I have to chime in here for Avy Scott. I don’t know her personally but have communicated with her a few times. She came into the industry to help with collage loans and turned it into paying for a degree or two. She didn’t have the big picture plan in mind but made one and stuck to it while keeping her health and her good name in the industry. Not an easy task. I can’t believe how hard it must be to keep your head together in the biz. The work, the travel, boyfriends, girlfriends, family, stalkers, keeping up on your health, taxes... and then to earn a diploma during all of that. I give these girls (and guys) a lot of credit.
I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Katja Kassin or Madeline Marie.
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Endorphine Rush Deactivated User
"Why don't you flex yr magic muscle?" (Captain Beefheart) 418 Posts 5/10
Posted - May 4 2011 : 11:52AM
Kylie Ireland - numero uno. She has been a director, producer, publicist, and is a satellite radio show host. She became one of the first pornographic actresses on the Web, setting up her own website in 1996; and she does web consulting and public relations for other adult actresses. She is also a street artist (DeeKay). She just is ...very smart.
How sad is that... Seems to me the smarter girls are a lot better at understanding what they're into, good at and what guys like, they don't look at certain dirtier sex acts as 'degrading' but as something that can be explained psychologically. I prefer (decently) smart girls that can distinguish sex from the rest of life... because... fucking is a pretty stupid activity that disconnects the brain in many ways.
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napo01 Deactivated User
855 Posts 12/06
Posted - May 6 2011 : 9:14AM
Dont forget number one Annette Schwarz or Aurora Snow.
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Kaminsky Deactivated User
272 Posts 4/11
Posted - May 6 2011 : 5:36PM
I first became a fan of Aurora Snow a long time ago, probably 10 years ago. She is very cute and yet she is an incredibly resilient sex animal. But I have to say that nothing I have seen of her leads me to believe she is particularly smart. She is very sweet and I know she likes to read. But smart? I don't know about that There used to be a lot of talk about how she was still going to college while she was doing those gangbang scenes But did she ever graduate? What was her degree in? Even if she did graduate, it seems it took her a lot longer than it should have. In the interview and outtakes for Gangbang Auditions 7, you see her kind of confused when given simple instructions. She didn't even know how to cross her arms for a pose. I also remember an outtake for 5 Guy Cream Pie where she was talking about going on amusement rides at a fun park... she sounded like a little kid. She has been in the business for so long but she has never really built stuff for herself like Gina Lynn or Jenna Haze or Sasha Grey. She has a very amateurish website I do not mean to disrespect Aurora Snow. She is a great performer. I have enjoyed her scenes for years But is she smart? Hmmmm The jury is out
^ I remember Aurora Snow doing a pretty good job of covering the Stagliano trial for AVN, and she's written an occasional article for the mainstream press too. In interviews and her writing she's always seemed pretty sharp to me.
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Kaminsky Deactivated User
272 Posts 4/11
Posted - May 6 2011 : 7:48PM
Well perhaps. Fair is fair. I am just giving my opinion based on what I've seen In the end no one is watching Aurora Snow for her brain. She is a great pornstar and should probably get some sort of career achievement award when she finally retires Those scenes she did for Anabolic were porn excellence
I just had to quote that last bit. On the original topic ... I am in luurv with smart pornstars. I'm a member of the same group Asia Carrera so famously joined - Mensa - and in my everyday life I date smart women. In porn I am turned off by girls who seem really dim; they seem unpleasantly vulnerable to me. I like seeing smart women having a ball. But this list doesn't really indicate porn stars who are particularly smart IMO. It takes some intelligence to get a degree, of course, but not 'high intelligence' as in top 5% of IQ. You have to be smart enough to write the papers, do the experiments, analyse the stats and whatever else is required. It's fair to say that most people with below average IQ would have trouble doing that over and over for three or four or more years. But equally, most people who can run a business successfully could also get a degree. You need to be smart enough, but just as importantly you need to show up reliably and finish your work on time. That said, different degrees certainly require different things. Medicine or law takes a lot more memorised information than sociology. Mathematics takes different intelligence to Philosophy. Nursing takes character traits that accountants don't need. The person who easily gets a degree in English Literature wouldn't necessarily find it easy to get a degree in Creative Writing, nor vice versa. And personal preference obviously plays a part. One person with a very high IQ might choose to do Drama because that's what interests them, although the IQ burden of Drama is not as high as, for instance, Medicine, if all you're aiming for is the degree. But that person can still exercise their full IQ in Drama by doing further work. For mine, Roxy Jezel if the story is true. A porn star whose area of academic interest was Moral Philosophy sounds ideal to me.
