom Street Fair, where all this stuff happens out in the open, in front of God, the police, and everyone. Kink has even been looking to open up their 38,000-square-foot “drill court” space for farmers’ markets!
But, once again, kooky San Francisco is being used as bait for conservatives and the porn-averse, and Groupon has to defend us. So it goes.
Boycott Groupon for Selling Discounted Tours of Torture Porn Studio [War on Illegal Pornography]
Groupon - National Boycott Announced [Morality in the Media]
Related: The Name of Kink.com’s New Bar? The Armory Club
Arinell Pizza Used as Porn Set [Semi-NSFW]
