Ex-Porn Stars Exposing the Truth About the Harms of the Industry
antipornography.org
Warning: Sensitive Material
antipornography.org
Warning: Sensitive Material
Traci Lords On the Oprah Show:
"At the age of 15, Traci Lords became one of the most famous adult film stars. By the age of 18, she had made 19 adult sex films. |
Traci's career in the sex industry began when she ran away from home at age 15. She obtained a fake I.D. "mainly to get a job…as a waitress, just some sort of employment," Traci says. "I was really desperate." |
"I really did feel important in that world; I felt more powerful—I felt like for the first time in my life I had control."
| "I had stars in my eyes," she recalls. "And I thought,
'Okay…maybe this is a way of having the attention and having everybody
like me." Traci grew up in an abusive home and was raped at the age of 10 by a neighborhood boy. Battling her "self-loathing," |
 |
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In May 1986, shortly after Traci's 18th birthday, the FBI raided Traci's home. By that time, she was a porn superstar and addicted to alcohol and drugs. "I was really angry; I was at the end of my rope," she says. |
"I didn't see [the FBI] as my saviors at the time…but now I look back at it and I'm really grateful that they did that. Ultimately I had a second chance, a new lease on life."
| After years of therapy, Traci today is an established actress, who has appeared on many TV shows and movies. She decided to keep her stage name after all. "I found you can run but you cannot hide," she says. "I really built myself a solid career and got my self-esteem."" |  |
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- By Ex-Porn Performer Vanessa B.
I
used to be in the "adult entertainment" industry. I did over 50 porn
scenes, danced at strip clubs, and dabbled in "escorting" -- AKA
prostitution. As a sex worker, I heard from countless young girls asking
me how to get in the business and how to be "successful" in porn. Now
that I am finally out of this business and seeing it for what it is, I
ask why? Why do so many girls these days aspire to have sex on camera,
or dance naked in the laps of strange men? What happened?One only has to look back to the 90's and 80's to see how things have changed (and not for the better). Back then, women (and most men, for that matter), got into porn out of desperation. The majority of sex workers fell into the business and did it secretly, hoping that they could just make some quick money and get out. Now, girls actually look at adult entertainment as a viable career option.
This is dangerous and incredibly misguided. Young women should be aspiring to something real, something that will take them somewhere in life. Porn is often nothing but a dead end.
Here is the pattern I have seen over and over again in my 7 years in this industry: Girl gets into porn, shoots regularly for about 6 months to a year doing relatively tame sex scenes. Work starts to slow down, so girl decides to do more hardcore scenes (things like anal, multiple men etc.). Work slows down again. Girl now starts escorting and becomes "open" to doing just about anything on camera to get work. Eventually, there is no company willing to shoot her and porn work is dried up. Girl usually has no work history and often no schooling, and now is essentially stuck with escorting, stripping, webcamming and any porn work she might be able to scrape up.
Now the girl has a black mark on her reputation forever and no matter what else she does in life, there are videos all over the Internet of her engaging in various sexual acts. She can never take it back or hide it. All she can do is hope that future employers, potential mates and others never see it or are very understanding about her past. (And even those who are understanding still look at her differently. You can never unring that bell.) This cycle usually only takes 2-3 years. That is not a career, and it's nothing to look up to or hope for.
I'm not saying to ban porn, or demonize the people in it, but this is not something so many young girls should want to do. There is something fundamentally wrong when you have young women thinking that having sex for money is glamorous or fun. This is not the message our society should be sending out. Society seems to accept porn, but the truth is, once you're known as "that girl that did porn", people will never quite look at you the same way. They will never have the respect for you that you deserve and crave. Young women need to be taught to value themselves and their bodies, not that "hooking up" is no big deal and that porn is just another path to fame and fortune.
I wish that I had aspired to more, dreamed of something bigger. Now I have to deal with my past for the rest of my life. We need to get THAT message out, that porn leads nowhere, that sex is something you shouldn't just give away to anyone and everyone.
