Social Question

five99one's avatar

What is your opinion of pornographic actors?

Asked by five99one (746points) November 7th, 2009

I’ve applied to two porn studios. Half for fun, half for serious consideration. What is your opinion of pornography, actors in pornography and the adult film industry in general? If you were in my shoes, would you do it?

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110 Answers

eponymoushipster's avatar

why are you wearing shoes in a porno?

faye's avatar

NO NO NO!!!

Samurai's avatar

Very surprising question.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

I’ve never seriously considered being in porn, just kind of thought about it. I think you should be careful, demand rights and take care of your health.

five99one's avatar

@samurai How so?

gemiwing's avatar

Do it if you want. It’s your choice.

Keep safe, obviously. Go through a reputable agent. Get everything in writing and have it checked. Keep in mind this could come back later to bite you (and not in a fun way).

RareDenver's avatar

Personally, I wouldn’t do it but I see no issues in it, my brother was offered work in porn, not sure if he ever did it though would be really disturbing if I ever stumbled upon a film with him in it

CMaz's avatar

As an “actor” or in production?

Samurai's avatar

@five99one Well, it surprised me, not so surprised anymore. Look at all the responses your getting already.

I say go for it.

faye's avatar

Maybe I can’t picture a porn star fluthering. stereotyping, I am

CMaz's avatar

Are you a man or a woman?

five99one's avatar

@ChazMaz Eighteen year old gay male.

CMaz's avatar

Well there you go. That is the magic word. For a man that wants to act in porn.

In general. I would never recommend it. It will damage you.
You will have plenty of couch calls to go to. It is the nature of the beast.

It is not just about showing up, getting off and getting paid.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@ChazMaz wait what’s the magic word?

gemiwing's avatar

Men don’t fare as well in porn, financially. Also if you are a bottom you’ll have a lot more issues to worry about too.

CMaz's avatar

Gay male. (magic words) Due to the fact that if you want to make it in a VERY competitive business as pornography.

You will have to take it as much as give it. Give it as much as get it.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@ChazMaz I don’t understand why that’s a magic word still.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

to the OP: since you changed the question around I’ll answer again – I do not judge people who willingly choose sex work – I do judge those who make others get into porn forcefully or manipulate young people

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

I think the entire industry is despicable.

five99one's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I changed the question to appease the moderators. :P Hopefully.

faye's avatar

No, no no again. It’s a dangerous life-std’s, degrading, no doubt some not nice people. Not to mention the physical damage to your anus and rectum that one day will Not go back to normal

five99one's avatar

@faye Well…I’m planning on having anal sex my whole life. So that’s not much of an issue.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@five99one oh I know you got modded…that’s just how it goes sometimes

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@faye that is simply incorrect information. a person’s anus doesn’t just stretch out from a lot of anal sex.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

I think I’m learning things I really didn’t want to learn with this thread. My thin string of hope in humanity gets more and more tenuous by the minute.

jimmyjones's avatar

We had to take a lot of drugs to stay err…ahem ready to “act”...all the time. These drugs are not good for you.

faye's avatar

@five99one I was speaking of tons more activity in a porn life rather just a regular life. @Simone_De_Beauvoir so this is an urban myth? I’m a nurse and it’s been discussed among us, with doctors as well

ragingloli's avatar

‘pornographic’ and ‘actor’ don’t fit together.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@faye health professionals don’t always know what they’re saying. as far as i know it’s incorrect. I’ll gladly stand corrected if you provide me with credible evidence otherwise.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I’ll just reiterate that I think the entire industry is despicable. If I say any more I’m bound to stir up a hornets nest.

jimmyjones's avatar

@ragingloli LOL…There is more acting necessary than you might expect!

Val123's avatar

They’re desperate and unhappy.

jbfletcherfan's avatar

My opinion? A sleazy profession. Nothing to be proud of. A dead end job.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

I’m always interested in how people know that it’s a sleazy unhappy and awful profession. I mean really how many porn actors do any of you know? Or are you speaking from personal experiences?

jimmyjones's avatar

Mine is personal experience.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@jimmyjones yes I saw, thank you for sharing that experience, it is interesting to read about

wundayatta's avatar

Why do you want to do this? Do you think you’ll have a lot of fun sex? Or do you look forward to the hard work—long tedious hours standing around naked, in cold or hot rooms, waiting to perform and then having to perform on cue. Do you think it is glamorous to work in porn? Are you imagining all those hot young guys (or old ones) that you can play with?

