I wanted to get anyone's thoughts of tonight's show that aired on ABC Prime Time which had an one hour documentary of porn stars or the life of it. Which was focused on Bella Donna and her two yrs in the business. It was a very interesting show which gave many out there that did not know the adult business, a more detail idea of what goes on and how things can be in the world of adult porn.
I truly had many mixed emotions of everything that was talked about. God, how many of us adult performers can relate to Bella and how many have of us can give some input of what things that were just a little over done per say.
It would be great to get anyone's input, especially the adult performers in here. Have a great evening.
To start off I would ideally prefer that every porn that I watch contain women doing what they want to do and enjoying what they do. I don't even like professionalism, but that I will accept. I have no desire to see women doing something that they tragically regret doing. I don't want to contribute to their anguish.
As far as the special goes....
I was left a bit unfullfilled. Before watching it I wondered if I would end up never wanting to watch a porn again. At the end I felt it was somewhat pointless. What conclusion can be drawn? If journalism is objective then maybe I should feel it was pointless. Was it meant to be merely an observation?
Good question. In some senses it was, in others...no.
Journalism should be objective, right? Was this objective? Yes and no.
It was intellectually objective. If you read into it enough it drew no conclusions about the industry. It showed the grieving mother and noted that she later tried to become a manger.
Emotionally it was not objective. Mother becoming a manager was just a side note. Why not ask her on her opinions then? To top it off all promos played the participants as victims, though in the end their was no true sense of regret. Sure, Belladonna cried and I felt bad for her, but seeing how she kept on going.. where was the emotional impact that led her to continue on?
The promos also feasted on the word 'teens'. In fact, I thought that when I watched it I would find out that many porn starlets are under 18. I thought that that was the disgusting thing to be revealed. I know that 18 is technically a teen, but doesn't 18 deserve to be in a different category? We can send you to war (even forcibly) but should we let cum drip off your face? We certainly don't want you to drink a beer before you go off to die. At some point we have to acknowledge that you have become an adult and the same society that has deemed that you can be drafted should acknowledge that you can make other choices, good or bad.
One thing that did offend me was the seemingly manipulative behavior of the industry by pressuring girls to do things that they did not want to do. If you are a porn star I think that there are certain acts that you should expect to do(blowjobs, vaginal sex), however things like anal and gangbangs (and many others) should not be thrust upon you when you enter the set or are midway through a shoot.
Lies, Lies, Lies (good CD by the way) If there is anything I would change about this world (other than having all great assed women have an unconrolable urge to taste me) it would be to make all people incapable of telling a lie. I accpet acting and don't think that actors are lying while giving an on stage performance..but..we do pay consequences for not telling the truth. The ABC was expose was not real critical of porn viewer, but sometimes some of us feel we are unduly treated. We are expected to acknowledge that women are degraded. For viewing, we are villains. Yet, the performers are considered victims even thought they heavily promote their product while puttin on an 'I love that you jack off to me' face. In fact, if they hate their job, and they told me I'd have little desire to watch them.
sexual urges vs. money (OK! I must acknowledge this has urened into a rant even beyond the special) What was missing from the expose, at least from the emotional side, was the money urge? Did you not get the feeling that viewers were responsible for the victimization of Belladonna because they need a pretty thing to jack off to and that is a thing that the viewer should be ashamed of, yet there was little mention of the fact that Belladonna continues on for the money? I am sympathetic to the notion that pornstars, like everyone else, need to make a living..but..If she can make enough to put her sister through college I think she ain't in danger of not being able to provide herself the necessities of life. Apparently she continues on for luxuries in life. Luxuries are not necessities.
LaineyX, if you don't like the industry I would hope that you would leave. I would wish you the best, and if you like, I would even email you to check on your progress through life. I don't want anyone to be in the industry that does not want to be there.
Still Campaigning for Inari Vachs All I want to give you is the best part of a man --from The Full Bug by Van Halen FREE THE WEED!!!
As I look back on what could have been fit in an hour I realize that the piece did not make best use of the time. The piece could have either put use to one stars experience or the experience of a few. Unfortunately, it failed to be successful at either. It started with a few entrants into the industry as if it were going to continue that way. However, the girls other than Belladonna were given such little attention that it seems pointless to add them. The total of five minutes or so that they took up could have been devoted to a later interview of Bella and her mom. I could even come up with a great question for her mom.....How would you feel if it were your daughter?
Still Campaigning for Inari Vachs All I want to give you is the best part of a man --from The Full Bug by Van Halen FREE THE WEED!!!
