AIM. What is it good for?
One of the bastions of the porn industry's campaign of normalcy or uprightness is its self policing of health standards via the AIM organization (Adult Industry Medical), a clinic to test performers on a battery of sexually transmitted diseases. Since its co-founding by former porn slut Sharon Mitchell (and Dr. Steven York) in 1998 it has become de riguer for studios and directors to hire only models who receive a clean bill of health from AIM. How commendable. But like a shiny mackerel this fish still smells.
Since the organization was the first or, at least, specifically directly aligned with the adult industry it has quickly become the sole arbitrator of health; in other words, a monopoly. Like all monopolies, AIM has the luxury of stipulating standards to its liking in so far as concerns cost, testing sites, cycles for succeeding check-ups.
It claims the service is complimentary for performers but that's a lie. As the presumptive "official" medical voice on health standards AIM exacts a hefty fee in excess of a hundred dollars for its test results...$100+ for the same results one can get for $0 from any nonprofit clinic or government funded health clinic.
There is absolutely nothing which makes AIM's testing any more dignified and technologically thorough in detecting STDs or HIV than ones local clinic or hospital
Bullocks! Of course there exists other clinics (competition) that reliably test for STDs. In having "no competition" what AIM amounts to is a scam. As far as I understand, a scam is something billing itself grander than what it is in order to take in more money than its worth. So, yeah, paying $17.99 for a CD that took 12 cents to manufacture is a scam, too.
In requiring porn performers to pony up as little as $120 for an STD/HIV test through their clinic, AIM (and the porn industry) are running something of a grab cash operation; a scam. The low fee of $120 is only available in Los Angeles because that's where the clinic is based. To take AIM's test outside of L.A. costs substantially more since, according to studios who insist on out-0f-town talent submitting to AIM, they have to add in shipping and handling costs plus special document procedure. To translate that last part, AIM needs time to post its check list to a nearer-to-you medical office, meaning one cannot simply walk in and get tested but, rather, must make an appointment. Thus in addition to being more expensive it is also inconvenient to someone in, say, Denver, San Diego, Houston, Boston, Miami Beach, Chicago, New Jersey, etc.
UPDATE: AIM has since been debunked and shut down and nobody is capitalizing on it more than angry white dude Donny Long!Again, these same porn star aspirants can, on any given day, walk in to a local clinic and request the Rapid HIV test and other screenings for various STDs free of charge or for a nominal fee. Also, most porn companies do not cover the medical cost either, leaving the talent, who is guaranteed no work (income), to pay out of his own pocket---to pay for something which he can get free of charge!
To compound matters, a new AIM validation is required every month. Conventional wisdom suggests sexually active persons get checked every three to five months but AIM, being so diligently compassionate, stipulates a check-up every thirty days. So...
$120 x X models x daily = KA-CHING!!If this doesn't amount to a racket then Las Vegas ain't Sin City, O'Reily ain't a propagandist jerk, and California ain't on the west coast. Porn work pays well enough and, if nothing else, is definitely quick, easy money but it is not so lucrative to nonchalantly offset some $120...$150...$160 every thirty days where work is neither certain nor regular.
The porn industry has road to haul toward legitimacy if it keeps operating in these backroom methods.
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