I have a suspicion that porn acting is not at all what people think it is. I doubt if it’s even that pleasant. I also don’t think it is a very remunerative job.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@jbfletcherfan may I ask what it is you do?

PretentiousArtist's avatar

Hey it sure beats McDonalds! And you get to play with your wang

tinyfaery's avatar

I have always thought of sex work as a “last option” sort of job. Is there nothing else you’d like to do with your life?

doggywuv's avatar

Pornography is an important part of human culture.

Response moderated
Val123's avatar

I wish they had a “stupid answer- button.

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

If you’ve applied to two porn studios you’ve apparently made your decision already.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@PretentiousArtist I’d gladly befriend an employee of McDonalds long before that of a porn “actor”. Some things (at least for me) are far more important than money, glamor, sex, drugs or even rock and roll. One of those is the sanctity of sex. The importance. Making it any less reduces us to a lower life form.. just another mammal on the earth.

Imagine if humanity were able to keep their collective jibblets and unmentionables in their pants?! What would happen to STD’s? What would happen to the divorce rates? The domestic violence? That show “cheaters”?

The porn industry perpetuates and enables the idea that sex is nothing more than sex and that everyone should have as much of it as humanly possible. And they do it all for money. Wow. What a noble profession.

If you actually agree that that’s all it is (sex is just sex.. we should just do it all the time like a bunch of hormonal dim wits) than please don’t bother responding to me because we’re never going to see eye to eye.

RareDenver's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater sometimes sex is just sex

five99one's avatar

Just so everyone knows, this is not my plan for the rest of my life. If anything, it’s trying something new and making some quick cash. I’m going to culinary school in the spring. Pornography is NOT going to be my “career.”

Val123's avatar

I’m having a hard time reconciling porn with the guy whose going to be cooking my food!

jimmyjones's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater “The porn industry perpetuates and enables the idea that sex is nothing more than sex and that everyone should have as much of it as humanly possible. And they do it all for money. Wow. What a noble profession.”

The idea that sex is nothing more than sex and that everyone should have as much of it as humanly possible is what created and perpetuates the porn industry itself!

PretentiousArtist's avatar

Why are you aiming at me? I wasn’t talking to you.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@jimmyjones What’s your point? Are you confirming that it is a retarded and vicious cycle? Or are you somehow trying to justify such a squalid profession?

@pretentiousartist the bottom part of that was just in general.. sorry.. maybe I should add a @all in there.. my bad.

jimmyjones's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater Not justifying anything, although we are dealing here with the oldest profession.

aprilsimnel's avatar

No. Porn would be too much work for me.

five99one's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater Actually, having sex for pleasure separates us from other mammals. Beside dolphins. Animals have sex to reproduce, and nothing more. The sanctity of sex between a married couple is usually to reproduce. I.e. mate like animals. So, really, porn sets us apart from animals. ;)

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater humans beings have always treated sex as just sex and also sex as sacred..it’s all part of culture…the porn industry, prostitution, all of those things you think are awful…they’re part of us, humans…maybe you’re holier than thou and you think sex is all about angels and tears and all that (really is it really for you all the time? really neither you nor your partner ever looked at porn? really? i don’t believe it) but it doesn’t have to be…the porn industry in many ways exploits women and you should be against that but it doesn’t sound like your argument is a feminist one

RareDenver's avatar

@five99one wish I could give more than one GA, never thought about it like that

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

Here’s the hornet’s nest I predicted. Oh well. Maybe one day I’ll be able to keep my opinions to myself. Not likely.. but perhaps one day.

Dog's avatar

[Mod Says:] Off topic post above removed.
Please stay on topic folks.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater no reason to keep your opinion to yourself. no reason for me to do so either. we each have opinions and we must defend them, don’t you think?

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Do I have to be a feminist to think that women deserve more than that?

There really isn’t a reason to keep my opinion to myself except that I learn by repetition. My old fashioned and Christian oriented opinions are usually flocked upon by the masses and it gets a bit tedious defending an opinion that has largely been lost in time. Defending my opinions here has often felt like trying to stop a tsunami with a spoon and a handful of matches. I’m not Macguyver.

I’m not holier than thou. Don’t be facetious. Murder, rape, and “reality tv” is all “part of us” too. Should we justify those?

