Now that she has supposedly offically retired and we can look back on her career and what she did I have to wonder if Jenna was as important to the porn biz as so many people tend to think she was. I understand that Jenna crossed over to "mainstream" and that she sold lots of product and made lots of money but did any of that really help the porn industry or just mostly Jenna? Did Jenna really help make porn more "mainstream" or was "mainstream" ready to be more accepting of porn and Jenna simply rode the wave? Did Jenna's mainstream presence bring more people to buy/view porn or did the people who already bought porn just gravitate to Jenna's stuff? Was there a big difference in porn sales and porn exposure after Jenna came along? Has porn really become more accepted because of Jenna? None of this is meant as a slam against Jenna but I just wonder what others think of her impact on the world of porn and if it was a major or minor impact in and out of the porn world.
This could be dressed-up and changed around a bit to serve as the basis for an obit thread, and based upon Jenna's skeleton-like appearance, perhaps sooner rather than later. I don't participate in the dead pool, but after Jenna's farewell address and looking at some recent photos, those who do dead pools must be checking to see if they listed her.
Jenna Jameson was the right girl with the right ambition in the right place at the right time. I think the first generation of people who grew up with porn in the home via VCRs, cable television and the internet did more for porn acceptance than her. had a comfort level with porn. I've known porn all my life. Saw my first hardcore at 10. Saw first softcore even younger. It was in my home. It's part of my childhood memories. It's not a big dirty secret like it once was. Jenna just happened to be around when the first crop of kiddos who grew up like this could legally start to buy their porn. I definitely vote for rode the wave.
My childhood porn memories are of two hardcore magazines I found next to a country road back in 1971. After that came Vanessa del Rio and Veronica Hart, then Traci and the Lynns. Jenna was an attractive young woman when she started out, but then she bought into this blonde sex goddess hype, and next came a thousand and one plastic surgeries. Now all that is left is a near-skeleton, but where there is life there is hope, and methinks that Jenna needs to heal Jenna now, on peril of her life.
Best way to put it ! I know , from my friends and others , that Jenna's presence in films drew them to watchin more porn. Our time of porn (mid 90's-present) Vivid was the main company for us. DP wasnt popular yet , VCA and Wicked were in 2nd n 3rd. Vivid's lineup of girls just drew u in to porn The 5 names that caught on for us and alot of ppl I guess in this era of porn would have been Jenna, Chasey Lain, Lexus Locklear, Kobe Tai & Devon. These were the faces of porn for us
I get what you're saying. I saw a documentary with the porn star Seka talking about her stardom and popularity and it kinda mirrors what you're saying about Jenna. I personally don't think Jenna made that big of an impact on porn or people's acceptance of it. I think she got a few lucky breaks and some people became accepting of Jenna the porn star but still felt the same about porn and it's other stars. Some girls managed to hop on the bandwagon because Jenna couldn't be everywhere or turned down certain things and another pornstar was needed at the time. But otherwise I think porn would've been in the same place and the same shape if Jenna didn't come along.
I think that over her career, Jenna has been extremely good for porn. Given things that have been going on with her over the last year or two, I think that the porn industry would be better off if she were no longer a public figure.
I think it's become pretty clear that she had no real impotance. I'm sure Playboy will tell you she is worthless. Porn is a revolving door or a conveyor belt if you will. Her flavor of the month has long expired and it was only thru shrewd marketing that she was able to keep herself afloat as long as she did. Her performances are lacking when compared to her peers and there are fresher and better girls coming along every day. She is history and it will be a testament to her former marketing juggernaut when the mainstream media reports her death from an eating disorder a la Karen Carpenter. Otherwise she wouldn't merit a mention.
