Ever After High Porn

Ever After High Porn
The documentary After Porn Ends is more about work than sex.
The most heartbreaking scene in the documentary After Porn Ends , about the post-porn lives of 12 adult stars, may be when Asia Carrera talks about her membership in the high-IQ society Mensa. She explains that Mensa links to all its members' websites, but that they wouldn't link to hers because... well, because it was a porn site. Eventually, though, the society did feature her in an issue of its magazine devoted to Mensa celebrities—a big moment for her, she says.
Which, to me, just seems incredibly sad. This after all, is Asia Carrera, a woman who ran away from home at 17 and pulled herself together to become a successful businesswoman and a world-famous name and face. Yet, despite all of that, what she wants is validation from some random group of self-declared smart people. For someone like her to need the approval of someone like them is an apocalyptic admission of neediness that's depressing to think about.
The natural conclusion to leap to, of course, is that the neediness and the porn career are inextricably intertwined: that Carrera entered porn because she needed to be loved, and/or is so unsure of herself because she's ashamed of her porn career.
There's certainly a fair bit of evidence in After Porn Ends , available on iTunes now and on DVD later this month , to support such suspicions. A number of the former performers link their entry into the industry to child sexual abuse and/or to drug addiction. And nearly all of them talk about the bitter stigma of being in the adult industry. Houston lost her job selling real estate when a client recognized her. Randy West—who otherwise seems fairly happy with his career—talks bitterly about the fact that most charities won't allow adult stars to donate to them. Even more poignantly, he suggests that his career in the adult industry made it hard for him to form normal relationships, and thus may be responsible for the fact that he never married and has no children.
One expert talking head argues overdramatically that being an adult star cuts you off from all personal ties. Given the way many of the ex-stars talk about their families and spouses and kids, he's obviously making a gross generalization. But at the same time, it's clear that if you're a former adult performer a lot of people are going to judge you—and you can see how, living with that, having Mensa declare you worthy might pack a certain punch.
So it is possible to watch After Porn Ends and come away with the impression that being in porn is a traumatic psychic and social wound that will never heal. But I don't think that that's exactly a fair conclusion. Carrera herself says she has no regrets about doing porn, and talks emotionally about the outpouring of donations and support she received from fans after her husband was killed in a car accident just before the birth of their second child. Porn in this case didn't isolate her; quite the contrary. And even the Mensa thing—yes it strikes me as pitiful, but is it really any more ridiculous than me looking at my blog's statcounter? Everybody needs reassurance, not just porn stars.
Which is not to deny the particular awfulness or difficulties of porn. Asia Carrera talks about enjoying the chance to have sex with some good-looking guy and get paid for it, but Shelley Luben (now an anti-porn crusader) clearly experienced many of her scenes as rapes. Even Tiffany Millions, who is not especially negative about her time in the industry, describes the work in unintentionally disturbing terms. She says that during sex she would often feel like she was outside of herself looking down: a textbook description of dissociation from trauma.
Millions originally got into the porn industry because of her daughter; as a single mom, she had a choice between spending all her time working a minimum-wage gig—or being a porn star for a few hours a week, making more money, and spending most of her days with her kid. She chose the obvious option, treated it like a day job—no parties, no drugs, no alcohol—and quit when she inherited some money and didn't have to do it anymore. These days she has a great relationship with her husband and daughter (whose almost tearful "you're my hero mom" would make a stone verklempt) and works, quite happily, as a bounty hunter.
I say she works "quite happily," and she does in fact seem to like her job. But there are some downsides. The one anecdote she relates is about repossessing some old lady's car because her son was a deadbeat. She's philosophical about it, but obviously found it quite unpleasant, and who wouldn't?