@five99one I totally disagree. Let’s just leave it at that shall we?

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater no you don’t have to be a feminist (wouldn’t hurt for everyone to want equal rights for all genders but that’s a tangent) to defend women…I just didn’t get that impression from your comment…I didn’t get the impression that you were against the porn industry because of women’s rights…you just wanted to talk about how much you think sex outside a marriage for anyone is terrible and clearly the reason for STDS and divorce and cheating…

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir My simple point is that sex, when taken too lightly… (as a similar “recreation” to water skiing or basketball) creates problems. The porn industry disagrees with me.

airowDee's avatar

is this something you can tell your future boyfriend or husband? that you were in porn when you were 18?

you must be really desperate for some quick cash…for god sake’s you are just legal, i guess the porn industry loves fresh meat.

benjaminlevi's avatar

Just keep in mind that if you are a gay porn star you probably won’t be able to run for congress in the future.

Grisaille's avatar

Tread carefully. Don’t listen to any of the negativity in this thread.

Stay healthy, use protection, and realize that sexual freedom is not a bad thing. Think deeply… is this something you’d be ashamed of later in life?

Other than that, I say go forward. But again, be careful, and remain cognizant.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@benjaminlevi all the more reason to do it

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@airowDee if it were me, I wouldn’t be thinking about what any future boyfriend of mine would be thinking – and I’d never be with anyone that would judge me for that

airowDee's avatar

I understand where you are coming from Simone_De_Beauvoir

The issue i am sensitive with is that the stereotypes of gay men are bad enough, let alone a gay porn star, it is a mindful stereotype I would keep in mind of imo.

The most concerning is that the author is only 18 and unsure if this is something he should do to the extent he would ask people on fluther what he should do. I wasn’t entirely mature at the age 18, and getting into the adult industry should be something only a very emotionally and sexually mature person could make.

Do you want to be defined for what you did at the age of 18? it leaves a mark on you. meh

wundayatta's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater My simple point is that sex, when taken too lightly… (as a similar “recreation” to water skiing or basketball) creates problems.

Personally, I think that more often, it’s the other way around. People, not loved enough, often find themselves reflexively seeking sexual experience after sexual experience—believing they just want to have fun, when all the while, it’s love they want.

When you haven’t been loved, you usually decide you aren’t lovable. This is never a conscious process. We all know that love is associated with sex, and that sex is intrinsically about love. Yet, if we are not lovable, we seek out sex in order to have that simulacrum of love, but to do so, we have to insist that sex can be just sex, and then we make it into “just sex.” Again, none of this happens on a conscious level. It’s the kind of emotional calculus that tends to be unearthed on the psychiatrists couch.

airowDee's avatar

@daloon
Very Freudian, but I agree..

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@airowDee hell, I don’t remember how I was at 18 and it has no bearing on my life now – why would it? I live with no regrets and look forward more than to the past – I have done many things others would deem inappropriate in terms of having an effect on my future but at least I’ve lived..as to whether or not that perpetuates the stereotype about gay men, I don’t really think we can tell which person should uphold or not uphold a particular stereotype…I think the OP is aware of stereotypes as they must be thrown at him daily

five99one's avatar

I don’t care about stereotypes. Everyone does porn, and from what I hear a lot of gay porn actors are straight. So, really, me doing gay porn has nothing to do with gay stereotypes.

Clair's avatar

I’m not going to judge you. I know a guy that was in a porno and I and many others have been filmed before. No biggie. Most people do something along these lines at some point. I don’t have a problem with porn or ‘actors.’ Just get a good agent and STAY CLEAN! It actually sounds kind of exciting but I would never do it.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@Clair (uncontrollable laughter at: “Most people do something along these lines at some point”) Wow… really?! XD

@daloon I’m not sure I understand. Because people are unable to find love it’s ok to say sex is just sex? That seems awfully weak to me.

five99one's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater So, do you have any actual arguments as to why sex is sacred, or are you just going to keep acting like you’re better than everyone else because of your “morals?” Morals are subjective, by the way.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@five99one Judging by how you’ve approached me with the question my opinion would mean very little to you. I’m not in the business of arguing just for the hell of it. I wish you luck in your decision.