According to Ron Jeremy not much. He stated that she hardly made 1 movie/year, only made 50 or so movies and performed with one actor. I think Jenna enriched the lesbian side of porn because she was so hot for other girls. I heard her say that every time she walks past a girl she can't help but think what the girl tastes like. I like it that Cindy Crawford sued or was going to sue Jenna for saying in her book that Cindy came on to her at the Hong Kong (?) Planet Hollywood Premiere Party. Edited by - rc7394 on 1/19/2008 10:32:56 PM
Exactly Jenna's allowed a lot of people to be comfortable with porn. Because of her porn and success are in the same sentence. It became acceptable for husbands to bring home the latest Jenna porn tape and watch it with wifes. I bet a lot of women's first porn viewing was Jenna. I have never bought a Jenna movie in my life. I've only rented three. Could someone else done it maybe. Fact is she did it. Now that she's retired there is room for the next Jenna. There will be a next Jenna, lets hope she's not a bitch lol
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eyeballs a bleeding Deactivated Again
181 Posts 9/07
Posted - Jan 20 2008 : 12:53AM
Lot of hype over nothing. There is nothing really to distinguish her from any other porn chick. A few people said she was a star and something special, so everyone believed it. I could say the same about Teagan, Hillary Scott and a few others, but I digress. As far as her so called business success, is that really her or her ex hubby whom it sounds like was the brains behind the operation. One aspect that I will mention and give her props for is that she is idolized by hundreds and hundreds of lazy young girls who rush into porn thinking that they are going to be the next Jenna Jameson and make millions. Thus ensuring a never ending supply of 18 year olds hoping on a bus and heading to Chatsworth.
Jenna was not the only girl at the right place at the right time, but she was the one who could speak well and articulately unlike the other porn stars I remember seeing on Howard Stern and in other mainstream outlets at the time. I found Janine and Chasey to be rather timid and uninteresting speakers.
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Ronald Deactivated User
544 Posts 5/05
Posted - Jan 20 2008 : 9:15AM
I guess my feelings have been hurt as her final retirement speech sounded bitter. I also was disappointed as she never did anal or DP but of course thats her choice. As a business woman she was definitely one of the best, but when it comes to doing alot fo the fans and putting themselves out there I believe girls like Teagan and Hillary Scott certainly do more and seem to give it their all. So Jenna in my mind was great for the industry, the mainstreaming of porn which we all benefit from, she certainly one of the best business women (so far), but I wouldnt say she was the greatest "star". Its kind of like this before Britney went insane she was a great pop star, but Christina Aguillara (spelling) has always had more talent as a singer
I think your correct. You guys are judging Jenna though the eyes of a hardcore purveyor of porn and not the eyes of the mid-west soccormom that watched her in their first porn movie. If Jenna had been doing black anal gangbangs, she would never have reached that amount of success. These women would have never allowed that in their houses. Regardless of her going away speech. In all of other interviews she looked at the camera and was completely unashamed at her career in porn or did she accept the shame the interviewer tried to place on her. I think Jenna, Teagan and other porn girls are great roll models for young women. Our society has NEVER allow women to say “I don’t want to marry this person I don’t want have his baby I just want to fuck them” Men have ALWAYS had this right. I think women are now demanding this right. Edited by - Shagdog on 1/20/2008 10:13:38 AM
I think there's a lot of truth in that. I think that overall most people like simple "vanilla" porn with good looking people and keeping the wild/extreme/kinky stuff to a minimum. Also, I think what made Jenna acceptable to the mainstream world was she was considered pretty but not overly sexual in a "slutty" type of way. Also she kept talking about porn as a business and I think that made a lot of people more comfortable with her. Being successful and making lots of money can make some people overlook a lot of things. But then it goes back to the my original question of was Jenna's career important in helping porn in general or did it mostly just benefit Jenna? Did Jenna's presence persuade those soccer moms to buy porn for the first time or were they already buying porn and just gravitated to Jenna's stuff because she was well known?I think all that goes back to the money making aspect. The thrust of most of Jenna's interviwes were how successful she is and the fact she did it making porn. Take away the money aspect from her story and it isn't anything special. In fact it becomes a whole other type of tale that isn't that pretty.Again, if you take away the money/business aspect from the Jenna equation was Jenna really a good role model? Even to upcoming pornstars? Was Jenna the shining example to hold up and say "This is how you should pattern your career in porn..."? I know and understand that other porn stars admire Jenna for the amount of money she made and the porn biz put her on this pedistal because she had "mainstream" exposure but at the end of the day wasn't Jenna just a girl who just got extremely lucky and managed to capitalize off it? I'm not knocking the good points you made in your post, I'm just asking questions and wanting to hear other people's take. Maybe I'm not looking at it the right way.