Should have retitled it "14 Smartest Porn Stars of All Time" cause Stoya should have been included on it. That girl is so damn smart it's a major turn on.
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Digital Lust Self-removed
All truth is parallel; All truth is untrue 768 Posts 10/11
Posted - Dec 18 2011 : 11:36PM
I don't think Sasha Grey should be on the list after her idiotic statement towards Howard Stern.
Has Aurora Snow been mentioned ? She has written a number of well thought out articles online , most recently about Sasha Grey and life in/out of the biz. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/20/aurora-snow-on-the-sasha-grey-school-controversy.html
oh yeah... they kind of look alike. have they done scenes together?
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ServerZ Deactivated User
25 Posts 12/11
Posted - Dec 26 2011 : 5:37AM
Generally the perception is that most porn women aren't titans of intelligence and by and large the evidence bears that out. Furthermore, the bar to get in is virtually non-existent and most women who are intelligent choose other professions to work in.
Well you don't need intelligence to be smart , a monkey could be smart enough to stole your bananas without been noticed the same could be applied to humans , also the smartest thing could not be the smartest at all in the long distance, for example if you manage to avoid a line out of a ticket seller could be seen as smart thing, but just at the moment if all those in line would try to do the same the line will turn into a brawl , so that behavior wouldn't be the smartest thing to do as a general rule.An intelligent man will line up and wait his turn being able to understand the purpose of order, an idiot but smart one can't see the general advantage of it and will try to avoid the line. So said since we can't measure how smart someone is we can make a guess by looking at his/hers education and this is why a degree could matter although it is not conclusive. anyway Joanna Angel has a degree Nica Noelle said that Dylan Ryan has a master degree
I tend to think lots of men (and not so attractive women) automatically want to believe most pretty girls are dumb in an attempt to feel superior or better about themselves. I see nothing to make me believe pornstars are any less smart than any group of average random people thrown together. Plus, there absolutely are intelligent women in porn who could just as easily work in the same fields as other supposedly intelligent women but choose porn because it sometimes pays better and is more fun/exciting.
^^ DING DING DING!!! We have a winner! Porn, like any other industry, is a microcosm. I live in the midwest and refuse to move to one of the coasts, thus I don't get as much porn work as other girls. The downside is that I don't get booked often out west, even for companies I love like Kink. On the other hand, I've never intended for porn to be a career, more an interlude really. I make and sell art, and the porn and modeling help supplement that. I'm not a fool, and I get it that my art degree and whatever skills I possess can only take me so far on their own, but you know what? I'm satisfied by the work I do, and not everyone can say the same. Are there dumb porn stars? Hell yes! Are there smart ones? Also hell yes! Take a look around where you work though. Even if it's CERN, I'm sure there are idiots there too.
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David Cop-a-feel Deactivated User
Trust me, honey, it gets better 323 Posts 10/10
Posted - Dec 30 2011 : 7:39PM
Dana Vespoli comes across as highly intelligent and articulate.
I'm a "smart-ass", but not at all smart; but, I do have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics (from Siena College, a Catholic college -- by the way, I'm now an Agnostic). I also have a Masters Degree in Public Administration. DaveCummingsInfo.com
The CERN idiots are more clever than most. A degree isn't about intelligence - it *does* say that someone once completed a very large & difficult problem over a period of years. They stuck to it even though it likely had some long unpleasant stretches. That's a very important attribute to have but it doesn't guarantee intelligence. An advanced degree in a competitive STEM field requires a certain amount of cleverness, and I won't argue intelligence with a math PhD from a top math school...