I only hope that my stories and experiences can help someone think carefully before making a decision that can alter their life and ruin many future opportunities. Please understand that porn is not a legitimate career path. If you're lucky, you'll get a couple of years before you're "shot out" and used up. And chances are, you won't have much to show for it.
Aspire to something real, something that will truly fulfill you, not sex work.
QUOTES BY FORMER PORNOGRAPHY PERFORMERS ABOUT THE HARMS OF PORNOGRAPHY:
- Jessie Jewels: "People in the porn industry are numb to real life and are like zombies walking around. The abuse that goes on in this industry is completely ridiculous. The way these young ladies are treated is totally sick and brainwashing. I left due to the trauma I experienced even though I was there only a short time."
- Genevieve:"I had bodily fluids all over my face that had to stay on my face for ten minutes. The abuse and degradation was rough. I sweated and was in deep pain. On top of the horrifying experience, my whole body ached, and I was irritable the whole day. The director didn't really care how I felt; he only wanted to finish the video."
- Roxy (Shelley): "They told me if had my AIDS test that I'd be safe. I arrived on the set with my test and did a hardcore scene with two men. Within that week I was very sick with a fever of 104 and blisters all over my mouth, throat and private area. I looked like a monster. The doctor told me I had Genital Herpes. I wanted to die."
- Neesa: "The truth is I let my lifestyle get the best of me. I hate life. I'm a mess. A disaster. I've attempted suicide many times."
- Jersey Jaxin: "Guys punching you in the face. You have semen from many guys all over your face, in your eyes. You get ripped. Your insides can come out of you. It's never ending."
- Nadia Styles: "I found out 2 days later that I had caught gonorrhea in my first scene! As quick as that the glamour of being a porn star was gone. In the five years I was shooting I caught Gonorrhea and Chlamydia many times. Sometimes both at the same time about every 3-5 months."
- Tamra Toryn: "As for myself, I ended up paying the price from working in the porn industry. In 2006, not even 9 months in, I caught a moderate form of dysplasia of the cervix(which is a form of HPV, a sexually transmitted disease) and later that day, I also found out I was pregnant. I had only 1 choice which was to abort the baby during my first month. It was extremely painful emotionally and physically. When it was all over, I cried my eyes out."
- Sierra Sinn: "My first scene was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was very scary. It was a very rough scene. My agent didn't let me know ahead of time... I did it and I was crying and they didn't stop. It was really violent. He was hitting me. It hurt. It scared me more than anything. They wouldn't stop. They just kept rolling." "Drugs are huge. They're using viagra. It's unnatural. The girls will be on xanax and vicodin."
- Elizabeth Rollings: "I didnt want to feel the pain of penetration from an over average sized man, being told to freeze in a position until the camera man was happy with his shots was very painful. I had peoples body fluids forced on my face or anywhere else the producer pleased and I had to accept it or else no pay. Sometimes you would get to a gig and the producer would change what the scene was supposed to be to something more intense and again if you didn't like it, too bad, you did it or no pay."
- Crissy Moran: "I went through more heartbreaks and became suicidal. I was taken to the hospital for panic attacks. I tried to overdose on xanax, strangle myself, and cut my wrists but not nearly deep enough. I was too scared of the pain."
- Becca Brat: "I hung out with a lot of people in the Adult industry, everybody from contract girls to gonzo actresses. Everybody has the same problems. Everybody is on drugs. It's an empty lifestyle trying to fill up a void." "I became horribly addicted to heroin and crack. I overdosed at least 3 times, had tricks pull knives on me, have been beaten half to death."
- Lara Roxx: " It isnt a safe business, and I thought it was. I thought porn people were the cleanest people in the world, is what I thought." (Lara was diagnosed with HIV in April, 2004 along with four other porn stars.)
Very Sad!