The 1st time that I saw Jenna Jameson on film I was in in my early teens and I thought "Oh my god there is a Playboy Playmate doing hardcore porn???" Jenna's most important contributions is that she really brought glamor & glitz to the porn industry and in the mainstream media. Also most importantly IMHO she made it legitimate for beautiful "perfect 10" girls (who would have otherwise balked at the prospect) to do hardcore porn and she can be credited in attracting beautiful girls/women to the US adult industry that we currently enjoy today... ___Eurobabes Rule!!!!
She helped with the perception of porn.When men & women are considering a political candidate between anti-porn crusaders and a qualified candidate. Perception of porn is everything. Do they envision porn as (2) large blackmen tearing a girls asshole apart or do they remember Jenna having sex? That is very important. She all so allowed people to accept porn that other wise would not have. Remember her fan base is not us hardcore porn watchers.
+1 for Shagdog. I never really appreciated Jenna as a porn performer, but she was unquestionably a star. Perhaps not single-handedly, but certainly she was a driving force of legitimizing porn among women. She made it okay, or at least accepted, for women performers to take control of their own careers, and I think women fans took notice. And once women fans began watching, it probably didn't quite double revenue opportunities, but it surely increased revenue substantially. Which then allowed for the Tera Patricks and Stormy Daniels of the world (not to mention Wicked Pictures and Vivid) to excel. Tera and Stormy probably would have had an impact anyway. And, if Jenna had not been there, someone else inevitably would have taken the reins. But Jenna was there, and deserves her credit. In my opinion.
Jenna Jameson was and is basically a media whore, like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Jenna really didn't do anything that spectacular for the Adult Business, she had the big push from Vivid and then her husband Jay did quite a great job pushing her to her current status as media whore.
I really didn't want to get into a real debate about this since everyone is just voicing their opinions but I have to say I think you're giving Jenna credit for something she really didn't do. If you think Jenna has the looks of a PLAYBOY model that's fine but saying Jenna made it "legitimate" for "perfect 10" girls to do hardcore then I've got to point out there have been "Perfect 10" calibre girls doing porn since it started. Particularly during Jenna's era and before. I can rattle off a fairly long list of porn girls from the 80s and 90s that in my opinion look just as good or better than Jenna. And even if a person thought Jenna had model looks I don't see how they can say porn didn't have it's share of beautiful women before Jenna. The glamor and glitz part throws me because it's not like porn was classless before Jenna. In fact I don't see Jenna as anything much more than a typical VIVID contract girl as far as her looks and presence go. My opinion.
I see what you mean, but she had the poise and speaking skills to make every media appearance an 'event'. She is the only porn girl I ever recall hosting that E! show 'Wild On' which came on late at night. Most other porn girls would have been annoyed at having 'talk so much', instead of just look pretty, but Jenna took that opportunity and ran with it. That is one very smart woman. She made sure that people knew her name and what she was up to.
I side with the view of her being the flavor of her day, but hardly a transformational figure. In another five years she will be but a dim memory. While she did attract more customers to the product, that didn't last all that long, nor did she do anything historic or earth-shattering. I think of her as being like Christy Canyon or Nikki Dial as being popular right then and there, on plenty of box covers, but not missed much once they were gone.
I think she was hugely important bringing this industry into the mainstream. In the mid 90's she was the epetomy (spelling) of what the world thought every man wanted. Blond, pretty, small fit body, huge tits cute voice and potential to be very submissive. She could control the camera with her eyes. She helped legitimise the business by getting away from the dark and seedy lable that porn was always been given. She always appeared to be enjoying what she was doing, except if you read her book you understand that her relationship with Brad Armstrong wasn't the happiest. She had the guts to grab the industry by the short and curlies and do with it what she wanted. She survived years without doing anal on screen. Now days to have a carrer in this industry for that long, no anal means no job. Her company ClubJenna is hugely successful and is going to continue to make her millions. She's got the brains to have a hands on approach to everything she gets involved in, including hand picking her contract stars. And with that sort of ambition, know how, respect and guts in any business you're going to make money. I guarantee that a lot of us in this forum around my age started off with pics of her and 1min long mpeg files that took 30mins to download and we're still here now. So she's done something right. Edited by - cross on 1/25/2008 2:39:13 AM
In my whole " Porn Watcher's Career " I watched maybe just 5 scenes with Jenna. For me she wasn't a good performer and there are a lot of hotter women in porn right now. So she wasn't im portant for me. In general she was a porn superstar and important for the industry to attract potential porn buyers. If she would start her career right now, with her attitude she wouldn't stay in the biz very long.
