Paul Morris believes in what he's doing. Here are his answers to a few deeply probing questions.
RR: How did Treasure Island Media begin?
PM: I'd been making porn since I was a little kid, giving my allowance to the neighborhood toughs to let me draw or photograph them naked. I eventually 'apprenticed' to Bob Jones in San Francisco, producing and directing tons of porn videos. At some point I got tired of being told that I had to present sex in a particular way: shaved musclemen wearing condoms, posing just so, talking pathetic porntalk. None of the guys who were having sex for my cameras were wearing condoms or acting like porn-manikins during their actual sex, and at some point I just decided to start my own company and make porn honestly. Sex is much too important to lie about.
The company has grown exponentially since I started it. And at this point our growth is happening faster than ever, with guys all over the world writing in constantly thanking me for showing sex in an honest and realistic way. They thank me for not acting like a preacher ... .
RR: TIM has been criticized for promoting unsafe sex by producing bareback films.
PM: Every single person who has criticized the porn I make is laboring under a misunderstanding of what porn is. Hundreds of serious academic and governmental studies have shown that porn—if it is good porn—functions as a cathartic agent that relieves pent-up sexual energy. It's been shown over and over that porn doesn't lead to any particular kind of behavior, whether it's violent or unsafe. Rather it allows the viewer to live the experience vicariously, to be free from the need or the drive to act unwisely or uncharacteristically. The most famous porn studies from around the world show that cultures that have the most graphic and honest and freely available pornography are also the cultures with the healthiest sexuality. Moralistic porn that intends to 'teach' causes the greatest harm; it's propaganda, with no cathartic effect, reducing sex—the most profound element of life—to the level of a hygiene lesson. Porn is like any of the arts: to function correctly and healthily it has to be honest and it has to be fearless ... .
RR: What's up for the future of TIM?
PM: We're just gonna work harder and harder to make the hottest and most over-the-top sex-vids. We've got a tremendously sleazy reputation to uphold.