It's too bad these forums don't let you link to specific posts within a topic. At the risk of being redundant, I'll just quote myself from another thread, since I believe that, here in Star Crossed, we should be discussing people rather than overall topics:To add a bit to what I'd already said on the subject of Belladonna, I don't know her as a person, have never talked to her about her personal life, or read any kind of autobiographical statement from her. Nor am I willing to believe that what happened on Prime Time was either in context or accurate. So it's very hard to comment on her situation - except for what I did above, in general.
(I'm not condoning everything that the industry does - I'm positive that the negative views shown on Prime Time are existing problems that need to be addressed. I'm just not convinced of the accuracy of their portrayal of Belladonna's experiences, and I am, by no means, convinced that the industry is anything but bad. There are many, many positive things about the industry as well, which was, quite unfortunately, glossed over and conveniently ignored.)
Since I'm such a complete outsider to the industry, the only people who are really "qualified" to give appropriate feedback here are Belladonna herself and other people, such as yourself, who really are insiders.
Oh, and as an additional comment I should say how suprised I am that so many people have become "enlightened" by the negative aspects of the industry as expressed by that Prime Time bit.
Perhaps I've gone more out of my way to be educated in this topic than most, but I've read and seen a lot about the industry in my years (and almost every one of them better put together than PT), and what was shown was nothing new to me.
More positive expressions of the industry come from people such as Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hartley, and Tristan Taormino.
A far better documentary on the negative aspects of the industry (while still flawed and one-sided) is the somewhat dated 1981 Not A Love Story made by the Canadian National Film Board.
I suppose it's good that Prime Time exposed people to some things - but it did so badly, incompletely, and, I believe, irresponsibly. Anybody who's concerned with these issues would do much better basing their (new) opinions on a more firmly grounded series of accounts.
well, in regard to objective journalism I always refer to Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms. ABC News has the right to slant their segments as they please but what I do have a problem with is how Diane Sawyer was wagging her finger about the porn industry making all this money off of girls when ABC, with this segment was doing the exact same thing. The only difference between this Prime Time Live segment & The Jerry Springer Show is that Springer is at least honest about what he is doing. You know maybe changes are needed. I'm certainly for a uniform code within the industry where medical testing is the number one priority and is enforced by an autonomous body which is paid for by a fund all adult video companies would be required to pay into. Otherwise, I go back to the whole thought that the porn industry is like most others. There are constant pressure made upon the employees, ie the performers to do certain things. Its the nature of the beast. People have the choice to say yes or no. If one person passes a scene by, somebody else will come along and go through with it. I to would prefer to know that the performers are enjoying themselves but after spending 15 years in the theater, I know that isn't going to happen all the time. Its a job. Its work. It pays the bills and either you are comfortable with what you are doing or you are not and you get out. Sorry if I rambled on.
Max Booty "If something's hard to do, then its not worth doing."
Neither am I. But what if it was? That's the question that nags.And to capsulize my posts in the other thread... none of this affects my views of the adult industry, it's just that it could affect my view of Belladonna.
To your suggestions of better-done portrayals of the porn world, I would add the documentary film from a couple of years ago "The Girl Next Door" about Stacy Valentine. I found it mostly fair, non-judgmental and pretty interesting. I think it's available on VHS only.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Jan 24 2003 : 4:08PM
Well, I'd like to think that I know Belladonna fairly well, especially over this last year. I believe that her interviews were very harshly edited to make it seem like she was saying things that she wasn't.
As an ex-performer who loved my scenes very much, I still had days where I regretted taking a specific job because it didn't work out well, or felt ashamed of myself because of how the outside world looked at me. I believe that this is how Belladonna feels. I have never met someone more sexual than her. I have also met very few people as desperate for approval as she is. This is a benefit and a detriment for her. She puts her all into her scenes because she needs to be the best. And then later, when she hears people call her a whore because she enjoyed, she starts to wonder if they're right. These are just assumptions on the basis of my interactions with Belladonna over the last couple of years and some of the conversations we've had.
Does this mean that because of this, she should have left the business long ago? If she was truly unhappy with her life in general, then yes. But this would have been only because she cares so much about what others think of her. Lainey - I completely understand what you're saying.
It's a hard decision for the young women like Bella to turn down the quick money. Where else can someone make up to $4,000+ per day or over $100,000 per year without having the standard education or job training. I feel sympathy for all the girls in the xxx biz who came from a broken home, who were neglected or abused, poverty, etc.
I still admire Bella's sexual energy on the screen despite her comments on the show. I'm still a fan of hers!
