Assume you have made p*rn. How do you feel when strangers look at you that way?

Don’t men look at a lot of women that way anyway?

Really, @JLeslie? Is that how you feel? Not like you’re being undressed, but like the guy has already done the dirty with you? Or seen you do it with someone else? Don’t you think that feels different?

It might not. I don’t know. I’ve never been mentally undressed like that. But if you have felt that way, what was it like? If it bothered you, what is it that bothered you? Now, if you had deliberately acted in porn, do you think it would bother you the same way?

I haven’t made porn, so I don’t have a real answer to this question. But I can make some guesses.

By making porn in the first place, the person must have reached some level of ‘comfort’ with the idea of being naked on camera doing the deed. Unless a person is literally forced a gunpoint,, which doesn’t seem to be the premise of the question, then the thought process of “what if people see me?” has to have crossed their mind, and the answer must have been “it’s OK”, or they wouldn’t have made the film in the first place.

It’s logical to think that if you make a porn film that people are going to watch it. So implicit in the decision to make the porn is the acceptance (and some sort of realization) that it’s going to be available for people to see in the future.

Yes, there are those who (later in life) say “I wish I hadn’t done that in my youth” – but I see that as monday morning quarterbacking and somewhat suspect.

So my surmise is that if a person does porn in the first place, he/she is accepting that people will watch it and that the person might be recognized.

As for “the look” – I see that as the looker’s problem, not the lookee’s.

I imagine if I made the decision I wanted to be in a porn movie that I was okay with people watching me have sex. So, if at a later time someone looks at me and I believe they have recognised me from my porn days – I might not be thrilled about it if I have now moved on to more mainstream things but I don’t think I would feel ashamed or anything like that. I made a conscious choice to make porn.

It would be quite different if I made a private sex tape with my lover and that went public. Then I might be embarrassed and upset.

The assumption is presumptuous. I have done a few things I will not repeat, unless the circumstances are extraordinary, but porn is not one of them.

Having said it, if I starred in a porn movie, I figure I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. Which would tarnish my credibility forever.

Which is a real good reason not to do it in the first place.

@burntbonez I wasn’t talking about my feelings, I was talking about what is in men’s minds. I don’t mean all men. Maybe some other men here will comment on my first answer and tell me if it is true. I don’t feel like every man I meet is undressing me, I don’t feel like most are. But, I think it is happening when I am unaware of it, especially when I was in my teens and twenties. I mean if a guy is talking to you, flirting with you, and hoping to have sex with you, isn’t he thinking about what the sex is going to be like? I was out with friends one night and one of the guys was scoping the bar hoping to pick someone up. I pointed out a woman who I thought he was watching and he said, “no, it has to be someone that if the lights are on her body looks good.” She was slightly overwieght, she looked pretty average weight actually, statistically average for America. I figure he already is imagining her on top of him. Or, imagining a conquest before he pursues her.

It is still different than actually having had done porn and someone watching it then a man imaging what you are like in bed though, that I admit. Men seem to like to think women who do porn love sex, loved getting fucked, want to do that job.

To me doing it to get ahead as a stepping stone is ridiculous. I am assuming we are not talking about a sex video of a woman and her boyfriend gettng out into the public. We are talking paid to have sex with a stranger for money for the world to see. If I had done that and moved on, I would probably be worried that others make assumptions about me because of it. Assumption about why I did it, assumptions about how smart or stupid I am, assumptions about many things. That would be my biggest worry, not that they saw me naked or saw mehaving sex.

At my age, I’m no competition for Long Dong Silver or John Holmes, so I rather doubt that making a movie would have any strong promotional value for me.

i’d be lookin

Jesus… I could not handle that at all.
I don’t know how porn stars handle the holidays with family.
“Oh Grandma you just have to see my new film.” WTF!
I can’t imagine bringing that to the table. LOL

Grandpa probably has a stiffy under his dinner napkin, Aunt Edith chokes on her pecan pie, Uncle James has an aneurism from fantasizing about his niece, mom bursts into tears and has to leave the table, dad just zones out and changes the conversation to golf.

Who told you???? What have you seen??? That wasn’t me, and I needed the money!

@filmfann More to the point, “WTF were you watching trash like that for?”

It’s actually a profound and argument ending question. I mean, it you’re a porn actor, you’re doing it for the money. But what are the porn audience watching for…?

Would not worry me in the slightest.

I don’t I’ll have a problem, two birds with one stone, getting paid to do what I like…

@elbanditoroso That makes some sense to me. I still think there’s more to it than that, but if a porn actor is somewhat shallow, they won’t think that deeply about the consequences of what they do, nor about what people are thinking when they meet them.

@Bellatrix I think that’s a good point that if you’ve made a conscious choice to do something that most people think you should be ashamed about, you would not feel that much shame. Although I think it’s more likely that you wouldn’t show shame, but might feel it anyway. Maybe you’d wish you weren’t ashamed of it and you’d self talk yourself out of it, but it would still be there, I bet. Simply because porn stars aren’t necessarily considered role models. Not yet, anyway. Maybe soon..

@JLeslie You are closest to what I think. The idea that men might presume a porn actress loves sex and would do it with anyone who paid her for it. So she might think that that’s what most guys are thinking about when they look at her. Sex. Nothing else.

If they had made the jump to mainstream movies, as some have, then perhaps they are always wondering if people are seeing them as porn actors or as what they do currently. Maybe they can never shed their past. Maybe none of us can, but perhaps some of us want to more than others do.

@Coloma I think that’s an apt picture of what it might be like.

Maybe I should have specified a porn actor who thinks too much in the OP. Also, I wonder if it’s different for men and women. Like maybe men are seen as heros for fucking so many women. Whereas women are seen as whores for doing it for money and fucking so many men.

@JLeslie They never shed their past in my opinion. I don’t mean I personally judge them or anything like that, I mean it is something always remembered I think. Especially men who have watched her always are thinking she used to be a porn star I have the DVD at home.