Being a porn actor is considered a profession?

[Clueless Morgan]

If we take that view then many occupations can't be considered a profession, as has been mentioned before in this thread.

And so what? Occupation =/= Profession. Profession is not greater than occupation.

The only sense in which a profession is "greater" than an occupation is in how much training is required in the former. Otherwise, being a doctor does not make you better than being a self-made entrepreneur.

I think where I live occupation and profession are commonly considered interchangeable words.

I'm not surprised. It's a common misconception. Kinda like how a lot of people think theory has the same meaning in science as it does in ordinary language.

While in general society occupation and profession are used interchangeably, they do have different meanings. A "profession" is a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification while an "occupation" is a person's usual or principal work or business, especially as a means of earning a living. An occupation can sometimes be a profession, but a profession is always an occupation.

Porn is a broad spectrum with many unskilled jobs available within it.

On the other hand you won't see a qualified doctor who's just done it because he's naturally pretty good at biology and remembering body parts but didn't get fully educated in the topic. Or a doctor who's just there to stand around and look good and so on.

A reasonable (though maybe not always 100% accurate) way to gauge whether an occupation is a profession would be to ask yourself if you got your degree in a field specifically for your job (for example, I went to school specifically for architecture, I don't have a Bachelor of Arts/Science in Architecture, I have a Bachelor of Architecture) or if you were required to go through some kind of internship or apprenticeship to become qualified to do your job (architects in the US must go through the Intern Development Program through NCARB), and if you were required to pass some kind of licensing exam in order to become fully qualified to do your job (I have to pass 7 exams to become a licensed architect).

Architects, engineers, doctors/dentists/nurses, and lawyers (to name a few) are all examples of professions - occupations for which you require specialized training and often some kind of licensing or exam. The trades may or may not be considered professions depending on whether there are formal qualifications required on the tradesman but usually require come kind of apprenticeship program. Something like a chef is not a profession since formal training is not required, nor, as I understand it, are you required to pass more than a food-handling exam, which untrained 18 year olds are required to pass in order to get a job at McDonalds.

"Professionals" are also subject to losing their licensing if they break the law or the rules and restrictions of their license - there's an ethical component to licensing. There's not an ethical component to being something like a chef (I may be wrong...).

And just because an occupation isn't a profession doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile job, it just means you aren't required to be licensed or otherwise formally qualified to do that job, which is perfectly fine. I want doctors and lawyers and architects to be put through the ringer so that when they're building the buildings I live in, work in or walk through to not fall down on top of me, so that when I go in to have a wound stitched up, the doctors knows how to properly calculate how much anesthesia to give me and understands what kinds of medications I'm allergic to.


As for whether being a porn actor is considered a profession or not, who cares? It's a job that, presumably, the actor chose and enjoys and gets paid for, what does it matter whether they're licensed to do it?