You couldn't be more wrong. Jenna is a fake. She owes her ENTIRE mainstream fame to one person: HOWARD STERN. You remove Howard from the equation and she would have been another flash in the pan. Her scenes sucked, she promoted racism in the industry, and by her own admission she HATES MEN. She's mean, egotistical, and worthless as a performer. It's really too bad. She could have lifted this industry into something better. She did not. The popularity of porn today has much more to do with the internet than with Jenna. She is just the brand name for porn. Like Band Aid or Kleenex. And now she is becoming as hideous on the outside than she is on the inside. God has a sense of humor...
I think Jenna was a huge influence in manipulating the main stream media and showing to everyone what good marketing can do. Regaurdless of anything you say or think about her she milked it for every last drop and is living proof of what a good fan base can do.
Just another bare bum in the shiower 1739 Posts 12/04
Posted - Jan 26 2008 : 10:57AM
Personally, I don't think she contributed a great deal if you consider it purely in terms of her body of work - maybe half a dozen scenes at the very most that were of interest to me. However, I remember the great hype when she first went hardcore, and I believe that that was a significant turning point for the industry in that it was willing and able to attract and pay top money for beautiful nude models to make the move to adult film. I have no statistics, but I would like to think that Jenna's coming led to higher pay for contract stars and resulting better marketing (for industry to recoup these higher costs), and a generally higher profile for the adult industry.
CW, let's take ourselves back to about 1995. You say 'Jenna' and only Jenna led to higher pay for contract stars. So there was no Chasey Lain, no Jill Kelly, no Shane, no Missy:? all coming down the pipe around the same time as her not to mention Christy Canyon who preceded all of them. No I agree with what columnist Stephen Hunter said about porn in 1998; that porn was gonna get rougher, and he was right. This happened Jenna or no Jenna and if Jenna had such a sway over the industry then she could've helped it stay essentially boy/girl shot on film aspect instead of turning more gonzo. Let's just say she was good for her time, had/and has her fan base and then went off into the sunset somewheres. Let's not stick more feathers in her cap than she deserves.
[sigh] sometimes I feel as though people only read half of what I write. This is from the same post I wrote:And don't you think fucking Howard Stern fits the bill of having the right ambition and being in the right place at the right time? 5 years earlier Howard Stern didn't exist on a national level. No one would have paid attention to a goddamn word he said about her. But go ahead - continue with your shadowboxing...
Someone takes themselves a little too seriously. (this means you) Explain how Jenna did anything special. Her book: she did not write it. Her company: she did not own it. Her appearance: was mostly fuzzy filters and makeup. She is a fraud, just like Milli Vanilli or Justin Timberlake. The only thing real about Jenna is her shitty attitude. That part is real.
I think she rode the wave. I think she did nothing special. I wrote this in my very first post. I agree with you. That's why I found your post so peculiar. edited to remove snarkiness... Edited by - savoy on 1/26/2008 6:09:49 PM
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Ida Lupino Deactivated User
429 Posts 11/08
Posted - Feb 20 2009 : 7:00AM
Her book was very popular, but not very inciteful.
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benderset Deactivated User
477 Posts 8/06
Posted - Feb 20 2009 : 12:56PM
saying Jenna didnt have an impact on the industry would be like saying Michael Jordan didnt have an impact on the NBA or Wayne Gretsey didnt impact the NHL. She changed the face of porn and whether you liked her scenes or not she has been the name and face of porn for the last ten years..No other girl in the industry has reached the levels of success that Jenna has gotten to..I would guess 70% of girls entering the industry for the last 6 years would tell you Jenna is what made them want to become a porn star..
That's sometimes good, sometimes bad. It's good that she inpsired more girls to enter the biz. Because of more girls entering there's a better selection to choose from. The bad happens when a girl comes in trying to form their career based on Jenna's and they try to follow the same rules and guidelines Jenna had thinking that's the key to her success. Jenna's success was due to a lot of luck and timing and even if it were possible for a younger (unknown) Jenna to enter the biz today she couldn't gain that amount of success again even if she did things exactly the same way again.
