Performer Training

It would be great if people could only talk about the things they really know about. Sometimes I have people telling me how porn is but they have never worked in it and it's really frustrating. They read an article in a newspaper or see a video about porn and they think they know everything about it.

Understanding the Porn Industry

I came to Las Vegas to find out what it’s like to be a male porn star today. A lot of the coverage of the industry concerns male viewers of pornography, especially boys—whether they’re addicted, if porn is ruining their intimate lives, teaching them the wrong things about sex, or giving them erectile dysfunction. The FTM trans male porno market is still relatively niche. (MTF trans female porn, on the other hand, is one of the biggest search categories on Pornhub.) There aren’t many performers, and the guys who have made a name for themselves are still figuring out their audience. For instance, MyFreeCams.com, a major sponsor at the AVNs and which, we’re told, is paying for Cardi B to play, doesn’t host for trans performers (or male performers).

After I wrote about the adult film industry, I got emails from men all over the globe with one common request

• They are sometimes presented as superficial and ‘dirty’ people from a moral view.


• Of course, there are other downsides.


• At the time, the world of pop culture seemed eager to view him as a Normal Star, and then allegations of sexual abuse made by his colleagues began to surface, most notably from his former girlfriend Stoya.

I am really happy with all the movies I have made by now and I expect to keep on working with a lot of amazing people doing great things to offer another vision of porn and sexuality. I was always interested in work related to sexuality and when I found that there was another way to work and do porn I became obsessed with it. I discovered Amarna Miller’s blog and videos by Erika Lust, CrashPad Series and Courtney Trouble and I just said, ‘I want to be part of this’. I was a sex worker already and I was starting to feel more comfortable working with my body and my sexuality so I just started writing to the producers and companies I liked. I always knew that I didn't want a ‘regular job’. I wanted to have a job not only to earn money; I wanted to work in something that I could politicise and to do things to change how society is and I think becoming a sex worker has been the best decision of my life.

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Which, to him, doesn’t seem like that big a deal. One of the guys I meet is Tommy Pistol. He’s been starring in porno films for fourteen years and is known for his parodies, like Pee-Wee’s XXX Adventure. He’s 42, and his kids are still young, not quite at the age where he’s ready to tell them what he does for a living. "I like it a little that the curtain is being pulled back on Hollywood," Tommy Pistol says.
In addition to restructuring the adult economy, these new platforms have also drawn in a whole new generation of performers. Given that he regularly shoots with the major studios and also has his own personal website (hosted by ModelCentro), Vegas is something of a bridge between the old porn industry and the new one. "The hardest thing about being a male porn star is convincing your female co-workers that you are an interesting, well-rounded, fun guy who they might consider dating in a parallel universe after a few drinks," Iron says. Sometimes porn jobs don't believe me when I tell them that I work in porn because they have a stereotype in mind about what a porn performer is.