Now that all three parts of Strict Prison 4 have been published here, we can see the full shape of Pandora and Amy’s story: two frightened inmates with a desperate plan for freedom that ends not in escape but in brutal punishment.
Still, though, it’s the guards who make the fantasy feel truly hopeless – stern, silent and utterly unmoved. They’re not softened by Amy’s tears or impressed by Pandora’s stoicism. They’re not even angry, really; anger would require them to recognise their prisoners as people, and the throbbing heart of this dark fantasy is that they don’t. The punishments they dole out are merely institutional machinery grinding into motion.
Sometimes erotic fiction offers us power and control; sometimes it offers the horror of having none at all. Every failed attempt strips away another possibility until there are no choices left to make, no responsibility left to carry, no need to remain brave. Even Pandora is allowed to become helpless, noisy and overwhelmed, by the end.
Ethical porn doesn’t require that every story is nice and light and fluffy and depicts only acceptable behaviour. Rather, it asks that we understand nuance: that there is a difference between character and performer, between fantasy and reality. Our darkest fantasies give our most frightening feelings somewhere safe to go.
The punishment ends. The camera stops. We approach the locked doors in our minds like the locked doors of a cell, feeling them close behind us with the thrill of knowing that an exit remains.
