Val Webber

• Doctor of Philosophy
• PostDoc Position at Dalhousie University

A multitude of factors shape the labor conditions of men engaged in digitally facilitated sex work. To examine these labor conditions, we conducted a scoping review of research conducted with men about their use of internet technologies to facilitate in-person sex work and/or provide sexual services online through digital platforms. We retrieved 72...

Discussions of online content moderation often focus on the platform, however credit card networks and payment processors determine what content can be monetized and therefore placed on adult platforms. Through fieldwork and interviews among adult industry stakeholders and a survey of adult content creators, this paper demonstrates how these financ...

This article explores the impact of governance developed and enforced by payment intermediaries on the working conditions of performers working on adult labour platforms. At the level of the payment infrastructure, credit card networks Visa and Mastercard and payment processors set requirements for (adult) platforms on allowable content and how thi...

Objectives: To review the literature on Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (GBTQ) men and sexual consent. Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched in June 2022, yielding 1924 articles; 30 were included for review after screening. Results: We found a growing body of literature focused on GBTQ men, with an increasingly intersectional lens....

This report draws from a series of consultation sessions with Pornhub creators held throughout May and June of 2023. We engaged participants on themes of financial discrimination, surveillance, race and gender, algorithmic curation and categorization, advocacy and much more. Creators shared a wide range of informed perspectives both regarding their...

In the summer of 2022, sex workers and adult content creators began reporting increased moderation of their content on Reddit without explanation. This was troubling, especially given that Reddit is one of the only platforms that allows NSFW content and creators to commingle with “mainstream” social media users. There was no reason to expect a chan...

Background: In 2021, the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) conducted an inquiry around Pornhub, following allegations that parent company MindGeek profits from non-consensual content. Analysis: This article offers a discourse analysis of the ETHI’s process, testimony, and report on Pornhub...

In this scholarly conversation, Dr Rebecca Sullivan and Dr Valerie Webber share their experiences in sex work and how it has informed their research in their different areas of sexuality studies. Dr Webber, who has worked as both a porn and cam performer, is a postdoctoral scholar at Dalhousie University’s Sexual Health and Gender (SHaG) Research L...

Introduction Persons with vulvodynia (a chronic vulvar pain condition) suffer many barriers to diagnosis and treatment, several of which may be exacerbated by the sociocultural and geographical context in which they live. Objectives We drew on the experiences of patients with vulvodynia who were living in small urban and rural communities to learn...

Porn production, like all forms of labour, entails certain occupational health and safety (OHS) risks. Porn production has generally not been subject to state occupational health oversight, and porn workers have instead implemented self-regulatory OHS systems. However, in California, where the industry is most established, governmental and non-gove...

Objective: The objective of this study was to better understand how rurality impacts the knowledge, diagnosis and management of vulvodynia by primary care providers (PCPs) practising in the geographically disparate province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Design: This was a qualitative case study using questionnaires and semi-structured in...

In April 2021, the credit card company Mastercard announced they would be implementing updated adult content merchant guidelines. These went into effect in October 2021. The requirements can be interpreted in many ways, and adult platforms have taken varied approaches to compliance. Since the changes were announced, there have been anecdotal report...

This dissertation examines occupational health protocols used to prevent the transmission of STIs and HIV in porn production, both those imposed by governmental health agencies and those developed by porn performers themselves. There is much disagreement over what protocols are best for the industry. Using critical interpretive medical anthropology...

In this paper, I suggest that the notion of consent acts as the basis for sexual health protocol in mainstream straight porn production. I further suggest that this is problematic, and demonstrate alternative policy visions offered by gay and queer production procedures. After a brief description of my methods, I sketch the porn industries with whi...

Comments submitted in response to the Government of Canada's proposed Digital Citizen Initiative to combat harmful content online: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/harmful-online-content.html

An independent public report about mental health & addictions services in Newfoundland & Labrador, based on qualitative interviews with 40 people with lived experience. Commissioned by the Canadian Mental Health Association - Newfoundland & Labrador. Full Report.

An independent public report about mental health & addictions services in Newfoundland & Labrador, based on qualitative interviews with 40 people with lived experience. Commissioned by the Canadian Mental Health Association - Newfoundland & Labrador. Abridged Community Report.

Introduction: Persons with vulvodynia (a chronic vulvar pain condition) suffer many barriers to diagnosis and treatment, several of which may be exacerbated by the sociocultural and geographical context in which they live. Aim: We drew on the experiences of patients with vulvodynia who were living in small urban and rural communities to learn what...

A blog post for Impact Ethics, developed from an invited presentation I gave at the Emerging Scholars Panel of the Memorial University Centre for Bioethics Inaugural Symposium, at Memorial University in St. John’s NL, October 4 2019.

This poster summarizes key findings from an ongoing qualitative research project about vulvodynia diagnosis and treatment in rural and small urban areas.

Research Ethics Boards (REBs) typically focus on ensuring the safety of participants. Increasingly, the risk that research poses to researchers is also discussed. Should REBs involve themselves in determining the degree of allowable researcher risk, and if so, upon what should they base that assessment? The evaluation of researcher safety does not...

In looking at the HIV/AIDS crisis as it relates to queer communities, two historical trajectories can be drawn: on the one hand, severe state inaction and neglect, which was countered by patient activism, community self-care, and auto-education movements. On the other, a call for sexual responsibilisation that, through institutionalization via AIDS...

This brief was submitted to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Health in Regards to M-47, a Motion passed in December 2016 that instructs the Committee to investigate the "public health effects" of "violent and degrading" pornography. It discusses the lack of conclusive evidence for detrimental effects of pornography consumption an...

The present document is intended for Canadian health care and public health practitioners within health authorities, not-for-profit organizations, pharmacists, clinicians, and any other peers and professionals who are interested in establishing a naloxone distribution program to address opioid overdose in their communities. It provides a basic outl...

This document introduces the challenges related to opioids and their prescribed and non- prescribed use in Canada. It presents some recent overdose data and common risk and protective factors. It also briefly outlines naloxone prevention and education programs and presents the evidence for their efficacy in lowering opioid overdose rates. Created i...

Porn performance and its interface with the public inhabit a blurry and shifting zone that is difficult to fix. The sex and bodies of pornography are both public and private, both real and fantasy, both individually inhabited and collectively viewed. What happens when the state tries to locate its role and intervene in such a slippery relationship?...

HIV and hepatitis B and C are viruses that have been unduly set apart from other infectious diseases in terms of the symbolic pull they exert and the anxiety they produce. This is reflected in health care policy and protocol. Hospitals, health care regions and colleges of physicians and surgeons create guidelines and procedures that single out HIV...

Sexuality is often considered to be ‘naturally’ derived, and thus subject to discourses of authenticity. Through a discussion with non-exclusively heterosexual women performing lesbian sexuality in pornography, this article seeks to complicate ideas surrounding performance and authenticity. I argue that performance itself, by reiterating certain cu...