P.S. Those are some HOT pics Tricia & Lainey are using by their names ;-p
Poor Turkey running for her life with Christmas Hat 3713 Posts 9/01
Posted - Jan 24 2003 : 5:28PM
Reading Tricia's comments, it seems that ABC could have followed Tricia for 2 years and had a program that showed that many porn talents are intelligent people who went into porn and were overall successful in spite of the ups and downs. They would have had an example of a talent who is very level headed and had some bad experiences but at the end was successful.
However, I am sure that Tricia is too smart to agree to whore for ABC.
I've posted a couple of different views about this show on my site - a lengthly rant that I had written, in addition to reactions from around the industry.
Ultimately I feel that ABC went in there with an agenda to make Bella break down from the pressure, and it *is* a lot of pressure... not just the performing, but having that camera crew there all the time. It struck me, while listening to Dianne Sawyer, that she was baiting Bella, doing her damndest to make her cry. If someone sat me down in front of the camera with my mother looking at me from across the room and asked me about some of the tougher aspects of my life, I'd probably break down too.
I don't believe that the answer is to alienate Bella, call her names, or not hire her. I think the answer is to stop giving these media outlets the opportunity to portray us in this manner until they learn to change their attitude, and that's not likely to happen for a long time. Do we need them to sell more product. Not really. I mean sure, Elegant and Anabolic are probably moving some pieces based on what was shown last night, but at what price?
Over the last couple days since this whole topic has been in the air of our adult community, it is certain that there can be two ways of looking at it. I truly believe that mainstream made our adult business look so bad and that all of us girls are unhappy, that the company's care nothing about the girls, and that we all have sexual issues that make us do what we do. I feel that they put the adult business back a bit where the public sort of excepted us as people who enjoy sex and performing in front of the camera.
We can take all of this and make it a positive in a way that maybe we should be looked at. The adult business has been getting more and more towards the mainstream way that maybe this will put us into a more secret profession that it will make people more curious of what we do. You know the do not put your hand in the cookie jar sort of thing. I believe that when someone tells me I can not do something, that it makes me more determine to do it. The adult business can stand up and defend ourselves which will only make us feel like we are guilty in a way but then again, I hate it when someone accuses me of something that I have not done. It is very hard to sit back and let people do this to us. What do you all out there feel about the way to deal with this.
My mother and grandmother watched this show as well which they were so angry on how they made the business that I do for a living! My mother who supports me fully in everything that I have done in my 2 yrs in this great business. She follows the porn business just as much as I do if not more. The few topics during the show put some hair up on her back of the stereotype that they made us girls be. That maybe she as a mother did not raise me right, that I had sexual issues, a possible drug use, and that I felt guilty of what I do for a living. She said, why didn't they interview her to hear the mother who supported her daughter fully in everything that she did. The mother who raised her daughter to go after anything in her life that would make her happy. But most of all to raise her to be proud of herself and respect herself through everything that she accomplishes. Where was that in this one hour show???
On this note of what people think about us porn stars is a question I was asked yesterday while doing a shoot for an HBO documentary. A women approached me after the shoot to ask two questions which everyone seems to ask me. It was funny that she did not see the prime time show but she asked something along the lines of what the show was all about. She asked me why do the girls in the business do this for a living? Meaning, is it about the love for sex, the money, possible fame, or is it because they have sexual issues? She then asked if my sex life was the same as it was before I came into it and how do I look at sex now. Frankly, these are just a few questions that we the adult stars seem to always be asked. During this one hour conversation with this women, I honestly felt that she looked at the adult business with much more respect then before she approached me. The fact of money being the reason for all of us doing this, but the pure and honest fact that the girls who love sex like I do will be the ones who will succeed in this business down the road. Having fame is there as long as you love sex, work hard, and enjoy what you do for a living. You will not succeed if you regret what you do, are ashamed what you do, and hate what you do for a living. Some girls can not do this, but the money keeps them in it but that will only last for so long. I do know that my sexual desire has doubled since coming in this business so that question was answered only by what I went through and not what the other girls in this business feel. I have spoken to many girls and they have a much more sexual drive and seem to want a more extreme personal sex life which is only natural to us because sex is our life. Is that wrong? NO.....I truly think that this is us just wanting something different that we do not do in our day to day life! You know the saying of whatever you have, you always want more of or something different!
I end this in a simple note that if you are not happy what you do for a living or feel ashamed of what you do, then you should step away from it. Being proud of what you do and loving what you do is the only way to be happy in this very judgmental world we call life! I love my job, I love the fans, and I love myself .........Lainey