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West2 Deactivated User
26 Posts 1/12
Posted - Jan 25 2012 : 11:34AM
Well I think most are aware that the adult industry is basically like the modeling industry, only with more exhibitionists, and neither industry requires significant intellectual exertion nor is either populated to any significant degree by intellectual giants. As for CERN, I'm sure that's true, but more than likely someone that would be considered an idiot there would still be considered highly intelligent in the general population. Edited by - West2 on 1/25/2012 11:40:26 AM
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Dragon Sign Deactivated User
3381 Posts 12/13
Posted - Feb 13 2014 : 7:36AM
Those that went all in fullblooded big time with a shiny smile and stayed away from anal overdose, drugs etc only to retire with the same smile, and also stayed away from creepy companies and went for the great ones and then went out without throwing away everything moneywise must've been the smartest, and if they went along with a name that has e.g. an author or actress in it, they have gone with duppelgangers on Google so that the Pirate Bay Area people lose trace and sink in nowhere. Based on all this, and personality, I'd say Ashley Jensen is a very smart person. She also said in a Bring 'Um Young before the scene took off that see was highly educated. I know highly educated is no guarantee for being that smart all over, but if you're around 19 and say it before fucking on camera for one of the first times, it kinda rocks. Yeah, and you probably deal with some really smart ass by then.
Glad someone revived this old thread. Below are my inputs in response to some of the postings and can’t help but add some comment on intelligence that are not sex related for this site. Palominorn posted that Sharon Mitchell from the old days is smart but omitted to say that she actually got a Ph.D. after her successful porn career. Rosco Fuji said, “Careena Collins is also a Lawyer.” Well, I sure would like to marry a lawyer. I’ve heard that they make a lot of money and very good at fucking people, i.e. clients and particularly clients’ soon-to-be ex-spouses in divorce cases. Kaminsky stated “Shy Love... Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire knowledge and skills. She could not have earned master's degrees in accounting and taxation without having that ability. Her qualifications show she has a head for numbers. Detail, accuracy, understanding complicated finances, memorizing and applying protocol and policy.” I can imagine Shy Love must be good in math and if I ask her what is the square root of “69”, she would know the answer: 8 (ate) something. I like Alphadachs’ posting. He (she?) was modest about his (her) degree from MIT, etc. and not consider self intelligent. I am a Ph.D. – acronym for pussy hungry dick (ok, people call me that. I just consider myself hungry.). A lesbian who sometimes wants a man can be called a Ph.D. – penis hungry dyke. Sorry, am actually very inclusive but have to come across discriminatory because I am trying to be funny. A cunning person who knows multiple languages is a cunnyliquist. My dream woman is someone who is sweet, faithful, rich, good cook, intelligent and knows how to hold her liquor (licker) – by the ears, between her legs. I agree with many postings that intelligence is often judged on knowledge basis. There are several other forms of intelligence – creativity, problem solving, emotional, social, musical, political, persuasive, etc. Success in life requires combinations of many things, not just intelligence, e.g., drive, vision, perseverance, inter-personal skills, character, aggressiveness, and sometimes ruthlessness. I’ve seen a comic strip that was so true in life. A well-dressed man answering a question. He said, “The secret of my success? Well, I’m an asshole.”
Smart can be defined in so many ways. My take is there are some very bright people in the industry, though it's probably not the norm just as it isn't the norm in society at large. Three stars who have struck me as quite bright, 1) Kayden Kross, extremely funny, writes well, has managed her career well. 2) Juli Ashton. She was a teacher, but more significant she seemed to get the most out of her career, got out at a good time with a minimum of drama, and represented the industry well. 3) Stoya very thoughtful, articulate, again seemed very much in control of her career.
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JB_X Deactivated User
addled 1500 Posts 10/12
Posted - Feb 17 2014 : 4:35PM
Kayden Kross did an AMA on reddit and subsequently was accused of hiring a PR person to answer her questions for her. There wasn't really any deep intellectual discussion, she just came off thoughtful and articulate.
Msdison Young has always struck me as a very thoughtful interesting woman , and now had written a memoir about her life , Daddy . She is in a Dom/Sub relationship , and looks like a quite well written . http://www.salon.com/2014/03/15/porn_stars_are_the_gladiators_of_the_entertainment_industry/ Bonnie Rotten is also very interesting , for a "alt" looking performer , and done many rough and extreme anal/dp scenes , and is very heavily tatto'd , she's not quite who you might think . http://www.vice.com/read/bonnie-rotten
All this depends on your definition of "smart". In my mind going to school or having a degree doesn't automatically mean a person is "smart". It means they're "knowledgable" about a certain subject. I think there are a lot of smart girls in porn based on their overall knowledge of life in general and how to maximize their career and deal with problems and interact with people in a appropriate manner.