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benderset Deactivated User
477 Posts 8/06
Posted - Feb 20 2009 : 10:19PM
Tera Patrick and Stormy Daniels have followed pretty much the same blueprint as Jenna did to success...Id would venture to say those two are the most recognizable girls in porn today...I dont think without the influence of Jenna girls like Tera, Briana Banks, and Sunny Leone would have been able to venture out on their own with production companies...Dont get me wrong I not a big fan of Jenna's work but she does deserve credit for opening up doors to allow alot of other porngirls to enter that were previous closed
Yeah, some girls can make it work for them but a lot of them can't. I'm all for a girl coming in with a gameplan and work hard to be a well known pornstar that eventually makes their own movies. I think that it's a mistake when a girl comes in with a plan of wanting to be a contract girl right off the bat and a long list of things and people they will not do. I think some girls you try to go that route and they aren't as successful and well known if they had followed a different gameplan. For example I think girls like Gianna, Brianna Love, Bree Olsen and Sasha Grey are better off, more well known and have a much broader fanbase by taking the career route they choose. If any of them came in wanting to be "the" contract and doing the very vanilla type scenes for mostly one company with the same few guys I don't think their careers would've flourished the way it has. I think too many people think there's a sure hit gameplan that works for every girl and there isn't really one. Some girls think that it's best to start out doing only certain things then slowly start adding on to the resume' as the years go by. But unfortunately for some girls going with that plan might mean years of not getting noticed until they step it up.
I'm in my mid-20's, and the first name I heard in porn was Jenna Jameson, because she was the hottest thing in porn at the time. I figured, if she's popular, there must be a reason why...then I started to find the other stars more attractive, and more interesting, and it made me branch out. Through Jenna, I found Sky Lopez, and through Sky I found Krystal Steal, and through Krystal I found Jenna Haze, and it just kept adding up until I found the stars of today. Honestly, I don't think Jenna is as hot as I once did, but I guess I still have a little nostalgia for her scenes once in a while. I think maybe it's the same for people my age. Just my two cents.
For people who follow porn Jenna Jameson body of work and performance wasn't that great. You can say she is grossly overrated her popularity in comparison to her body of work with other performers. BUT what made Jenna Jameson different from every other porn actress during her era was she had a "star quality" that others didn't. I think when some people say she was "the right girl at the right time" relates to the star quality aspect. Jenna Jameson did help make porn more mainstream, less shocking, and she transcended porn herself and made her name, Jenna Jameson, a brand. My sister doesn't know anything about porn and even she knows who Jenna Jameson is. She has made gossip news on Perez Hilton that is very mainstream. She obviously had a tiny bit of impact on pop culture for her to make Perez today. A lot of girls entering porn the past several years were probably influenced by Jenna to some degree. I read somewhere that in the 90s there were maybe 2 or 3 new girls entering porn every month. Now post-Jenna era and also because of the internet there are like a dozen new girls and more entering porn every month. I'm sure Jenna Jameson's image and success helped to make porn less shameful to do for many of the girls who joined in the 2000s or post-Jenna era. I think the "contract" era is over in porn. Being a contract girl was a big deal in the 90s when VHS was the main way to view porn. Now with the internet and so many porn websites available contract girls have to compete with the gonzo girls for attention. Girls like Gianna, Brianna Love, Bree Olsen and Sasha Grey are at the height of their popularity right now because its a combination of looks and performance that makes them stand a part.
SHE WAS THE MOST OVERRATED STAR EVER! JANINE (but at least she picked it up a little too late)was next. Jenna was hot as fuck when she first hit (mmm mmm I mean milked) the porn industry. She was pretty much a swimsuit model who had a porn stint. I think the best scene I can recall (and there isn't any) is a cream pie from Randy West. Who pretty much cums an eyedropper amount so I guess she didn't get a cream pie. My bad. Jenna rode the coattails of the industry worse than Tracy Lords ( but at least she gave us something some action) Jenna looks terrible now. Please Jenna if your reading this stay away from porn. If you ask me Lisa Ann is the unsung hero from that era, and look at all she has given back the industry even to this very day with her talent agency as well as her performances. How can you not love that woman. I also give a lot of credit to Tiffany Mynx (from that era). These ladies are living legends. That's what I think and FUCK YOU if you don't agree. JUST FUCK YOU.
Jenna Jameson @ AEBN
Posted - Jan 18 2008 : 9:06PM