Most jobs have some unpleasantness of course—and blue collar jobs have more unpleasantness than most. Millions's experience does make you wonder whether porn is truly, exceptionally horrible, or whether it's just a particularly visible examplar. Minimum-wage service jobs, or factory work, or police work, or military service—those things don't involve having sex onscreen, obviously, but they're all arguably degrading, depressing, and potentially dangerous or traumatizing. For that matter, I have friends who are teachers in the public school system, and they are often treated terribly by administrators, parents, kids—everybody basically. Many of them have issues with depression and something that sounds a lot like post-traumatic stress.
Several of the commentators note that most people don't get into porn unless things in their lives have already gone awry. Not all, but most of the porn workers (and especially the women) interviewed here were sexually abused, or had run out of money, or were addicts, or had no support network—they were people who had been pushed into a corner. The film might have done better in illuminating this corner if it had had the elementary courage to interview black or Latino performers, and to think about race as well as class. Even as it is, though, the film makes it clear that porn for many performers was a way out of a dilemma—or, for some, a way to compound it.
Either way, it wasn't porn that created the marginalization or the desperation. And I wonder if the focus on porn as porn distracts from the real issues at stake for many of the folks who make it their livelihood. Porn is sensational, more or less by definition, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's distinctive or central. Really, based on this documentary, the problems porn workers encounter seem like problems lots of workers encounter: abusive working conditions, inadequate (or more often non-existent) pensions, and lack of options. The stories here—the financial disaster Houston faces when she is first fired and then diagnosed with cancer, for example—are ones that could confront any non-former-porn-star in the swelling ranks of the lower middle-class. The antipathy and contempt porn workers face is perhaps more intense. But it's not necessarily different in kind from the antipathy and contempt that workers in general face. If anything, it's remarkable how many of those interviewed look back on their time in porn with satisfaction, and seem to have liked their jobs. Would that more of us could say the same.

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Olivia Lua, a 24-year-old doe-eyed brunette from Philadelphia, was an instant hit when she joined the LA porn scene in 2016.
She shot dozens of scenes for hard-core movies like “Helpless Teens” before being handed a lucrative contract in April 2017 with porn producer LA Direct Models.
Lua — who also went by Olivia Voltaire — described herself as an “exhibitionist” and posted graphic images of herself having sex on social media.
She thrived in her new career, and was nominated last year for Best New Actress at the Adult Video News Awards.
It was when the cameras were off that she fell apart.
“Unlovable,” she wrote on Twitter Jan. 13, three months after LA Direct Models canceled her contract. They later said she had been showing up to work high.
On Jan. 18 — the day before she was found dead of a suspected overdose of drugs and alcohol — she tweeted a picture of herself with the caption: “I feel it everywhere. Nothing scares me anymore.”
Lua was the fifth porn star to die in seven months, with industry officials attributing the tragedies to either suicide or overdoses.
The statistic is shocking, insiders say — but the root of the problem is not. Like the underemployed and unemployed across America, the young women struggled with a lack of steady work.
Meanwhile, the pay hasn’t gone up in years. To make any kind of decent money, porn performers have to work a lot — or do super kinky scenes.
Ela Darling, an eight-year veteran of the porn industry and past president of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, said actresses are paid between $500 to $700 to have sex with another girl and up to $1,000 to get down with a guy.
But the rate can double or triple if a performer is willing to have multiple partners or participate in anal sex or “anything extreme,” she said.
She said the money hasn’t increased, partly because studios say they’re making less profit now, since content is often pirated by streaming sites that show it for free. There also are the “outliers who are happy to accept lower rates,’’ Darling said.
“When the camera is on, everybody is happy,” said behavioral scientist Gad Saad, a chair at the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, who studies the porn industry.
“The problem is that the work dries up. The phone stops ringing, and they say, ‘Now what?’ Porn stars aren’t the best at making a ‘what if’ plan for their future.”
He insisted that people who enter porn are no more prone to mental issues than anyone else.
In 2012, “the widest study ever conducted . . . showed porn stars did not come from a background of sexual abuse and, in fact, had higher esteem than the normal population,” Saad said.
