Porn star Vex Ashley sparks outrage by saying dancers and sex workers are no different

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'Ethical pornographer' Vex Ashley has spoken out about her beliefs
Compares sex workers to ballet dancers and athletes
Writer Julie Bindel responded that dancers aren't left with mental scarring
Pair debated on Radio 4 programme Can Porn Be Ethical? airing tonight

Published: 08:31 EST, 28 September 2015 | Updated: 09:22 EST, 28 September 2015

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A female pornographer has sparked a debate among feminists by declaring that there is little difference between porn stars and ballet dancers.

Vex Ashley, 25, from Leeds, who finances her films through crowd-funding and claims to give her actors 'total freedom' in their scenes, made the controversial comparison on a Radio 4 programme, Can Porn Be Ethical? which airs tonight.

But her views were disparaged by journalist and anti-porn campaigner Julie Bindel, who argued that despite her 'ethical' stance, the material Ashley produces 'is still commercialising orifices'.

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Vex Ashley took to Radio 4 to say that being a porn star is similar to being a ballerina or athlete

Emerging areas in the industry, which describe themselves as 'ethical porn' and 'feminist porn', are distancing themselves from the mainstream and claiming a new emancipated approach to selling sex (file photo)

Ashley, who uses a pseudonym, said: ‘You could say that about a ballet dancer.

'Ballet dancers hurt their feet for the pursuit of a creative process. But they make a choice to engage in something that puts them at risk in order to create a vision.'

She added: ‘If you have ruined your feet that has considerably more impact on how you function as a human being.'

‘The weight of it [a career in porn] hangs heavy because as a society we shame them for work they have done. We shame them for commercialising an orifice.

'As the same way an athlete uses their body, we use our skills and our minds to create all the time. But society places a very dangerous stigma on having done sex work.'

Describing her ethical stance, she added: ‘Everyone who works for me has freedom in what they do in a scene.'

Radio 4 programme, Can Porn Be Ethical? is presented by journalist and ex-dominatrix Nichi Hodgson and questions whether legal pornography for adults can be ethical

The programme, presented by journalist and ex-dominatrix Nichi Hodgson was scheduled to air as new figures from the NSPCC showing that one in ten 12 to 13-year-olds are worried they are addicted to porn, with one in five saying they’ve seen images that shocked or upset them.

Writer Julie Bindel appeared on Radio 4 today to hit out at pornography and its performers

Studies have also found that pornography can lead to a decreased ability to build healthy relationships or experience sexual satisfaction.

Nichi said: ‘One of the problems with porn is that few people feel really comfortable talking about it. So we rarely get to hear at first hand the experiences of people who work in the adult industry.'

Feminist writer Julie Bindel said: ‘The notion that women have the same relationship with their vaginas as their feet... we just don’t.'

She also pointed out that, unlike porn stars, ballet dancers were not left with psychological issues to deal with.

Speaking on the programme, porn star Jessica Jenson also told how she has had some low experiences but feels 'powerful' in her role.

'I’ve been on shoots when I've been working for ten to 12 hours and not been given food,' she said.

'On one job I was told it was a girl-on-boy shoot and it turned out that they wanted me to do a gang bang.'

She also added: 'Some of the guys I work with think you will be up for stuff off camera.'

But asked whether the porn industry was good for women, she said: ‘Yeah, to be quite honest, the money’s good. And technically women are powerful.

Describing the financial benefits she added: 'Women [porn stars] are being bought stuff off their wish list everyday - cars and even houses.’

When told the research that porn stars feel the negative impact of their job two or three years after leaving the industry, Jessica said: ‘I’m not into studying feminism. It’s just a job.’

Whichever way you look at it pornography is here to stay

According to historian Julie Peakman, society's acceptance of pornography constantly changes.

‘Throughout history there’s a pendulum that swings backwards and forward about how acceptable pornography is,' she said.

‘You get moral panic and we end up having a clampdown every now and then. But whichever way we look at it pornography is here to stay.

But the author of the 2010 bestseller Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality and professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College, Boston, believes porn should never be ethically acceptable.

‘I don’t see how any can say that in order for some to make a living they have to sell their body and have it filmed so that people they have never met all round the world can masturbate to it,' she said. 'Where are the ethics in that?'