This article was reported for ENEMY Magazine, a new print magazine and newsletter dedicated to reporting on abuses of power in news deserts and underrepresented communities across the United States. Subscribe to ENEMY here. Over the years, Sophia* built up a dependable set of regulars. Sex work paid “enough to survive more than comfortably” and it was work she preferred over jobs she’d had in the past, like working in restaurants or warehouses. Those jobs, she said, were “much more labor intensive for quite a lot less pay.” But when news of the coronavirus first began to circulate in January, business […]
Sex Workers
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At first glance, the small group assembled outside Pornhub’s L.A. office might have looked like employees. They surrounded the building in black T-shirts with white script, framed by the adult site’s signature orange box. Instead of the standard logo, however, the tees read “Traffickinghub.” The sparse and socially distant protest, which happens every week, had been organized by the West Coast arm of Knock Out Abuse, the domestic violence nonprofit whose annual gala, once called a “designer bachelorette party” by the Washington Post, attracts a roster of D.C. insiders and corporate executives—including Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, and Wolf Blitzer. The […]
“Google it,” she says, her Eastern European accent pronounced with each exhalation. “Annie Leibovitz, she shot the porn hooker. And she will be one of the issues September or October.” Recently leaked recordings between the first lady and her former best friend reveal a catty side to the usually reserved Melania Trump. Candidly referring to Mr. Trump’s alleged mistress, Stormy Daniels, as the “porn hooker,” Melania seems far more perturbed by Daniels’ Vogue shoot with Annie Leibovitz than her husband’s pre-presidential affair, while she was pregnant with their first and only child. As a former model with a cache of her […]
Amber Rose is on the move, weaving through L.A. traffic to squeeze in a quick gym session—she says she’s still shedding the baby weight from her second child, Slash, delivered late last year—before picking up her little ones from childcare. “This mom life, you know!” she exclaims, with a chuckle. The 36-year-old has, over the last decade-plus, done just about anything and everything in the realm of popular culture. She’s modeled in rap videos and for Louis Vuitton; penned books; appeared on shows like black-ish and RuPaul’s Drag Race; hosted The Amber Rose Show; dropped a few singles; took on rape […]
The first indie comedy set entirely at a shiva, the Jewish commemoration of the dead that, at least in North America, has evolved into a ritual that is half-family reunion and half-nosh fest, Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby is intermittently amusing. Like many movies of its ilk, Seligman’s flirts with edgy material but swiftly defuses its transgressive potential. After debuting at SXSW during its swiftly constituted pandemic edition last spring, the film, which had its Canadian premiere this week at this year’s pared down Toronto International Film Festival, is being hailed as a “homecoming” for the Canadian-born Seligman. Shiva Baby’s premise […]
“Excuse me, are you…” a voice in a restaurant catches me just as salmon flakes off my fork. I look up. My silverware is settling onto my plate as a man with shaky hands gives me the back of a menu to sign. He’s smiling as he tells me he loves my work. Really smiling. Really really loves my work. Did I mention he was smiling? But he’s also wearing a Frozen the musical T-shirt. He hands me a pen and I loop his name onto the paper. As I finish, he asks me what I’m working on next. My jaw […]
When I started doing adult films, the times known as the “golden days” were coming to an end. Sasha Grey marked the end of an era. Her rise to fame for being an extreme performer with no limits was as fast as her departure. Tube sites, that basically allow users to upload and watch adult movies for free, started to dominate the industry by profiting off of this pirated content, which then created budget cuts and business restructuring for porn companies. During this time we also saw a steady rise in camming and solo girl websites. Like a sort of guarantee, […]
Adult performers are entering a new era of awareness—and their empowerment may shape the future of porn. When COVID-19 shut down the adult entertainment industry, performers fell back on many of the things they were already doing, creating and selling content directly to their fans. Realizing professional porn isn’t necessary for a lucrative career, many performers are now making even more money in a safe environment they control. For as many options as porn performers have, the directors of porn (who are not also talent themselves) have far less. Where directors and companies fit in a post-COVID-19 world may very well […]
A few of the women seemed nervous as the cameras began to roll and the orgy got underway—not unusual for newbies. Except there was one woman who appeared to be dodging a particular male performer. If he got too close, she’d walk off-camera or reposition, creating a buffer of other performers’ bodies between them. It seemed personal. His physical performance began to suffer. Ugh. Wood problems would mean longer working hours for everyone. When several performers called for bathroom and water breaks, and with the scene paused and fewer people nearby, he sat down next to her and asked why she […]
The denouement of Drive sees Angela White fixed to a cross, her Rubenesque body suspended high above a sea of sweaty, writhing figures. It is an arresting image—one of many comprising this porn epic that, at 3 hours and 29 minutes, clocks in one minute shy of The Irishman. Unlike Scorsese’s decades-spanning crime saga, the film cleaned up at the Oscars (of porn), taking home Best Cinematography and Best Director for its helmer, Kayden Kross. At 34, Kross is the greatest director in porn, having won AVN Director of the Year honors back-to-back. Her oeuvre is marked by its artistry and […]