“Porn is a fine job,” she said. “What’s tough is that it’s freelance. What’s tough is the down periods when you’re alone with yourself, thinking, ‘Will I ever work again?’ ”
Darling said the “feast-or-famine” business — new recruits are often in demand until they’re not — is part of the reason her best friend, January Seraph, killed herself.
Seraph, who hanged herself July 22 in her San Francisco apartment, is considered the first in the rash of deaths.
Seraph, 31, was a star of more than 50 videos with titles such as “Digital Sin” and “Leather Dominance.”
But Darling said Seraph, whom she described as “the sweetest person in the world,” struggled with the lulls and often discussed what to do when producers stopped calling.
“It’s not like you can stop being a porn star and be a teacher. And not being busy can lead to bad things,” Darling said.
APAC President Mia Lia, a veteran sex performer, called the rash of deaths a troubling pattern.
“One death is a lot to deal with, but five? That’s just unheard of,” she said. “We are collectively rattled.”
Yuri Luv was one considered a rock-star veteran of the porn industry. Born Yurizan Beltran in Los Angeles, the buxom brunette worked for eight years and was nominated for several awards, including an XBIZ for “Best Scene — All Girls” for 2014’s “Lesbians Unchained.”
She was featured in 28 movies in 2012 and 22 in 2013, but in 2016, she appeared in just three.
On Dec. 13, Luv’s body was found in her Bellflower, Calif., apartment by her landlord. She was 31.
Nickey Milo, a fellow performer, said pills were found near her bed.
Performer Carmen Valentina told The Post that porn is a rough business to age in.
Valentina, who started her own sex webcam business because she didn’t want to rely on outside producers, is also 31 and constantly struggling to remain relevant.
“When you first get in, everybody loves you, but there are always new girls coming in, and it’s easy to feel discarded. You really have to have your head on straight to get through it,” she said.
Valentina said porn is no different than being a regular movie star where you rely on image — and feel crushed if you don’t get called.
“It’s a career where you have to rely on your looks. When you’re young and pretty, you think it’s going to last forever, but when it doesn’t, that’s when you have to tap your inner strength.”
Like Luv, Adult Hall of Famer Shyla Stylez saw the work dry up as she got older.
Stylez, from Vancouver, moved to the so-called Porn Valley in California after high school to become an adult-film star. She appeared in more than 400 films, including “Perverted Point of View,” before calling it quits in 2016 and going home.
She passed away on Nov. 9 at age 31. Her family would not reveal the specifics.
Fellow adult film star Alana Evans called Stylez a tragic film goddess, like Marilyn Monroe.
She tweeted , “At a loss for words. So sad that my old friend @MsShylaStylez has left us. You were one of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
August Ames, 23, said on Dec. 3 that she had been “replaced” for a LA Direct films scene the week before, tweeting out what seemed to be a sour-grapes message.
“Whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews, you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know,” she wrote.
Ames suddenly found herself being trolled by bullies who accused her of being anti-gay. The Nova Scotia native committed suicide Dec. 6 in her Los Angeles apartment .
Porn queen Jenna Jameson, 43, called Ames’ death “disappointing and tragic.”
“The scariest part of the attacks on @AugustAmesxxx is that they were led by quite a few big females in the adult industry. These women fanned the flames of the trolling against August,” she tweeted .
APAC’s Lia said she had worked with Ames and thought she was “super sweet.” But she added it’s hard for performers to switch to private mode when dealing with family and friends — or social media’s judgment.
To compound matters, Lia said many sex workers do not have health insurance and can’t afford to pay for therapy. She and her colleagues have begun distributing a list of affordable “sex positive” mental-health workers as a result.
Saad said the one thing that might help stars is an exit strategy.
“According to the data . . . they’re happy when they get there,” he said. “But when my star starts to dwindle and my body has been used 33,000 times, what do I do? What’s going to happen? They don’t seem to think about that.”

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