Sueanne_Tremendous's avatar

Depends on the size and shape of their tits.

prude's avatar

@five99one you have peaked my curiosity;)
I would say you are an adult and can make your own decisions.
Still, be careful and all that other stuff and disregard those who are downing on you about it, your choice to live w/not theirs.

now, I said all that stuff that should be said, please let me know what it is you decide to do. I look forward to seeing you in the future;)

wundayatta's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater No. I’m not offering approval of people saying that sex is just sex. I’m not disapproving of it, either. I’m trying to explain why people feel a need to do that. I’m saying that people don’t do that because they are trying to just be hedonistic. I’m saying that because people aren’t loved, they are motivated to justify the separation of sex and love.

It’s what they try to do because they are unaware of what they really want (love), or they don’t believe they can get or are worthy of what they really want. It’s cognitive dissonance. If they aren’t loved, and they believe they aren’t lovable, then they are motivated to divorce sex from love as a way of making it seem like they only want sex, not love.

five99one's avatar

I want sex AND love. But, until then, this is something new.

NaturalMineralWater's avatar

@daloon I understand what you’re saying.. but I still think it’s weak. It sounds like an excuse. That’s just my humble opinion.

chupacabra's avatar

Why dive in the deep end without testing out the water first?
Why not start of with a video cam and set up for “Gifts” on online adult sites?
There is money to be made there… Just sayin’

five99one's avatar

@NaturalMineralWater I guess depression is just an excuse for suicide, too. And schizophrenia is just an excuse for hallucinating.

nxknxk's avatar

@five99one

Edit: Never mind; if you’re a gay male then you already know of the good studios, I’m sure.

Supacase's avatar

Trashy. This is a stereotype, which is pretty much what you were asking since you asked about porn actors as a whole. I do not know any of them; I am basing my answer on my own moral compass. I would be completely disgusted with myself if I were to take that “career” path.

I have had sex for sex and sex as something special with a person I love. My opinion is not based on religious belief. It is one of those things I just feel and I have not delved into the specifics of why, though I suppose I can if I ever need to.

hungryhungryhortence's avatar

If you want a regular paycheck and schedule so you can attend culinary school then why don’t you look into something else?

five99one's avatar

@hungryhungryhortence I don’t need money to attend culinary school. I would get a full ride (yes, the academically well-off Flutherite goes into porn: it makes no sense). And this isn’t something I’m considering doing for a career. Just some quick cash and a new experience.

doggywuv's avatar

Edit
I meant to say that pornography is an important bit of human culture, not an important part (the latter statement implies that it’s a big aspect).

airowDee's avatar

well , if you don’t have to to worry about money, and you still want to go into the porn industry than I really don’t think you need our opinons..

five99one's avatar

It’s a discussion question, not a problem-solving question. I was just posing my position at the moment. Most of the discussion has been about the porn industry in general.

tinyfaery's avatar

@five99one Have you really asked yourself why you want to do porn? I am not one to judge. Some people are very sexual beings, and how they choose to express it is not my concern, as long as no one is getting hurt. But why you?

five99one's avatar

@tinyfaery It seems exciting and maybe fun. And it’ll be quick money. Plus, sex, woo. Maybe the gay stereotype is true. My mind is a strange combination of intelligence and primal urges.

RareDenver's avatar

@five99one My mind is a strange combination of intelligence and primal urges.

I think that’s just called ‘being human’

tinyfaery's avatar

Well, be careful and be prepared to be the target of prejudice and derision. Good luck.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@five99one I hear that the whole ‘plus, sex, woo’ part gets boring real quick. Just something to keep in mind.

five99one's avatar

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Well, it’s not like I’m bound to the profession, so if I don’t like it, I’ll stop. :)

gottamakeart's avatar

I’ve always beleived people should be able to do what they enjoy for work. I’ts also a way for some very bold people to branch into other fields.

An example: My Favorite “porn actor”(he is more beyond that) Francois Sagat – has also done fashion and Art modelling, he also is a very talented designer whose work is featured in the French design line “fade” he also does some avant-garde video shorts which combine his physical beauty, sexuality, and an arty mix of costumes, dialogue, music and editing, which make for some interesting viewing.

five99one's avatar

In case anyone is interested in my personal updates, I started doing cam shows the other day (like @chupacabra suggested). I’ve done a few and I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t feel sleazy or immoral. So, yeah, go me, I’m a bad person. ;)

eponymoushipster's avatar

but are you wearing shoes?!

five99one's avatar

Nope, no shoes! Scandalous!

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